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fatliberation · 11 months ago

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I totally understand and can empathize with fat activists when it comes to medical fatphobia. But I do think its important to provide nuance to this topic.

A lot of doctors mention weight loss, particularly for elective surgeries, because it makes the recovery process easier (Particularly with keeping sutures in place) and anesthetic safer.

I feel like its still important to mention those things when advocating for fat folks. Safety is important.

What you're talking about is actually a different topic altogether - the previous ask was not about preparing for surgery, it was about dieting being the only treatment option for anon's chronic pain, which was exacerbating their ed symptoms. Diets have been proven over and over again to be unsustainable (and are the leading predictor of eating disorders). So yeah, I felt that it was an inappropriate prescription informed more by bias than actual data.

(And side note: This study on chronic pain and obesity concluded that weight change was not associated with changes of pain intensity.)

If you want to discuss the risk factor for surgery, sure, I think that's an important thing to know - however, most fat people already know this and are informed by their doctors and surgeons of what the risks are beforehand, so I'm not really concerned about people being uninformed about it.

I'm a fat liberation activist, and what I'm concerned about is bias. I'm concerned that there are so many BMI cutoffs in essential surgeries for fat patients, when weight loss is hardly feasible, that creates a barrier to care that disproportionately affects marginalized people with intersecting identities.

It's also important to know that we have very little data around the outcomes of surgery for fat folks that isn't bariatric weight loss surgery.

A new systematic review by researchers in Sydney, Australia, published in the journal Clinical Obesity, suggests that weight loss diets before elective surgery are ineffective in reducing postoperative complications.

CADTH Health Technology Review Body Mass Index as a Measure of Obesity and Cut-Off for Surgical Eligibility made a similar conclusion:

Most studies either found discrepancies between BMI and other measurements or concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support BMI cut-offs for surgical eligibility. The sources explicitly reporting ethical issues related to the use of BMI as a measure of obesity or cut-off for surgical eligibility described concerns around stigma, bias (particularly for racialized peoples), and the potential to create or exacerbate disparities in health care access.

Nicholas Giori MD, PhD Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Stanford University, a respected leader in TKA and THA shared his thoughts in Elective Surgery in Adult Patients with Excess Weight: Can Preoperative Dietary Interventions Improve Surgical Outcomes? A Systematic Review:

“Obesity is not reversible for most patients. Outpatient weight reduction programs average only 8% body weight loss [1, 10, 29]. Eight percent of patients denied surgery for high BMI eventually reach the BMI cutoff and have total joint arthroplasty [28]. Without a reliable pathway for weight loss, we shouldn’t categorically withhold an operation that improves pain and function for patients in all BMI classes [3, 14, 16] to avoid a risk that is comparable to other risks we routinely accept.

It is not clear that weight reduction prior to surgery reduces risk. Most studies on this topic involve dramatic weight loss from bariatric surgery and have had mixed results [13, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27]. Moderate non-surgical weight loss has thus-far not been shown to affect risk [12]. Though hard BMI cutoffs are well-intended, currently-used BMI cutoffs nearly have the effect of arbitrarily rationing care without medical justification. This is because BMI does not strongly predict complications. It is troubling that the effects are actually not arbitrary, but disproportionately affect minorities, women and patients in low socioeconomic classes. I believe that the decision to proceed with surgery should be based on traditional shared-decision making between the patient and surgeon. Different patients and different surgeons have different tolerances to risk and reward. Giving patients and surgeons freedom to determine the balance that is right for them is, in my opinion, the right way to proceed.”

I agree with Dr. Giori on this. And I absolutely do not judge anyone who chooses to lose weight prior to a surgery. It's upsetting that it is the only option right now for things like safe anesthesia. Unfortunately, patients with a history of disordered eating (which is a significant percentage of fat people!) are left out of the conversation. There is certainly risk involved in either option and it sucks. I am always open to nuanced discussion, and the one thing I remain firm in is that weight loss is not the answer long-term. We should be looking for other solutions in treating fat patients and studying how to make surgery safer. A lot of this could be solved with more comprehensive training and new medical developments instead of continuously trying to make fat people less fat.

#inbox #medical fatphobia #sources #surgery #anti fat bias #fat activism #fat liberation

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mysandwichgiver · 4 months ago

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OPINION

Our democracy is much more frail than Biden

by Will Bunch | Columnist

Published July 2, 2024, 12:04 p.m. ET

Do newspaper columnists know that democracy’s closer to death than Biden?

One of the first things they teach doctors in medical school is the imperfect but necessary art of triage, the technique used on a battlefield or during some other mass-casualty event to determine who is most gravely wounded and who needs immediate attention during a crisis when the system is overwhelmed, and clear-headed thinking will save lives.

Clearly, this is not something that is taught in journalism school.

Over the course of a remarkable weekend, I saw the best minds of my boomer generation destroyed by madness — newspaper columnists and other big shots convinced they were cosplayers in a real-world episode of The West Wing, saving America by giving chief of staff Leo McGarry the best words to convince an ailing President Bartlet that it’s time to step down.

The soft clacking of these keyboard commandos turned into a stampede as the nation’s pundits, its editorial-page poobahs, mega-rich but anonymous donors, and Democratic horse whisperers competed to outdo each other on The Daily Rip or in “the paper of record,” or wherever they thought the actual frail president, Joe Biden, might be paying attention.

Dropping names — Whitmer! Shapiro! Warnock! — like a groupie backstage at a heavy-metal concert, floating wildly implausible scenarios, stretching so hard for historical analogies that several probably blew out a hamstring, America’s pundit class managed to achieve a level of groupthink that surpassed the brainwashers of The Manchurian Candidate. All argued that for the good of the country he loves, Biden — hoarse, barely audible, and visibly confused a few times during Thursday’s Atlanta presidential debate — must immediately end his candidacy.

Meanwhile, in the actual America that less resembles The West Wing than the disaster flick Don’t Look Up, two comets simultaneously bore down on America in the hours leading up to its 248th — and possibly last — birthday as a democratic republic.

First, there is Donald Trump — desperate to avoid his sentencing for his 34 felony convictions, firing off racist insults about “Black jobs” and “bad Palestinians,” and carrying around a 900-page blueprint for American dictatorship called Project 2025 — streaking into the cosmic void of our troubled republic.

Meanwhile, don’t look up but a thoroughly corrupt and compromised Supreme Court is blazing a second trail toward American autocracy. In a flurry of body punches over the last several days, the nation’s highest court gutted the federal government’s ability to regulate fat-cat corporate polluters or stock swindlers, but said poor folks who sleep outside because there’s nowhere else to go can be arrested. Then, with a fierce right hook, it issued a 6-3 partisan ruling that will help Trump — who appointed three of them — evade justice while placing all future presidents above the law.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberal naysayers, read her blistering minority opinion from the bench Monday morning, arguing that the court’s finding that a president performing official acts can be immune from criminal prosecution “effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding.” She ended with the words, “with fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

I wish Justice Sotomayor had the bandwidth and the energy to work a second shift as editorial page editor at one of our major newspapers.

At Time magazine (yes, it still exists), the cover of its new issue contained just one word, “Panic” — not at the prospect of an American dictator with the seeming power to have the military assassinate his enemies, but at Biden’s health. At the New York Times (yes, it still exists), an editorial board that considered it pointless, or whatever, to call for Trump to leave the race after those 34 felony convictions — as well as the civil rape and financial fraud verdicts and the two impeachments and three other pending indictments — made its grand pronouncement that it’s Biden who must go. Other papers jumped on the bandwagon, including the swing state Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which in the 1950s and ‘60s won Pulitzers for its courage in taking on Southern racists before deciding instead to appeal to their grandchildren.

And look, I’m not going to argue that Biden’s health is not an issue. His debate performance was troubling, but I also think those of us determined not to see Donald Trump become president again should take a deep breath — even if that’s not the clickbait headline that many are eager to write. Biden needs to do more to assure the public about his energy level, and we also need to see the polls. Any decision should be based on the paramount thing — the thing that should be getting 72-point headlines: stopping dictatorship. As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote Monday in her dissent, this is a “five-alarm fire that threatens to consume democratic self-governance.”

