Big Fat College Credits

Fat Studies, coming to a campus near you? Maybe.

According to this article, it's an emerging field (although you know that some copy editor almost had a stroke avoiding "growing"). However, as Stephen Balch says, "Ethnic studies, women's studies, queer studies - they're all about vindicating the grievances of some particular group.... But if the purpose is to vindicate fatness, to make fatness seem better in the eyes of society, then that purpose begs a fundamental intellectual question."

I attend one of the colleges mentioned in the article but had never noticed the course on obesity, probably because I never look at the courses offered outside of my program. The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee professor is described as being skeptical about the "war on obesity" (I'm assuming those are air quotes attributed to the professor, not the writer, but it's not really clear) and the idea of a professor who has a combative agenda for an entire semester does not sound appealing. Also, speaking from experience, those UWM deskchair things that are definitely foot soldiers in the war on obesity, with or without air quotes.

Is the study of fatness in an academic institution as legitimate as Native American studies or GLBT studies? Are such courses just trying to justify being chubby or encouraging diversity? After reading Mr. Balch's quote above, does it justify kicking him hard in the groin more only if you subsitute the word "black" or "gay" for "fat"? Would you sign up to go to Fat Class?

File Under: Oh God, I Hope This Is True

Remember how Tom Cruise grew "concerned" that Katie was getting too fat before the wedding?

If you hated him just a little more after that, this will be your favorite headline today: Tom Cruise gets too fat, wears a girdle under wedding tux.

Awesome.

Fabulous Multiplied

As some of you have no doubt noticed, we are fortunate have a new poster on board: the incomparable and inimitable Weetabix. She joins the equally delicious anne, who is back from her surgery, dropping pounds right and left, and posting merrily away. If you ever wanted a style guru, at any size, these are your women. (Definitely not me—right now I’m wearing a neon pink sweater I saw on the Jerry Springer show. Seriously.) Anyway, some awesome posts from both of them in the last couple of days, so scroll down, comment away and make them feel welcome.

We Are Legion

While not all Old Navy stores carry plus sizes, once they hit 100,000 square feet or so, Gap Inc generously allots a dark back corner to the sizes that end with X. After making a purchase online last Friday, I was given the opportunity to fill out a survey. It seemed as optimistic as sending off a message in a bottle, but what the hell? I wrote:

Speaking for plus size girls everywhere, we have money and want to spend it! Give us more options and choices, like the ones in standard sizes.

A customer service consultant identified only as "Shelly" responded to my concerns. Sort of.

While we are eliminating the plus line from some Old Navy stores, we are not discontinuing this line of merchandise, and we apologize for any disappointment. We are constantly evaluating and re-evaluating our business, and customer feedback like yours is a vital part of the process. Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. The Old Navy plus line will remain available at select stores and online at oldnavy.com.

I can't find anything online about brick and mortar plus size departments being eliminated, but apparently plus sized shoppers should cherish those dark corners while we still have them, because there's yet another rack of itty bitty ironic screen printed tees just aching for that real estate.

This One's For Mo Pie

Ian Callum, the Scottish engineer who designed the latest Jaguar XK:

"...a Jaguar should be sensuous and voluptuous, very sculptured and when I was thinking about it Kate Winslet came to mind.

"Kate Winslet is my ideal woman. She is naturally a very shapely woman, very British with an underlying integrity and ability. Like a car, she has got substance, she is not just a pretty face.

"So I designed the new XK body with her in mind. The interesting thing is that so many woman find sensual cars more appealing as well.”

(Oh, how can you not love her?

"Not that she is overimpressed with Jaguar’s efforts. Winslet complained that she would have liked to be involved in the design. “The headlights are too small. They will have to go. And it needs a bar under the dashboard with pink and blue neon lights, umbrellas and pineapples.

“And wings,” the mother of two added, warming to her role as car designer, “like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And inflatables, so it can go in water. I absolutely think I shuld get a free car.”)

What's The Word I'm Looking For? Oh, Right! Fuck You.

