Friday, November 30, 2007

Kate Harding's Shapely Prose

So, I was just hanging out on the Angry Fat Girlz blog and saw a reference to Kate Harding's blog Shapely Prose and thought I would visit it. I. Am. Blown. Away. I haven't gotten through many of the back posts, but I want to draw your attention to these posts:

* Don't You Realize Fat is Unhealthy? ... Here she talks about blogging about fat acceptance

* It's Not All About You (Or Me) ... Here she talks about how blogging negatively about ourselves effects other bloggers. I am guilty of this, but in my defense I think we have to learn from our mistakes. I think self-acceptance is difficult for most of us.

I've only spent about 10 minutes on her blog and I am dying to meet her and have a cup of coffee with her and pick her brain. I don't know how you all feel about the concept of "fat acceptance," but I am all for acceptance movements and I am still having conflicting feelings about all the compliments I receive for losing weight. (I mean, wasn't I a good person before I lost all the weight? Didn't I deserve attention then too?)

So, Happy Friday!

5 comments:

Martalu said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Martalu said...

I haven't visited the link yet, but I've been perusing several fat acceptance sites lately. What I found is that of course someone's weight shouldn't matter! But unfortunately, it does. People, myself included, make snap judgments due to someone's appearance. It's not right, but it's human nature, which can suck sometimes.

However, I'm not sure we should actually accept fat when it's a danger to health. I think most people, myself included, want to lose weight not just for vanity but also for health. We don't accept any other diseases, so why should we accept obesity without giving it our best fight? You should dress up the body you have and treat yourself well, but if you are fat because you eat junk food and never exercise, then no, you should definitely do something about it. I've only ever kept off a 10 pound loss, but I eat healthier and can now run :25. My cholesterol and blood pressure have gone down. I no longer have chronic indigestion. Those are the numbers that matter, not the scale.

TrixieBelden said...

Thanks for your comment. You make a great point and I totally think all the health benefits are important. The way I look at it is that before WW I just thought overweight people were sedentary and ate badly (because that was me). I didn't think in terms of the fact that they could have just lost 50 lbs. and be regular exercisers. That was my short-sightedness.

Thanks again for your comment.

Martalu said...

"Just because you’ve heard over and over and over that fat! kills! doesn’t mean it’s true."

I finally read the links, and yeah, she makes some great points. It is really annoying how the media goes on and on about the obesity crisis when really, it does feel more like it's for vanity's sake. I get too caught up in that shit sometimes, but Kate is dead on when she points out that sometimes dieting (as in yo-yo diets) are worse for people than just trying to be as healthy as you can at whatever weight you are at.

Thanks for sharing the links!

angelfish24 said...

I like the Angry Fat Girlz site too and have been reading it regularly for some time. I don't comment there often but always enjoy what they say.

I know what you mean by people complimenting you when you lose weight or giving more attention. Then if your fatter or regain it stops. I just try to surround myself with positive people who love me for me not my pants size. I do feel judged by some but what can you do? It's just the way it is.