The power of Monday’s dissents by Jackson and Sotomayor form quite the contrast with the speculative flights of fancy about a brokered convention in Chicago, which, it’s worth noting, have largely come from white male boomer types. Many Black and brown and female voices, on the other hand, are urging Biden to stay as the only realistic hope — warts and all — of beating Trump in November. Maybe people who in one way or another know the horror of being treated as a second-class citizen understand the risk of dictatorship in a way that white dudes who’ve always been OK do not.

Most journalists want to be seen as savvy (or not naïve, essentially the same thing) and influential. Many editorial writers and columnists are still hurting from the fact that Trump was elected in 2016 with zero major print endorsements. They think calling for Trump to drop out would make them look foolish now that the Republican Party has devolved into a dangerous cult. But a demand for Biden to drop out might actually happen — so that’s savvy, right?

Except maybe the dangerous cult is the more important crisis, especially when it carries a printed guide to dictatorship and holds six justices in its back pocket. To focus on the actual threat we are facing, I wish America’s top pundits would spend less time watching reruns of The West Wing and maybe pick up a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

The reality of what’s happening in July 2024 — that an authoritarian-minded president, with help from a politicized and unethical Supreme Court, is on track to lead a nation where all power is being vested in him, his MAGA movement, and the corporate polluters — is THE story, and Biden’s health is a subplot in that drama. The current president is walking slowly, but it’s the American Experiment that’s on a ventilator. Journalists aren’t doing their job: performing basic triage and focusing on the sickest patient in the room. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.

#With fear for our democracy #I dissent #philadelphia inquirer #will bunch #scotus #project 2025 #us politics #i hate long posts full of words #but this is a great column

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oldguardleatherdog · 1 year ago

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let me start by saying, I'm okay to agree to disagree on this, and I respect you greatly as my queer elder. I hesitate to even send this because I don't think this cause is worth dogpiling (and not even the fun way) on anyone against and , like , I will continue to follow and admire you as a mutual who has been through a lot of the hell that I'm going through right now and got to a place I want to someday be. (for context, I am currently housing & food insecure and am trying to live in a queer-accepting city)

Posting will never be praxis, you are my brother in arms no matter what you call trump or cops or whatever. There are some fat liberation blogs that take issue with calling cops "pigs" for a lot of the reasons I bristle at calling Trump a fatass, and like, if someone is actively fighting cops who can and will actively hurt me and my found family, I don't care what names they shout while doing it. So I see where you are coming from and I'm glad you fight for me. I fight for us too, in what little ways I can while I keep me and my found family afloat. I do better work in the community just by existing around people as a living breathing transgender than I could do in a million posts on this website.

I do think that this is a valuable conversation to have, though, even though you are completely right that this is a trivial thing and not at all the bigger, more real issue at hand. I think it's still important, on online platforms such as this, to talk about how we refer to the other people on this planet.

Think about why you didn't call Trump a "retard". You certainly could have, it doesn't *not* apply to some of his behavior. I know people of our generations once used that word a lot, and we don't anymore. Why and when did we change that? I honestly don't remember. For me, my aunt was medically classified as "retarded" and she was the best person I'd ever met, so I decided that word shouldn't mean bad things. The first time I ever hit someone was over them using that word in a derogative way. it wasn't about "mental illness positivity" it was about humanizing the people that word has been used against - people who have been stigmatized and oppressed with that word.

Right now, hopefully, the same thing is happening to the word "obese". Fat people are less likely to be hired, granted loans or secure housing. they can be kicked out of airplanes and fired from their jobs because of their body size. There have been laws proposed to take fat children away from their parents and "treatments" proposed to wire children's jaws shut and starve them to make them thinner. They are often medically mistreated and misdiagnosed. I once went to a doctor with an ear infection and instead of antibiotics, he prescribed me *bariatric surgery.* I have been refused transgender top-surgery because of my BMI, which keeps me at a passively higher risk for self-injury and worse.

I do not care about body positivity. Honestly, between being fat, trans, and poor, I'm at a point where I've given up on ever feeling good about my body again. All I care about is getting jobs and meds and keeping a roof over my family's head and food on our table. Normalizing the idea that fat is a bad thing that anyone can change continues that stigma. When you use Fat as an insult, you are saying fat=bad. Fat is a neutral thing that some bodies can be, like short or tall or lean. The revolution needs to be intersectional, and body size is another axis of oppression that needs to be acknowledged, just like sexuality, gender, race, class, disability, etc.

If you've gotten this far, thank you for hearing me out. I'm sorry that others are just performatively parroting the same things over and over. Civility is bullshit, and if you still want to use body shaming as one of the ways you fight against bigotry, it doesn't really matter to me. Just as long as you acknowledge anti-fat bias as part of that bigotry too.

Thank you for writing and sharing your life experiences with me, and for your solidarity as well. You're striving to make your way as part of a despised minority in a world that's turned unspeakably harsh toward you in an aggressively mean way seemingly overnight, and I admire you for the life you have lived, for your courage and perseverance during this difficult time where resources are scant and your housing and food security is uncertain at best.

(FWIW, after I was bombed out of my Lower Manhattan home on September 11th, my income went from six figures down to nothing overnight, and I was homeless and destitute for years. Twenty years ago, I was where you are now, and I can tell you that what you're enduring today will not last forever, that there is light and hope and blessing in your future, that you're not as alone as you might think, that you must never give up.)

What more can I do to make the point that "fat" has nothing to do with this? As I've said, I grew up obese, and it wasn't until I enlisted in the Army at age 17 that I was able to free myself from my violent and abusive family and unlock the potential of the body that had been hidden under layers of fat and shame all my life. I know that my path is not for everybody, that many others are not so fortunate, and I ceased long ago to think that fat equals bad or lack of character or any other pejorative attitude that society has attached to it for generations. I hope I've made that clear and that you take my word as truth.

I am not saying "let's fat-shame Donald Trump to make him feel bad." I am saying that I'm deeply troubled by the LGBTQ+ community prioritizing hurt feelings over the very real damage that's being done to us right now all over the country by Trump, his minions, his proxies, and his cult of bloodthirsty followers and worshippers. Trump's accomplices in Congress and state legislatures and Moms For Liberty are taking over school boards all over the country, banning books and emptying library shelves and harassing teachers and librarians to the point where they're being run out of town, where the State of Missouri has defunded its entire public library system rather than follow a court order to restore books banned just for featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

DeSantis and Abbott have put in place policies that are unspeakably brutal, that are forcing trans people in Florida to slowly and brutally revert to their pre-transition state, that have given health care providers in Florida the right to deny treatment to you and me and all LGBTQ+ people because we are gay, lesbian, non-binary, trans... but God forbid we should call Trump mean names!

We've seen what happens when we buy into the "when they go low, we go high" fantasy pipe dream. This is not the way the world works, it has never been, and we need to put this loser idea in the trash bin where it belongs once and for all.

We're being attacked and harmed in unspeakable ways that are happening now. This is not theoretical or hypothetical. It's happening to us, to those we love, this minute and every minute of every day. And worse is in the pipeline - they're writing laws that will place us under virtual house arrest, that will regulate where we're allowed to go in our own cities and towns, when we're allowed to be seen in public, when and where we can shop, how we're allowed to dress, even what we're allowed to say and SING, for Christ's sake!

And I'm supposed to be concerned about some minuscule hypothetical percentage of my own people being OFFENDED because I'm somehow being insensitive and violating some trivial picayune social justice warrior philosophy, because there's a possibility of some fragile flower taking it personally, and that I should shut my mouth and let the MAGA nutjobs run roughshod over us? Oh, come let Daddy kiss it! while our brothers and sisters are suffering in real time. Sickening.

Anyone who has a problem with my stance doesn't have to follow me or emulate my proven effective tactics as an activist with 37 years of successfully defending our rights under my belt if they're so dainty and delicate and easily bruised. Everyone else that sees this for the strawman bullshit it is, get ready to hit the streets with bullhorns and whistles once again. We've got work to do.

