My response to Marily Wann's Latest: "You Can Be Fat and Fit!"

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Big Deal: You Can Be Fat and Fit

I am going to start this with the caveat that there can be people of large sizes and large proportions who certainly can be in great shape, aerobically and otherwise. The large sized weight lifter that made it to the Olympics is probably in better shape then most large people. There are football players, wrestlers and others who play sports at heavier and larger sizes. There are many midsized people who do enjoy sports, dancing and active living. All the best to them. Stay as active as you can and enjoy life as much as you can no matter your size. A lot of people MY size are totally bedbound, the housebound doctors have told me, so I even say by the grace of God go I. So enjoy but now I must address yet another article that just adds to the pile of confusion out there. Are there Healthy smaller fat people? Sure. Are the scientists finding proof, that one doesn't have to be a skinny-minny to be "healthy" and when it comes to some problems like pneumonia that it actually may be a detriment...Sure.

But newsflash....this is up to a certain point. In most cases dependent on height, up to the mid-200s line.

Over 300lbs for most people, the breathing is affected, movement is affected and more. I mean how far does the delusion have to go and the active denials? Sad to say this one even made it to mainstream media on CNN

Marilyn Wann states in the article...

"Another recent study found people who were "metabolically healthy" and overweight or obese had no higher death risk than metabolically healthy "normal" weight people."

How many fat people are "metabolically healthy"? That would be an interesting question to ask especially for the supersized given the very idea of metabolism has been set aside by the diet industry. I obviously am NOT metabolically healthy. Though would they say someone at a supersized weight who suffers from eating disorders which has led them to a high weight is? I am a bit confused by that study and doubt it applies to those in the super-sized weight categories.

Wann continues:

"I take an interest in the topic because I'm fat and because I don't have a death wish. I'm also interested because, like so many fat people, I've encountered weight discrimination when I seek routine medical care. I was 26 years old when I was denied the right to purchase health insurance. I had no significant history of illness or injury. I was just fat. That day, I became a fat rights activist."

What is this talk about a "death wish"? I often have pondered what if Wann did get ill? It is strange to me I am still hearing the same lines written in the mid 1990s. Most women her age, she is two years older then me which makes her 46, are starting to face some health problems, that includes THIN women. Most of my friends who have hit the age of 40 or over have dealt with at least ONE health issue that took some degree of comprehensive health care. She seems to have a very strong Baby Boomer ethos rather then that of a Generation Xer with a whole "we are going to live forever" theme to it.

Does illness as a fat person mean having a "death wish" or that you did something wrong? This is the "healthism" stuff I've mentioned in passing.  One ponders this. And who cares if she had some history of injury or illness? Should anyone who hasn't been there think anything less of anyone who has? Should one give out medals to those blessed with good genetics and good fortune in avoiding car accidents, thyroid issues, some arthritis,  a hole in the snow to trip in, or a cup of too hot of coffee spilling on the leg? She is right about weight discrimination in the medical arena, I certainly have explored that issue myself. She is also correct about the non availability of medical equipment but should the response of the fat be an enforced smiles, "we aren't that sick anyhow" response? Or demanding that some changes be made to the above? Yes too much blaming the fat happens and weight loss techniques like WLS that fail and maim and all the biases!  But what if I said to Marilyn Wann, fat is often the RESULT of illness a symptom in itself, that is where size activists who believe the way she does, refuse to get on board. She continues in the article to praise HAES which I of course disagree with. She talks about those living to 65. Long-lived society?, actually the lifespans in America are dropping.

"Here's a finding from the recent research that didn't make the headlines: For people over 65, being fat wasn't associated with increased risk, not even for the fattest old people. When do most people die, in our increasingly long-lived society? Over age 65, perhaps?"

This part of her article really disturbed me though....

"I also learned this week that a highly accurate way to predict a person's risk of dying is to see how easily they can get up from the floor. I'm trying to imagine how different our health care system would be if, instead of focusing on weight and weight loss, caregivers did the sitting-rising test instead."

