FatLand National Anthem

FatLand National Anthem (From FatLand:  The Early Days)


When a country told us that we’re too fat for their pride,
Tried to hold us down and made us feel so bad inside,
We all got together, figured out what we would do—
Spread a little love and hope to more than just the few.

Chorus
Fat and free, fat and free—
We are proud to live strong, fat and free
As we go through our full days living our lives
As sons and daughters, partners, husbands, wives.

Now we have a territory that we call our own.
Seven letters form a land that we have made our home.
F-A-T-L-A-N-D—we say this name and smile,
As long as we live here, we need never fear exile.

Chorus
Fat and free, fat and free—
We are proud to live strong, fat and free
As we go through our full days living our lives
As sons and daughters, partners, husbands, wives.

Grandmas

Because many people emigrated from the OtherSide/USA to FatLand without relatives, many of them were lonely at first, and even for a while after. One of the most innovative approaches to this problem involved creating a group called Grandmas. Women who were older than 45 were welcomed into the group. They received work credits -if they wanted them- for "adopting" younger FatLanders. Or younger FatLanders could adopt them.

FatLanders who wanted grandmas submitted their preferences via online/smartpad form.

Some FatLanders kept these "grandmas" until the grandmas died or they died. They made FatLand life secure and happy, the FatLanders said.

Another story of dieting that caused weight gain

My own story. There are many like it, however, in the FatLand Archives.


So it was like this...

Lost about 15 pounds in camp when I was 12. Got bronchitis and lost seven more. I actually looked slim. Shows just how sick I was. My grandma (mom's mom), with whom I was staying, was beside herself with worry. As I got better, I gained 10 pounds back. Gained thirty more that first semester of 7th grade at least partly because we moved and things were extremely confusing for a while.

Lost about twenty, gained it back. This happened twice, in two years. Gained two inches. So there I was, at 5'9 and 164, fairly athletic, healthy, loving to walk. But then the doctor said noooo...you must lose 24 pounds. Why? Good question. So I lost 11 pounds by walking even more and eating a lot less. Lost 11 more in camp. Gained them back plus seven more. Up to 170 now. Went on a 500 calorie a day diet and lost 20 pounds. Stopped dieting because I was hungry. Gained the 20 pounds back plus 10. Lost 15 the second semester of college.

Gained them back plus 10 more. Lost them, gained, lost, gained all back...plus eight.

The pattern continued until the year 2000, when I swore I would not diet ever again.

I have not.

In thought I wrap in icecubes the primary care doctor who said I had to lose 20 pounds.

A Voting Party

In FatLand 3:  To Live Proud and Free, FatLand will switch over to voting for a territorial Senate. It will be the first time FatLanders vote in an actual FatLand election. But instead of making it boring and mundane, FatLand will be making it a party and FatLanders will be meeting each other at the election places and dancing :)

The Thinness Society

The Thinness Society met for the first time on October 7, 2046. Many FatLanders were appalled at the very idea. Unfortunately, a minority were vocal supporters.

One of the original members of the "Fat and Happy" TV reality show in 2010, the show that ended up being the stimulus behind the creation of FatLand, decided that there were now too many people who were starting to become thin in FatLand. She didn't realize that genetic probability was simply taking its turn, and that the thin kids and young adults she was seeing were the result of recessive genes pairing up. So she founded the Thinness Society, which was focused on trying to "treat" thinness. Needless to say, there were no thin members of the Thinness Society.

Ring a bell? The Obesity Society is an actual organization here in the USA and is still focused on "treating" obesity (read "fat people").  There are no "obese" members. There are: doctors, educators, nurses, all talking about how obesity should be helped/cured/eradicated.

And just as you might imagine, there were demonstrators outside this meeting of the Thinness Society carrying signs that read "Thinness is not a disease" and "Thinness does not need to be treated."

Yep. And neither does "Obesity."

Anti-Bariatric Interventions

Something weird happened in 2045-2046, after the Pro-Health and Diet measures were repealed on the Other Side/USA and after they resumed relations with FatLand.

Bariatric surgery, which had fallen into disuse on the Other Side because it did not result in long term major weight loss, started up again, but not as a weight loss aid. It was being touted as a cure for diabetes, an idea which had already been disproved in the early 2000's.  But certain people saw in it a chance to profit. So they started running ads for it, ads bolstered by studies which were either disproved themselves or nonexistent.

A number of FatandProud chapters on The Other Side contacted FatLand doctors and Friends of FatandProud (a FatLand group dedicated to helping and working with FatandProud chapters on The Other Side). They came up with the Anti-Bariatric Interventions - ABI's, for short.

