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#FIGHTFORINCLUSIVITY is a social media campaign created by plus model, fat fashion influencer and fat activist, Saucye West to challenge plus size consumers to take their power back. As Saucye always says, “The consumer is the real influencer.” This is a call to action for consumers not to shop with brands retailers and designers that do not offer clothing past a size 3x/4x and to support brands and indie designers that are truly inclusive.
Read MoreWelcome to FATT Chat! The acronym stands for Fat Acceptance Tales & Techniques and underlines the very intention for this series. The hope is to create fat visibility with first-person fat liberation stories, as well as foster fat acceptance in others by sharing fat positive resources and strategies. In FATT Chat, you’ll find interviews with NAAFA members and non-members alike who will share their personal stories of fat acceptance and the real life techniques that have and continue to help them in their own lives. You’ll also find all resources discussed in an easy-access list at the end of each interview.
With that, please enjoy this FATT Chat featuring Vanessa Chica!
Read MoreWelcome to FATT Chat! The acronym stands for Fat Acceptance Tales & Techniques and underlines the very intention for this series. My hope is to create fat visibility with first-person fat liberation stories, as well as foster fat acceptance in others by sharing fat positive resources and strategies. In FATT Chat, you’ll find interviews with NAAFA members and non-members alike who will share their personal stories of fat acceptance and the real life techniques that have and continue to help them in their own lives. You’ll also find all resources discussed in an easy-access list at the end of each interview.
With that, please enjoy this FATT Chat featuring Trevor Kezon!
Read MoreThough it comes with difficulties, being fat and trans is not a life sentence of misery. In a lot of ways, being trans has helped me to accept my fatness, and being fat has helped me to accept my transness. I feel lucky to have the perspective I do have, and to have access to the community that I do. I love to talk to other fat, queer people; there is a shared understanding and connection that I have found to be almost instantaneous and universal. I am learning to love and accept my body for its fat, queer, trans self, and to allow my fatness to be something I use to enhance my preferred gender performance.
Read MoreThe first time I heard the term “cisgender” was at a diversity training for educators in the early 2000s. A well-known speaker used the word in a way that assumed everyone in the room knew what it meant. We should have, but the obvious discomfort in the room showed that many of us didn't. I raised my hand. “You used a word I don't know there,” I said. “What does it mean?”
I don’t remember the exact words the speaker used, but he basically explained that someone cisgender is a person whose gender “matches” their sex. I knew the concept, just not the word. A lot of people are raised with the idea that the words ”gender” and “sex” mean the same thing. I learned it that way, and I have no doubt many of you did, too, whether you are cisgender, transgender and/or nonbinary. But, those words don’t actually mean the same thing. Sex relates to bodies and physiology; gender relates to identity and expression.
Read MorePride is an important part of June, and pronouns are an important part of pride. And -- spoiler alert -- using the correct pronouns for people is important all year. Many transgender people and allies in the NAAFA community have experience with this, and we’d love it if you could like, comment on and share this post. For those of you who are newer, here are some pointers.
Read MoreAs fat activists and our accomplices continue to imagine a world free from fat antagonism and shaming, discrimination, and inaccessibility through NAAFA’s first ever Fat Liberation Month and beyond, let us also be reminded of the things that can hold us back. We can keep each other accountable, build more effectively, and perhaps move more expeditiously toward liberation. This is what freedom ain’t.
Read MoreAs a digital nomad, fat activist, solo female traveler, and the founder of Fat Girls Traveling I’ve learned a few things about traveling in a bigger body. We face so many barriers in our everyday lives that traveling outside of our comfort zone can seem inaccessible to us. The travel industry doesn’t consider fat bodies so we’ve had to become detectives when creating size-inclusive itineraries. I’ve created a cheat sheet of sorts to get you through the initial stress of traveling while fat, with specific tips for traveling during a global pandemic.
Read MoreOf the many plus-size identities out there, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are some of the least represented larger bodies in plus size media. Writer Laurel Dickman has put together a list of 6 AAPI influencers and activists that you will love to follow!
