Armchair activism
Fat acceptance has many facets. There’s Fatshion, HAES, conferences, studies, books…all sorts of ways to inform and educate yourself. Tthere are tons of super-articulate, amazing bloggers fighting the good fight out there, putting up with the trolls and the neigh-sayers, being “out” as fat, as it were. But what about the vast majority of us FAers…those that read and, maybe occasionally, comment. I know I really enjoyed blogging over at Fat-n-Sassy…until the trolls came and started arguing with me. I guess I am not as far along in my FA journey as I would like to be. Those trolls really hit home and I took it ALL as a personal attack. With “OMG FATTY YOU ARE WRONG YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!!!11!!!!!!1111″, It scared me off for a while. Hopefully I can go back to feeling free to blog; to not feeling scared. In the meantime, I felt like I HAD to do something with all the information I had been getting, processing…I felt like I had to DO something. Hence, my armchair activism. Most can be done fairly anonymously, but it spreads the message out there, and it all can be done from the comfort of your own home. 
1. Social networking sites - You know that great study that proves that diets don’t work? Post it! Link it on Facebook. Digg it. Stumble it…spread the FA smarts in all its glory! The only way we are going to change people’s mind is with facts, well researched ones at that. Include quotes that explain why most weight loss industry’s point of view is skewed and follow it up with evidence. Also any ads you find on Facebook or the like, if you can ban it do so. Every ad on Facebook has an “x” button. If you hit that it asks you why you don’t like it and I always label ANY diet ads as offensive or misleading. If enough people do that, it makes me wonder if they will pull the ads.
2. Stumbling - Stumbleupon is a great website search engine similar to Pandora, but for websites. If you havent joined yet you should. You pick out subjects you like and it spits out website recommendations, then you “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” it and the algorithm learns what you like and don’t like. I have been liking and “thumbs up”-ing every FA article that strikes close to home. If you are the first to tag a page then you get to check the categories it belongs to. When I label almost every FA site, in addition to self-esteem, fashion, and what have you, I ALWAYS check diet, weight loss and fitness. If my stumble pulls one more person possessed by dieting and shows them a different view, my ruse has worked. With over 13 MILLION active users, I really think this is the best way to draw people in. All it takes is the right article at the right time.
3. Local government – The ONLY way we are going to combat them making laws based on BMI…or “sweets” taxes or restricting school lunches…is to speak out. If you are uncomfortable doing that in person, then call! Write a letter. They are YOUR congress person, YOUR school board, YOUR mayor…TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK. Then make your friends do the same.
4. Calling – Every store that has ever quit selling my size has gotten a phone call from me. Every station that pulled a groundbreaking show (I’m looking at you ABC family) has gotten a phone call. It takes 5 minutes, tops. Most of us have cell phones or free long distance. Use those minutes up. Stick it to the man! It may not do anything, but it sure makes me feel better, and at least SOMEONE heard you. Sometimes that right someone becomes CEO and hears you…Dominos Pizza recently did a relaunch based on just that.
5. SHOP WITH YOUR DOLLARS - I can’t stress this enough. If they don’t carry your size, DONT SHOP THERE. Kick you off a ride for being too fat? DON’T GO BACK. I haven’t shopped at a department store for years because their plus sizes stop at a 24/26. You don’t make my size? I won’t buy ANYTHING from you. And of course, no boycott does any good unless you tell them why. No, Old Navy, it’s not enough you stock my size online…if you want my money, stock my size in the store. I’m not asking for much; just a few racks at the back of the store (Target, cough, cough).
How do you do your little bit for activism? I’m not “brave” or in your face enough to actually argue with people…so what do YOU feel comfortable doing?
I agree with you completely! One of my last posts was about getting back into the activist role and since I have started writing my blog, I fell a million percent better! Even if only a few people here and there are reading it, they may mention some of the “fatoids” to others and before you know it change is a fat!!
groan sorry
a foot
Warmly, Dr. Deah Schwartz
“I ALWAYS check diet, weight loss and fitness. If my stumble pulls one more person possessed by dieting and shows them a different view, my ruse has worked.”