"Egotastic," an "entertainment blog," has posted pictures of Tyra Banks in her bikini. The headline? "Tyra Banks Bikini Pictures Are Not What They Used To Be." The copy? "Once upon a time, Tyra Banks used to be hot, and Tyra Banks bikini pictures would have been a very welcome sight. Sadly, those days are gone."

Excuse me? Pardon me? The hell?

Tyra Banks has an enormous head and she is irritating for so, so many reasons, but she has quit modeling, she has started eating, and even though she's no longer model-thin, she is looking - how you say in Top Model speak? Fierce. And her man? He has got very nice shoulders.

Suck it, Egotastic.

A Study In Contrasts

This:



versus this:

We Know, Nicole

Nicole Ritchie did not get gastric bypass, she says:

"Anyone that knows anything about this surgery would know that legally, you must be at least 100 pounds overweight to even have the surgery done, and is a serious, life-changing procedure; not one to throw around as a joke or a rumor."

Of course, as we all know, it's totally Sara Rue.

And Not A Little Bit Scary

This week’s Comment of the Week is from Vincent, in this post, who writes… well, you should really go read it, but I will excerpt:

“I am a guy, who has a girlfriend qualified by some as a ‘fat pig.’ … Today, no-one dares insult her, as they know that I suffer from a tragic lack of tolerance for pricks and bitches. I have, once or twice, had to beat up someone rather badly, but apart from that my girlfriend, who is smart, cute, very funny and at times silly, now have the confidence and self-esteem of a greek godess. (A fair comparison, if I may.) In the beginning, people would often ask me what the hell I saw in her. (I'm a looker myself…) She is, after all, a complete nutter, clumsy and whiny. She is rude, confused, emotional, lazy and sometimes quite mean. I would then answer, ‘Well, yes. And I adore all those things about her.’”

Vincent, thanks for your post, but you scare me a little bit. You beat people up? “Pricks and bitches”? Your girlfriend is lazy, confused, and mean? You seem to think we’re going to applaud your attitude, but I don’t really know what to make of this. (Read his whole post before you respond, though, I feel like I left out some mitigating statements. Maybe.)

Checking In With Star

How is Star Jones doing these days? She and her gay husband are getting divorced, right? Or did I make that up? Was that "Al is with a man!" thing just in the Enquirer? Is my Britney-and-Kevin gossip spilling over? (Speaking of which, did you hear that her family staged a "Divorce Kevin!" intervention? It happened after she came to his CD release party and he apparently treated her like dirt. Nice, Kev.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Star Jones. I didn't scroll down past the first awesome comment: "She looks like a Flavor of Love contestant." That may beat out "she looks like a llama" for my favorite Star Jones sentence to date.

Un-Blind My Item

I love celebrity gossip and blind items, and I visit a few websites that attempt to solve them. (I got this one via that Crown Princess place, but it's originally from Page Six.)

"WHICH young Hollywood starlet had secret gastric bypass surgery, but then lost too much weight? During a recent four-day stint at a health clinic, she was actually having an operation to remove the bypass."

After hearing speculation that this referred to Sara Rue, I had to go find some pictures, because I had no idea she had lost weight. She lost weight and went blonde, in fact. Here are before and after pictures. And since that's a really unflattering "before" picture, here's a better one.

First, I totally buy that this blind item is about her. Second, if she wants to go all Reese Witherspoon for the sake of her career, I guess more power to her. I can't imagine that looking like yet another generic Hollywood blonde would be helpful, but let's face it, I'm probably wrong. Thirdly, I am depressed to have lost one of our hot, young, sexy, curvy-chick role models. And finally, I think she was way cuter before. But then again, we all know that girls-who-look-like-me are totally my type.

I've Seen Them In Amsterdam

I was really hoping that this article would be about fabulous, trend-setting, in-the-know, plus-sized prostitutes. But no. Can somebody find me that article, please?

