I WANT A COLORFUL FAT ASS

I know black is classic and is usually a staple of any person’s (fat or thin) wardrobe.

HOWEVER, sometimes I want some color in my life and in my closet and it feels like it is an uphill battle to find brightly colored clothes to cover my fat ass.

Haven’t we come farther than this?

All I wanted was some brightly colored footless tights/leggings to wear with my new colorful tops.  I went to all the usual places – Woman Within, Roamans, Jessica London, Ulla Popken, etc., and my choices were pretty much uniformly – black, gray, dark brown and sometimes navy!  Whoo-hoo.  Not even white (which I could then dye).

Well shit.

Add to the fact that I am supersize which means my ass is more Empress of the Universe size rather than Queen Size.

Well, I looked and looked, and with the help of my truly wonderful Whaliam, I finally found two possibilities:  Chubbycartwheels.com and Welovecolors.com.

Chubbycartwheels has some interesting items – including lace leggings in various colors, but the only solid color leggings they had were in velvet and with summer coming they didn’t suit my purposes.  But they are definitely bookmarked for future consideration.

Welovecolors is amazing – they have more than 45 colors available and some tie-dye choices as well all in my size – and the price are reasonable.  They also carry colored fishnets and striped and patterned stockings – but alas those do not extend to my size.

So, I salute Welovecolors.com for offering my fat ass choices to adorn my lower limbs with flare and to the big corp fatty clothing sites, I can only say, I am disappointed but sadly not surprised.

 

Filed under: Body image, Fat Activism, Just Fun

Have fun and promote HAES!

Weight Watchers is having a contest via Twitter; here’s their tweet:

If your scale could give you a message, what would u want it to say? Answer w/ #scale2win by 12 AM EST http://bit.ly/RulesHere

I responded thusly:

@WeightWatchers WARNING: the numbers on this scale say NOTHING about your self worth; you’re AWESOME just as you are! #scale2win

Do you think I’ll win? Maybe not, but I had fun. If you like getting in the diet industry’s face, tweet them your own winning statement!

Filed under: Body image, Fat Activism, Just Fun

Quick note on the look of the blog

I’ve just changed the blog’s “theme” (the template for its appearance) to “grid focus”, which I think is better looking and better organized. Just so you know.

Filed under: About the blog, Just Fun

Fatties United in 2011: a summary

The number-crunching robots of WordPress have prepared a year-end summary for Fatties United.  If this interests you, take a peek!

 

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 26,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Filed under: About the blog, Just Fun

HOW I BECAME A FAT CLOTHING JUNKIE

When I was a fat kid, the choices I had for clothing were dismal – especially in my teen years.  Too tall to wear half-sizes (anybody remember half-sizes?), I was stuck with whatever Sears had in its women’s section – size 18 to 20.  Most stores (including K-Mart) didn’t carry anything above a size 16, and the catalogues didn’t go up to my size either – unless you could wear a half size (which would put the waistline somewhere just under my boobs, thank you very much).

So most of my store-bought clothes were plain and dull.  Navy, burgundy, and black A-line skirts with “matching” pale blue, pink and white short sleeve blouses; and navy and burgundy slacks.  Whoo-hoo.  And don’t forget the navy and burgundy v-neck sweaters to go with.  Not quite stylin’ in the mod-60s!  Sigh.

My (maternal) grandmother and my mom helped by adding home-sewn items to my wardrobe and those were always my favorite things to wear.  But sewing patterns in my size were limited and not very stylish either.

In 1971 my mother took me to a clothing store in Detroit.  That store was Lane Bryant and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  The clothes were stylish and pretty, and came in lots of gorgeous colors.  I was only allowed to buy one dress (which was needed for some special occasion, long since forgotten – the occasion, not the dress); but I was thrilled – oh, and they had cute shoes in my size too!