How many supersized especially extremely super-sized people can get off the floor? I fail this test massively. Why? I fell down twice and know I cannot get off the floor. I was stuck and it was terrifying both times, and in one case, needed three grown men to help get me up to the place where I could finish the job in getting up all the way. Wann seems to have this edge to her articles where someone being sick, is enough to prove them wrong or "bad". That one would be an interesting sociological study and essay. We live in a society now where sick equals someone is "bad", instead of just with the admittance of the natural flow of things on this earth. Why must caregivers do the sitting-rising test? That one confused me. Okay my thin doctor gets down on the ground and gets up? So what? They probably can go camping and other things I miss. What does that prove? Did she think this one through?

With my failures to get off the floor, at least I was saved the medical bills from calling the paramedics to bring me to a standing position. My first fall I wrote about and the second one I had only weeks later, and at that point switched to a walker due to my balance issues. Since this summer there hasn't been any more falls. For years, due to youth, and after my initial weight loss from the massive weight gain, I did practice getting on the floor and then getting up, to make sure I still "could" but I lost the ability with time anyway, and remember in my case, I am not bedbound and tried to stay as active as I could including physical therapy. So what does that test say to fat people but hey you midsized people who can still get down on the floor and play with your puppy or your kids or scrub a spot on the floor are okay and those of you whose weight has become too heavy for you to lift off the floor are not? Is she living in reality here?

Hey I could take some of these edicts from on high if she did admit, "OK I am talking for smaller sized fat people here, I know you supersized or in my case extreme super-sized folks have other concerns" but she does not, she expects the HAES formula to work, and issues a blanket edict of "You Can be Fat and Fit!" Um no..... I am even facing battling a leg infection over the last month, I am not sure what has brought on the reaffirmed battles with leg infections, this time with huge fevers to go along with them, once I hit near 104. Trust me I am sad because I struggled with this for years, having 6-7 of these a year for so long and many times in the hospital, and recently I went almost an entire year without a leg infection in my lymphedema leg and being thrown back into the infection merry-go-round obviously is very frightening to me. I almost have lost my life to this stuff before. What brought it on? I am not sure, and even have the worrying feeling that my intense commitment to a physical therapy and walking program brought these latest infections on despite improved sugars.
Hey I write this blog knowing I live in a society where the prevailing ethos is unless you are healthy and well, [and wealthy in a lot of cases] you aren't worth listening too, but since it's an ethos I reject, I speak out anyway.


Wann continues:

"How much healthier would we be? How much more would we actually enjoy healthy living, free from weight judgment? How much time and money would we save? How much discrimination and human tragedy could we avoid? I'm guessing it'd be tons."

How about just some reality? How about some understanding? How about some size activists admitting that people like me exist? How about telling the truth about weight while at the same time demanding good treatment for fat people and good medical care without shame and hatred even if we are indeed stuck on the floor when we fall down? How about admitting what is going on? 

See:

Health At Every Size? And Healthism in the Size Acceptance Movement"

"Seeing Through the Obesity Lies"

Seeing Through the Obesity Lies

I know people may find it harder to understand a woman that automatically can't be pidgeon holed into the right and left paradigms they now bombard us with from the boob tube. Surely the long term readers of this blog, have figured out I am neither a Republican nor Democrat nor do I fit I suppose what is the *average" way of thinking out there. Why would I think like an average person? I am not an average person by no means, even with the weight gain, I became instantly a misfit  not by choice, I would find acceptance in some circles, but that is not a life experience that leads one to shut off their brain.  Once someone is thrown outside the box, you get to look in it, and notice what is screwed up big picture wise!

I have questioned for at least a couple years, what we are being told about obesity. It seems while there are some researchers like Lustig and others trying to get the truth out there about obesity where they are telling the truth about it NOT being a failure of will-power and how the very basics of our food and life have been changed over the last thirty years to create a toxic environment, it is so hard to get the crowbar out and wrench people away from the false automatic viewpoints that lead them to ignore what HAS changed.

Even in the fat world, we got the two sides just like we have the two fake parties advancing globalism and the dismantling of the America economy when it comes to obesity we have "the good cop" side of extreme "size acceptance"--"learn to love your fat, accept your new fat reality and be happy about it" vs. the "bad cop" Diet industrial complex: "You obese people are lazy sloths and gluttons and responsible for your horrible bodies gone amuck!".

Yes, I do feel like the lone voice out there though there are some supporters and those who think the way I do, our point of view isn't getting the dominant air play. I guess well because there's no one to profit from it. And while there are some sincere researchers who make an occasional appearance who want to get to the root of the obesity problem and actually HELP people, I dare say there are many who will NEVER ALLOW this to happen. Some can cry 'conspiracy theory", but I always found that the most silliest of terms, as if conspiracies are not exposed nightly on our news, where corruption and greed rule?

