It's not that we are more oppressed or less oppressed than other groups..it's more that they say the same things about us as they did about other oppressed groups before they rebelled and began to redefine themselves and their relationship to their oppressor(s).
They say..we're less intelligent. We are lazy. We are dirty. We don't know what's good for us. We don't listen to others who supposedly know better than we do about what is fair for or good for us. We are not talented. We provide a bad example. We are bad fatties, not the good ones who are constantly trying to lose weight.
We are not interested in sex. We are too interested in sex. We promote obesity by participating in sports and other activities openly. We act proudly.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Mother's Day in FatLand
Mother's Day is a very special day in FatLand, not only because it venerates moms, but because in FatLand, the ideas of softness, nurturing, loving and feeding are not looked down upon.
In the past 100 years, these qualities associated with mothering have come under attack because it has become more and more de rigueur for CEO's and other business-oriented people to appear and perhaps even be hard, nasty, unkind and unforgiving, especially when pursuing ways to increase profits. The qualities considered necessary to make a good CEO are often in exact opposition to those considered necessary to make a good mother.
This is yet another reason that thinness has been prized as a body type. Thin people do not have bodies that are easy to hug. Thin people are not associated with kindness or nurturing and lovableness. See where this is going? The more kindness is considered passe or weak, the more fat people are also considered these things.
Mother's Day in FatLand takes on another added dimension because many who emigrated had to do so without their parents. Thus it was important for counselors to express nurturing and kindness to the new FatLanders, as well as the ability to understand and give them incentives to appreciate themselves and become and feel that they were part of FatLand.
Thus Mother's Day in FatLand continues to be much more than an occasion to send a card with flowers (although these things are certainly welcomed by those who receive them).
In the past 100 years, these qualities associated with mothering have come under attack because it has become more and more de rigueur for CEO's and other business-oriented people to appear and perhaps even be hard, nasty, unkind and unforgiving, especially when pursuing ways to increase profits. The qualities considered necessary to make a good CEO are often in exact opposition to those considered necessary to make a good mother.
This is yet another reason that thinness has been prized as a body type. Thin people do not have bodies that are easy to hug. Thin people are not associated with kindness or nurturing and lovableness. See where this is going? The more kindness is considered passe or weak, the more fat people are also considered these things.
Mother's Day in FatLand takes on another added dimension because many who emigrated had to do so without their parents. Thus it was important for counselors to express nurturing and kindness to the new FatLanders, as well as the ability to understand and give them incentives to appreciate themselves and become and feel that they were part of FatLand.
Thus Mother's Day in FatLand continues to be much more than an occasion to send a card with flowers (although these things are certainly welcomed by those who receive them).
Monday, May 5, 2014
No Diet Day in FatLand
In FatLand, people celebrate No Diet Day, not as the day that they shouldn't diet, since they don't, but as a day on which to cook and bake their finest and most luscious meals, snacks and desserts. Many restaurants have sidewalk cafe exhibits and tastings, and there are music and clothing exhibits and outside art showings and fiction and poetry readings. A gigantic all day festival, in other words.
However, yet another aspect, a more serious one, is commemorated in the FatLand Archives and Cultural and Historical Museum. Not only are records, books and archives relating to dieting mentioned, but the roll of the numbers of people who died as a result of dieting is read. This roll is recompiled every year. It is kept meticulously.
In schools, students discuss what diets were and what they caused. Exhibits vary from year to year. One exhibit that gained some notoriety was that of a scale. FatLand students had never seen a scale. A video showing kids lining up to get weighed was also shown. Some students cried on seeing the cruelty and insensitivity of this procedure. The teachers who were showing the video started a discussion on why The Other Side/USA utilized this mostly useless system and then how it was proven to be dangerous as well as useless. They directed the discussion loosely into why living in FatLand liberated people from being weighed and from having to diet.
Lunch was then served, with a make-your-own sundae bar featured for dessert.