Then in 1972, a local business woman saw the potential of providing stylish clothes to fat women and opened her own store.  I found out about it when they hired me to do a couple of television commercials for them!  And they paid me in clothes – just in time for me to start college!  The owner was expanding her store to include a Tall Shop and she hired me to work in that section of the store – not only did I have a discount, I now had first dibs on the clothes coming in.

Needless to say, my closet was soon full of great clothes.  My closet is still full of great clothes – admittedly, more than I need but having been a fat girl who just wanted to be stylish, it is hard for me to resist when I see something darling in a catalogue or on a hanger.  I’m afraid I have a real scarcity mentality when it comes to clothes that I like.  I can’t quite believe that there will always be nice clothes for me when I need them.

Lane Bryant eventually opened a store in a nearby mall, and the clothing stores of the local business woman have since closed.  Now we have so many options – catalogues, fat lady clothing stores, the internet, and a lot of stylish fat-size sewing patterns for those who have the skill, time and inclination to make their own clothing.

The fat fashion world has changed so much since I was that fat girl who wanted to be stylish.  There is still more to be done (like using appropriately sized models), but I’m so glad that fat kids growing up today can find clothes that say “you are part of this world and you deserve to look stylish – we have not forgotten you.”

 

Filed under: Body image, Just Fun, Size Acceptance

Thanksgiving Open Thread

Tomorrow (today according to the WordPress clock) is the U.S. national holiday Thanksgiving. I’m not religious, but I am thankful to be married to a superbly wonderful woman. Everything else is a distant second.

What are you folks thankful for? All comments are welcome (and moderated for your sanity).

Filed under: Just Fun

Looking and Liking

There are some things that people like to look at. The reasons aren’t intellectual, or even emotional. It runs deeper, or should I say, lower.

If you want an example of what I’m talking about, go to YouTube and search for cherries dresses. You’ll find, among other things, two videos by a young woman named Cherries trying on dresses that are too small. In the second video, she is noticeably fatter than in the first. There are no actual naughty bits showing, so (last I checked) the videos can be viewed by anyone (no need to log in and declare that you’re 18).

I like these videos. Why? Because Cherries is attractive, and . . . well . . . because the dresses are too small, and she’s fatter in the second video. I don’t know why I like this, but I do. Physical attraction is different for everyone, but for me, all other things being equal, the fatter a woman is, the more attracted I am. These videos accentuate her size, and more than that, her growth.

I’m married, but Tante Terri and I agree that it’s OK to look. So I look. And I like. (By the way, if a man is staring at you, chances are he likes what he sees. Paraphrasing what Cathy Woods-Wild said at a NAAFA Convention a few years ago, “Men don’t look at things they don’t like.”)

Typically (or stereotypically), men have more specific preferences than women, who are supposedly open to a wider variety. That seems to be true of the men and women that I know, although I have to say that women do have their likes and dislikes.

What do you like to look at?

Filed under: Body image, Just Fun

Loose

Sorry for the long dry spell, but here’s something that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while.

We recently received the following witty and insightful comment: “loose weiht faties!!!!”

Well, my response (not to that douche-noodle; he’s history) is, yes. Much as the archer looses his arrow, I have loosed my weight on the world. I’m out there, I don’t hide, and I don’t apologize for my size. No, I don’t plan on losing weight, but yes, I have loosed my weight!

Filed under: Fat Activism, Just Fun, Size Discrimination

MY FAT ASS AT BAYCON

I just had a very good weekend at the main science fiction convention in the Bay Area – BayCon.  Whaliam and I go every year. 

I used to staff a “fan” table for NAAFA at the Con, but stopped doing it when I had trouble getting handout pamphlets from NAAFA.  I always enjoyed talking with the fat folk and the people who have fat people in their lives.  So many average sized people would stop by to get information to give to fat friends and family because they wanted that fat person to be happy with themselves as they are – fat!  (I am now toying with the idea of an FU/fattiesunited table – but we’ll see). 

Cons are notoriously fat friendly.  And the fat folks there are able to indulge in all manner of dress that might cause them trouble elsewhere – miniskirts with fishnets, sexy sexy high heels, and boobage galore.  And lots of fat men in kilts!  Yum.  A feast for the eyes.

