philtippett: jaraconnell: fuckyeahfeminists: thatfeministdyke: tall-thin-and-gorgeous: fitgirlfriend: I’m sorry Fa bloggers, what were you saying about healthy food being too expensive? This among many was a great sale going on for in season produce at my kroger. Suck it. They have buy one get one on all the mixed fruit at Publix. Ranging from small bowls to large.OMG TOO EXPENSIVE. LEMMIE JUST STOP AT MCDONALDS AND GET A #1… Oh.. Wait, That’s MORE expensive? wait…what.. Check out these two classist, fat shaming fuckwits who have about jack of an idea what they’re talking about. Uh, so strawberries being on sale at one store for a few days means that fresh food is not overpriced? OK. Let’s just ignore all the research and legitimate studies that show that economic barriers to eating healthy don’t exist. Because someone at tumblr took a picture of a lb of strawberries on sale.  Thanks!!! Top Ten Barriers to Organic and Local Food Access for Low-Income Individuals : “We believe that cost is the greatest obstacle low-income individuals face in accessing fresh, and especially organic and locally-produced, food.” Access to healthy foods: part I. Barriers to accessing healthy foods: differentials by gender, social class, income and mode of transport in the Health Education Journal: “The main findings are that access to food is primarily determined by income, and this is in turn closely related to physical resources available to access healthy food. There is an associated class bias over access to sources of healthy food…In tackling food poverty and pro moting healthy eating, health promotion practice needs to address these struc tural issues as opposed to relying on psycho-social models of education based on the provision of information and choice.”  Access to Affordable, Healthy and Nutritious Food (“Food Security”)  by Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada “It is often difficult and expensive to access healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and foods low in saturated fats, trans fats, salt and refined carbohydrates in remote communities, including remote Aboriginal communities.” I love that all fat-shamers believe that everyone who isn’t thin as fuck eats every meal at McDonalds. I’m a vegetarian, I eat extremely healthy, the vast majority of the food that I buy and eat is fresh organic produce, I haven’t been to a McDonalds in a decade or something, AND I’M STILL FAT. Actually, I eat significantly healthier than the majority of my thin friends because I enjoy cooking more and was raised to be very conscious of the fuel that I put into my body. “HEALTH-CONSCIOUS BUT NOT SKINNY AS SHIT?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!” you may be asking yourself. The answer, for the billionth fucking time, is that my body type is simply my body type. I look this way. It has no bearing on my health or my diet, just as someone who exists solely on pepperoni pizza but weighs 102 lbs isn’t healthy simply because they’re thin. Your waist may be tiny but your skull is fucking thick! not to mention these are only so ~cheap~ because they’re on sale for a grand total of three days, and are apparently usually over double that sale price. so yeah, not so much, OP.
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philtippett:

jaraconnell: fuckyeahfeminists: thatfeministdyke: tall-thin-and-gorgeous: fitgirlfriend:

I’m sorry Fa bloggers, what were you saying about healthy food being too expensive? This among many was a great sale going on for in season produce at my kroger. Suck it.

They have buy one get one on all the mixed fruit at Publix. Ranging from small bowls to large.
OMG TOO EXPENSIVE. 

LEMMIE JUST STOP AT MCDONALDS AND GET A #1… 
Oh.. 
Wait, That’s MORE expensive? 
wait…what..

Check out these two classist, fat shaming fuckwits who have about jack of an idea what they’re talking about.

Uh, so strawberries being on sale at one store for a few days means that fresh food is not overpriced?

OK. Let’s just ignore all the research and legitimate studies that show that economic barriers to eating healthy don’t exist. Because someone at tumblr took a picture of a lb of strawberries on sale. 

Thanks!!!

I love that all fat-shamers believe that everyone who isn’t thin as fuck eats every meal at McDonalds. I’m a vegetarian, I eat extremely healthy, the vast majority of the food that I buy and eat is fresh organic produce, I haven’t been to a McDonalds in a decade or something, AND I’M STILL FAT. Actually, I eat significantly healthier than the majority of my thin friends because I enjoy cooking more and was raised to be very conscious of the fuel that I put into my body. “HEALTH-CONSCIOUS BUT NOT SKINNY AS SHIT?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!” you may be asking yourself. The answer, for the billionth fucking time, is that my body type is simply my body type. I look this way. It has no bearing on my health or my diet, just as someone who exists solely on pepperoni pizza but weighs 102 lbs isn’t healthy simply because they’re thin. Your waist may be tiny but your skull is fucking thick!

not to mention these are only so ~cheap~ because they’re on sale for a grand total of three days, and are apparently usually over double that sale price. so yeah, not so much, OP.

