Interesting article from the Stanford Alumni Magazine.


Living Large
Marilyn Wann is fat. Got a problem with that?
BY nina schuyler
PHOTOGRAPHY BY barbara ries


it’s sunday morning at the swimming pool at Albany (Calif.) High School, and 15 large women are swimming laps, flutter-kicking with boards or dragging white foam barbells through the water. In the center is Marilyn Wann, bending at the waist and crunching her body in half to work her abdomen. When she climbs out a few minutes later, Wann doesn’t grab a beach towel to conceal her 5-foot-4-inch, 270-pound frame. Instead, she boldly displays her purple, white and yellow flowered two-piece suit, her midriff widely exposed, and smiles with an enviable, breezy confidence.

This weekly swim isn’t just about exercise and having fun. It’s also a political act.

“In a world that says, ‘We don’t want to look at you because you’re ugly,’ I’m saying, ‘I’m here, and I’m going to be physical and dress up in a way I think is fabulous,’ or what I call ‘flabulous,’” says Wann, ’88, MA ’89. Creator of the Fat!So? hot-pink ’zine, website and book, she is masterful at creating funny, irreverent ways to wake people up to their assumptions about weight. In her book, published by Ten Speed Press in 1998, she urges readers to say to others, “You’re looking good. Are you getting fat?”

Although the witty and articulate Wann earns her living as a writer and a public speaker, it’s her body that does a lot of the talking. She performs with the Bod Squad, a group of rotund cheerleaders who show up at public events to promote the notion that fat is beautiful. She used to belong to the Padded Lilies, a team of synchronized swimmers that appeared on the Tonight Show in 2000. “People who see these events take away a spirit of fun fat rebelliousness,” she says, “unless they have a toothache.”


ON THE MOVE: Wann’s weekly workouts include Jazzercise and a large-women’s swimming class. With the Bod Squad (below right), she performs at public events to promote the idea that fat is beautiful.


On a more serious note, Wann says her work builds upon the legacy of civil rights movements challenging racism, sexism and homophobia. She worked to pass a landmark antidiscrimination ordinance regarding height and weight in San Francisco, and she regularly speaks to high school and college students about body image.

“The closet for a fat person is an unlived life, full of self-hatred,” says Wann. She goes on to list the stereotypes associated with fatness: stupid, lazy, smelly, undisciplined, gluttonous, sexually voracious, sexually ineligible, freakishly nonhuman. “These sound familiar. They are the negative attributes that every oppressed people has been labeled with,” she says. “They make it okay to mistreat people, and fat people are the last acceptable targets of discrimination.”

Such prejudicial treatment is fairly well documented. Two years ago in the journal Obesity Research, researchers reviewed several dozen studies on discrimination and obesity and concluded that fat people suffer from bias in the workplace, at school and by health care professionals. But Wann finds greater resistance when she takes a position contrary to medical doctrine: that a person can be fat and fit.


EVERY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASS HAS ONE, and Wann was it. The fat kid. Her mother, who also is fat, outfitted Wann in caftans made from colorful sheets. (“Please understand, my mother was not being intentionally cruel,” she writes in her book. “It was the seventies.”) Wann was shy, acutely aware she didn’t conform to the ideal body norm and, inevitably, called names like “One-Ton,” “Henrietta Hippo” or “Fatso.” She compensated as best she could by being thoughtful, funny and a very good student. “Growing up, I felt there were the people who got to do things, and then there was me,” she says.

That sense continued at Stanford, where Wann earned her undergraduate degree in linguistics with a focus on literature and a master’s in modern thought and literature. Then 165 to 175 pounds, she remembers only a half-dozen people on campus who looked like her. “I always joked I was Stanford’s token nonjogger. ”

Instead, it was her writing that she honed. As a freshman, Wann scribed for the Stanford Daily a series of George Plimpton-style features (adventures of a Domino’s delivery person; her stint rowing crew), then served as the columnist for “Bug Me,” answering readers’ questions. She later wrote a humor column, “Wannderings.” (When she secured her Fat!So? book deal in 1997, she was intimidated by all the text required until she thought of it as a series of humor columns.) Wann’s activism remained dormant at Stanford; then-president Donald Kennedy’s messages to “question authority” and “make a difference” flew right by her.

