SkinnyGossip.com and it really sort of disturbed me. No scratch that, it did disturb me. I am the last person to promote unhealthy living, but having “starving tips of the day” when young girls can see this stuff is a bit unnerving. ( She has since modified her website/blog to not include these)
I started reading some of the material on there and came across this, http://www.skinnygossip.com/fat-pride-burns-my-hide/, and this is how I responded:
Let me start by saying that I in no way shape or form agree with someone claiming they are ‘plus-sized’ when the truth is they don’t want to put down the donuts and eat some lettuce every once in a while.I do agree that most people these days have found every excuse in the book to not call themselves large, especially in America. Where I come from they tell you if you have gained weight, they let you know it’s noticeable, the women don’t run off crying in the bathroom we try to fix it, to live better, longer, and happier lives. That being said. I am not a self-proclaimed “fat-lover” as you have so colorfully stated, but what I will say is that I believe you send the wrong message. Women were not all built to fit a specific mold. We come in different shapes and sizes. I am 5’7 (same height as you) and I am not 100 lbs (as you’ve stated that you are in your ‘About Me’ section) does that make me fat? I don’t over-eat, I have a healthy diet and I exercise regularly (love those Pilates!), but sadly in your mind I would still be deemed a “fat-girl”. I actually came across your blog, when I read about it in an article online about your comments on a model and I didn’t believe that this actually existed. I think what you do can be extremely damaging (I’ve read through other parts of your blog)… I am worried about the young girls who come across your blog and think that being 100 lbs is the ONLY way to go. It isn’t we aren’t all built the same and it is unfair of you to write the things you do on your blog. You say that people don’t find ‘Big’ beautiful, but that isn’t true most renaissance paintings depicted fuller figured women because back then this was the societal norm; that was their beautiful. I thought we were past this idea of fitting in, and looking like what everyone else tells us to? I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I DO NOT support people who eat unhealthily and then call themselves “plus-sized” because they don’t want to take care of themselves, but I do support healthy living, all women who are considered “plus-sized don’t live of off donuts, and healthy is not always a size 2 …
She is correct that we live in a society that glorifies over-consumption of everything (not just food!) but she is also forgetting that women (and men) are built differently. At 5’7, with broad shoulder, a high waist, and wide hips I could never be the 100 lbs she boasts to be on her page (her and I are the same height). It is anatomically impossible, and improbable for me to ever be that thin. I try to eat properly, I never over-eat, I exercise and try to stay as active as possible, but in her eyes I’m still a “fat-girl” … and according to her big isn’t beautiful. I understand when she says there are double standards when it comes to skinnier people, everyone loves to tell them what to eat, that what they look like is “wrong”, but I also believe that her writing some of the things she’s written about bigger people has placed her in the same boat as the same people who criticize her weight.
To sum it all up she makes some valid points, but she has very little tact and I’ll admit that I was a bit outraged that she had the audacity to write some of the things she did. I think young women who come across this site are bound to leave feeling like they are less because they have curves, we aren’t all meant to be rail thin, we’re not all meant to be “plus-sized” either… what happened to everyone being beautiful, no matter what they looked like ? Who decides what’s beautiful anymore …?
Renée Stephanie 