Your arguments are strong and well-reasoned, and I accept and acknowledge everything you're saying. We can disagree on this, certainly, and still work together to turn back the progress that the MAGAs are making, restore our rights, and protect ourselves and each other. But that will require the snowflake contingent among us to get their collective head out of their collective ass, stop whining, and get with the damn program. Calling me names and telling me I'm being a bad gay activist is a waste of time and energy that should be spent fighting the fascists and the haters who are out to kill us.

And to you, my friend and fellow traveler with a radiantly beautiful soul and spirit, I urge you to hang in there, to keep the faith, to keep caring about life, to work with me to secure our own future and the future of our kind. I send to you my very best wishes, energy, and prayers that you will find your way to a place of health, security, stability, and love for yourself and for this precious community to whom we've both dedicated our lives, who mean the world to us.

Yours In Service, Animal J. Smith

#what more can i do to protect you all #to get you to realize the mortal danger we're in #to put the suffering of our own people ahead of our feelings #to join me in this fight that's eminently winnable #to get you off your butts and your high horses and get to work #to do something - anything - to help save us and save yourself from what they're planning to do to us and are already doing #to think of anyone but yourself for a damn change #to show me and the world your incredible courage in the face of evil #to restore our rights and roll back this tide of hatred and death that's about to overpower us #to make sure that my life's work these past four decades has not been wasted #to let me at long last step back from the front lines and cherish my time left on earth at 61 with AIDS and love my family #to be the dog and the man they need and deserve and long for #to lay down my sword and shield at last #please please please do this for me - it would be your greatest gift #for god's sake wake up #queer activism #queer is not a slur #it's a fucking battle cry #god i am so scared for us all #information gladly given

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fallenangelontheceiling · 1 year ago

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Leverage 1x07

I’m starting to buy the tension between Eliot and Hardison. Eliot just learned basic photoshop lol. Love Hardison's attempts at awkward bonding, I buy that way more than they straight up dislike each other.

I’m sad we don’t get to hear Gina Bellman do a Jersey Mafia Wife accent.

Aww Sophie has a friend!

Yeah, why is Hardison being so down on himself??

At first I was like, I hope they let the daughter be a Mafia Princess Bitch. The cynic in me just does not have a lot of hope for sociopathic families. But the minute she was like, “Uh, Mom… I think releasing the doves is a bit much…” - “Shut up, Maria,” all my Say Yes To The Dress instincts perked up. Screw Mom! This is YOUR wedding! Seat your college friends wherever you want!

Parker telling the bridesmaid that yes, the dress does make her look fat, and not even picking up the social queues after the fact, is the first real Awkward Social Situation I’ve bought from her. Most of the stuff prior could be read as charming (I’m not like other girls I don’t like shoes, haha I taught this kid how to pick a lock). I absolutely see how Parker could become isolated.

Also REALLY buying the Parker/Hardison tension in the bridesmaids’ dress. “You really think I look good?” “You look perfect.” Stawp.

Side note that’s only relevant to me: I’m a little fascinated by the mob wife. I think she’s so picky because she doesn’t really know what she wants or what’s “high quality,” she just knows there’s a nebulous, upper class ideal she’s desperately aiming for. Explains why she would marry into money, despite the cheating and general immorality. (And sorry not sorry, I legit know so many women from Long Island that are like this.)

“I didn’t do anything wrong for her [my high school sweetheart] to dump me. I liberated Croatia.” “Do you think the Butcher of Kiev will recognize you?” Ooh, I’m suddenly very invested in Eliot’s backstory this episode! Fun B movie vibes 🥰☠️

“And that bride - what’s her name? - I’m not gonna let her down either!” I’m dying 😂

Between that, the incompetent FBI, and Eliot’s cooking, this is the funniest episode.

Omg of course the step mom is wearing white to this wedding. I kinda like the 80s prom look for the bridesmaid dresses tho ngl.

I hope this marriage is still legit despite the fake priest officiating lol. (Pretty sure all that matter is the certificate).

Nate/Sophie - I love mess 🥰 They're just projecting their own issues all over this damn wedding. Real Parent Energy. I love that for them.

“A wedding’s just a big con, huh?” “I never said there was anything wrong with that.” The ROMANCE this episode, istg!

#leverage #leverage lb #leverage 1x07

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goetzjpvis · 8 months ago

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3/27/24 "Sensoron" and "Neo-Nationalism and the 'Liberal School of History'" JPT3391

Phew! Today's was definitely a read! I had a very difficult time discerning this text from irony. It actually took Prof. Smith straight up telling me that this text was right-wing Japanese propaganda to realize! Up until then, I was too naiive to believe that was even a possibility of reading in class.

Effectively, this manga comments on the greater Japanese 'social issue' of the postwar peace movement. The creator of the manga likens China to.... a man taking too long shitting in the toilet? He argues that he is right to treat his employee like 'a roach', just like the Japanese were right to 'do what they did' during the war...

He then proceeds to raise the strawman: 'what about Japanese war crimes?! here are some 'edited' or 'mislabeled' photos to show what we did wasn't all that bad!'. He showcases images of the Rape of Nanking, as well as Bombing of Chongqing and argues that these images were either doctored or forged. While I agree that doctored and forged imagery are a plight upon the spread of truthful information, the author argues that because the images shown have evidence of forgery.... these heavily documented events of arson, rape, and murder were either orchestrated by an 'inside group' of Chinese civilians, or made up by American's in order to make the Japanese media feel 'war guilt' for their ancestor's crimes. Why? Because according to him, everything is anti-Japanese propaganda. China, Korea, and America hate Japan.... so the 3 use disinfo to subjugate the Japanese into peace.

This type of text is also applicable to the American alt right, and is something I see frequently. Many Jews in America are terrorized by the 'free thinkers' who claim the holocaust didn't exist, and much of the evidence (you can also claim this for 9/11) was misrepresented.

Furthermore, the manga is argues individualism is bad, because it's an American brainwashing technique. From previous discussions in class, I was already aware that Japan's 'highly-collectivist' society are their alt right's claim to fame. That being said, they claim that Japan's individualism doesn't exist, and any sight of it is just people brainwashed by American individualist propaganda.

This manga capitalizes on people's fear and hunger for justice. it argues that half of the information (photos, texts) that people have been terrorized with since birth are FAKE!! That's a scary thing to hear! And instead of teaching those that it's important to learn about history to single out the facts from a set of information, the manga instead takes the reader's newfound fear and liken's their 'oppressors' to the occult, to evil, and makes the readers into victims. This is a very slippery slops I've seen people around me fall into. It turns fear into hyper-protective skepticism: "I think the LGBT is harming our youth! Time to wipe them out." "I think [insert minority] is biologically inferior and dangerous, time to wipe them out". etc. etc.

I added this smug loser in at the end because I found it funny how (in the manga) the brainwashed Japanese are portrayed as ugly, fat, etc., while the main character himself is drawn as an attractive, young man. Really makes you think!

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wovetherapy · 2 months ago

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Body Image and Mental Health

Body image is a complex topic that is often simplified into the vantage point of: you are either happy or unhappy with the way your body looks. In reality, it is not a black and white topic, although historically race has been and continues to be inseparable from the topic of body image… amongst other intersecting identities.

What is body image?

“Body image” is somewhat of an umbrella term, encompassing any part or whole of one’s body, from weight to face to skin, etc. There are four aspects to body image:

Perceptual - how you perceive yourself… what you see can be different from reality or how others see you.

Affective - how you feel about your body image… this can differ regarding various parts of your body.

Cognitive - how you think about your body… this includes how you incorporate your body image with the rest of your life (e.g. “If I was thinner or more muscular, I would be more popular or have a better dating life.”)

Behavioral - how you act in regard to your body image… this encompasses more or less healthy behaviors (i.e. due to their body image, people may choose to exercise more, socialize less, change their diet, etc.)

