This is a side story about a woman who belonged to a group on the Other Side/USA closely related to FatLand: FatandProud.
All my life I was a pretty peaceful soul. I was a proofreader. I owned a modestly priced condo in Inwood, at the tip of Manhattan. I was considered reliable and competent, two attributes which arose out of my loving my work. I took one week vacations in various parts of New England and brought along my work. I walked in the park nearest to my condo in autumn. I had a few peaceful, modestly interesting romantic relationships that didn't last past a year. I was devoted to my parents and my cat. I had a few good friends and two with whom I met each week for some meal or other. In short, a contented and productive life.
Oh, yes. I was also a member of FatandProud because I am fat and read articles by and about several strong, proud, fat women who voiced what I had been thinking for a while, which was that diets do not work and that it is so much happier and easier to lead a life which does not involve hating yourself and your body.
We met monthly for a while. Then, when the Pro-Diet and Health Laws were passed in 2010 and then more of them in 2014, we began to be viewed as subversive. At first we thought it was humorous. Then, when several of us received calls from the FBI, we started to feel otherwise. And we started to meet weekly.
In 2014 we set up our Fat Underground Rescue Team. We were saving fat people from the Reeducation Centers, in which they were brainwashed and starved, often without their losing a pound. Sometimes we did manage to spring them, but more often we worked to help them escape to FatLand.
Early in 2015, I received my call.
"Ms. Pomeroy," it began, "I am Clarence Knightley from the FBI. We would consider it extremely helpful to our peacekeeping efforts if you could tell us the names of the people from FatandProud who are helping you maintain the Underground Railroad."
"Am I under arrest?" I asked.
"No."
"Then am I free to go?"
"If you tell us the names of people who are helping you in the Underground Railroad."
"Am I free to go?"
"I am sorry to say that your efforts have earmarked you for a Reeducation Center. So that question is basically moot."
"Thank you, Mr. Knightley," I said, and hung up.
How strange it still felt, to be considered "subversive" for being fat and helping to free fat people who were not causing trouble to anyone or anything but had been labeled undesirable citizens because they were fat and because many corporate entities found it convenient to scapegoat them. Insurance. Big Pharma. Diet Companies. Fitness Companies.
But in any case, I was now one of the targeted and had to move fast. I could not text those who had to know, but emailed them through a hidden network we maintained. I simply typed "420," our prearranged code, and they knew. Within minutes a car was sent for me and I got in with one bag and my cat, who would be taken in by sister FAP members. I kissed her goodbye as I transferred to a van with a back in which I was told to hide by lying down and covering with a blanket that matched the seats. They then took me to the Denver airport, where I boarded a flight to Canada under an assumed name with a different passport, made up for me and kept in my escape bag at all times. I then passed through their customs and blessedly then into the FatLand Air Section, rather new at the time, but still incredibly good to see.
The FatLand Air head sat me down and asked if I wanted to go to FatLand or work with FatAir, the FatLand airline, to get people out of the OtherSide/USA. I chose the latter. I knew that my FatandProud friends would need rescuing, and soon.
I missed them all. And I did end up taking a hand in rescuing them. But that is a story for another time.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
No racism in FatLand
No racism in FatLand. Why? No one is made to feel inferior by virtue of job, income, looks, race, gender, belief system.
FatLand has people of all races and colors and ethnic groups and belief systems and sexes and genders.
FatLand has serious punishments for bullying. The worst ends one's residence in FatLand. "Bullying" in FatLand includes negative statements made against anyone for any attribute or possession. This includes all of the above.
FatLand has some punishments on the books for discrimination against anyone who wishes to enter any establishment or business and anyone who seeks to prevent anyone else from purchasing anything or renting anything. However, they have never been applied. No one seems to want to or need to discriminate.
FatLand has no jails. There is no chance for racist subcultures to develop.
People in FatLand are allowed to opt out of racist and sexist channels on the net or anywhere else. They are also encouraged to point them out so that others will know about them. There are several people to whom these bigoted channels are reported in FatLand.
People can choose any job they find and request a trial period during which they are judged and tested -and paid- for their ability to do a job. So there is no inferiority associated with any particular job or kind of job.
People can participate in sports and activities they appreciate without either being pressured or stopped from doing so.
People are encouraged to use FatLand facilities and to find friends. Thus we don't experience the frightening phenomenon of anti-social people with axes to grind (and guns).
