More Models

In further modeling news, Madrid fashion week opened up with a show featuring plus-sized models. The article goes on to discuss the trend of having dangerously thin models--so if you're not sick of the topic, feel free to check it out.

"'[O]ver the past 30 years models in magazines have grown steadily thinner, so that now they tend to be about 15% underweight....There's a growing disparity between the bodies women have and the ideal being displayed to them.' Meanwhile, research conducted jointly with Dr Helga Dittmar, of Sussex University, suggests models do not have to be ultra-thin to sell products effectively - an argument often used by advertisers."

Anyway, the September 27 episode of America's Next Top Model featured your favorite plus-sized woman and mine, Queen Latifah. (I didn't see it--was she awesome?) So maybe there's hope after all!

--mo pie

On Awesomeness

"I have started to think that at any given time in your day or week or month or year or life, when presented with any sort of dilemma (“Jeans and t-shirt or feather boa and bodypaint? Crappy fast food or delicious penne pasta with zucchini, goat cheese and olive oil? Vicious silent treatment or conciliatory hand-holding?”) you can always choose to be a little more awesome.

Like Chiara.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

It's one of the things that scares me about having kids - I don't want a daughter to have the same weight issues I have, or if she does, I don't want her to be as unhappy in her skin as I have been.

This is a great article about how the media can break our heads - even as early as five or six years old, for Christ's sake - when it comes to body image, and how our own preoccupation with dieting and weight and the state of our bodies can affect our children. The article provides some good advice on how to help keep our kids from that falling into trap.

"Even young children pick up on it when their mothers hate their bodies, which is why psychotherapist Em Farrell advises mums to talk positively about their own bodies."

Which sounds incredibly hard - we have to change our own messed-up relationship with our bodies first? Goddamnit. But it makes sense. And I appreciate the last tip, about kids who really do have a weight problem, cautions parents about putting their kids on a diet, which seems to me to be the first step in a lifetime of food issues. Or that could just be me.

This Is Halloween, This Is Halloween

Got your costume yet? Perhaps you would care to dress as a Dirty Martini or a sexy pirate? Thanks to Anica for sending along this link to plus-sized Halloween costumes! I think a plus-sized Wonder Woman would be kind of awesome. But that Most Wanted inmate costume is incredibly hot. I think it's just the insanely hot model who is pulling it off, whereas if I wore that, I would look like a pumpkin in fishnets. Still Halloween themed, at least!

Oh, a lot of the costumes seem to be sold out. Act fast if you want one!

I'll Spare You The "Fat Lady Sings" Reference

Here's an article, sent in by K, about Deborah Voight, the opera singer who was fired from the Royal Opera for being too fat. She had weight-loss surgery (although she had the consultation before she was fired) and lost a significant amount of weight; in the article, she talks about the changes in her voice and her body, the ups and downs of having the surgery, and the reason she said "yes" when the Royal Opera invited her back for a production next year.

"Salome is a role, she says, that she would never have been asked to do before the surgery - despite the fact that she is acknowledged as one of the great Strauss interpreters. 'I'm not sure I would have have wanted to see me, 150lbs heavier, singing Salome.... [But] it always bothered me when people said such and such is not believable in a part because we don't believe that [at her size] the tenor would love her.'"

It's a great, complicated, in-depth article. Thanks, K!

"We use healthy girls with tits"

A report from London Fashion week, in wake of the Madrid Fashion Week banning of models under a certain BMI (noted here, a couple of weeks ago).

It is interesting to note a detail I had not seen before in the Madrid stories - the author says a size 0 model actually died from malnutrition, which led directly to the Madrid ban.

The Perfect Jeans for Your Plus-Size Figure

According to Ladies' Home Journal, anyway.

I never quite trust these articles that purport to teach you the magical secrets that slim you and elongate you and make you look like the virgin Queen of England if only you choose a rose-scented peplum, three boot-cut grapes and a clown on fire to draw the eye up, down and over towards the emerging Cuban democracy. Somehow, I don't believe anything in the world is going to fool people into thinking my butt is anything less than two hams in a pair of panties. Sexy hams, of course.