Body image movements: distinguishing between body positivity, neutrality, and liberation

Body Positivity encourages unconditional love and positive regard for one’s body, no matter how one looks or feels. The body positivity movement originated from the fat acceptance movement of the 1960s, led by a group of fat, queer, Black women. They were integral in the recognition of the intersectionality of race, class, gender, sexuality, and weight stigma. Body positivity looks much different than its original roots. Critics contend that the movement has been “gentrified by white-centered politics” (Griffin et al., 2022), with efforts centering thin and relatively thin white women.

Body neutrality is about acceptance, focusing on the capabilities of one’s body rather than looks. It approaches body image through a neutral lens, acknowledging that people may not love their bodies all the time. Body neutrality promotes non-judgment of one’s body, accepting and respecting however one’s body exists.

Body liberation is “the freedom from social and political systems of oppression that designate certain bodies as more worthy, healthy, and desirable than others”. It provides space to move past a body truce and explore what it means to give oneself permission to live life unapologetically as oneself. Body liberation encourages people to feel all of the emotions that may emerge due to societal biases and discrimination, and it does not urge acceptance of what may not feel acceptable. It also creates space for a multicultural lens, expanding the suffocating ideals of Western beauty standards.

Body Image and Mental Health

Body image and mental health are often closely intertwined and cyclical in nature, such that they can be difficult to individuate. One’s body image may impact their mental health, and vice versa. Body image can show up in one’s self esteem, personality, interpersonal relationships, and overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Examples of mental health concerns related to body image may include: anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, eating disorders/disordered eating (see previous blog post on Eating Disorders from an intersectional lens), feelings of shame or guilt, financial strain, negative self talk, poor self esteem, preoccupation with weight/body type, interpersonal issues, etc.

Body dissatisfaction, or negative body image, can be described as negative thoughts and feelings associated with one’s body image. Research has found that higher body dissatisfaction is positively associated with poor quality of life, psychological distress, and the risk of unhealthy eating behaviors and eating disorders (Mental Health Foundation). Body image does not always impact one’s mental health in a negative manner, although, especially for minoritized individuals, body dissatisfaction regularly begins at a young age. Half of elementary school aged girls have weight concerns or are worried about becoming fat, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Being bullied at school for their appearance or growing up in a household where weight is an issue are known risk factors for body image issues in children, and common experiences for BIPOC individuals amongst those with other marginalized identities and bodies. Although body dissatisfaction often begins at a young age, it can continue throughout adulthood, especially if left unaddressed. However, there are absolutely ways to approach improving one’s body image as an adult.

Improving body image as an adult

Identify and challenge negative thoughts - Recognize internal and external dialogue regarding your body image. Think critically about what comes up automatically or what is being said. Where are these thoughts coming from? Are they realistic? What are they rooted in? How are these thoughts serving you? By tuning into these thoughts, you can develop agency and choice in the direction you want to move in.

Find community -In all the complex layers, struggling with one’s body image can feel isolating due to various internal and external factors. Body image satisfaction, like most topics, is not a dichotomous subject. Additionally, satisfaction with one’s body is not a requirement for positive mental health. Discourse has shifted to include the concepts of body positivity, body neutrality/body acceptance, and body liberation, which have been associated with higher levels of overall wellbeing. By gaining understanding of each of these movements, one may identify what they resonate with and find community and better relationship with one’s body image and mental health.

Pay attention to your social media consumption - Recognize your agency in who you follow and what comes up on your social media feed(s). Be cognizant of comparison culture and try not to compare yourself to others. Be intentional in removing content which no longer serves you, and be active in expanding and curating a diverse online space that feels more aligned with your own values or the values you would like to embrace or incorporate into your life.

Observe nature - Nature provides countless examples of beauty in diversity and spectrums of existence. Spend time noticing the myriad shapes, colors, sizes, functions, sexualities, abilities, existences, and relationships in the natural world. Perhaps you would be open to allowing yourself to be imaginative and playful in this space, and perhaps you could see ways to translate this or incorporate these observations into other spaces in your life.

Work with a therapist - If you are struggling with body image, it may be helpful to speak with a mental health professional. The collaborative space could be helpful to process your thoughts, experiences, and relationship with self and others and to elucidate how you would like to relate to your body image and what it would look like for you to achieve this.

#mental health #individual counseling #mental health counseling #self care #trauma #mindfulness

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cascadianights · 7 months ago

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I've been trying to put this into words for a While now

I think a big reason a lot of white people have an issue with acknowledging their very real Privilege (beyond the obvious) is that... ok, its the presence of benefits and perks & the absence of barriers and obstacles. But the default assumption of white privilege, of what those benefits or obstacles ARE, is essentially the archetype of a WASP - generally a male one too. This nebulous, theoretical group of perks & lack of barriers that people often present as white privilege (when in reality then tend to be talking about CLASS) fails to capture the lived reality of a VAST, HUGE majority of poor white people.

They're going to be hostile to the idea that they had opportunities to advance in the workplace that others didn't, when they worked the same shit job at the mill their entire short life. The idea that they had alumni family to help secure them a good spot at a college their parents paid for, rather than being the first person in their family to go to even community college just to have to drop out and take care of siblings. The idea that they lived life with financial and food stability, when they grew up in a family of 8 siblings having a slice of bread each for breakfast and lunch because their mom couldn't access birth control and their dad was an abusive drunk. These aren't theoretical exceptions! This isn't the minority of white people, this is the reality for MILLIONS of people!!

There are absolutely things that apply across the board when talking about white privilege - situations a white person will never face because they are white, that a black person will face because they are black. But is that divide, based on race instead of assumptions about class, really the image conjured by/for many people when we talk about white privilege now? Especially in current liberal circles, where any level of privilege can be used to discredit and dismiss someone's reality - to declare them exempt from a huge swath of dangers, and benefit to a theoretical upper class lifestyle of relative ease. The logic follows that if the speaker is white, or white-passing, much about their life can be assumed and much can be written off that they could not possibly understand or have experienced - they must out and offer another aspect of their identity (disabled, queer, fat, etc) to show they have any right to speak on marginalization. Being white protects you around cops, until the moment you're dirt poor, or disabled, or visibly trans, or just the right queer body they were looking to teach a lesson to that night. Being white protects you in our current government, until you're a felon with no vote, or a disabled person declared unfit to make your own decisions and sterilized.

All this to say, liberals cannot keep clinging to the idea & narrative that white equals automatic access to a huge amount of privileges and protections that are actually Hugely reliant on class and a lack of intersecting identities. Dirt poor people who hear "white privilege" used almost exclusively to describe WASPS, from the mouths of the Liberal Left who have ignored the plight of the rural poor for decades, who are ACTIVELY making jokes about stupid southerners and how we should just cut off parts of the country and let them drown, will not result in them listening! They will not go self introspect about their own biases! They will not look up the real nuances of white privilege and class privilege and how those are linked but not inextricably. They will not think about how to eliminate barriers and create opportunities for other people. They WILL be further alienated from the left and being able to actually look into their very real privilege in the future though!!

#this is about a division in how white privilege is used as a term not about the actuality of white privilege #you have to use it for what it means and stop applying this nebulous all encompassing Privelege that ties in #class and race and health and security all under the umbrella of how a lot of liberals are talking about white privilege and white people #in ways that are not only inherently downplaying and muddying the class divide (see: people thinking someone barely at middle class is #the equivalent of Very Rich now instead of seeing the GROWING divide bw those who have money and dont #like whiteness is a huge part of it!!! but thats a complex nuanced thing to talk about #when if you would talk about the things white privilege actually is when talking to/about the average poor ass white person #it makes the concept a lot more approachable and understandable and less fucking alienating to the people who #see all the same problems w this country and are listening to the absolute fuckass wrong answers to why and what to do about ir #bc theyre SCARED AND ALIENATED BY THE LEFT and are going w anyone who is marginally listening instead of saying the south should just be #set on fire

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lizardbytheriver · 1 year ago

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"The Goode Family" Observations Part 2

The Father is practically wearing a fedora. It is so awful. Kind of hate the jokes that a (Working Class) Butch Lesbian Couple is "disgusting". Not a great look that it came from both the "Progressive" Characters and Conservative Character. The show really does feel like its simping for the Upper Class. Mostly comes from the mother, who's unresolved daddy issues keeps manifesting into a call for acceptance from folks who will barely tolerate her. I kind of hate the character who's just there to make "lonely woman" jokes. I get it, she doesn't f*ck much, she's fat, and she has no kids. Move on. I think I hate the Mother the most. She does represent performative activism. She can never just do a good deed, she needs to announce it to everyone and she is desperate for praise. Wow an Animated Sitcom made by Mike Judge where the Mother is the worst character... how unsurprising. *Cough* Peggy Hill *Cough* The show has two modes for the family, them recycling or them being racist.