Oh, and speaking of guns - they are outlawed. No one is allowed to possess them. Not even most law enforcement personnel (of whom there are not many). So no one fears that people of any one particular group may possess them.
FatLand has people of all races and colors and ethnic groups and belief systems and sexes and genders.
FatLand has serious punishments for bullying. The worst ends one's residence in FatLand. "Bullying" in FatLand includes negative statements made against anyone for any attribute or possession. This includes all of the above.
FatLand has some punishments on the books for discrimination against anyone who wishes to enter any establishment or business and anyone who seeks to prevent anyone else from purchasing anything or renting anything. However, they have never been applied. No one seems to want to or need to discriminate.
FatLand has no jails. There is no chance for racist subcultures to develop.
People in FatLand are allowed to opt out of racist and sexist channels on the net or anywhere else. They are also encouraged to point them out so that others will know about them. There are several people to whom these bigoted channels are reported in FatLand.
People can choose any job they find and request a trial period during which they are judged and tested -and paid- for their ability to do a job. So there is no inferiority associated with any particular job or kind of job.
People can participate in sports and activities they appreciate without either being pressured or stopped from doing so.
People are encouraged to use FatLand facilities and to find friends. Thus we don't experience the frightening phenomenon of anti-social people with axes to grind (and guns).
Oh, and speaking of guns - they are outlawed. No one is allowed to possess them. Not even most law enforcement personnel (of whom there are not many). So no one fears that people of any one particular group may possess them.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Why It Hurts
It goes like this. Friends who have "liked" and appreciated your Fat Acceptance posts on Facebook suddenly, probably not even thinking much about it, post something about the "Childhood Obesity Epidemic" or "Children need to maintain a healthy weight." And it is as if they've punched you straight in the stomach or slapped you in the face.
These friends have absolutely no clue that a) you spent at least half of your childhood and teenage years and probably at least some of your college years dieting/starving, after which the weight came right back, and then some. These friends also have no idea that you were actually pretty athletic, at whatever weight you were, and walked your slimmer friends into the ground (not literally) and played volleyball intramurally and climbed statues and gave killer massages and...so to say "healthy weight" is rather a misnomer because you were healthy. It is just that some doctors and insurance charts kept pushing you to lose because your numbers didn't match the numbers on the charts. But you didn't know that then. It just seemed weird and wrong.
These friends do not know that the slimmest you ever were was 123 pounds when you were 12 years old and 5'6", and you had a very bad case of bronchitis and could hardly eat. Ironically the charts listed this as a "normal" weight, but your ribs were sticking out. As you recuperated, you gained weight. And you felt a lot better, but you knew at the same time that you weren't supposed to feel better if you were getting heavier.
So your friends who echo these phrases have absolutely no clue about the childhood of fat kids who feel healthy and get exercise and eat pretty much what their thinner friends eat. And yet they echo the set phrases of whatever campaign has set its sights on mouthing off about fat kids, most of whom are perfectly all right. Why are they fat? Genetics? Metabolism? Sleep patterns? Chemicals? Who knows? Because guess what - any attempts to control their weight end up causing them a) to gain weight b) to develop eating disorders.
However, if your friends are so very concerned about them, they might consider joining a campaign to give all kids access to places to exercise and the freedom from bullies that would let them do so. It won't cause them to lose weight, but it will give them opportunities to move.
And for goodness' sake, hope that your friends are aware that their fat friends probably were healthy when they were young, or would have been if they weren't being put on every diet known to peoplekind, and then some.
So...next time your friends automatically get set to write about "childhood obesity" or "kids needing to maintain a healthy weight," hope that your friends think about their fat friends, whom they may be hurting without even realizing it.
And hope that they write about something else.
These friends have absolutely no clue that a) you spent at least half of your childhood and teenage years and probably at least some of your college years dieting/starving, after which the weight came right back, and then some. These friends also have no idea that you were actually pretty athletic, at whatever weight you were, and walked your slimmer friends into the ground (not literally) and played volleyball intramurally and climbed statues and gave killer massages and...so to say "healthy weight" is rather a misnomer because you were healthy. It is just that some doctors and insurance charts kept pushing you to lose because your numbers didn't match the numbers on the charts. But you didn't know that then. It just seemed weird and wrong.
These friends do not know that the slimmest you ever were was 123 pounds when you were 12 years old and 5'6", and you had a very bad case of bronchitis and could hardly eat. Ironically the charts listed this as a "normal" weight, but your ribs were sticking out. As you recuperated, you gained weight. And you felt a lot better, but you knew at the same time that you weren't supposed to feel better if you were getting heavier.