‘Growing up, I felt there were the people who got to do things, and then there was me.’

That all changed on one really bad day about five years after graduation. First, her boyfriend said he was too embarrassed to introduce her to his friends because she was fat. Then, Blue Cross of California refused to give her health insurance because of her weight (at 27, the freelance journalist was roughly 245 pounds). “I was stunned, hurt, outraged,” she writes in her book.

Slowly, she began to peel away the layers of cultural learning surrounding fat. She decided if a guy couldn’t accept her weight, he couldn’t date her. As for Blue Cross’s label of “morbid obesity,” it wasn’t a diagnosis, but discrimination. She decided to speak up, producing her sassy, hard-to-overlook ’zine, which instantly took off, showing up on Oprah and MTV and in USA Today, the Washington Post and Glamour.

Wann’s metamorphosis had begun. She became a cheerleader, a synchronized swimmer and a hip-hop dance performer. She appeared on TV news shows with the title “fat rebel” under her name. “I’m not interested in people accepting my fat, but in fat people’s rights,” she says. And now she has joined a small but growing number of advocates and researchers who are taking on the medical establishment’s pervasive message that fat kills.

THERE ARE TWO CAMPS IN THE DEBATE about weight and health. The traditional medical stance, shared by many policy-makers, is that being overweight itself is a major health problem, increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and sleep apnea. In the other camp, the health culprit is not fat per se, but a sedentary lifestyle and a poor diet.

Camp One’s message is becoming louder as Americans get heavier. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in January that the percentage of adults who are obese increased from 19.8 in 2000 to 20.9 in 2001. (Many researchers categorize people as “overweight” or “obese” using the body-mass index, a calculation that relates weight to height.) That same month, researchers writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that obesity cuts between five and 20 years, depending on race and sex, from the lives of people in their 20s. And in April, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated that 14 percent of deaths from cancer in U.S. men and 20 percent in women are attributable to increased body mass.

The establishment’s answer? Lose weight.

“If you are overweight or obese and lose 10 percent of your body weight, your risk of developing health problems diminishes substantially,” says Virginia physician Denise Bruner, board chair of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians.


Not so fast, say those in Camp Two. Many obesity studies show only correlation, not causation. In other words, they demonstrate that people at higher weights have greater incidences of certain health problems; the researchers or others then attribute the increased health risk to the increased weight.

Wann is quick to point out that few obesity studies consider the subjects’ diet and exercise habits. She admires the work of Steven N. Blair, director of research at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. In a 1999 study, Blair and his colleagues found that fit men, whether lean, normal or obese, had similar death rates over an eight-year period. “Lean men in our study had increased longevity only if they were physically fit; furthermore, obese men who were fit did not have elevated mortality,” wrote the researchers. The lesson, says Wann, is that “anyone who walks, swims, rides a bike, dances on a regular basis is doing a huge benefit for their health, even if they don’t lose weight.”

Camp Two also asserts that doctors haven’t necessarily explained why people are fat or whether they can do anything to change their weight permanently.

“People’s weight is a combination of genetics and living in an environment that now tempts you with food at every turn,” says Gail Woodward-Lopez, a nutritionist and health educator who serves as associate director of the Center for Weight and Health at UC-Berkeley. “It doesn’t help that we are discouraged from being physically active because of time, safety and cost constraints.”

Wann concurs that genetics plays a significant role. She cites a study showing a weight difference of only 10 percent between identical twins raised in different environments (and, anecdotally, notes that she inherited her mother’s fat figure). “So the best you can do is change to healthy habits,” she says, “and whether you gain or lose weight is beside the point.”