Wide Screen: The Office

Character: Phyllis Lapin, played by Phyllis Smith.
Credits: A very short list; she was the show’s casting director before being cast herself.
Plot points: She has been the butt of Michael Scott’s insensitive humor (When she offered to cheer for the office basketball team, he said: “Bleh, that’s worse than you playing.”) and also the victim of his attempts to cheer her up after a joke has been made at her expense (“I think Phyllis is gorgeous… The only thing I’m worried about is getting a boner.”)
Stereotypes: Phyllis the actor used to be a cheerleader, a burlesque dancer, and a ballet dancer. Phyllis the character was a basketball player, won the gold medal in Flonkerton in the office Olympics, and received a Dundee award for “Bushiest Beaver.” I’m gonna go with none.
Sex/Romance/Attractiveness: She is currently engaged to Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration, a Tom Arnold-looking guy who is successful, showered her with gifts on Valentine’s day, and clearly adores her. Arguably the only healthy romantic relationship on the whole show. She also had a one-night stand with someone in the office, but we don’t know who.
Fat jokes: There have been jokes about Phyllis being matronly and frumpy, but flat-out fat jokes, I don’t think so. There was a line in a Michael Scott-made video about “what it’s like to walk a mile in Oscar’s shoes, or try on Phyllis’s pants” accompanied by a slow-mo shot of Phyllis sitting down, but that was more about Michael’s ridiculousness, not Phyllis’s size.
The bottom line: I love Phyllis. As Kelly Kapur might say, I love “Phyllis the character, Phyllis the person, basically anything awesome.”
Rating on the offense-o-meter (10 being that Eddie Murphy abomination): 0
But how's the show?: If you know me, you know that I’m completely obsessed with The Office. It’s the best show on television and if you’re not watching it, you’re missing out!

When You Eat The Entire Box Of 100-Calorie Packs, It Is Less Effective

Since this article is from October, you may have to do what I did and Google the title to find it online. But it's well worth reading! It's about a book called Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Professor Brian Wansink. Apparently, his research contributed to the concept of those 100-calorie packs of chips and cookies that are so popular these days. The whole article is a really interesting examination of why and how we eat.

"Although people think they make 15 food decisions a day on average, his research shows the number is well over 200. Some are obvious, some are subtle. The bigger the plate, the larger the spoon, the deeper the bag, the more we eat. But sometimes we decide how much to eat based on how much the person next to us is eating, sometimes moderating our intake by more than 20 percent up or down to match our dining companion."

Thanks to Beth for the link!

One More Item

I'd also like to congratulate Britney Spears on her miraculous weight loss. Now that was definitely some dead weight, right there. I can't wait for the Smoking Gun papers, can you?

She's A Brick House

It's difficult to tear my eyes away from all the completely thrilling (to me)political coverage to talk about weight again. Is there any way I can talk about the election? Did we get any awesome overweight people into Congress that I can write about? Is that a stretch? Oh, okay then.

In that case, did you see House? From the Television Without Pity recaplet by Sara M:

"A man weighing over six hundred pounds comes to PPTH in a coma. Fatty-hater Chase doesn't see the point in treating the guy, but Everybody-lover Cameron comes to his defense and insists on getting him an MRI even though he exceeds the weight limit... Chase says they should just a wait-and-see approach with George because he wants all fat people to die... George goes blind and refuses to let them test him for any obesity-related conditions, insisting that his condition isn't related to the fact that he weighs six hundred pounds, and in the end, he's right: he actually has terminal lung cancer. "

I'm not sure what this had to say about overweight people, but I figured I'd throw it out there for your thoughts, in case you'd seen the episode. Or we can talk about Rumsfeld resigning!

Ham On

BFD contributor and all around fabulous person anne is having weight loss surgery today. You can read all about it over at Plork, but I can tell you that for her, it has not been an easy decision or an easy process. Like, at all. I knew almost nothing about weight loss surgery before, except that Star Jones has had it on the downlow. But as we speak, my darling and sexy friend is going through it. I completely support her choice as being the one she felt was right for her, and I know you will join me in wishing her a speedy (and sexy) recovery.

Update: She is out of surgery, in recovery, and the surgery went well! I have been on pins and needles all day, personally, and figured I'd share the joy. Thanks for all your well wishes here and there.

Mamastop

You may have heard that Kirstie Alley went on Oprah in a bikini to show off her slimmer body. She said:

"I think women -- I don't think we ever feel like we're good enough. We don't feel like we're thin enough or pretty enough or smart enough or work hard enough. And we are good enough… The bikini thing is neither here nor there, other than the fact, you know, I am 55 years old. So I thought -- come on, we are all good enough. And we look good enough. And we are not our bodies.”