So your friends who echo these phrases have absolutely no clue about the childhood of fat kids who feel healthy and get exercise and eat pretty much what their thinner friends eat. And yet they echo the set phrases of whatever campaign has set its sights on mouthing off about fat kids, most of whom are perfectly all right. Why are they fat? Genetics? Metabolism? Sleep patterns? Chemicals? Who knows? Because guess what - any attempts to control their weight end up causing them a) to gain weight b) to develop eating disorders.
However, if your friends are so very concerned about them, they might consider joining a campaign to give all kids access to places to exercise and the freedom from bullies that would let them do so. It won't cause them to lose weight, but it will give them opportunities to move.
And for goodness' sake, hope that your friends are aware that their fat friends probably were healthy when they were young, or would have been if they weren't being put on every diet known to peoplekind, and then some.
So...next time your friends automatically get set to write about "childhood obesity" or "kids needing to maintain a healthy weight," hope that your friends think about their fat friends, whom they may be hurting without even realizing it.
And hope that they write about something else.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
"Promoting Obesity"
One of the most often-used phrases to fat-shame successful fat people in 2013-2014 was that they were "promoting obesity." This was of course used about FatLand in the same time period by OtherSiders/Americans. An article syndicated in several publications and online stated that by providing a territory to which fat people could immigrate, FatLand was promoting obesity.
FatLand already had several news services, among them the FatLand Free News, managed and partly owned by Margaret Clancy. She told her star reporter, Ava Bryer, to compose an editorial in response.
This is what Ava wrote.
Since FatLand is a territory to which fat people who have been discriminated against, shunned, harassed and imprisoned can now go and in which they can now live as citizens free of discrimination and harassment, you might indeed say that we are "promoting obesity," although of course FatLand does not recognize words invented to classify fat people. In a way, I suppose you could say that when Israel welcomed people who had escaped the concentration camps, it was promoting Jewishness. When the United States became a refuge for people who were fleeing the Irish famines (I would not be able to say "welcomed," considering the reception that most Irish people got when they arrived), does that mean that the USA was promoting Irishness? And when Thailand opened refugee camps for people fleeing Burma in the 1980's, did that mean they were promoting "Burmeseness"?
What this statement becomes when analyzed is a study in ignorance and stupidity. When a subset of people flee from a place in which they are being destroyed and murdered, whatever feature or ethnicity they possess that sets them apart from others who have decided to destroy and murder them is not being "promoted" in their new safe(r) haven. The people who possess it are merely being given a chance to survive. If one does not believe that people persecuted for their looks or ethnicity or religion should survive, then he or she is clearly earmarked as a bigot of the worst sort (not that there are any good bigots around, but there may be degrees).
So to say that by providing a place to which fat people can (and probably should) flee from the Other Side/USA, FatLand is "promoting obesity" is like saying that it is promoting their survival.
And I say to the author of this borderline idiocy: Got a problem with that?
FatLand already had several news services, among them the FatLand Free News, managed and partly owned by Margaret Clancy. She told her star reporter, Ava Bryer, to compose an editorial in response.
This is what Ava wrote.
Since FatLand is a territory to which fat people who have been discriminated against, shunned, harassed and imprisoned can now go and in which they can now live as citizens free of discrimination and harassment, you might indeed say that we are "promoting obesity," although of course FatLand does not recognize words invented to classify fat people. In a way, I suppose you could say that when Israel welcomed people who had escaped the concentration camps, it was promoting Jewishness. When the United States became a refuge for people who were fleeing the Irish famines (I would not be able to say "welcomed," considering the reception that most Irish people got when they arrived), does that mean that the USA was promoting Irishness? And when Thailand opened refugee camps for people fleeing Burma in the 1980's, did that mean they were promoting "Burmeseness"?
What this statement becomes when analyzed is a study in ignorance and stupidity. When a subset of people flee from a place in which they are being destroyed and murdered, whatever feature or ethnicity they possess that sets them apart from others who have decided to destroy and murder them is not being "promoted" in their new safe(r) haven. The people who possess it are merely being given a chance to survive. If one does not believe that people persecuted for their looks or ethnicity or religion should survive, then he or she is clearly earmarked as a bigot of the worst sort (not that there are any good bigots around, but there may be degrees).
So to say that by providing a place to which fat people can (and probably should) flee from the Other Side/USA, FatLand is "promoting obesity" is like saying that it is promoting their survival.