She certainly walks the walk (and swims the swim). Wann completes four to five hour-long workouts a week, and can carry on a conversation immediately afterward. She eats primarily vegetarian fare (in her book, she recommends “that one meal you eat each day is stuff that you have to Wash & Chop™”). And she insists she’s healthy by standard medical measurements: her blood pressure is 110 over 70; her blood sugar and cholesterol levels are in the normal range.

But what about someone larger—say, 500 pounds? Could she be fit? “The numbers on a scale are an inaccurate way of predicting health,” says Wann.

Camp One adamantly disagrees. “That 500-pound person is a walking time bomb metabolically,” says Bruner. “The joints are working harder; so is the heart. At the very least, a person that size has sleep apnea, which increases the risk of sudden death because of irregular rhythms of the heart. Fat-rights advocates shouldn’t minimize the fact that obese people die prematurely.”

William L. Haskell’s work may help resolve the feud. A professor emeritus of medicine who works at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Haskell is reviewing 12 studies conducted at research clinics to determine the relative roles of fitness and fatness in the development of heart disease and diabetes. While his report isn’t complete, Haskell has drawn some preliminary conclusions. “When I look at the data, the people with the best long-term health outcomes are reasonably lean and engage in regular physical activity,” he says. “But if you have trouble losing weight, don’t give up on physical activity, because being active and overweight is better than being overweight and inactive. Still better, though, is being active and not overweight at all.”

But, Wann argues, that may not be possible—or even desirable—for everyone. She points to the phenomenon of the yo-yo dieter, citing studies indicating that 95 percent to 98 percent of those who shed pounds gain them back within five years. Her book contains a timeline showing the health risks of popular diet drugs from the last 100 years.

Wann has dieted only once in her life, a week of eating white rice. She became so irritable she decided it was no way for an intelligent human being to live. “In my political worldview, the intention of eating to produce weight loss is counterproductive and does more harm than good,” she says. While she denounces dieting, she advocates healthy eating. “Honoring one’s own appetite, not denying the body’s reality, with food that is nourishing—now that is health-enhancing.”

A 24 HOUR FITNESS BILLBOARD advertisement featuring a space alien hovered above the tall buildings in downtown San Francisco: “When they come, they’ll eat the fat ones first.” Angry about the ad, Wann sent out e-mails to rally the fat community. To the song “The Way You Make Me Feel,” about two dozen women paraded in front of the fitness club on Van Ness, waving signs that read, “Eat Me!”

‘People who see these events take away a spirit of fun fat rebelliousness, unless they have a toothache.’

Press coverage of the 1999 event caught the attention of the San Francisco board of supervisors, which called for hearings by the city’s human rights commission. In May 2000, the supervisors adopted a height/weight antidiscrimination ordinance, joining three other jurisdictions: Michigan; Santa Cruz, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. “This was a huge victory,” says Wann. “We had people testifying that at job interviews, they were told they were highly qualified but the company didn’t want fat people working for it. We are still at that early stage where people think it’s okay to say things like that. We are pre-Stonewall,” she says, referring to the 1969 Greenwich Village riots often considered the beginning of the gay rights movement.

Wann frequently invokes the language of civil rights movements, urging fat people to “come out” and to reclaim the word “fat” (as has been done with “queer”) so no one can use it against them ever again. But how much is size like sexual identity? Like race? Leaders in the African-American community have objected to Wann’s use of civil rights language, complaining that while race is immutable, weight is not. She counters that religion is not immutable, and yet it is protected from discrimination. As for the validity of her “coming out” analogy, “Is it a secret that I’m fat?” she queries. “No. But for most of my life, I’d been living in a kind of closet—never wearing sleeveless or revealing clothes, never trying out for cheerleader.”