What this entailed:   Several FatandProud members, often assisted and accompanied by Friends of FatandProud members who were able to travel to the USA (which was much easier, now that relations had been resumed between FatLand and the USA), would rush over to the hospital or clinic at which a bariatric surgical operation was being performed. They would spray shaving cream over the doctor or doctors performing the operation, then snatch the operee out before she was anaesthetized. They would transport her to a safe house. When she awoke, they would explain to  her that BLS surgery does not reduce or do away with diabetes in the long term. They would also tell her that she was free to stay in the safe house (house managed and populated with FatandProud people) as long as she wished, and that they would assist her in managing her diabetes. They would then have a FatandProud dietitian talk to her.

In this way, FatandProud, along with Friends of FatandProud, saved more than 1000 women from having BLS. Not one of the women chose to have the surgery after staying in a FatandProud safe house.

FatLand Bookstores

There are many bookstores in FatLand, which is a bit surprising because most people on the Other Side/USA buy most of their books online.

For some reason, FatLanders like holding books and looking at them and reading them.

Most FatLand bookstores are open at least until midnight, and often later on the weekends.

Many feature readings. concerts, reading groups and other discussion groups. More than half have cafes.

In other words:  They offer what Borders bookstores once did until they went out of business on the OtherSide.

In other words:  They make buying books fun.


Oh - there are no weight loss sections. "Health" and "Fitness" categories do not include weight loss.

But they do include sex.

FatLand Pizza Days

One of the first restaurants to go up on one of the main arteries of FatLand City, as it is now called, was a pizza place/casual Italian restaurant. In six months there were three more pizza places within eight blocks. In a year, there were twelve. Two closed a few months after. Ten remained.

Their signs were calculated to draw customers from their competition. They held sales, lunchtime specials, Super Sundays, Special Saturdays, held contests, held dances, had outdoor concerts.

One day, when all ten pizza places/restaurants were plugging their specials and contests, Margaret Clancy, the owner of the first and best known FatLand newspaper, observed that instead of competing against each other all the time, they might instead sponsor a Pizza Days festival in which they all served their best, had eating contests and tasting events and of course a few concerts.

It didn't take long for the restaurant owners and staff to agree that this festival would benefit all of them and bring welcome publicity.

And that is how FatLand Pizza Days got started...

Coming of age stories from FatLand

Now there are coming of age stories coming out of FatLand!

How wonderful it is, to see the writings of young people who were born and/or grew up here.

Some of them refer to the sheltered, almost dreamy quality of life here. Some of them refer to sneaking views and sneaking off the The Other Side to see what life was like there.

A few of them refer to the difficulties of growing up as thin or as transgendered in FatLand. Unfortunately even a land as egalitarian and tolerant as FatLand cannot escape the consequences of problems experienced by those who are different in some way.

Some of them talk about the wonderful food. Some of them discuss the ease with which they were able to stay up all night.  Some of them voice appreciation of the FatLand employment counselors and FatLand's economic system. Some talk about the unique FatLand games they enjoyed.

But all of them adore the scenery and the sunsets.

Backlash

After FatLand and The Other Side/USA normalized relations, a small but vocal group started taking out ads in online blogs and news media. The ads said, "Diversity is good, but health is better." They showed a fat woman who seemingly was having difficulty walking to her car from a store and a slim woman dancing in a club.

When FatLanders learned of the ads, they complained to their bodies of governance which then authorized the creation of ads which showed two women -one fat, one slim- dancing side by side. Both were dancing quite well. The ad read:  The only thing body size tells you is body size. Anything else is your own prejudice at work.

The organization which sponsored the "Diversity is good, health is better" ads pulled them.

Their ads were paid for mostly by your friend and mine, Winston Stark. Why? Always an interesting question when it comes to Stark. Perhaps he was trying to drum up business for CompleteFitness,  which wasn't doing too well. Perhaps he was just trying to stir up trouble.

As usual.

Stray Animals

Sometimes FatLanders take it into their heads to feed stray animals. Not only is this encouraged, but the newly created FatLand Stray Animal Sanctuary comes around to help and then takes in animals that have gotten too big or too difficult for rescuers to take care of.

Very few rapes in FatLand

There are very few rapes in FatLand. Why? First of all, FatLanders receive a thorough education in kinds of love. Sex is not called "sex." It is called pleasuring, pleasing, making love, love play, love passages, adoring. Notice that there is no opposition or even a dialectic between "physical" and "emotional."