What is there for someone like me to gain from either side?

NOTHING but my own demise and as I have stated NO TRUTH.

I was even thinking about the whole W.H.O. obesity thing and the way they use the obesity epidemic for other agendas and while I believe obesity rates are increasing, why do people keep turning to more answers that do not work? What do they plan to do with us fat people? I dare say things will get tougher as the indoctrinated types scream about those who do not share "their resources" properly. [see comments on this article ] Fat people will be seen as the new "anti-greens". Images of Animal Farm coupled with scenes of 1984 and LOL one commenter's phrase "Ration Czar" go streaming through my head.

I hate fat shaming as much as anyone, but then I read Marilyn Wann's response to the Weight of the Nation video, which went along side the HAES response and thought to myself -- Unbelieveable!:

"Weight of the Nation Serves Up More Fat Shame"

I attended the first, government-sponsored Weight of the Nation conference in 2009. I didn't pay or anything self-defeating like that. I just walked in (with a brave friend or two) and delivered plastic-wrapped fortune cookies to the fancy luncheon tables where major stakeholders were about to chew on the alleged "obesity" problem. If the professional food scolds took a cookie, they got messages like these:
The war on "obesity" is a war on PEOPLE!
The No. 1 threat to fat people? Your unexamined prejudice.
What's the word for science that serves bigotry? Hint: It starts with "you."
If you can't imagine fat people being healthy...that's YOUR pathology!
Tell people to lose weight if you want to endanger public health AND civil rights!
How many fat people must you starve, poison, slice up? Celebrate weight diversity now! 

As this world goes more nuts, I look at the two sides of the obesity world and think they have all lost their minds. We got the people committed to repeating previous failure over and over and then we got the Fat doesn't affect health size acceptance nuts.  I am dying from obesity, but supposedly a "war" on the adipose tissue is a war on PEOPLE. Funny that. I find it ironic how Wann brings up Orwellian anything as she states in her article




One thing about Orwell's world, is in 1984, the Ministry of Truth dealt with anything but, it was an agency to produce lies. Orwell himself, reworked the "newspeak" for the sake of Big Brother. I personally am a fan of Orwell having even read his books Down and Out in Paris and London and Shooting an Elephant. So what do I think when I see the above? Like Marilyn Wann is the obesity "minister of truth-1984 style? After all my truth isn't allowed in her worldview. Weight does affect health and anyone who claims otherwise is simply being absurd.Not all of those who want to help fat people HATE THEM.

As for things like Weight of the Nation, do not think I defend those who push the same diet industrial corporate answers that haven't worked for 40 years.

But when Marilyn Wann, asks these questions, I guess I'd take a crack at them myself...

This list doesn't include the plentiful state and local efforts to eradicate fat people. Clearly, for at least the past 60 years, fat people have not been welcome in America.

I always hate language that is manipulative.

"Eradicate fat people"?....that is a bit of hyperbole. This is how Marilyn Wann advances her agenda,  to defend the FAT rather then the people themselves. Because even if people lost weight and there was a non-maiming actual obesity cure or help that worked without harm, fat people would not be eradicated, they would still be here, but just smaller. Sheesh.

Officially. The weight blame goes either to fat people personally, to the environment, or both. Either way, two-thirds of us (and at least a fifth of our children) aren't welcome here. Though unwelcome, we're sure useful as easy targets.

Hmm Marilyn Wann makes a nod to the environment. Know that she is talking about the latest discussion and research related to the Obesogenic "environment". Discussed multiple times on this blog and in those articles about the latest obesity research. Guess that one surprised me.  Well it would seem that the newer research about the toxins in our food and world and how these things have come to work together to upset the metabolic system, that Marilyn Wann would actually be able with some logic to say "I care about fat people and want them the healthiest they can be, and if people are having their metabolisms altered by adulterated food, and toxins in the environment that is something that should be stopped". I guess I am a dreamer aren't I?  These community activist rabble rouster types do seem to lose sight of what should be their focus.

When the initial frenzy of Weight of the Nation has calmed down -- after everyone has enjoyed this round of hating fat people and there's been a healthy boost to budgets, profits, viewership, and ad revenue -- I predict we'll hit the same wall that every dieter encounters: the return to reality.