In one of the first cases under San Francisco’s ordinance, a friend of Wann’s, 240-pound Jennifer Portnick, filed a complaint in September 2001 against Jazzercise Inc., which refused to sell her an instructor franchise until she complied with the company’s “fit appearance” requirement. Jazzercise capitulated the following April, acknowledging, “Recent studies document that it may be possible for people of varying weights to be fit. Jazzercise has determined that the value of ‘fit appearance’ as a standard is debatable.”

In celebration and to commemorate International No Diet Day, the fat community partied at Justin Herman Plaza. Members of the Bod Squad, Wann included, grabbed their hot-pink and silver pom-poms and cheered, “Three-five-seven-nine, love your body, it’s just fine.” Plus, “Two-four-six-eight, we do not regurgitate.”

Nearly a year later, as the room thumps with Sir MixaLot’s “Baby Got Back” (“I like big butts and I can not lie”), Portnick stands on a stage in the basement of the Miraloma Community Church. Wann is in her usual front-row spot, wearing form-fitting black exercise pants and a fuchsia and orange sports bra. When the music switches to “Set Me Free,” Wann and the others sing and clap, waving their arms overhead, traveling right and left, then punching the air. There isn’t any mention of “no pain, no gain” or “working till you drop”; this is about having fun, about movement, about being fit at any size.

The students are sitting in their chairs spellbound. Wann has just announced, ‘I’m so excited to be here to talk to you about fat!’

THAT’S ONE OF THE MESSAGES Wann happily and frequently takes into the classroom. It’s late afternoon on a Wednesday at City College of San Francisco, and the halls are crowded with noisy students. The 24 students in Sex and Gender in American Society entered Room 267 slack-faced and yawning, but now they are sitting up in their chairs spellbound and slightly shocked. Wann has just announced, “I’m so excited to be here to talk to you about fat!”

Wann has been speaking to high school and college students for almost a decade, ever since she read about several fat teens who committed suicide because they were tired of the teasing. It hit too close to home. “I felt I had something that might stop that from happening again,” Wann says.

At the City College class, she writes “fat” on the chalkboard, draws a thick line beside it, then writes “thin.” The students call out stereotypes associated with the two adjectives. “Which side of the line would you rather be on?” she asks. The choice is obvious. Thin means smart, sexy, in control, fashionable, successful. And fat? Well, the opposite. Wann’s point is apparent, too: we’ve made weight a moral and character issue. “I’m interested in erasing that line,” she says.

Afterward, a young man comes up to her, tells her he’s never thought of these things before and thanks her for coming. Wann beams. She can’t erase fat prejudice single-handedly, but comments like those suggest she’s made a start.

Reaching the next generation has become particularly important to Wann. She’s planning a book for teenagers, tentatively titled “Fat!So? Rebel Handbook for Teens,” because it’s something she wishes she’d had when she was growing up. And she’s pondering a fat camp for kids—not for losing weight, but for being flabulous. It’s a fitting next chapter in the story of a fat kid who stopped feeling bad about herself and learned to love her size. “Who knew,” Wann muses, “that a shy little fat girl in a cul-de-sac could actually get attention and have people change their lives?”


NINA SCHUYLER, ’86, is a freelance writer in San Francisco.

Since I posted this article, I thought I'd be the first to give my reaction to it. I am all in favor of everything Marilyn Wann is doing to fight discrimination against fat people. We all know the discrimination exists and it should not be any more acceptable than discrimination against any other group. We should be judged on who we are, not what we look like.

On the other hand, I disagree that fat is not a health issue. I was able to be fat, fit, and healthy at Marilyn's age. As I got older (I am now 45), and gained even more weight, my weight caught up with me. My blood pressure went up, I ceased to be able to do land-based exercise and could only do water-based exercise, my back hurt all the time, etc. This is not because I was not active -- I have always been active (even at my highest weight I swam laps) -- it is because I was too heavy.