However, yet another aspect, a more serious one, is commemorated in the FatLand Archives and Cultural and Historical Museum. Not only are records, books and archives relating to dieting mentioned, but the roll of the numbers of people who died as a result of dieting is read. This roll is recompiled every year. It is kept meticulously.
In schools, students discuss what diets were and what they caused. Exhibits vary from year to year. One exhibit that gained some notoriety was that of a scale. FatLand students had never seen a scale. A video showing kids lining up to get weighed was also shown. Some students cried on seeing the cruelty and insensitivity of this procedure. The teachers who were showing the video started a discussion on why The Other Side/USA utilized this mostly useless system and then how it was proven to be dangerous as well as useless. They directed the discussion loosely into why living in FatLand liberated people from being weighed and from having to diet.
Lunch was then served, with a make-your-own sundae bar featured for dessert.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Fat Talent
One of the most wonderful things about FatLand is that people with talent do not undergo harassment when they demonstrate their talents. Especially those which were associated with being slimmer on the OtherSide/USA, like dancing, various sports and acting in romantic movies.
People on the OtherSide/USA would often say that certain moves "looked wrong" wheun done by fat people, even when they were performed expertly. In their minds, fatter bodies were already so "wrong" that anything they did was automatically wrong. But when enough fat oeople started to perform in FatLand, whether dance, ice skating, figure skating, synchronized swimming or other activities and sports, people began to see that dances and sports performed by fat people were often beautifully done, with a grace and soft fluidity all their own. And yes, they looked different than when thinner people performed them, but the difference was just that - a difference, not a detriment.
So what it seemed/seems to need on The Other Side/USA is simply for more fat people to start dancing and figure skating and doing gymnastics. That way more people see that there can be different kinds of grace and beauty, that the look of a dance or sport they are used to does not dictate its worthiness when accomplished by those who are fat.
People on the OtherSide/USA would often say that certain moves "looked wrong" wheun done by fat people, even when they were performed expertly. In their minds, fatter bodies were already so "wrong" that anything they did was automatically wrong. But when enough fat oeople started to perform in FatLand, whether dance, ice skating, figure skating, synchronized swimming or other activities and sports, people began to see that dances and sports performed by fat people were often beautifully done, with a grace and soft fluidity all their own. And yes, they looked different than when thinner people performed them, but the difference was just that - a difference, not a detriment.
So what it seemed/seems to need on The Other Side/USA is simply for more fat people to start dancing and figure skating and doing gymnastics. That way more people see that there can be different kinds of grace and beauty, that the look of a dance or sport they are used to does not dictate its worthiness when accomplished by those who are fat.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Happy Happy Chart
When the first Neighborhood and Block Counselors were chosen, their job was defined as making sure that FatLanders were "adjusting" - feeling more or less okay, making friends, walking around, eating as they wished. However, counselors soon found that it was difficult for them to define endpoints. For what were they aiming with the people they counseled? Contentment? Ease? Peace? Cheerfulness? Happiness?
Those did sound like good words and good states to achieve, but they soon found that every person had her or his level of positivity. Sometimes this appeared as quiet contentment. Sometimes it resembled ease or peace. Occasionally there were people who were more vocal, more emotional and more easily detectable as "happy."
After getting together and meeting, the counselors decided that they would first and foremost aim for contentment with the people they counseled. If and only if someone wished to feel more involved and excited, and specifically said that she wished to feel more strongly positive about her life, then they would talk with and advise her as to how she might reach, what she might add or adjust to attain the level of cheerfulness and maybe then, happiness, which was something that others had already reached, sometimes on their own, sometimes with help.
They even drew up a chart for themselves, but which also became famous and sometimes something of a joke around FatLand. CONTENTMENT-> EASE-> PEACE-> CHEERFULNESS-> HAPPINESS.
The "Happy Happy Chart," jokers and sometimes the counselors themselves called it.
But it worked.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Sports and Dance Stereotypes Laid to Rest in FatLand
More dance activity is now occurring in FatLand - not just belly dancing, but jazz dancing, ballet, rock. It took a while for FatLand to stop buying into stereotypes of fat dancers - that they were not graceful, that they didn't look "right" while dancing.