The family is fine with prescription pills, but not pain killers... A few episodes in, and there's already no consistency. I know the easy deflection is "the Left is inconsistent", but tbh this just feels like an oversight. The mother does not want her daughter to "leach off the system". Which. I just think the phrasing is very Conservative. Okay... so the "Progressive" Father is.... anti-graffiti and pro-abstinence. Its interesting, because these writers have Conservative Leanings and want their show to still endorse Conservatism to a degree, so you get the Reasonable Members of the Liberal Family repeating Conservative Talking Points... even though they are still supposed to be the loony liberal. This show is really really really trying to do "the minorities have it easier". Between the Anti-Affirmative Action and the Graffiti Episode (where they imply that if the White Woman was a Person of Colour her sentence would be less severe). Damn. This is not the characters being racist. This is the show being racist. Damn. The Father and the Daughter are snitches. The Father was going to call the police on the graffiti artist, but stopped when he found out that it was his wife. And the daughter called the police on her friend, who was misusing government funds. Scumbags. The father loves Che Guevara, but only practices nonviolence. Okay. The whole family besides the dad believes protesting is "useless" and "stupid"... which... This show is interesting moral wise, because a lot of the family's activism is very individualist. Being Vegan, Composting, Recycling, Gardening, the Solar Panels, etc. Almost everything they do is hyper-individualist. So to see attempts at collective action to be met with "its useless" is interesting. Again. Conservative Writers. Making a show about the Left, but still uplifting Conservative Beliefs (whether knowingly or unknowingly) such as the hyper-individualism that plagues the United States. I do not think there is a single person on this show who has said anything nice about indigenous people. They either call 'em "backwards" or they are bringing back the phrase "noble savage".

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neonstatic · 1 year ago

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i was supposed to help this guy at work w his photography assignment :/ we're not exactly friends, but it doesn't sit right to simply label him as a coworker, so let's say he's a good acquaintance rn. so he had this assignment where had to take abt 10 pictures and he wanted me to model for him. told him i'd be down but needed to know more abt the assignment and what it entails. took some arm-twistin' to get the info out of him (red flag!) but eventually i got it and he had this theme that truly inspired me and i was officially down: i had a fit in mind, places we could shoot, poses, etc. unfortunately our last-minute shoot had to be cancelled bc he was swamped w work.

some weeks after tho, he tells me that actually, the assignment has been delayed and he wants to try a new concept. unfortunately, again, we had to let it go cus he rly wanted cool smoking shots and not only do i not smoke, i actively avoid any smoke bc of my asthma. (plus he wanted shots of me looking passed out and i didn't feel comfortably being captured like this by some guy who's not even a friend yet.) also clearly he was still trying to figure out what the assignment required of him and was throwing stuff at a wall (shedding light on a seemingly random social issue) and hoping it would stick (getting his teacher's approval) and i refused to give a confirmed yes til i could tell that he knew and understood exactly what he wanted.

well it is clear from the very first sentence of this post that it didn't happen. the reason why i bring this up is bc we last spoke today and he had a brand new concept, and i quote, "reclaiming your identity thru fashion." generally good concept except that it doesn't mean much, so i asked him, "what identity?" and he said, "well, ykno, you're black, bisexual, fat, etc." and i had this strange feeling, like a subdued version of a horrified realisation, when i understood that i wasn't just helping him w a project - i had become The Project.

which could've been flattering. i've been asked to be someone's muse before and i haven't posed yet but i'm open to it. but w him, it's like i'm literally some means to a gain. i feel like a fkg bingo card he wants to use to get a good grade at the Social Issue Class: Photography Edition. i'd signed up to put on my best outfit and do funky, cool poses in the streets, not have someone tighten a corset around my fat torso or hold up signs of insults targed at me that i'm "reclaiming." it got incredibly personal out of nowhere and was proposed w none of the respect or finesse it deserved.

so yeah i had to shut it down. and he said, "but you had an almost nude shoot," but yeah i was naked around other naked ppl, not just one guy w a camera. and it wasn't abt me as a person but /he/ made it so and now it's weird!!! some ppl, it just feels like their liberalism or wtv is all just lip-service and he picked me for his project bc i'm Black and Fat and Bisexual and Nonbinary and Alternative and it'll make him look so good in front of his classmates and teacher

gosh this is long but yeah no it rly bothers me still. he seemed real disappointed and like he didn't rly have a plan b for his project. sucks to suck but i chose not to care too much altho i feel like i'm letting him down, but he's been a lil passive-aggressive in a jokey way (saying he'd hold a grudge and had no choice but to take lame pics out in the streets :cccc insert mr krabs' tiny violin) and there's no better way to alleviate my guilt cus i hate passive-aggression. it's fine tho if he's a lil upset as long as he gets over it and leaves me alone.

#ray says #i just hope we can go back to being friendly at work. hope next sunday isn't awkward

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johannestevans · 1 year ago

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no, predictably in my life the people who show the proper concern or compassion for me when I say that my weight is difficult, or show concern about me getting enough to eat, are fat people! they're aware most of all of the effects that not getting enough to eat have on anybody most of all, bc while not getting enough to eat doesn't necessarily make you lose weight (and for many people actually contributes to weight gain in the long term, bc the human body perceives periods of starvation as recurring trauma and can change its metabolism to accommodate this), they do know that it can make you dizzy and sick and sad, bc they're pressured most of all into trying diets!

fatphobia harms EVERYBODY, and fat liberation benefits everyone - although fat people receive the vast majority of societal bigotries in our institutions, such as not being able to get things like adequate seating, clothing, medical care, work, etc, society's veneration of thin people and thinness ends up intersecting with ableism and other forms of bigotry that end up harming thin and fat people in ways like this

in different ways, because of the way that our society venerates thinness and loathes fatness (or even just weight, which can be muscle mass!), illness and disability are rendered further invisible through people's biases around weight and size

doctors MIGHT listen to a thin person's descriptions of symptoms, but they will ultimately punish any form of significant weight gain, even when caused by necessary medications, because thinness is seen as a corollary to ultimate health and therefore societal value, even when a thin person is demonstrably more sick whilst thin than fat or just average-sized for their body; a fat person's concerns will be dismissed except - and sometimes without exception - in regards to the most serious of symptoms, because their fatness and weight entirely eclipse any concerns as to their actual HEALTH or their ability or their quality of life

and of course, because fatphobia and weight-based assumptions are intriniscally linked to white western society's ideas and assertions of culture, class, gender, race, sexuality, and other vectors for marginalisation and institutional abuse, a lot of these aspects of bigotry are then further concentrated or issues of concern rendered further invisible by societal and institutional bias

i've been listening to a lot more fat liberationist stuff recently and like...

so obvs i already had some backing in a lot of the basic theory, stuff like institutional anti-fatness in medicine, fashion, travel, etc, but like

so as a really thin guy who's always found it impossible to gain weight, its been unbelievably emotionally and mentally liberating to hear people talking really casually about the disability that's associated with thinness

so like being really thin, you lack additional joint and bone support - if you fall, you have less padding and less STRUCTURE to protect your bones from breaks and fractures, right?