I don't think we have to be skinny to be healthy. Note that my posted goal weight is 175 (I'm 5'9" tall), not 135, but I do think that the combination of age and too much excess weight is deadly. While, at my current age, I am actually able to do much of what I want to do at my current weight, I think that will change as I get older or if I develop any health conditions (regardless of whether they are related to my weight). Therefore, I know I need to get down to a lower weight.

I agree with you, Liz. My doctor once said, "I have old patients, and I have fat patients, but I don't have any old, fat patients."

But yes, it's great that she's trying to increase other people's acceptance of us, and better yet to increase our own self-confidence. The "self-hate" problem is real, and huge. I'm always giving myself pep-talks, and I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that if only I could be more comfortable in my own skin, no matter what I weigh or look like, life would be even better.

This WOL helps. We all have to live with our genetics, and some of us will never be skinny, but we all need to be the best we can be. Just knowing that we're DOING something for ourselves is a real confidence-booster.

Thanks for the article.

<deep breath> I love body acceptance. Really I do. But when you try to equate fat discrimination with racial discrimination...I have to take a stand. Please. For Pete's sake. I am using my life to be honest with myself. At 304 pounds I was not healthy. At 247 pounds I am still not healthy. I think we do a great diservice to ourselves and others when we promote being "fat" is okay. Its about being healthy and not just about aesthetics.

I read in the article where the writer said she had been on one diet in her life a week of eating white rice (snort).

Maybe its true. Maybe there are some people who are happy being fat. Maybe they have no desire to get to a more "acceptable/healthy" body weight. Maybe they like having to circumnavigate around a room full of people and furniture and having to turn sideways so their hips and bootie dont smack other people in the head. <shruggin>. More power to them.

My next post is going to be positive and sunshiny and bright. I PROMISE. Seems I only respond to things negatively. One more issue I have to work out I guess.

Kenny if you are out there please post! You always make me feel positive.

you know there was a good point in there about religion being something people can change because it makes others uncomfortable. . .I remember stories of native Americans being forced to have their hair cut and wear hard shoes, stop speaking their language and worshiping their God all in an effort to civilize. . .make them more like the ideal.

I think seats that are too small for the average 6th grader on airplanes SUCK! Even if you aren't big it makes flying uncomfortable and can lead to death if the flight is long enough (blood clots from sitting so long). . .

I still have smartin' feelings over being made to feel less than by my own mother because I was not a size 3 like her. And back then I was not over weight. . .just not a size 3. So the fact that people are still mean and prejudical over being fat annoys the tar outta me. . .

I have been reclaiming the word fat for years. . .I shop at the 'fat chick shop' and I am an artist and one of my sculpture specialities is my 'naked fat chicks' a primitive goddess with some honkin' nice hair. redawn

When are people going to give their heads a shake? There are nice people who happen to be fat. There are rotten people who happen to be fat. There are, however, no people who are fat and healthy. Fat is a contributor to most of the diseases which plague modern society. We all know that. Fear of change makes people defend an indefensible way of being. Fear of the unknown. Fear of success. Just plain fear. Being obese is a horrible way to live. The human body is not meant to be engulfed in inch upon inch of surplus adipose tissue. That's why our backs ache, our knees crack and our feet swell. Our poor carcasses are hauling around enough blubber for your average healthy baby elephant. This does not make us bad people. It makes us people who need to be brave (with others if we can), take that leap of faith and grab the life we deserve with both hands. Damned hard work? You bet. Worth it?
Hell yes. Having a belly that sits down before I do does not mean I shouldn't pursue my life's ambitions, that I should not go to movies or buy new clothes. It does mean that I should honour the strong, funny, caring person I am. It means I should be true to myself and give myself the greatest gifts of all...one chin, the ability to complete a task without having to rest every twenty minutes and the great joy of being able to hold those whom I love truly close-in body and in spirit. I feel sorry for those who dress like clowns, laugh too loudly and proclaim their joy in obesity. If you can't sit in just one chair, if you can't run in the park holding the hand of a laughing child, if for just one second you miss out on one life experience because you don't fit, can't wear, too small, too tired, too hot...you are not living the life you were intended to live. Whew! Sorry about the rant. In case you hadn't noticed, I hate it when people use the media to absolve themselves of responsibility for their blubber. You can live well or you can be obese. You can't do both. Articles like that are the saddest testement of all to what is wrong with being grossly overweight.