Secondly, what people call "rape" on the OtherSide/USA is considered abuse by strangers and is treated as such. The legal minds of FatLand have come up with the classification according to the following line of reasoning:  someone who tries or tries and succeeds in doing something he or she was not given permission to do is no longer a friend or someone who bears any relation to the person who did not give permission. Ergo, he or she is a stranger, and subject to laws governing abuse by strangers.

Punishment:  Exile from FatLand.

The Conversation

When FatLand kids are around 9 or 10, their parent(s) or guardian(s) sit(s) them down to have The Conversation.

The happy news is that The Conversation is a lot less foreboding than it was thirty years ago, around the time FatLand was formed.

The sad news is that they have to have it at all. I mean, TheOtherSide/USA has repealed the Pro-Diet and Health Laws, and now, in 2046, there are many businesses starting up in the USA and also in FatLand which feature gourmet food and big, luscious drinks There are businesses that now cater to fat people in FatLand which are actually gaining fans in the USA as well, so it shows that there are enough fat people left in the USA to purchase what these businesses are selling.

And yet..

In certain places there still exist anti-fat bigots.

So this is how the conversation goes.

"People come in all different sizes, and all sizes are fine. People start to feel sick if they starve themselves. This is why in FatLand, people don't talk about weight or needing to change their sizes. More and more people are starting to think the way people in FatLand think, but there are still some people left who think that only a few different sizes and one kind of body are the right ones to have. If you ever hear anyone who says things like this, tell me or tell your teacher. Someone who holds this view is called a bigot. It means they don't want most people to exist. They only want people of certain sizes to exist. In FatLand, if someone says things like this, they are fined. If they continue, they are tossed out.

So remember - all kinds of bodies are good. You have a wonderful body, and you are a wonderful person. (I love you.)


When kids are older, they are taken to the FatLand Museum and then to the FatLand Cultural and Historical Institute to see more of what went on during the time that the Pro-Health and Diet Laws were in force on the OtherSide/USA. They also get to read about the FatLand heroes and organizations who were responsible for rescuing many OtherSiders and keeping FatLanders safe, either in FatLand or on the OtherSide.

Then a long discussion takes place in class and usually in their homes.

Fat?

In the FatLand National Museum, there is an exhibit entitled "Fat and Fear."  There is another exhibit entitled "Fat?" It is the second one I'm thinking about now. The question it poses is "Who is considered fat, and why?"

The ironic part of this is that even during the Pro-Health and Diet reign of anti-fat terror, not all admins and staff even agreed about who was fat, and who wasn't. Technically people were supposed to be considered overweight if their BMI was above 30, and overweight if it was above 25. Yet they ran into a problem very quickly. Can you guess?  Some people who had BMI's of x looked fatter than those who had BMI's of x+5 or even x+7.  The admins learned, to their chagrin and embarrassment, that it was very difficult to tell exactly what someone's BMI was just by looking at her or him.

They also learned later that they also could not figure out what someone's eating habits were just by knowing her or his BMI. People they scorned as fatties could be vegans. People they considered slim and trim could be scarfing down two gigantic steaks or burgers per day.

And even more embarrassing to the admins who were sincerely concerned about maintaining the health of the citizens of their nation:  they couldn't tell even from someone's "health habits" (eating and exercise patterns) how healthy he or she was. People who ate very little sugar developed diabetes. People who had never smoked developed lung cancer. People who ate sugar every day did not develop diabetes.

A couple of admins all but admitted that the classification of "fat" was proving to be problematic. And a study done in FatLand simply reconfirmed that the most important indicator for anyone's weight was genetic, and that setpoint weights was not very malleable. It also reconfirmed that every person has/had a unique nutritional blueprint, and that although this does change in some ways during his or her life, most of the foods which provide the most nutrients to anyone are those he or she likes most - unless, of course, this blueprint is affected by starvation or yo-yo dieting, which can set off eating disorders, including but not limited to bulimia, anorexia and binging.

What does all this have to do with who is and is not considered fat?  It turned out that the people most likely to be called "fat" and sent to Reeducation Centers (aka Fat prisons) were those who were not following the diet and exercise plans prescribed by the Health and Diet Admins, even if their BMI's were the same as or even a bit less than those who were following the prescribed plans. Of course all of them were harassed by both staff and anti-fat bigots, but if someone could show that he or she was following the plan and was being monitored daily by an admin, that person probably would not be sent to a Reeducation Center. A "bad" fatty, one who was not following the "plan," would be sent, and would be labeled "fat" much more readily.