And I say to the author of this borderline idiocy: Got a problem with that?
Monday, May 19, 2014
To A Former FB Friend
Dear Former FB Friend,
It never ceases to amaze me how people can experience the disconnect that causes them to write in frightened tones about the DEATHFATZ Obesity Epidemic, and yet understand that their sister who diets and diets may diet her way into an eating disorder and regain the weight she lost.
As someone who counsels lesbian and bi couples with love, tolerance and wisdom, you still don't seem to understand that fat people are a much-maligned majority and that some of that love, tolerance and wisdom would be most helpful and pertinent when dealing with fat people, who really don't need to be stigmatized as an epidemic. First of all, people are older and taller these days. Many people gain weight when they are older. Taller people tend to get higher BMI readings because of the flaw in the BMI measuring system. People who diet may often diet their way to gaining weight, since that is the only thing that dieting seems to predict with success.
And I would also add: So what? Is the problem that you, a thin, blonde white female, cannot stomach the idea of fat people existing happily without stigma? You said you read FatLand. Didn't this mean anything to you? Didn't you see how the territory in which mostly fat people lived managed not only to grow, but to thrive when fat people were not stigmatized and were not stopped from making their contributions to a society that welcomed both them and their contributions?
If you knew, would you continue to write about us as an "Epidemic"? Would your sister be part of an epidemic? Or is it that you just don't like looking at fat people?
I tried to get to get across to you how fat people feel about not being represented in the ongoing discussion of their fate and their health. I thought you understood.
I guess I was wrong.
Sincerely, Frannie
Friday, May 16, 2014
Non fat readers.
Our non-fat readers are, I believe, not very well understood by us. (Sounds like I'm comparing them to yogurt...)We have not even taken any surveys or asked them any questions. I think that some curious Fat Studies dissertation writer should attempt to sample slim and/"average" folks who read Fat Studies pages and Fat Acceptance and Size Acceptance Lit. What do they hope to achieve or accomplish? What do they wish to know? Do they have many fat friends? Where did they find out about FA first? How do they feel about Fat Acceptance and HAES? Are they themselves afraid of getting fat, given the pressure in our society to be slim?
What do they see when they see us, listen to us, maybe even hug us? Oh lord, I feel a poem coming on..
What do they see when they see us, listen to us, maybe even hug us? Oh lord, I feel a poem coming on..
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Hospitals
As I stayed with my mom in the hospital, I had time to envision FatLand hospitals.
Imagine.
Gowns for all sizes. Seats that are comfortable for people of all sizes. Equipment that is calibrated to get accurate readings for each person (my little mom needed a pediatric cuff, which theyt didn't figure out for three days) for blood pressure, temperature, pulse, electrolytes, nutrients. Stretchers and beds that could be extended to fit people of all sizes. Furniture for those who stay with patients that would fit us well (middling on this, for the hospital in which we stayed.)
Nurses who don't discuss one's size. (They did comment on my mom's smallness, although not in an insulting manner. I am sure that I would have run into many size-related comments had I been the patient.) Doctors who don't discuss one's size. (Ditto what I just said in the last sentence.)
Waiting rooms with capacious chairs (the hospital in which we stayed did have them, amazingly). Chairs for people of all sizes outside, too. (Hats off the the hospital for this, too.) Ambulances that provide stretchers for people of all sizes (without commenting on them).
Is this all too much to ask for Other Siders/Americans in our lifetimes?
Imagine.
Gowns for all sizes. Seats that are comfortable for people of all sizes. Equipment that is calibrated to get accurate readings for each person (my little mom needed a pediatric cuff, which theyt didn't figure out for three days) for blood pressure, temperature, pulse, electrolytes, nutrients. Stretchers and beds that could be extended to fit people of all sizes. Furniture for those who stay with patients that would fit us well (middling on this, for the hospital in which we stayed.)
Nurses who don't discuss one's size. (They did comment on my mom's smallness, although not in an insulting manner. I am sure that I would have run into many size-related comments had I been the patient.) Doctors who don't discuss one's size. (Ditto what I just said in the last sentence.)
Waiting rooms with capacious chairs (the hospital in which we stayed did have them, amazingly). Chairs for people of all sizes outside, too. (Hats off the the hospital for this, too.) Ambulances that provide stretchers for people of all sizes (without commenting on them).
Is this all too much to ask for Other Siders/Americans in our lifetimes?
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