Okay, Wow--- great thread Liz!

While I agree with those of you who say that you can't be obese and healthy... I agree even more strongly with what the article was truly about (as I read it) and that is that it is time for the world to stop being prejudice against the overweight.

I applaud the author for the work that she is doing... for going into the high schools and the colleges and making those near sighted children grow up and think about things in a different light. We are the only group left in America that it is still politically correct to have a prejudice against. Am I happy being heavy?? ABSOLUTELY NOT ... never have been, never will be. Have I, until recently, bought into the government telling us that we are just lazy or stupid or both when a low-fat, high-carb diet didn't work... Yes - I bought into the entire political hogwash, asking every single day WHY... Why do I keep failing like this?? I'm not lazy and I'm sure as H not stupid...so why can't I do this right?

What this woman does, although there are obviously emotional and/or psychological issues that she isn't dealing with for herself, is helping to make this world have more acceptance to a person of higher weight. Wouldn't it be great if we could fight this and assure that there would never be another child grow up feeling completely ridiculed for a chemical imbalance that they haven't learned how to correct? There shouldn't be airplane seats, grandstand seats or turnstiles that a "normal" man can't even fit into or through.... there shouldn't be doctors who sit there telling their patients that they just need to get off the couch and they'd lose the weight... this world has made such great strides on acceptance of so many different things.... it is time that this becomes one of them.

Sorry for the soapbox.... like I said -- great thread Liz! thanks for the article


Patty

Talk about soapboxes. Wow! Did I ever get up on mine. Patty, reading your post made me see some issues I obviously haven't dealt with and also made me aware of my kneejerk reaction to this kind of thing. Please don't think I am in favour of the discrimination the obese endure but I also fear "acceptance" may go hand-in-hand with taking the easy way out and living with the status quo. The world will never re-engineer itself to make "living large" a comfortable existance and I think stupid people will always find something to be cruel about if they choose. I suppose, as an obese person, I should embrace the concept of huge airplane seats and turn styles but I know in my heart I have to battle my way to a "normal" size not because other people say so but because it is the right thing to do for my body and myself. What others think is completely beside the point. That is the way it must be for all of us-tougher than losing weight, that's for sure. It can't be taught. This is such a great forum for information. I just wanted to make sure you didn't misunderstand my post. Take care, Hope1

One thing I find sad in this article is that Marilyn Wann probably has a problem metabolizing carbohydrates and has no clue that may be the source of her fat. The pictures didn't come through when I cut and pasted the article, but it was clear in the pictures that she is carrying much of her fat around the middle -- a sign of Syndrome X and potentially pre-diabetes. She sees the fat as hereditary -- undoubtedly it is and her mother had the same problem. In the article, she is quoted as talking about the importance of healthy eating, but she seems to see healthy eating in terms of the lowfat/vegetarian paradigm.

Until a year ago, when I read an article in the New York Times about low carb eating, I also thought that my fat was simply genetic and I could do nothing about it so I may as well accept it. I was eating relatively healthfully from a lowfat perspective (lots of fruit, vegetables, bread, pasta, rice, etc.), and exercising, but I kept gaining weight and didn't understand why. Now that I understand why I couldn't control my weight, I am much happier losing it than accepting it.

