6 Ways My Parents Unintentionally Taught Me Disordered Eating November 30, 2019 by Suzannah Weiss, Guest Author Leave a Comment This article was originally published on EverydayFeminism.com and is republished with permission. Content Note: This article contains discussion of eating disorders, including descriptions of restriction practices and family diets. There’s only one time in my life I ever remember seeing my dad cry. It wasn’t at his mother’s funeral or his father’s, though I knew he was sad … [Read more...]
When You Call Me Skinny (Hint: It’s Not a Compliment) October 29, 2019 by E. Amato Leave a Comment Content note: This article contains extended discussion of familial fat-shaming, attempted weight loss, dieting, and eating disorders. In a radical self-love webinar I took with TBINAA founder Sonya Renee Taylor, she asked participants to recall their first memory of body shame. Everyone had one. I went blank. I had none. The truth was, I had far too many. My entire life … [Read more...]
7 Things I Wish People Knew About Being a Fat Woman September 27, 2019 by Natalie Slaughter Leave a Comment This article originally appeared on SHESAID and has been republished with permission. I used to spend a lot of time wondering if people were polite to my face and rude behind my back, probably because I’ve caught people doing that before. To my face they’d tell me how cute my outfit was. Then I’d turn around and they’d make a comment about how “brave” I was for wearing a skirt … [Read more...]
6 Ways I Was Taught To Be a “Good Fatty” — And Why I Stopped September 5, 2019 by Kitty Stryker, Guest Writer 1 Comment This article was originally published on EverydayFeminsim.com and is republished with permission. I wasn’t born fat. I came into fatness as a teenager. This was in part because of medication that increased my water retention drastically and in part because puberty gave me huge breasts, with a belly and thighs to match. And I was lucky, in some ways. My mother was also fat, and … [Read more...]
8 Lessons for Men To Heal Rough Relationships With Their Bodies August 31, 2019 by Philippe Leonard Fradet Leave a Comment Content note: This article contains references to dieting and struggles with food. Men in our society -- contrary to what the ideology of toxic masculinity would have us believe -- are extremely susceptible to the weight loss, dieting, and exercise culture we're subjected to every day. That includes, but is definitely not limited to, the near incessant advertising for workout … [Read more...]
5 Things I Did After Turning 40 That Changed How I Saw My Aging Self August 16, 2019 by Ginger Stickney Leave a Comment At thirty-eight I experienced a bit of a midlife crisis. Well, hardly midlife, but still a crisis nonetheless. Forty loomed on the horizon, and I felt a kind of aimless terror at that number. Some of it was kind of silly. What did a mature woman wear? Would I be forced by some secret fashion police to give up my band and anime t-shirts? Would I have to turn in my Chucks and … [Read more...]
Healing the Wounds of Growing Up in a Fat-Shaming Family May 27, 2019 by Gillian Brown 7 Comments In the immortal words of Brianna in the classic film Bring It On: All or Nothing, "I've always had a big ass. It runs in my family. We're a big-assed family." My family never used to do “thin” well. My father hovered between “normal” and “more to love,” my mother had a substantially emphasised hourglass shape, and both of my younger brothers were noticeably chubby. As for me? … [Read more...]
5 Ways To Deal With Body Parts That Make Us Uncomfortable Without Body Shaming October 17, 2018 by Mary Robinson Leave a Comment Even when we have worked hard to move away from body shaming and toxic diet culture toward a life of Radical Self Love and Acceptance, we sometimes slip and our old thoughts start to fire again. It can feel like we are going backwards. It can seem overwhelming and pointless to fight the bombardment of negative body image information we receive all day in the media and the … [Read more...]
When I Broke Up With My Diet October 2, 2018 by Gillian Brown 3 Comments [Content Warning: Some swearing and weight-loss/diet talk.] Up until about four years ago, I was in a long-term relationship. It had lasted, on and off, for fifteen years, and whenever we were together, it was the most intense relationship I’ve ever had. But it was a bad relationship, based on false hopes and promises of a better life, while giving me nothing much but … [Read more...]
4 Ways We Can Make Eating Healthy a Radical Body-Positive Act September 17, 2018 by Ginger Stickney Leave a Comment I was twenty-eight the first time I ate a zucchini. Vegetables didn’t figure highly in my menus for most of my life. As a kid they tended to be canned with the occasional salad thrown in for good measure. I ate plenty of fresh fruit, but vegetables? No thanks! Mushy vegetables didn’t have much appeal but they were cheap. Growing up poor often meant cheap food such as white … [Read more...]
4 Things I Hear When You Talk About Your Diet September 15, 2018 by Katie Tastrom Leave a Comment I don't want to hear about your diet*, and I especially don't want to hear about what you are not eating. I say this as a fat person who is completely happy with my body and refuses to go on weight loss diets, for a number of reasons that I will touch on below. To be clear, I don't say "fat" as an insult about myself, but rather as a neutral descriptor word to talk about how my … [Read more...]
Food Isn’t Just Fuel: The Liberation Politics of Food September 3, 2018 by Dawy Rkasnuam Leave a Comment “Food is fuel” is one of those statements that, as an immigrant, never quite resonated with me. In addition to being the thing that gives me energy to go through my day, food is also nostalgia, and it is also home. Flying back to my hometown across the world, one of my favorite things to do is eat all the delicious street foods and tropical fruits I can only dream of here in … [Read more...]
6 Ways I Navigate the Pressures of Diet Culture April 26, 2018 by Gillian Brown 1 Comment CW: surgery In January of this year, I had a laparotomy. This is the fancy medical term for ‘an operation where the stomach is cut open’. Basically what happened was that I had developed a humongous ovarian cyst on my right ovary. These cysts are quite common, and normally they are removed with keyhole surgery. Mine was a bit too big for keyhole, however, so … [Read more...]