I suggest that reality is not so bad. To keep a grip, ask yourself:

Would you question the motives behind any other national PR campaign designed "for your own good" by major media, corporations, and the government?

1. I guestion the motives of PR campaigns in general. I know the diet industry wants their profits, but then I question the motives of the OTHER SIDE. Why do some seem so focused on honoring FAT itself so much above the people who are carrying it around? And that is supposed to be  the spokeswomen FOR fat people?

 I actually wonder where did Marilyn Wann COME FROM? Why did she garnish so much attention with a simplistic unchanging message? I know she went to Stanford but little else. I read her zine Fat?So! in the 90s and it seemed to be an independent enterprise, but why do so many of her thoughts seem to fit so drastically to a rigid ideological line? Why has she not grown since the 1990s and keeps repeating the same lines over and over, even ones that have been disproven?

I am the type of person who does even examine myself as to my own views. I think applying new information to your viewpoints is imperative to being a well-informed person, so how does Marilyn Wann just wipe away all the new studies about the "environment" and says "Not important"? Doesn't she realizes that such a view SERVES the very corporations she questions? After all there isn't going to anyone asking about any endocrine disrupters now is there? How about being able to purchase food at cheaper prices that isn't laden with extreme amounts of sugar or high fructose corn syrup? How about letting people demand better products? A populace that woke up about what they were buying food wise would be a healthier group of people.

if it were any topic other than weight (where you might feel vulnerable), would you be so quick to believe the numbers they cite to justify a "War on [Whatever]"? (Most egregious exaggerations: "Fat people cost 'us' billions!" "Everyone's going to be really fat!" "Our children won't live as long!")

2. One just has to look around and know that obesity rates growing. In the 1980s, finding a size 22 anything was rare, I remember, because I hit that size in high school!  There are so many people above that size now, it's not funny.  I see children who are far fatter then I was even at their age. There is usually one or two people who reach my size even now when I go out in public I come across and viewing others my size in the 1990s was far rarer but now more common. How does Marilyn Wann except me to believe that America is becoming THINNER? Are we to suspend belief even when it comes to OUR OWN EYES?

Would you rather trust your own judgment about what's good for you or get swept along by the latest fruitless panic?

3. Yes, I would rather trust my own judgment when it comes to either false side, I refuse to be joined with the fat haters and refuse to join the other "refuse to deal with reality" side. As for "panic", people know for a fact that obesity can HURT them. I am not talking mild midsized stable weights but when one gets to my size or even the 300s and 400s, there is a price to be paid. As for the obesity epidemic, their looking to the past solutions, that have failed thus far is a waste of everyone's time. Why is Marilyn Wann so busy shoving this under the carpet, basically saying, "nothing to see here"? She is crazy if she thinks anyone outside of her unthinking size acceptance fans are going to buy the obesity hasn't increased line. All people have to do is look to their own memories.

Oh when you get on the article link, check out the comments, some interesting stuff on there.....

Update on this article: In 2014, I would be diagnosed with stage 4 Lipedema, I found out what was wrong though I am still seeking more answers.

Marilyn Wann's Yay Scale

What world does this fat activist live in?

I discovered her YAY! scale...[see here too]

LOL it's too small for me....oops guess Marilyn Wann forgot about the over 280-300lb crowd who would crush a small drugstore scale like that under their feet. I tried two, one for each foot, to weight myself, and succeeded in breaking both of them.

YAY! I just broke the scale. LOL!

I found out about this here....

I also showed him how passersby of all sizes on Haight Street react with relieved delight to my invention, the Yay! Scale. It's merely a bathroom scale with compliments instead of numbers on the dial. Step on it to find out you're "sexy" or "gorgeous" or "perfect" or "fine." He urged me to find fat people to Yay! themselves. The next fat woman who happened by not only failed to feel downtrodden, she had read my book.

Anyone here remember "Up With People!"? I know I'm dating myself here, ah they were a good group in some ways....kept everyone happy and singing during the oil embargoes. I guess Marilyn Wann seems to be a one woman "up with fat people" [well smaller fat people] show. Reminds me of back in 1989, when I watched Michael Moore running around on "Roger and Me", filming all the "be positive" parades and Auto World as Flint crashed into the economic void. Michael Moore instead of being another sell-out, still seemed to care at least back then. I know Marilyn Wann doesn't do serious except on rare occasion, that may be a bummer on the self obsessive, self esteem fat praise-a-thon...but a YAY scale, LOL, I think the over-fat promotion "jumped the shark" long ago.