You know, everyone is a victim. Part of our modern day culture I guess. Me? I'm fat. No doubt about it. If got any larger I would have my own zip code. Somehow I have to believe it is wishful thinking to enjoy being morbidly obese. Flaunting your flab in public in order to make a statement only demeans the individual (IMHO). That is not to say that a fat person should not enjoy life. But I, for one, hate not being able to put the tray table down on an airplane. Getting stuck at the table in a restaurant is mortifying. I guess the temptation to give up and "let fat" is there. I have to believe that we post here just because we are not that type of person.

well acceptance by society is a double edge sword. . .the example that comes to mind is teen pregnancy/single parenthood . . .the stigma of societies disapproval has been removed or at least shifted. . .but it an even bigger problem/issue now. . .but those mother's and children don't deserve to be ostrasized the rest of their lives. . .a no win. . .so with acceptance of obesity as a human condition rather than a human choice. Might never encourage weight loss. . .but then honesty with regards to what works and what doesn't might go far in both obesity and teen pregnancy. redawn

I have actually read her book, Fat!So? and it was funny, enlightening and a good read. I HATE people that get in your business because they think they "know" fat is bad and they are only getting on your case "for health reasons" PULLLEZZZZZ! Its just another way to disguise fat BIGOTS! Has anyone checked out my GOAL weight? 250. Yup thats right.
There are lots of women in this forum that would rather jump off a cliff than ever weigh 250 in the first place. Now I will still be considered FAT,
UNHEALTHY, UNATTRACTIVE and society will STILL not let me fit in but I say mind your own damn business! I started out at 500 pounds, my biggest I have ever been. My lowest weight? Around 190 as an adult and the struggle I had to stay there was horrible. The healthiest I ever was, great blood sugar levels, blood pressure, active and healthy was at 250.
My mom who was larger but not nearly as large as me died of breast cancer. Well let me tell you after 6 years of taking her to the doctor I
saw plenty of skinny people that were sickly also. I have a cousin who is
125 pounds soaking wet and he has a lovely case of raging diabetes.

While folks, I am not saying its healthy to be 500 pounds and I am indeed very happy with the low carb lifestyle and moderate exercise and slowly working to my goal. Its not for looks, my husband likes what he sees at any size, my kids accept me at any size and I am not a weirdo that stares in the mirror and has honestly never hated myself as some people do. I am doing it strictly for health reasons. I'm type 2 diabetic and the low carb eating and exercise do wonders for me and the weight goal.

I defend the website and her book in the fact that its not anyones place to open thier yaps and SAVE THE WHALES ok??? I had a lady in the store the other day who barely knows me corner me in the book section and tell me all about Atkins because she was so concerned. What a crock of s--t! I told her I am already on Atkins thank you, I appreciated her huge intrest in me and I hoped my weight had not been keeping her up at night. Then politly pointed out another fat person and told her to
"go save that one"
Fat people are not stupid, they know they are fat, I'm sure we are all aware of the risks and dangers, illness etc. and get harped on constantly by the media, happy helpers on the street, the occasional
rude shout or comment and our doctors. Its something you deal with every single day in and day out.
I was lucky enough to be raised with parents and brothers that loved me unconditional. There used to be a commercial on TV for the handicapped at the end the gentleman said "If someone says you don't fit in, tell them to build a bigger door" how true.
Its a politically correct world out there and you can't make fun of homosexuals (please no comments, my bestfriend of 16 years is gay, my little brother was gay) ethnic jokes, handicap jokes and everything is white washed clean and friendly in the media but the last vestige of
humans to act like nasty children is to lash out, or pretend to "worry"
about those poor fat people.
I'm proud of my weight dropping off, of feeling better, of my fantastic blood pressure and slashing my lipid levels in half but I do it for me and not anyone else.
If someone gets to that point in their lives they feel they are ready to do it and are able gather the backbone it takes for a super sized person to take charge of thier health then God Bless them and God speed!
I give them the biggest thumbs up and pat on the back. For the ones that haven't sunk to such a health crisis or low that they do get low carbing then so be it. Love them, let them find thier way, if its a loved one or friend do NOT preach or scowl while they eat that pizza. Maybe
"forget" your copy of Atkins on the coffee table and leave it there.
You would have to live in a cave not to have heard of the benefits of low carbing. Let them be, I think the book is intresting enough for anyone to pick up out of curiosity and hard to put down once you start.
Teach by example, not opening your yap and helping someone to put up a wall. Prepare the meals in your house, low carb! Invite that friend over and cook them a delicious low carb meal. SHOW them, it works. My husband who is very slender and fit found out he had high cholesterol etc and didn't want to go on meds. Well I didn't say a word, I just kept cooking low carb and he started requesting low carb lunches for work etc. and he likes it. Its done him wonders and I didn't say anything, left my Atkins in the bathroom and he started reading and couldn't put it down! My bestfriend just watches me when we go out to eat and I again don't say anything about it unless he brings it up and by example he is trying to low carb.
If those things don't work? Well my grandma always told me "it will all come out in the wash" meaning don't stress it, things happen as they happen.
To sum up all of this I think the idea behind Fat!So? is to love yourself
no matter what and DO NOT let others push you down so they can lift themselves up. With eating disorders at an alarming rate among teens
I think this message is healthy no matter what your size.
I'll still be considered fat at 250 when I reach my goal but I can assure you I will be be quite mega healthy:-)
Oh and one more thing, this goal was discussed with my wonderful Doctor who told me "250 might not be right for other people but it will be right for you" :-)