But they've got some very good tips regarding wash and cut, and of course, what's not to appreciate about the Where to Buy section? I always love a good list of plus sized resources. And a ham.

Hey CBS, Just Take Pictures of Katie Couric With This

I... don't even know what to say about this. A new feature in HP cameras is that the camera can make your subject look thinner. You can "adjust the slimming level" and the "effect is subtle—subjects still look like themselves." Just like removing red eye!

Via entelein.

Just Right

A blog post I read today reminded me that I wanted to talk about Nicole Ritchie. On the Tyra Banks show, Nicole said that the stress of being constantly followed around by paparazzi is contributing to her weight loss.

"You definitely don't want people constantly looking you up and down. I know the photographers are following me every day; I know that they're looking for something wrong and that doesn't feel good at all. That obviously doesn't help me."

The blog post that I read was from Erin, who said (talking about those scary skeletal Kate Bosworth photos from the other day):

"I'm not saying the images aren't disturbing, but I'm wondering how and where do we all get off this merry-go-round when it comes to celebrities and their bodies. They're too fat, they're too thin, but they never seem just right."

When I read about Nicole Ritchie, I really felt for her. I know there are rumors that she had weight-loss surgery initially to try and lose weight, and since then has been physically unable to gain weight. Remember when she and Paris first became popular and she was the chubby one? The scenario may or may not be true, but it makes sense. Next to Paris she's fat; she feels pressure to do something drastic; she has surgery; now she's hounded by paparazzi and constantly accused of being anorexic. Poor Nicole, seriously.

Your Magnificent Booty

Can become even more magnificent bosoms! A fat grafting technique is being perfected, which allows women to get the fat slurped out of their "love handles" and have it stuck in their boobs. Because that is where fat belongs, porky. In your tits, where it is, at least, aesthetically pleasing.

It's a Fucking "Yay Scale"

Fat! Fit? Fabulous! Meet the East Bay activists and researchers at the center of the new civil-rights movement known as Health at Every Size.

The article opens with fat-acceptance performance art by the shores of Lake Merrit. A woman, accosting pedestrians, asking them to please get up on a scale "covered with pink paint and sparkly silver paper. Silver pipe cleaners across the bottom spelled 'YAY!'" (What is it? a suspicious girl asks. Why, it's a Yay Scale, the woman replies.)

A fucking Yay scale? This is like, a half step up from giant sweatshirts with kitten appliques. Kittens with bows. In baskets.

But I love every one of these people, and I really love their message. The article features Marilyn Wann of Fat!So?, and is a pretty great, balanced look at fat acceptance and fat positive movements (particularly in the Bay Area), accepting yourself. It's got a lot of excellent resources, and reading it might have made me a little bit happy, all the way down to my shriveled black heart. A little.

Okay, fine! Yay.

A Contest!

Mo Pie writes:

I'm toying with the idea of starting a new weight loss blog (fresh start and comment notification and all that) but haven't thought of anything to call it yet. I'll keep you posted.

And I say, what the hell, woman? It's been 10 days.

So, I think it is up to us to rename her blog. Post your suggestions in the comments, and the winning entry gets, like, a cookie. Or something! Possibly just a sense of satisfaction. We'll "keep you posted."

[My entry: "A Smaller Slice of Pie." It's a pun! Okay, fine. I am sure you can do better.]

Our Bodies: Mental Problems.

Madrid bans too-thin models from catwalk, which means any woman with a BMI below 18 is not permitted to work during Madrid's Fashion Week.

"Organisers said they wanted to 'help ensure public opinion does not associate fashion, and fashion shows in particular, with an increase in anorexia, a disease which, along with bulimia, is considered ... as a mental and behavioural problem.'"

Which is nice; girls already have enough problems figuring out their bodies, themselves, entrenched in a popculture where skinny is great, and skinniest is the greatest (see: the size zero trend of lo, these past few years).

But I am not sure this is the way to do it. And I am a little tired of the crazy-schizophrenic way we deal with body issues. If you're too fat, you have mental problems. If you're too skinny, you have mental problems. The takeaway here is, I believe, that if you have a body? You have mental problems. Awesome.