obvs theres plenty of fat people that do have issues with bones and joints, im not saying thsres not, its just that normally i feel like im the lone person saying "being this thin is bad for me and is part of various health problems i also have"

and idk its just like. my whole life i was such a sickly child lmao

like i couldnt stand for long periods except "long period" would often be like. any period. i didnt understand how my peers were just standing for so long and just weathering that, bc to me it wasnt possible at all - i breathed badly, my joints were fucked etc

and looking back and realising as i get more disabled like the extent to which i was similarly disabled in my youth, and how i lacked the language to verbalise or sometimes even recognise my own pain and struggle

but also like

the treatment of me as so evil and lazy because i wasn't exercising, or because like. a PE teacher would pick me out as an example because i was so thin, and then be furious that i wasn't remotely physically fit, and that i was disabled

i remember multiple times esp from cis female teachers just. frothing rage at my diet and the things i ate, or when i wrinkled my nose at talk about diets, bc i was so thin so i had to be doing The Right Things, and if i was that thin and doing bad things i had to be punished

and its bc a lot of these ppl thought of fatness and being fat as a punishment, a target for abuse that people deserved, and bc i was a young disabled trans guy like. i deserved punishment for my laziness and nonconformity, and it became a lot about my weight

like expressing that i wanted to gain weight, that i was cold all the time, that i had no energy etc, that eating was hard but that i enjoyed food, all of that was met with such fuckin aggression and really sharp policing, esp from PE teachers and esp from women

and obvs all that is to do with the way that diet culture particularly targets women and those perceived as women, and the desire to engage in lateral violence to police others into complying with gender roles etc as they were upholding them

but idk like. fat liberationist politics is imo inherently tied up with disability liberation, because of the way that "health" is weaponised as a symbol of being good or deserving, and how fatness and disability are both used as targets and symbols of evil and punishment

MOST OF ALL for fat & disabled people

but for nondisabled fat people disability is often threatened as punishment - if you don't become less fat, you'll (deserve to) become disabled

and for disabled thin people, if you don't act less disabled, you'll (deserve to) become fat

and its not a punishment to be fat or disabled or sick. its just how some people are. its not BAD to be this way - and what makes things hard for us is not something inherent to the badness of our bodies, but instead the lack of kindness and accommodation anybody is willing to extend to them

#musings

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ralfreinhardt4-blog · 1 year ago

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Living in Place with A Course in Miracles : Adopting Inner Equilibrium

A Course in Miracles is just a profound religious text that's handled the lives of many seekers around the world. With its teachings of forgiveness, love, and the transformation of belief, it offers a pathway to internal peace and self-realization. In this informative article, we shall discover the key axioms and major power of a course in miracles, delving into its profound wisdom and realistic applications.

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Among the crucial principles of A Course in Miracles may be the idea that we are all linked, and that separation can be an illusion. It teaches which our correct nature is spiritual and endless, beyond the confines of the physical body. Through practicing forgiveness and recognizing our distributed identity, we can experience the oneness and unity of most creation.

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wovetherapy · 7 months ago

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Body Image and Mental Health

What is body image?

“Body image” is somewhat of an umbrella term, encompassing any part or whole of one’s body, from weight to face to skin, etc. There are four aspects to body image:

Perceptual - how you perceive yourself… what you see can be different from reality or how others see you.

Affective - how you feel about your body image… this can differ regarding various parts of your body.

Body image movements: distinguishing between body positivity, neutrality, and liberation

Body liberationis “the freedom from social and political systems of oppression that designate certain bodies as more worthy, healthy, and desirable than others”. It provides space to move past a body truce and explore what it means to give oneself permission to live life unapologetically as oneself. Body liberation encourages people to feel all of the emotions that may emerge due to societal biases and discrimination, and it does not urge acceptance of what may not feel acceptable. It also creates space for a multicultural lens, expanding the suffocating ideals of Western beauty standards.

Body Image and Mental Health

Improving body image as an adult

If you’re interested in scheduling an appointment or you’d like more information, please contact us.

#Body Image #Mental Health

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yuri-for-businesswomen · 1 year ago

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i do have a bone to pick with the fat positivity movement online, i think i even made a post about it before.

the issue i see here is that she doesnt focus on fat bias and sexuality, she wants to also tackle racism, misogyny and everything else in the same breath and while thats admirable it just makes the whole thing messy. dont get me wrong i appreciate an intersectional approach but this doesnt feel intersectional (as in, at the intersection of being fat and for example brown), but more like getting cookie points for mentioning all the -isms.

plus from my experience with fat activists online, they dont even do any useful analysis they just throw around buzzwords. like her. we can talk about the flaws of the bmi as a tool of health assessment but saying it „criminalises fat bodies“ is silly. for example. she is a standard liberal postmodernist who produces word salad after word salad and i honestly think its detrimental to fat people because it makes advocacy for them look silly.

and she strikes me as a clout chaser. she hits all the liberal talking points and very much revels in her popularity. she is pro porn, pro kink, „queer“, postmodernist, thats what i take issue with. as i said she is just symptomatic of a wider problem. like the trans movement, the people at the core deserve support and not to be discriminated against, but the most popular online activists are all hardcore liberal clout chasers and make a mockery of the group they supposedly defend. in my opinion. i can neither speak for trans nor fat people, and i support both groups in their struggles against discrimination, im just sick of these liberals.

another example is how she says she exists in a fat body or just talks about “fat bodies”, like the body and mind are not one entity, very dehumanising language. she is also weird about thin people which she justifies because thin people are the “oppressor class”, “fat liberation needs thin traitors”, loaded language. which im also not a fan of because while i think fat bias (like beauty bias) is real and harmful, i think its a bit farfetched to talk about oppression unless it tackles on ableist issues like accessibility, since accessibility for wheelchairs helps some fat people as well. just general criticisms i have on popular fat activism.

if you have a recommendation for a less liberal more radical (feminist) fat activist im happy to follow!

okay so we finally admit that „queer“ is a way to allow straight people to attach themselves to lgb issues and spaces. if being queer is not defined by who you have sex with, please stop calling same sex attracted people queer.

this person has 150k followers on instagram and is symptomatic for the nonsensical buzzword hell that is liberal ideology.

this is so unserious.

bonus (not my screenshot):

#fat bias #not everything she says is wrong but its either complete surface level or embedded in nonsense

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 2 years ago

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It turns out that the She-Hulk-review side of YouTube is infinitely more entertaining than She-Hulk itself.

youtube

When the atheist movement arose in the late 2000s/early 2010s, interesting secular thinkers emerged, able to critique religious belief and destroy religious arguments - Hitch, Harris, Dawkins for starters, but certainly many more.

When modern Wokeness arose in the last few years, interesting liberal thinkers emerged, rebutting toxic Woke ideas with liberal ethics and values - Pluckrose, McWhorter, Hughes, Doyle, Murray, among many others you may never have heard of or from if this cultural war crime had not been perpetrated in the first place.

With this in mind, the silver lining of dreadful shit like She-Hulk is that interesting critics of narrative and storytelling emerge. Among these, you’ll struggle to actually find anyone espousing the inevitable strawman claims of bigotry.

Case in point: The Little Platoon, in an articulate review that combines mockery with compelling arguments regarding the show’s copious narrative and character deficiencies, pointlessness, pettiness, privilege and disrespect for the entire MCU itself all the way back to the beginning and Iron Man, a show seemingly written by the writers for the writers. A review delivered in a buttery smooth English accent, it has so much to say that at 40 minutes, it exceeds the length of the actual episode.

The channel similarly delves into critiques of other shows, including Star Trek: Discovery and Hawkeye with equal aplomb.

... The vast majority of feminist comedians of the type who've written She-Hulk do not have real lives and serious thoughts and concerns and opinions because they are comfortably upper middle-class suburbanites whose stories are incredibly dull and who have gained many more advantages from their sex than they have suffered hardships

Which broadly maps the decline of modern feminism from something daring, intelligent and genuinely transgressive and philosophical to a movement of well-paid thoughtless media stars whose ideal of social strife is petty and vindictive and minuscule. An attempt to feminize common complaints about behavior and etiquette, for example, like being patronized, which is one of those things women really are very good at themselves, as though this is some great transgression by men against the fairer sex that betrays men's brutish and universal pig ignorance at the expense of the poor long-suffering mega-rich female class of so-called entertainers.

None of this matters. None of this means anything. None of this is a serious issue. It doesn't even rise to the level of sexism. Again, women are just as impolite and patronizing and egotistical as men. None of it is radical or thoughtful, it is just petty vindictive pointless and uninteresting, and more often than not it's plain wrong. See every argument ever made about the pay gap, for example.