FatLand ran an entire campaign to undo these stereotypes, and not just about dancing, but about running, gymnastics, and all sports which were supposedly the domain of slimmer people. The campaign was called "If you do it well, it looks right!" They had really excellent fat dancers and fat sportspeople showing their moves in many kinds of dance and sports. They also showed fat athletes training for various events, including a marathon, an ice dancing competition and a beach volleyball tournament.
This campaign hit home and helped dispel the stereotypes so well that people of various weights on the Other Side/USA were encouraged by it (now that there is no net blackout on either side) and started to take part in all kinds of sports and activities that they didn't think they could participate in previously.
And a word about fat people in different sports activities.
We have been brainwashed with these stereotypes for so long that many of us actually believe/d that we can't/couldn't do them. Ironically anotherv one is swimming, a sport in which fat people might actually have certain advantages (broad chest and shoulders, muscles, good buoyancy), but which many of us were told to rule out because we didn't fit the swimsuit image that advertisers sought.
The answer by FatLand swimmers is now, "We can indeed swim well. We are quite competitive. Why don't you change your advertising?"
FatLand ran an entire campaign to undo these stereotypes, and not just about dancing, but about running, gymnastics, and all sports which were supposedly the domain of slimmer people. The campaign was called "If you do it well, it looks right!" They had really excellent fat dancers and fat sportspeople showing their moves in many kinds of dance and sports. They also showed fat athletes training for various events, including a marathon, an ice dancing competition and a beach volleyball tournament.
This campaign hit home and helped dispel the stereotypes so well that people of various weights on the Other Side/USA were encouraged by it (now that there is no net blackout on either side) and started to take part in all kinds of sports and activities that they didn't think they could participate in previously.
And a word about fat people in different sports activities.
We have been brainwashed with these stereotypes for so long that many of us actually believe/d that we can't/couldn't do them. Ironically anotherv one is swimming, a sport in which fat people might actually have certain advantages (broad chest and shoulders, muscles, good buoyancy), but which many of us were told to rule out because we didn't fit the swimsuit image that advertisers sought.
The answer by FatLand swimmers is now, "We can indeed swim well. We are quite competitive. Why don't you change your advertising?"
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Burlesque Tourism in FatLand
A rather embarrassing kind of tourism started to occur when FatLand and the Other Side/USA resumed relations. Male tourists from the Other Side started to cross over to go to fat prostitutes/courtesans. The wealthier ones made prior arrangements with courtesans. The less wealthy went to FatLand brothels. Two burlesque groups formed: The Radiant Hot Springs and The Pussy Willows.
In response, a group of women from the Other Side/USA formed a group called "LOFM" - Lovers of Fat Men. Their first get-togethers with fat men occurred at dances and parties. Then, however, a burlesque group of fat men formed. It was called The CouchMen. The men in the group not only performed strip teases and dances, but gave lap dances, as well, to groups of assorted sizes. They became extremely popular in both FatLand and the Other Side/USA.
Gay men and gay women formed their own fat burlesque groups, as well. Gay men created a group entitled "Teddies." Gay women opted for "Hot Twats and More."
When FatLand's new Senate and House were apprised of these developments, a long debate ensued as to whether these groups should be applauded, regulated or banned.
They are still arguing :)
In response, a group of women from the Other Side/USA formed a group called "LOFM" - Lovers of Fat Men. Their first get-togethers with fat men occurred at dances and parties. Then, however, a burlesque group of fat men formed. It was called The CouchMen. The men in the group not only performed strip teases and dances, but gave lap dances, as well, to groups of assorted sizes. They became extremely popular in both FatLand and the Other Side/USA.
Gay men and gay women formed their own fat burlesque groups, as well. Gay men created a group entitled "Teddies." Gay women opted for "Hot Twats and More."
When FatLand's new Senate and House were apprised of these developments, a long debate ensued as to whether these groups should be applauded, regulated or banned.
They are still arguing :)
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