Fear and Perspective

Unfortunately, it often takes a crisis to bring some much-needed perspective to our lives, to clarify what is real and what is not. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when the world around us appeared to be collapsing, we weren't afraid whether we looked fat in those jeans or terrified how our boss would react if we asked for that raise. The challenge lies in learning how we can bring that sense of perspective and fearlessness into our everyday lives even without a crisis -- whether that crisis is a giant public one like 9/11 or an intimate personal one like an illness or the death of a loved one.

It caught my eye because of the headline, and then kept me reading because it's one of the smartest things I've read about today--and it's nice to read something that isn't frustrating, infuriating, or heartbreaking.

Leonard Nimoy: Artist

Our favorite Vulcan is a triple threat. He can act, he can sing, and he can take [NSFW] pictures that are, sometimes, unintentionally hilarious but also kind of awesome. The unselfconsciousness of these gorgeous women is pretty amazing, and quite lovely. Even when they're high-kicking in the nude. (See? Hilarious! And awesome.)

On The Plus Side

That was a pun! Anyway, a nurse found an intruder in her home armed with a hammer and strangled him with her bare hands. I noticed that the news article mentioned her size:

”[The intruder], about 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, had convictions including conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, robbery, drug charges and possession of burglary tools. Neighbors said [Susan] Kuhnhausen's size -- 5-foot-7 and 260 pounds -- may have given her an advantage.”

So there’s an advantage of being a big, strong woman. You can strangle intruders. God forbid you’d ever need to, of course.

Also, regarding the previous post (debate still going strong, as per usual, all you fabulous people) please welcome anne as a poster to Big Fat Deal. She says "fuck" more than I do; we're lucky to have her.

Please, Just Go Ahead and Kill Yourself. For All of Us.

Hey, all you fat gals! Being obese and female is as bad as it gets, according to Berit Heitmann, "a nutritional and medical research advisor to the Danish government."

He went on to say, "Obese women are deprived of friendships, intimate relationships, social interactions, education, income and respect."

Now, I understand that this can be construed as having a measure of sympathy, because it is hard to be overweight, there is discrimination, it can be tough to find clothes and self-worth and confidence when you're dealing with being fat. Obesity is tough on our health, emotionally and physically. I'm with you there, 100 percent.

So I'd like to say thanks for understanding it's hard, Mr. Heitmann. But really, fuck you for acting like fat is the end of the world, and fuck you for painting such a flattering picture of fat women. And I'd like to tender my apologies for going about being obese all wrong - I will immediately dump my friends, break up with my boyfriend, and ask the university to take back my Master's degree. I hadn't realized I wasn't supposed to have those things once I started shopping at Lane Bryant.

Still No Opinion

I was asked my opinion about this study, which tied even moderate overweight with higher mortality rates. I didn't post because I'm not a scientist, nor am I interested in arguing that overweight doesn't have ancillary health risks associated with it. I also wasn't sure if I should believe counter-articles that argued that the methodology in the studies might be flawed.

However, now there's yet another indication that perhaps the studies were flawed; this article even goes so far as to suggest they might be meaningless.

"Although the researchers collected information on physical activity, they provided no analysis - even though a significant body of credible evidence has found good health to be associated with fitness levels. Comparisons between 'overweight' active people and 'overweight' inactive people would likely have yielded a completely different headline."

I still don't know what to think about the studies and their validity. All things being equal, having good cardiovascular health is probably the most important element, regardless of weight. And it seems extreme to say that even a small bit of excess weight is dangerous. I am more inclined to believe previous studies suggesting that diet and fitness level count more than actual fat cells on one's body.

Fatshion

You want even more plus size clothing stores that are not filled with the mumumtastic and other things that are fit to make you cry because you don't want to be a big fat beautiful fucking mermaid-looking snowflake anymore? Here are some resources I love. Some? Better than others. But poking around these sites will almost always score you something to make your ass look even hotter.

B and Lu

Igigi - best known for their gorgeous wrap dresses.

Kiyonna

Zafitque

HSN.com

Yes, know it's the freaking home shopping network, but you can shop by size - and by size, they mean up to 6x. Some of it is beaded mermaid sweaters, but some of it is excellent basics and some of it? Pretty gorgeous. Really.

Sydney's Closet - you know, if you're going to meet the President of Nambia.