Had She-Hulk been written by, say, a working-class woman or an aging wife with a fat boozing husband, its jokes would have been: a) more cutting b) more sympathetic c) more ironic, and d) funnier

But instead it was written by professional singletons with excruciatingly well-paid jobs who would rather gripe about the partner of their law firm making more than his female secretary - such a pressing and universal concern - than about the actual and real plight and experiences of most women.

Like for example, the fact that secretary could well be on a six-figure salary while a woman in an ex-mining town in the American midwest who has suffered real hardship is presently trying to live on less than the minimum wage.

Now of course, the premise makes all this quite difficult. She-Hulk after all follows Jennifer Walters, who is in fact a lawyer. The milieu in which she mixes is the same as that of the show's writers. But the fact they haven't found anything more interesting and universal to do with the story betrays a complete lack of imagination.

You can, after all, bring the rich down. See Bruce Wayne. You can cross class divides. You can universalize the particular and tell a meaningful story

But the writers here have seen nothing more than an opportunity to put their own superficial gripes with luxury on the screen with a big budget - and some truly questionable CGI - and in the MCU, shoehorning this tawdry irrelevance into a universe they had no hand in creating, in the story of which they have no interest whatever.

The question I had since the series was announced was, who is this for?

And the answer is pretty clear from th eoff it's not for me and it's probably not for you either, and it's not for anyone less materially comfortable than, say, Sarah Silverman.

Rather, this show is for its writers and it's for their exclusive social set and it's for their fashionable friends.

She-Hulk is the self-insert par excellence. A bafflingly particular and insufferably smug story for a small number of middle-class professional women who otherwise don't care about comics or the MCU and who have no real need or desire to laugh.

What they want is social affirmation. And this is a massive problem for a comics-based show that is, well supposedly at least, a comedy.

[...]

... a quick final word before we close. We have, I hope, had some fun with this show. We've had a few laughs, we've told a few jokes - what a shocking idea about a comedy, i know.

Besides that being enjoyable in its own right, it is really the only approach to take with a show that is just so bad you have to laugh or else you'd probably have to cry or at least to rage.

But there is a serious point to be made. Inevitably, the first simping morons have begun to pass any and all criticism of this show as being motivated by sexism and misogyny. They draw links between the reactions to female leads and most recent MCU entries - She-Hulk, One Division, Multiverse of Madness, Love and Thunder, Captain Marvel - and they say, look the fandom menace hates all these women and they don't criticize their male heroes in the same way, therefore they must be chauvinistic bigots.

Now this, of course, as you and I know is utter horseshit. The fact so many recent entries have objectionable female leads has nothing to do with the sex or gender of those leads, and everything to do with how they are written.

If you want female heroes to be appreciated in the same way as male heroes have been, you have to write female leads as competently as the male heroes were once written.

You need to give them real stories, real struggles, depth, strife, flaws. You need to treat them as characters that deserve to exist in their own right, and not just as props that you need to exist in order for you to peddle your pet socio-political gripes and issues.

If you want people to like your female hero, a good start might be don't write her to be a complete bitch.

Don't pretend that catcalling is morally equivalent as a crime to wiping out half the fucking universe.

Don't pretend that being "mansplained" to is an issue even worthy of consideration at all, never mind pretend it represents a character-defining struggle along the lines of Tony Stark's sacrifice, Bruce Banner's trauma, and Captain America's sense of duty and purpose.

It isn't the audience's fault if you're writing awful female characters, it's your fault, you scribbling hacks.

The stories you tell and the characters you put them in do a disservice to the existing audience.

For a show that complains about misogyny, I really cannot think of a better way to create misogynists than by showing young men She-Hulk. Because if your moral paragon is a shallow, self-centered, arrogant, egotistical, man-hating super slag, then your message is that all men are either bastards or complicit in bastardly behavior, well, how the hell do you expect your male audience to react to that?

Like the bible reliably producing atheists, modern feminist writers create the very thing they rail against.

But also, and to go back to the point raised near the beginning, it does a disservice to your female audience, to the people you pretend to represent. Men and women, real people, are infinitely more complex, nuanced, funny, cheerful, ironic, confused, liberated, oppressed, stoic, emotional, bold and afraid than the characters you are creating to represent them.

To reduce women to fear and anger, to a fragile species that can't handle even minor social transgressions and impoliteness is to infantilize the woman you claim you're championing.

So it's not just men who are, and who should be, depressed and angered by shows like She-Hulk. It's women who've actually led difficult lives, real lives, and who have real world experience.

Women who aren't privileged enough to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars and live in swanky apartments holding down liberal arts mages and careers in the city and the media.

Men are let down by your hatred of them, of course, but women are let down by your hubris in pretending you can speak for them.

There is far more that separates the writers of She-Hulk from the experiences of most women than there is that separates most women from most men.

#She Hulk #She-Hulk #terrible fiction #MCU #marvel cinematic universe #Hulk #The Little Platoon #popular culture #religion is a mental illness

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fatliberation · 4 years ago

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Here Are Some Fat Positive Activists, Educators, Therapists, and Artists to Know!

First and foremost, the pioneer of organized fat activism:

• Bill Fabrey (he/him)

Bill Fabrey, a self-proclaimed fat admirer, founded NAAFA (the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) in 1969 after gaining an understanding of the day-to-day oppression and discrimination faced by his wife, Joyce. Fabrey founded the organization in hopes to raise awareness of weight stigma, criticize biased studies, and increase overall acceptance and accessibility to fat Americans. He is considered one of the pioneers of the fat liberation movement, and is heavily involved to this day.

• Judy Freespirit, Sara Fishman, Lynn McAfee, Ariana Manow, & Gudrun Fonfa (she/her for each)

(Members of The Fat Underground, 1979)

Fat, radical, feminist members of NAAFA! Their agenda was much more aggressive than NAAFA’s, and eventually they broke off and formed their own group called The Fat Underground, which acted as a catalyst in the creation and mobilization of the fat liberation movement. Based in LA in the 1970s, the Fat Underground did not fight to change discriminatory laws but rather discriminatory thoughts and practices in different aspects of society, which included those of doctors and other health professionals who perpetuated the unhealthy habits encouraged by diet culture. In 1973, Judy Freespirit and Alderbaran published the “Fat Liberation Manifesto” which establishes that fat people are entitled to what they were denied on a daily basis: “human respect and recognition.” The other objectives then outline the commercial exploitation of fat bodies by both corporations and scientific institutions. (x) I will go into more detail about the Fat Underground in my next post, “The History of Fat Activism!”

• Dr. Lindo Bacon (they/them), PhD

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Creator of the concept of HAES (Health At Every Size).

Dr. Bacon is best known for their paradigm-shifting research and advocacy upending the weight discourse. They have mined their deep academic proficiency, wide-ranging clinical expertise and own personal experience to write two best-selling books, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, and the co-authored Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, or Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight. Both are credited with transforming the weight discourse and inspiring a hopeful new course for the fat liberation movement. Dr. Bacon holds their PhD in physiology, as well as graduate degrees in psychology and exercise metabolism. Dr. Bacon formerly taught at City College of San Francisco, in the Health Education, Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Biology Departments. A professor and researcher, for almost two decades Dr. Bacon has taught courses in social justice, health, weight and nutrition; they have also conducted federally funded studies on health and weight and published in top scientific journals. Their research has been supported by grants from the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. A truly great pioneer in medical health research!

https://lindobacon.com/ | HAES | IG

• Aubrey Gordon, a.k.a. Your Fat Friend (she/her)

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Aubrey Gordon writes about the social realities of life as a very fat person, previously publishing anonymously as Your Fat Friend. She is the author of What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Lit Hub, Vox, Gay Mag, and has been covered in outlets around the world. She also hosts the podcast Maintenance Phase, in which she and cohost Michael Hobbes debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends. Her articles are incredibly heartfelt and enlightening. You can read all of them at www.yourfatfriend.com !!