*climbing off my soapbox* take my ramblings any which way. Tell your kids life would be boring if we all looked alike, love yourself no matter what and YES be of good health and happy low carbing.

Nibby

Well. I guess there is nothing more to say after that last post. Well wait I do have something to say. You said that fat people know they are fat. Ok....but most truly morbidly obese people do not have full length mirrors. I went for five years without ever "Really" looking in the mirror I would get dressed stand in the bathroom and just see myself from the neck up in my medicine chest mirror.

I weighed 304 pounds. "Well meaning" people said nothing to be because they were afraid of "hurting my feelings". I guess I should be happy that these well intentioned non-busy bodies were just quietly waiting for me to drop dead due to an obesity related illnesses. I am an Atkins convert and I am going to shout it from the roof tops. I dont plan to beat people over the head with the book..but I owe it to everyone out there to quietly say look what its done for me.

Nibby, bless you!

Size acceptance has been essential is allowing me to survive and thrive. I surely wouldn't be here (alive, low carbing, at this weight instead of much higher, you name it) without it.

I'd never consider myself a victim of my weight any more than I would my height. Now, occasionally, I've been 'victimized' by society, but that's by no means unusual or unique to fat folks only. My size is a combination of nature and nurture ... like the rest of me. It wasn't just carbs, or years of yo-yo dieting, or heredity, or abuse, or diet pills in grade school ... it was ALL those things plus some.

It's hard for me to read some of the posts here in the low carb forums ... when fat people reject the core ideas behind fat acceptance, it feels to me like self hate with implied hatred of other fat people.

I've just been too psychologically tuckered out to give this issue the attention it needed ... so I was thrilled to read your post.

P.S. - I see Marilyn chose not to wear her pink bikini thong for the interview, pity. She helped me pick out my much more demure two piece swimsuit a few years back. And yes, she is Flabulous!

Hi Monika,

It was refreshing to read your reply to the Fat?So! thread. Sometimes I feel my opinions on things here are VERY unpopular. I feel like you in that sometimes fat bigots ARE fat!
I usually get 1 of 2 responses when encountering a fat woman in pubic.
Either she smiles because she recognizes a fellow "sister" or she quickly averts her eyes or is down right rude. Especially if I am the one that is fatter.
Its funny isn't it?
I think the lady that posted right after me missed my point all together.
People expect everyone else to solve thier problems.
I also get metally drained by some of the posts here. Lots of great ones but seems as many demeaning ones and lots and lots of self-hatred and loosing wieght for the wrong reasons.
Health first and all the cool things are just icing on the low carb cake:-)
Hang in there and stay strong from one fat sister to another.

Nibby