This year I did something I hadn’t done before – I actually showed more skin and rolls than I am usually comfortable with.  I figured, if I’m going to try to be more comfortable with my fat body in public, this was a good (safe) place to start.

So I poured myself into sleeveless leotards (that I bought about 70 pounds ago) and wore denim leggings.  I admit I used “cover-ups” but fairly sheer ones – burned-out velvet with fringe.  I also put pink and purple highlights into my blonde hair.  And people were totally cool with it.  Fat women complimented me, and I am sure many of the men in attendance would not be able to tell you what color my eyes are (or whether I even I had eyes).

I also found that the other attendees were more open to talking with me because it was clear I was joining in on the fun of BayCon.  That I was one of them, and that I was clearly not trying to judge anyone for being too flamboyant.  And the staff of the hotel couldn’t have been nicer. 

 You might think you wouldn’t enjoy a science fiction con because you don’t watchBattlestarGalactica, but the cons are so much more.  BayCon embraces science fiction literature, TV and movies, anime, fantasy, music, art, costuming and even hard science.  Many people are cross-overs from theRennFaires.  And then there are Cons that are more specific – like FurCon (for people who like to dress as anthropomorphic animals – they’re called furries), Filk Conventions (filk/folk music), Star Trek Conventions, or the hugest of them all ComiCon (comic books).  I think a general Convention is a good starting place because then you can get a taste of everything and see what appeals to you most.

 So if you really want to try moving outside your comfort zone a bit, I would encourage you to try it somewhere like a science fiction con (or one of the many derivatives) – you might want to just go for a day and get the flavor of how attendees dress, and then let your imagination go wild.  (Although I will point out – naked is not a costume, ok?)

Filed under: Body image, Fat Activism, Just Fun, Size Acceptance

THE MEN WHO LOVE OUR FAT ASSES

In case you missed it, The Village Voice did a great article on Guys Who Like Fat Chicks. 

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-05-04/news/guys-who-like-fat-chicks

It mostly focuses onDanWeiss.  Here is an FA (fat admirer) talking about issues FAs deal with and the myths that surround being an FA.  He also has an advice-column blog for folks who have questions about FAs.  He doesn’t try to be PC, and some people may object to how he talks about women; but I found him refreshingly candid. 

Why doesDan do this?  Because he wants FAs to come out of the FA closet. 

Dan believes there are a lot more FAs out there than anybody suspects.  I sure hope so.  And I wholeheartedly agree that FAs need to stop skulking in the shadows and come out and play!  They’ll be happier and a lot of fat people will be happier.  Doctors, family and friends could no longer tell fat people that they will always be alone because no one could love them unless they lose weight.  Sadly, even for this article, many of the people who were interviewed chose to use pseudonyms.

 I also really appreciate Dan addressing the idea that being an FA is being a fetishist.  As he very correctly points out, people are not fetish objects; people are people.  Preferring a fat person is simply having a “type”.  Just like some people prefer blonds, or short partners or tall partners, etc.  It’s a preference, not a fetish.  He also points out that he does not find all fat people equally attractive.  He finds certain fat people attractive.  Again, he has a “type”.

 He also dispels the myth that fat people are “easy”.  One reason, he points out, is that fat people are skeptical.  Many fat people have been taught (and eventually come to believe) that they could not possibly be attractive.  And even fat people who know they are attractive, have been made the butt of so many jokes, that they tend to be very careful not to open themselves up for more abuse.

 A large part of the article follows Charlotte (a fat woman, but not an FA) who is in town to meet a man who came all the way from Spain just to meet her.  I guess they just wanted a woman’s point of view – but I would have been more interested in hearing from a gay/lesbian FA or a female FA.  

 In fact there’s quite a bit of “filler” in this article that is not quite on topic, but overall it is a great read with some interesting information.

Filed under: Just Fun, Size Acceptance