@ yrfatfriend on IG & Twitter

• Sabrina Strings (she/her), PhD

Sabrina Strings is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, which exposes fatphobia’s roots in anti-blackness. Strings contributed an opinion story to The New York Times titled “It’s Not Obesity. It’s Slavery.” With Lindo Bacon (creator of HAES), she coauthored “The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity,” published in Scientific American. Strings has a BA in psychology and an MA and PHd in sociology. This book is #1 on my to-read list!!

https://www.sabrinastrings.com

• Hannah Fuhlendorf (she/her), MA LPCC NCC

Hannah is a highly educated and experienced counselor whose work focuses on self acceptance, eliminating the effects of internalized oppression, and practicing through a HAES lens. She is a fat liberationist who puts out educational videos daily. Hannah is also married to a healthcare professional, and the two of them are working toward making the medical field more accessible to fat people in their local community, and offering education on how to be fat allies. I really admire Hannah and the work that she does!

@ hannahtalksbodies on IG and TikTok

• Tracy Cox (she/her)

Tracy is an award-winning performer and artist, who co-created the web series “Angry Fat People” with Matthew Anchel, which takes a pop culture approach on serious issues faced by fat performers. She has been interviewed by the New York Times on fat politics and accessibility, and currently has a huge following on IG where she unpacks fat performance, fashion, and politics. You may know her as the creator of the ‘fat vanity’ trend on TikTok!

@ sparklejams on IG & TikTok

• Da’Shaun L. Harrison (they/them)

Da’Shaun is a non-binary abolitionist, community organizer, and writer. They are currently a managing editor and columnist at Wear Your Voice Magazine. They travel throughout the United States and abroad to speak at conferences, colleges, and lead workshops focused on Blackness, queerness, gender, class, religion, (dis)abilities, fatness, and the intersection at which they all meet. Da’Shaun is the author of the book Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, which is expected to be published in July 2021. They have an incredibly enlightening social media presence as well!!

@ dashaunlh on IG and Twitter

• Lauren Buchness (she/her)

Lauren Buchness is one of my favorite artists. She’s a contemporary artist and fat activist based in Tucson, Arizona. By combining painting & performance, she aims to question Western standards of beauty and create conversations that alter preconceived notions about the fat body. Go check out her gorgeous work!!

@ ladybuchness on IG and TikTok

If you’re interested in learning about diet culture and intuitive eating, check out

Shana Minei Spence (she/her), MS RDN CDN

Shana is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who opposes food restriction and encourages intuitive eating! She spreads food positive daily messages on her platform. She used to work in fashion, but she left after being dissatisfied with the industry and went back to school to become involved in food policy and public health. She offers counseling on a HAES approach. I have much respect for Shana!

@ thenutritiontea on IG

And right here on tumblr (who was my personal introduction to fat lib) -

@ bigfatscience !!!

An anonymous fat liberationist. They share so many great resources, diving head-first into the scientific research of weight and health, they’ve found that the relation between the two is extremely complex. They tackle the biases of research in a system that profits off of fatphobia, and they offer a fat positive perspective based on scientific studies. Their blog serves as an easily accessible resource for fat folx and fat activists who want to learn about fat positive science to support their own personal interests/activism. Thank you for your work, bigfatscience!! (if you have questions for them, you will have a greater chance of getting a response with anon off!)

• Sonalee Rashatwar (she/they), LCSW MEd

Sonalee is an award-winning clinical social worker, sex therapist, and grassroots organizer. They’re a superfat queer bisexual non-binary therapist and co-owner of Radical Therapy Center. Sonalee is specialized in treating sexual trauma, internalized fatphobia, immigrant kid guilt, and South Asian family systems, while offering fat positive sexual healthcare. Go, Sonalee!!

@ thefatsextherapist on IG

• Fat Rose (org)

Fat Rose organizes fat people, building a more radical fat liberation movement in strong relationship with other social movements, such as anti-fascism, anti-ableism, and anti-racism. Check them out on Facebook!

fatrose.org

Honorable IG mentions: (Some anti diet culture specific blogs in here, as well)

@fatangryblackgirl @msgigggles @thefatphobiaslayer @bodyimagewithbri @saucyewest @fatpositivetherapy @fatlippodcast @chairbreaker

BOOKS

And here’s an amazing list of fat-positive book recommendations from HannahTalksBodies!

Science & Health:

Health at Every Size by Lindo Bacon PhD

Body Respect by Lindo Bacon PhD and Lucy Aphramor PhD, RD

Secrets from the Eating Lab by Traci Mann PhD

Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison MPH, RD

Fat Liberation:

Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings PhD

Fat Activism by Dr. Charlotte Cooper

Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver

The Fat Studies Reader by Esther Rothblum (Editor) and Sondra Solovay (Editor)

Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell

Self Acceptance:

The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

Things No One will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker

Eating in the Light of the Moon by Anita Johnson PhD

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagan

You have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share this list of resources!

Image descriptions below.

1. [ID: A black and white photo of Bill Fabrey, a straight-sized, balding white man with thick black glasses wearing a suit and tie, standing at a poduim in front of a sign that reads, “NAAFA”. Beside the image is another photo of Fabrey, from his left side.]

2. [ID: A black and white photo of seven fat, female and gender non-conforming members of The Fat Underground, performing a recital.]

3. [ID: The cover of Sabrina Strings’ book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. On the cover is an illustration of four upper-class white people in fancy colonial period clothing showing shock and disgust at a Black woman’s exposed body. Beside the book cover is a photo of Sabrina Strings, a straight-sized Black woman with dark brown curly hair wearing a blouse.]

4. [ID: Hannah Fulhendorf, a fat, white woman with straight hair dyed blue, wearing a black tank top and holding her shoulder while smiling brightly and looking into the camera.]

5. [ID: An artistic picture of Tracy Cox, a fat, white woman with long, straight brown hair, laying topless on a bed of flowers. There are flower petals placed strategically in her hair on her skin, and along her lower eyelid. Beside that image, is an image of the album cover for Angry Fat People, picturing two angry faces made out of white paper against a grey background. In the top left corner, black, bolded text that reads “AFP” and “FAT LIBERATION”.]

6. [ID: Da’Shaun L. Harrison, a fat, non-binary Black person with a beard, glasses, and long dreadlocks, wearing a shirt that reads, “TO BE VISIBLY QUEER IS TO CHOOSE YOUR HAPPINESS OVER YOUR SAFETY. -DA’SHAUN HARRISON” against a natural backdrop of autumn leaves.]

7. [ID: A watercolor painting by Lauren Buchness of a white and tattooed fat body, hands caressing abstract rolls of fat with wild blueberries and grapefruit between folds. Beside it is another Buchness watercolor painting of Black hands with long sharp nails, caressing the midsection of a fat Black body, with purple crystals growing out of the skin.]

8. [ID: Shana Minei Spence, a straight-sized, Black woman smiling with bright pink lipstick and her long wavy hair pulled back, wearing a floral pattern shirt and jean shorts. She is holding small marquee that reads, “BE CAREFUL OF WELLNESS COMPANIES THAT SAY THEY’RE PROMOTING HEALTH YET ARE STILL ONLY TRYING TO GET YOUR BODY SMALLER” and a heart symbol.]

9. [ID: Sonalee Rashatwar, a superfat, South Asian non-binary person with short black hair, wearing a long floral dress, standing in front of large glowing text that reads, “BIG GIRL ENERGY” against a coarse-textured wall.]

10. [ID: A circular logo with a red fist in the center, with text surrounding it that reads, “FATTIES AGAINST FASCISM” with roses separating the word “RESIST”. Beside it is another image, of eleven fat and superfat activists, standing and sitting on mobility scooters, holding fists and middle fingers in the air, wearing T-shirts and holding banners that both read, “FATTIES AGAINST FASCISM”. In front of the group is a large cardboard sign that spells the acronym “F.A.B.” which stands for “Fat Antifascist Brigade”.]

#fat activists #people #fat liberation #fat activism #fat positivity #resources #anti diet culture #anti-diet #anti-fatphobia #anti-racism #haes #masterpost

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