Go Kirstie, right? Well, I got an anonymous e-mail from a reader pointing me to this entry from a pair of allegedly famous bloggers named Amalah and Sweetney. Their message:

“Listen, I want to be supportive of other, ehh, big boned ladies like myself being all proud of their bodies and shit, but heyzeus christmas people, I feel like the image of that woman’s monster-sized thighs may be appearing in my nightmares for a long, long time to come.”

The e-mail I got said:

“I don't want to start any kind of flamewar, but I do I feel disappointed that the post seems to be inviting their primarily (I'm assuming) female readers to bash another woman for daring to show thighs that don't pass societal muster… Maybe I am misinterpreting the post, but I am disappointed enough to stop reading them both, let alone their joint venture of mamapop.”

I personally think that if that entry is any indication, the allegedly famous Mamapop bloggers are not very good or funny or thoughtful writers. I love what Kirstie said, and that Mamapop entry just proves her point. Why are women always the ones cutting each other down, anyway?

Be My Fat Friend!

This is more of a Fatty McBlog-esque post, since it’s not a link or anything, just a thought I’m throwing out there for the sake of some conversation. I think that if this turns out to be some sort of regular feature, it needs some kind of pithy name. Maybe we can call it Friday’s Usual Coffee Klatch. You know, just for the acronym’s sake.

Anyway, I work at a company with over six hundred employees, so it’s a pretty busy building with a lot of turnover. There are definitely plenty of people I see every day that I’ve never seen before or that I don’t know, so the following thing happens to me frequently: Every time I see a woman who is on the larger side, my immediate gut reaction is that I want to be friends with her. I smile warmly and I wish that I had an excuse to talk to her. I completely assume that I’ll have lots in common with her, that we’d make awesome friends, and also that she’ll like me better than the average person might.

This strikes me as a little weird and unfair and judgmental on my part. On the other hand, I guess we are drawn to people who resemble us physically—whether it’s according to race or body shape or type of clothing style, or any other markers, chosen or not, that we display to the world. But do you know what I mean? Does this ever happen to you? Do you think I'm totally a bad person now?

Harshing My Gnarls Barkley Mellow

On the radio this morning, I heard a parody version of Gnarls Barlkey's "Crazy" that is about a fat chick. It's called "Gravy," I think. At least the chorus is "she tastes like gravy." It's all about a guy who thinks a girl is skinny when he drunkenly picks her up at as bar, but then he discovers she's fat, but it's cool, because she'll do things skinny chicks won't do, but woah, is she ever fat! He has to roll twice just to get off her! Ha, ha! As Michael Scott would say (I'm now 2 for 2 on The Office mentions), it's really lame. And offensive. So... double lame.

Fat Friends

There's a BBC show called Fat Friends that I'm interested in watching; it stars some of my favorite people such as Josie Lawrence (from Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Allison Steadman (Pride and Prejudice) and Martin Freeman (The Office, my friends. The Office.

"Fat Friends follows the dietary ambitions of eight characters and delivers a few psychological truths about our obsession with obtaining the perfect shape."

According to this, it premieres tonight on BBC America. According to this, it will arrive "in 2007." Has anyone heard anything about this show? It's news to me.

And while I'm on the subject of The Office, kind of, the American version has an awesome plus-size female charater in Phyllis. I need to have a Celebration of Phyllis soon. She deserves her own post.

Something To Read While Eating Leftover Candy

A man from Winnepeg handed out a Produce Passport instead of Halloween candy. The passport, which he invented himself, allows kids to collect stickers from fruits and vegetables and is meant as an alternative to all the candy.

“My friends have told me that tonight I'm going to be handing out the produce passport and tomorrow I'm going to be cleaning up all the eggs on my house.”

I’m sure a lot of kids will look at this guy as one of those toothbrush-handing-out killjoy party poopers but I have to tell you, I would have effing loved a Produce Passport when I was a kid. I love collecting stuff like that. Hell, I’m thinking of making one right now!