Read MoreWhat I love about fatphobia...wait, that didn't come out quite right. Let me try again: what I find so deeply compelling about the work of Fat Torah is that the insidious pervasiveness of weight stigma --harming so many different people in so many different ways-- also means that the healing and liberation can start from anywhere.
Read MoreIn this reflection on Fat Liberation, Lindley Ashline talks about how she defines it, how fat liberation differs from body liberation, fat liberation vs body positivity, how she arrived at this point in fat liberation and how it affects her business as a photographer, activist and writer.
Read MoreWeight bias in the healthcare industry has many repercussions, from inaccurate diagnoses to body discrimination. But how can medical professionals prevent weight bias in the industry? Here are some tips!
Read MoreIn this excerpt from Trevor Kezon's original Medium piece, the writer explores the experience of being fat during the pandemic. Find the full article and other writing by Trevor at trevorkezon.medium.com.
Read MoreIn Chinese culture, women are supposed to be small. Not just in stature, but in how we exist in the world. There is this old school idea that Chinese girls should be quiet, small, slender, take up as little space as possible. There is no being loud, there is no taking up space, there is absolutely no being fat. Well. I’m fat. And I always have been. I grew up culturally Chinese American.
Read MoreStop believing the diet industry’s marketing. Stop believing the hype and the lies. We are not all meant to be the same. We come in all sizes; short, tall, thin, fat and everything in between. Learn to accept and celebrate our differences.
Stop buying into the lies that you are not fine just the way you are. Don’t believe the diet and healthcare industry when they tell you they are only concerned about your health. It’s not your health, it's your money that concerns them!
Take the time to consider what you are hungry for and enjoy the best possible food you can. Find an activity that you enjoy, whether it’s walking, swimming, dancing, working out...include that in your life on a regular basis. Focus on the things that matter like family, friends and helping others. The rest will take care of itself!
Read MoreInterview with writer, performer, Caleb Luna. Caleb describes themself as a light-skinned, superfat Latinx non-binary person with short, curly black hair, a gold piercing in their right nostril and gold hoop in their septum. In this interview, they discuss their fat acceptance story, who influenced them as a fat person and as a performer, dancing as a fat person, body diversity, and they share a number of people and organizations that they use to empower them. A resource guide to all referenced during the interview is included at the end of the transcript.
Read MoreIn December 2020, Dr. Lily O’Hara had the great pleasure of presenting a webinar to medical students at California Northstate University (CNSU) on fat phobia in medicine. In the webinar, she discussed concepts related to weight-based oppression, and how fat people and people with larger bodies can experience such oppression in encounters with medical settings and medical practitioners.
Read MoreHi! I’m Bree (they/she), and I’m so stoked to welcome you to the first of many FATT Chats! FATT is an acronym for Fat Acceptance Tales & Techniques, which is the very intention for this series. My hope is to create fat visibility with first-person fat liberation stories, as well as foster fat acceptance in others by sharing fat positive resources and strategies. In FATT Chats, you’ll find interviews with NAAFA members and non-members alike who will share their personal stories of fat acceptance and the real life techniques that have and continue to help them in their own lives. You’ll also find an easy-access list of all resources and techniques mentioned at the end of each interview, building upon each list with every interview to create a living grab bag of fat acceptance support. With that, I’d like to let each interviewee speak for themselves, so please enjoy the very first FATT Chat featuring NAAFA Board Chair, Tigress Osborn!
Read MoreThis journey of identifying and challenging fatphobia began as a personal one, but I realized that this was knowledge that my fellow medical students needed too. We are the next generation of health professionals, but our education on the treatment of larger bodies is being informed by the current establishment. If something is to change, it needs to start with us.
Read MoreI think everyone would say that 2020 has been a very eventful year. Although it has been a very tough year for many, we have also seen people connecting in ways we may not have considered previously, giving us hope.
Organizationally, I believe that NAAFA has helped our members and fat community as a whole to deal with the chaos. We have worked to support and combat the negative effects of 2020 with positive change.