Well, it’s not really a ruse is it? I mean, it IS about weight loss dieting… it’s just that it’s the other side of the coin, showing the negative effects of doing so. If I was reading an article about how there were negative effects to using a specific family of fuel additives in my car, it would still be an article about car maintenance. Just rather than promoting an idea about the subject, it is getting the word out about the negative aspects of that idea. So it isn’t really a ruse
As far as what I do… I link to articles about research that flies in the face of the diet myth, on my Facebook. I don’t usually link FA blog posts though, because I have “friends” who are really just token friends for games. Some of them undoubtedly would express their disagreement in ways which I wouldn’t want to inflict on a blog I like… flaming, trolling, juvenile grade school insults, etc. Granted, they’d be de-friended very fast, but still.
Other than that though, I don’t do much. I’m basically an introvert in real life. I have two friends, one of them being my husband lol and the other living some 1200 miles away. I don’t think the cats really care that such and so study came out and said whatever really. And my sisters will just ignore me… we have the “I lost weight when I became a vegetarian that ate fish, but after a few years it came back, so now I’m a vegan that eats free range locally grown eggs, dairy, and honey” sister. And the other two are of the “well I drink too much soda and never exercise and eat at McDonalds, so I deserve whatever shit gets hurled my way because I am a disgusting fat ass blight on the environment” type. Not a lot of point discussing it with any of them, though if they say something really outrageous I’ll correct them and send a link that they ignore anyway.
So. I basically do nothing lol.
I have a lot of fat acceptance/size acceptance links on my Facebook that show up on a daily basis and I check there every day and “like” them. I also check the boxes for misleading/offensive for any diet ads that show up on Facebook. I don’t know if family/frineds on Facebook read my FA/SA links or not, but they’re there – the choice is theirs to read or not.
I quit shopping at KMart years ago because they don’t carry clothes to fit me and I told them so (not that it did any good). That’s also the reason I don’t shop at Target or Lane Bryant – as a superfat, even Lane Bryant doesn’t carry clothing to fit me, which didn’t use to be the case (they used to carry sizes I could wear, but it seems that they’ve decided some of us are too fat to clothe anymore).
I see some fatshionistas who post giveaways for accessories from stores who carry clothing to fit everyone but fatties, and I refuse to enter those giveaways. Why would I want accessories from a store who refuses to carry clothing to fit me? I don’t care how nice/cute/trendy the accessories are, I’m not going to advertise for someone who doesn’t think I’m good enough to clothe.
I live my life fat at the world, which means I go out, wearing the clothes I’m comfortable in, that I like, in the colors I like, whether anyone else thinks it’s appropriate or not (can we say bootflare denim leggings for the most part and everyone knows fat chicks should never wear leggings….lol).
I blog, sporadically on my own blog, and comment often on other blogs often (what can I say, I’m opinionated). Fat-phobes are just gonna have to learn to deal with it.
All good tips. I’m very new to FA, and feel very arm chairy. Thanks for the suggestions!
My blog is called Fat Aspie, and there’s a decent amount of content there dedicated to FA and HAES (and there will be more, it’s kind of a new blog). I definitely do that Facebook thing and I also link on Twitter.
Something I think people should keep in mind, though, is that it’s totally okay to BE an armchair activist. Some people seem to get embarrassed that they’re not out shouting and waving signs or whatever, and that’s just not on. I don’t know if it’s an Aspie thing or just a Me thing, but I’m awfully blunt and have a low bullsh*t tolerance. I think those are good blogger characteristics, LOL – whether I’m talking about politics, autism, fat acceptance, feminism, whatever – I don’t take anything personally anymore, but I’ve had to build up that thick skin. I started out just as shy and just as nervous.
Great suggestions, erylin. I think those are all extremely valuable ways to act as the part of the FArmy. I would add get a Tumblr.
I’m totally addicted.
Peace,
Shannon