"Out of Touch Marilyn Wann: Let's Have a Parade!"

"Thought Crime and Size Acceptance, Ideologues and The Big Brush-Off"

Seriously folks, I liked Marilyn Wann when I first came across her book which was a zine years ago. It's too bad she has gone this route, I wish there could be honesty, instead of the usual show-boat stuff. There is a place for frivolity and fun, but it's like she is committed to emphasizing the fluff. They have proven the "self-esteem" movement has failed on the kids, on adults especially fat adults it just gets insulting, wearisome and speaks of over-compensation. To me this stuff is empty. How else can I put it?

Part II: Me and The Size Acceptance Ideologues

Years ago on a few message boards regarding size acceptance, I used to get in trouble there too.

It was pretty much the same thing. Hey this is my website at least and can speak my mind without being censored though they'll wipe every comment quicker then any 1984 civil servant rewriting history for Big Brother.

You know one thing that isn't easy in this world is holding your ground when the group, tells you how very wrong you are and lacking in every positive attribute they can think of. All I know is to go their way, I am supposed to suspend reality itself and live in some sort of fantasty world. I probably have stepped on a few toes, with the two sides against the middle argument, the whole LOVE YOUR FAT side, actually helping the FAT HATER side OUT. Even one poster posted some stuff where she kind of lost me, she had good thoughts to share too.... I do not buy the premise that I have to prove how self-loving I am or not to have others give me worth, my worth comes from God, which I know even naming God, may give some of the hyper-liberals of size acceptance a few shudders, but there it remains. In other words, how come, when you try to get people to "think" deeper about this stuff, they always want to slap you with the "you have too low self esteem" 2 x 4? I guess because it works on a lot of people.

I *think* this could be about me. Maybe it isn't and hopefully I'm wrong. I like the blogger, she has interesting thoughts on freedom I find enjoyable. I'm a bit confused on this stuff, what is "healthy weight mysticism"? Some of the weird terms throw me off. Am I crazy to deem 700lbs-500lbs as being "unhealthy"? Stop the world from spinning I want to get off!

A fat person, or former fat person, buying into the ‘healthy weight’ mysticism is not ground-breaking.

In fact? It’s downright mainstream.

A fat person, or former fat person, blaming themselves for how our culture (mis)treats fat people and (mis)characterizes the fat experience is not ground-breaking. We are (mis)fits, after all, in that we are outliers, living in a world built for those who are smaller than we are. Self-blame for nonconformity is such a normal social response that it hasn’t seen a ground-breaking since Genesis.

What does she mean by self-blame? Didn't she read the rest of the blog, when I have shared how I got to be where I am at? And what does she mean by "mischaracterize the fat experience"? Does she even understand or even guess at what life at the higher weights could be? I guess if you do not follow the party line, you are automatically self-hating. How strange, well they know how to manipulate arguments don't they. If anything wanting to stay alive and desiring that MORE IS DONE for FAT PEOPLE beyond the FAILED pathways, I think shows more self-love and love for others then anything else.

As for non-conformity, who is the conformist, the one who stands with the crowd or the one who takes the heat, making a solitary stand? Let's not forget the diet mongers, weight loss surgery types and "thin to win" people aren't giving me any high fives either. According to these types, you'd think I had signed a Weight Watchers contract or something.

A fat person, or a former fat person, coveting the higher status granted by a smaller pants-size is such a foundational part of our culture that it supports a $60 billion-dollar (and growing) industry, not to mention providing employment for bored pseudo-science journos, teevee doctors, washed up celebrities, professional snarks, and any dieter in possession of a word processor.

Forget status, I just want to be able to walk a mile one day and to see my nieces and nephews grow up.

Also considering that 60 billion dollar industry, I've taken issue with them MANY TIMES on this blog. I think they profit off failure and repeat customers which is why the wheel keeps turning, but then I do not want to complicate things for some of these angry readers.