Even these days, on the OtherSide/USA, someone who is wearing fashionable, costly clothes and accessories to match, someone who is concealing most of her flesh, and smiling -believe it or not, the "smiling" part is an important part of this- and is not seen eating in public, is less likely to be called "fat," even if she is the same size as someone else who is eating an ice cream cone, wearing clothes that are not fashionable, or are baggy, or tight, or someone who is fat and showing -gasp!- more flesh than the bigot thinks is "nice."

So if we stop to consider, "fat" is often more of a political term than anything else and connotes someone who is not controllable by the constraints of fashion and by anti-fat bigots.

Fat Women Portrayed Falsely as Racist(s)

I've seen it a few times in the last four months or so  - bigger women supposedly ranting racist remarks at someone in a video on Facebook. But guess what:  The first of these memes, the fat blond lady sitting next to an African American man and telling the stewardess that she'd like to be moved to another seat, turned out to be false (Snopes).

The second, another fat racist blond lady spouting off against  a Muslim kid, appeared on the site Loonwatch, an anti-anti Muslim site. It turns out to be false, as well. It went viral, though.

It seems that people really get into the idea of fat white women being racist. No doubt there are fat white women and skinny white women who are racist, and skinny white men, and fat white men. But there are people who hate fat women so much that they are willing to invent scenarios and memes in which they portray fat women as racists. My god. If they wish to find real instances of racism, whoever voices them, they can, I am sure, locate actual examples.

Or would these examples not be quite as satisfying because they might not feature fat women?

Yet another good reason to move to FatLand. Fat women are not made scapegoats in/of invented racist memes.

Does "bigger" justify shooting??

Somehow all the descriptions of Michael Brown, the teen who was murdered by a policeperson in Ferguson, MO, as a "big guy" are making me angry. Sometimes there is the supposition that perhaps the police needed to fire six bullets to take him down (errr, for what? Facing the police with his hands up?)

Intersectionality: Not bad enough that the Ferguson police force had/has a record of harassing black people who live in their town. They had to come up with reasons for the police to be afraid of an unarmed teen. Oh, sure...tell them that he was "big." Does that mean that it is somehow okay for police to target people who are bigger, as well? Did they think that Michael Brown would beat them in hand to hand combat?

Listening to the Ferguson police force trying to come up with reasons to justify their crime is like listening to George W. Bush trying to justify going to war in Iraq.

Then you think of the militarization of police forces all around the USA and you realize: These *are* the weapons of mass destruction.


And I think...it's not one day too soon for us all to go to FatLand, where no police-type protectors carry guns or other arms.

No guns

FatLand police/guardians do not carry guns.

Bigot of the Week

In the years between its creation and the last months of the Pro-Health and Diet Laws on the Other Side/USA, FatLand hosted a weekly video series entitled "Bigot of the Week." They named the person who said the meanest, nastiest things about fat people in the world -or on several continents- during the week. It was a lot of fun and incorporated comedy and some pertinent music and songs, as well.

The show was abruptly cancelled when the Pro-Health and Diet Laws were repealed in 2044. But the FatLand researchers soon learned of other bigots who continued to attack fat people. So many requests to reinstate "Bigot of the Week" poured in that the video managers decided to put it back on the air.

So on one cool autumn night, "Bigot of the Week" returned, to fanfare and fan cheers.

First rules

One of the first things FatLanders learn when they arrive in FatLand is that food that tastes good and makes you feel good is healthy.

One of the first things FatLanders unlearn when they arrive in FatLand is that food that tastes bad and makes you feel bad is good for you.

The second thing  they unlearn is that  food that tastes good and makes you feel good is bad for you.

The second thing they learn is that whatever weight one is is a "healthy" weight if one has fun with one's body!

Generation Gap

The first generation of FatLanders were so pleased to be able to live their lives without stigma and without persecution that they weren't interested in rocking the boat socially. They were pleased and often thrilled to be appreciated and admired. They were tickled to be able to marry, to work, to mingle, to have social lives, to walk up and down streets without being jeered and harassed.

The second generation, however, born and raised in FatLand, took their freedom/s from stigma, persecution and harassment for granted. (This was, however, at least partly because their parents could not bring themselves to speak of the horrors of the Pro-Health and Diet administration and years.) Many started to rebel against what they perceived as the stolidity and boring nature of life in FatLand.

However, the ones who were either sent to the OtherSide/USA or heard or read in more detail about the Pro-Health and Diet times started to appreciate anew life in FatLand.

But it was true that the second generation was not as interested in marrying (one person at a time) or setting up cozy, nuclear style families.