Fat Acceptance Zealot Forum

[FAZealot]

I’ve been called a zealot. No, not in the traditional sense. In this day and age, I hear it used time and time again to demean, dehumanize, and belittle. Honest passion is radicalized to the point of mockery, not by hatred, but by fear. We are surrounded by it. Fear of change, of difference. I, however, call it something else. I am motivated by love for others and for myself. This is acceptance. I believe in a corporeal form of self-love.

The summer before I turned 8, I went to stay with my Gammy. A woman used to feeding a large family, she took extra delight in giving me all my favorites on a daily basis. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and government cheese and grapes at night before we curled up on the couch to sing songs from her hymnal. During the day, I would help pick peas in the garden and shell them on the front porch. I read back issues of my Gammy’s stash of tabloids, like the National Enquirer and Weekly World News. It was a normal summer. But when my parents picked me up, they were horrified. Because their skinny little kid was suddenly kind of fat. My totally normal summer was suddenly not.

My parents immediately put me on a diet. At that age, I didn’t entirely understand what was going on. I suffered, though. I watched my mother lose weight through drinking Diet Coke and not eating anything of substance, because she was so appalled at my weight. I saw her survive bariatric surgery. Her eyelashes fell out due to malnutrition. I knew that fat was a bad thing to be. But, I didn’t understand why. And, much to my family’s consternation, instead of losing weight, I got fatter. By the time I was 14, I was barely over 5 feet tall, and was pushing 200 pounds.

I become so divorced from my body as the seat of myself that it stunted the way I interacted with the world. I stopped doing anything physical unless I absolutely had to. I lost any semblance of friends I had before.

My mind was all that mattered. That is, until I began to feel again. After a memorable and intense evening alone with Britney-era Justin Timberlake covering YouMagazine, I realized I deserved to feel pleasure, too. I began to research online, and became acquainted with the then-underground movement, Health Endures through Individual Feats of External Resilience (HEIFER).

I’ve been involved with this organization for 7 years now, and I have never been more firm in my belief that every individual can and SHOULD love and accept themselves as they are. The fat acceptance movement, as I see it, is primarily about politics and human rights. These are the critical, most important factors determing our experiences as fat people. But because fat is inextricably bound up in matters of health, at least from the perspective of our oppressors, the HEIFER component is a critical tangent of our movement. For this reason, I hope to attend law school. I strive to advocate for this population, to use the law to advance the HEIFER agenda, including amending the Americans with Disabilities Act and striking down the oppressive food pyramid.

[DELG]

I’ve been called a zealot. No, not in the traditional sense. In this day and age, I hear it used time and time again to demean, dehumanize, and belittle. Honest passion is radicalized to the point of mockery, not by hatred, but by fear. We are surrounded by it. Fear of change, of difference. I, however, call it something else. I am motivated by love for others and for myself. This is acceptance. I believe in a corporeal form of self-love.

The summer before I turned 8, I went to stay with my Gammy. A woman used to feeding a large family, she took extra delight in giving me all my favorites on a daily basis. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and government cheese and grapes at night before we curled up on the couch to sing songs from her hymnal. During the day, I would help pick peas in the garden and shell them on the front porch. I read back issues of my Gammy’s stash of tabloids, like the National Enquirer and Weekly World News. It was a normal summer. But when my parents picked me up, they were horrified. Because their skinny little kid was suddenly kind of fat. My totally normal summer was suddenly not.

My parents immediately put me on a diet. At that age, I didn’t entirely understand what was going on. I suffered, though. I watched my mother lose weight through drinking Diet Coke and not eating anything of substance, because she was so appalled at my weight. I saw her survive bariatric surgery. Her eyelashes fell out due to malnutrition. I knew that fat was a bad thing to be. But, I didn’t understand why. And, much to my family’s consternation, instead of losing weight, I got fatter. By the time I was 14, I was barely over 5 feet tall, and was pushing 200 pounds.

I become so divorced from my body as the seat of myself that it stunted the way I interacted with the world. I stopped doing anything physical unless I absolutely had to. I lost any semblance of friends I had before.

My mind was all that mattered. That is, until I began to feel again. After a memorable and intense evening alone with Britney-era Justin Timberlake covering YouMagazine, I realized I deserved to feel pleasure, too. I began to research online, and became acquainted with the then-underground movement, Health Endures through Individual Feats of External Resilience (HEIFER).

I’ve been involved with this organization for 7 years now, and I have never been more firm in my belief that every individual can and SHOULD love and accept themselves as they are. The fat acceptance movement, as I see it, is primarily about politics and human rights. These are the critical, most important factors determing our experiences as fat people. But because fat is inextricably bound up in matters of health, at least from the perspective of our oppressors, the HEIFER component is a critical tangent of our movement. For this reason, I hope to attend law school. I strive to advocate for this population, to use the law to advance the HEIFER agenda, including amending the Americans with Disabilities Act and striking down the oppressive food pyramid.

...SBL thread?

[zombie mcavoy]

Lulz

[LawsRUs]

I really like this. Troll or not, OP is an excellent writer.

[MKC]

Asha should admit this person. for lulz.

FTR, pretty sure DELG called it. SBL is the conservative Joe Biden of TLS.

[encore1101]

For this reason, I hope to attend law school. I strive to advocate for this population, to use the law to advance the HEIFER agenda, including amending the Americans with Disabilities Act and striking down the oppressive food pyramid.

All trollery aside, I do think the food pyramid should be updated to include less grainy food, like rice, bread, and pasta, and more emphasis on proteins.

[bearsfan23]

This is actually a pretty well written PS/DS. I love you SBL

[FAZealot]

This is actually a pretty well written PS/DS. I love you SBL

Who is SBL? Nobody here by that name.