In summary: trashing a lifestyle you fear and failed at (body acceptance) while giving lipservice to some kind of bullshit concern for others under the guise of promoting venerable Healthistic ideals and body-driven moral imperatives isn’t ground-breaking.

How does one fail at size acceptance? That is an interesting premise. Where does the "fear" come in? I know some of these ladies are younger then me, being healthy, mid-sized and being able to dance the night away is a much different exsistence then life in a higher weight body. I suppose I *failed* in that I dared to disagree. Hey that's ok with me. Am I morally degraded for wanting to stay alive? LOL How about whoever else this could be meant for if not for me? How does one pass the size acceptance test, being the most jolly? Can someone fill me in on that one?

It’s the same old bull****. And the attempt to Trojan-horse fat-hate and body-shaming into HAES and FA/SA circles?

I'm getting the feeling that anyone who is over a certain body weight who wants to share their truth and reality, are not welcome in size acceptance but I sort of knew this years ago. They get very angry at anyone who threatens the core beliefs, like size acceptance is a cult, and you can't ask any questions. I should perhaps do a paper or some sort on how size acceptance is a manifestation of the human potential movement but skewed to another market. That may be of interest.

Ah, getting a few of them mad out there, is nothing new to me. Here is a secret for your fat delusionists, most fat people especially people hitting my sizes, know that size acceptance delusions aren't working for them either. We are cool with the "do not discriminate" aspects and calls for fat people to be treated like human beings, but the rest of your garbage about being happy at any weight and refusing any REAL cures and help even at the stratosphere weights is total nonsense.

I'm out there in the world, and talking to folks like myself all the time. I hope I am wrong, this was not meant for me, but you got to wonder why the anger? It's like you can't even have a two way talk whatsoever. Notice how the verbal beat down and censorship comes so quickly and so suddenly. Not one word allowed of dissent. I certainly couldn't even get a word in edgewise.


I noticed over on "The Truth is Radical" blog article, where my secondary comments got censored, Marilyn Wann and others made an appearance.

See this blog entry too...

"Thought Crime and Size Acceptance"

for context...

I found this comment very interesting...on "The Truth is Radical" article

I totally agree that fat is not a disease. It’s just … fat, and, like food, it’s neither good nor bad. It irritates me that so many people are looking for a cure. It’s like trying to find a cure for blonde hair. Completely pointless and seriously who wants everyone to be the same size anyway. How boring would that be.

To me the above rings so weird...

Has this person been near 700lbs and almost DIED?

Fat in it's extreme forms or even less extreme forms HURTS. I do not want people to be the same size, I do not think everyone should be a skinny minny but come on people it's called reality lets go look at a little bit of it. Here too the brush-offs continue.

Marilyn Wann then chimes in....[LOL wonder if she saw my link to this blog]

Marilyn Wann said,

August 1, 2011 at 7:29 pm

Brilliantly argued and supported! I also refuse to agree with any sort of weight horizon. I believe that defining anything in life based on weight is harmful, never helpful. Each one of us, living in our bodies, can seek our own best possible health and happiness in a weight-neutral manner. There are also no guarantees for any of us that we’ll be able to avoid pain or illness or injury or unhappiness. What sort of brittle, unhuman standard is it that would devalue people who experience the inevitable downsides of embodiment?

She refuses to agree with any weight horizon?

What about 800lbs and above? Yes there are people reaching those weights. I know about them from my visit at home doctors, and from own life experiences reaching out to other very overweight people. My health and happiness demands MORE answers then just go "move a little" and some vague nebulous "go eat healthy" which I already do to best of my ability, and so it does for other fat people. Of course Marilyn Wann would never consider anything regarding modern culture or what is being done to our food for even such heights of weight to become even more prevelant. I suppose her eyes would glaze over if I discussed endocrine disrupters. If I told her about the super-fat people my deceased friend knew in her nursing home--[she herself was more midized], who could not walk or had their skin break down, what would Marilyn Wann then have to say? Who is talking about anyone being devalued? Haven't I been devalued by these folks? Yes I have, by basically having my thoughts and opinions censored. Notice how they lump me in automatically with the other side. They are like political idealogues, that can't even imagine that another position beyond the other mainstream side can even exist.

If anything what I have written would give super fat people more value, in that their very lives would be honored as real help and answers would be found or demanded beyond the fat haters and the fat delusionists.

By the way, I do not plan on shutting up. I believe the way things are going there are many people getting fatter and sicker out there too. The delusionists can live in their fantasty world while some of us deal with reality. If people want to know what has held size acceptance back, as anything but just a "fringe" enterprise, there you have it.

Out of Touch Marilyn Wann: Let's Have a Parade!

I know life is different in wealthy San Francisco, surrounded by loving fat adorers, but how out of touch can someone get?

"A Big Fat Parade Could Expand Living Space For Us All"

Is it just me, am I too serious of a person, or are all the party balloons, clowns, parades and belly dancers in the size acceptance world just a bit too CLOYING?

Yeah I am the personality who wishes it was 1890, collects stamps and loves antiques but there is something about Marilyn Wann that grinds my gears and I find so disingenuous. What about a little self respect? Why do us fat people have to "prove" ourselves to the rest of the world, like on a hyper-jolly freak out wearing pink and or pink hair to win the affections of others? It is actually kind of a world of froth to the more intellectual among us. Even outside to the more conservative, what if you do not relate to or agree with the hyper-liberal identity politics? Sex worker parade? You HAVE got to be kidding me, what does this mean, that now we have to support vice and prostitution too? Well I talked about what I saw in size acceptance myself. I know many in San Francisco have lost it, but guess that tells me enough there.

I vote for a big, fat parade for all of us! As a fat activist, I want people of all body types to waddle with me. A big, fat parade is also a sex-worker parade and an antiracism parade and a parade for gender diversity and a parade with people of different abilities and mobilities and a queer march and an all-ages parade, and more. Because that's who we are.

Instead of making long lists of outsider groups who deserve long-overdue welcome and then debating who's deserving and who isn't, what if we were all welcome all the time?

What would Marilyn Wann say to me, if I told her, I can't walk enough to be in a parade? Remember I do not use a scooter, though I do own one, I actually refused a wheelchair years ago, fearing I would lose mobility. What would a parade mean to my personal life? Some of my friends are thin, are they going to have a THIN parade to counteract my FAT parade? LOL

Then there is her weird "I am so healthy" message, OK we get it. She has been repeating it for years. I agree there are many mid-sized people out there, who while they probably aren't going to do an Iron Man marathon, can be pretty healthy, but what does this say to fat people who aren't? At least she has tempered some of that down.

I'll be there to continue learning what I can do. As a fat activist, I often want to say, "But I'm healthy! Look, I eat my veggies and exercise." While it's fun to flout stereotypes, social justice is unacceptably precarious if it depends on good behavior, or on access to other flavors of unearned privilege. For example, gaining respect for fat people who happen to be rich or healthy or white or able-bodied at the expense of other fat people is just more yuck, not yum. Human rights should be based on the fact that we're all here, not on some begrudging notion that some of us should or would change if we could.

Sigh...my world view doesn't even match these folks, not at all nor do I want it too. It's too bad that fat people are being suckered into this stuff....

Perhaps they see the socialist 'Communist? Left? as their fat salvation for real [notice the name of the group she lovingly mentions CASTRO towards the end...that her friend is in]....however once the gulags are in place, and food is meted out via portion control and fiat, perhaps they ought to rethink that, and understand how food and everything else was controlled even in China under Mao, with every village council counting the food, and number of chickens and pigs.

What is sad is how this type of rhetoric does to affect fat people. "Have a parade!"

Years ago, I got in a conversation with Marilyn Wann or someone claiming to be her online but it was her message board so believed it was her, I think at the time I was near my peak weight and probably about to die, wish I could remember the exact year but it was at least 10 years ago if not more. I told her, "Please go to a nursing home that specializes in bariatrics to see what obesity really does to people and how it ravages lives". She was actually quite offended by this. Even one of my friends who had lost weight but had grown more ill from another condition, was in a nursing home where she saw a score of people too overweight to function in their 30s, and 40s and beyond. Marilyn Wann probably would be in shock that I am even still alive to this day. This was around the time right before I lost weight down from near 700lbs and got involved in my last community. I described my life at the time to her. I felt absolutely no empathy whatsoever, and was condemned for not being "fat positive". She seems to be another "community organizer" and "social engineer" type that cares nothing about normal fat people, just there to influence minds and opinions for the powers that be throwing up distraction. For someone like this, I am sure it's a good money-making gig but not much more then that, but she doesn't speak for me.