Source: fitgirlfriend

showerthepeopleyoulovewithlove: zombieproduce: neon-casket: melifluus: Haley Morris-Cafiero made a series called Wait Watchers, in which she sets up a camera with a self-timer in public and photographs not only herself, but the public’s reactions to her, as a visible fat woman daring to exist in a public space. (More on Wait Watchers here) I looked at her website and saw this one first, but this whole project is extremely poignant for me.  Also, fuck cops. Fuck cops forever this series makes me so angry And this is why I had an anxiety attack just thinking about going to the store. This is why I didn’t want to get out of bed for school in the morning. This is the reason why I didn’t want to exist anymore. This is the reason why I starved myself for 7 mos. This is the reason why I don’t trust people. This is why I always think people are shade until they prove otherwise. This is the reason why I’m sad most of the time. I know I’ve reblogged this before, but I hadn’t seen this particular photo. Wow.
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showerthepeopleyoulovewithlove:

zombieproduce:

neon-casket:

melifluus:

Haley Morris-Cafiero made a series called Wait Watchers, in which she sets up a camera with a self-timer in public and photographs not only herself, but the public’s reactions to her, as a visible fat woman daring to exist in a public space. (More on Wait Watchers here)

I looked at her website and saw this one first, but this whole project is extremely poignant for me. 

Also, fuck cops.

Fuck cops forever

this series makes me so angry

And this is why I had an anxiety attack just thinking about going to the store. This is why I didn’t want to get out of bed for school in the morning. This is the reason why I didn’t want to exist anymore. This is the reason why I starved myself for 7 mos. This is the reason why I don’t trust people. This is why I always think people are shade until they prove otherwise. This is the reason why I’m sad most of the time.

I know I’ve reblogged this before, but I hadn’t seen this particular photo. Wow.

(via thefemme-menace)

Source: melifluus

Fat people face an absolute torrent of shame, stigma, bullying and oppression almost everywhere we turn. We face it at home from friends and family who have been taught by society that we should be shamed “for our own good” in some kind of logic-defying effort to make us hate ourselves healthy. We face it at work when our company has a point of view about our body size rather than focusing on our work performance. We face it at the doctor’s office when our actual symptoms are ignored and our health put a risk by doctors who diagnose us as fat and prescribe weight loss the minute they see us, never hearing a word we say. We face it from well-meaning strangers who have been taught by society that a fat body is an indication that we need outside advice, especially that of strangers with no particular health training who think that being thin makes them an expert on how to become thin - like being a brunette makes them an expert on willing your hair to turn brown. We face it from not-so-well-meaning strangers who try to beat us down to make themselves feel better in a society that beats everyone down. We are certainly not the only group who faces this, but we face it nonetheless, and - like the trainers on The Biggest Loser - we are told by society that we should be thankful for the massive war being waged against us because their plan of eradicating the world of everyone who looks like us is a kindness, and we should say thank you and get on the treadmill.
Ragen Chastain  (via monkeyknifefight)

(via monkeyknifefight)

Source: curvessahead

Wait Watchers: A Woman Reverses the Gaze

cocoku:

randomlancila:

ohsopathos:

youdontlooklikeafeminist:

Memphis-based photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero has long been aware of strangers making fun of her behind her back due to her size. So aware, in fact, that she has turned the whole concept into a full-blown photography project. Titled Wait Watchers, the series consists of Morris-Cafiero’s self-portraits in public in which strangers can be seen in the background giving her strange looks and/or laughing.

The project was born when Morris-Cafiero was working on a separate project titled Something to Weigh. For one of the photos in that project, she snapped a self-portrait while sitting on some steps in Times Square.

After processing the film, she noticed that there was a man behind her making a face at her while being photographed by a female friend:

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public waitwatcher

She noticed something similar in a photograph captured just five minutes later at a different location.

Morris-Cafiero then began setting up her camera in heavily trafficked public areas, composing the shots, setting a self-timer, and then stepping into the frame. The camera snaps a photo while she’s doing everything things (e.g. chatting on her phone or grabbing a bite to eat), and her hope is that the image also captures an interesting expression from at least one passing stranger.

I now reverse the gaze and record their reactions to me while I perform mundane tasks in public spaces. I seek out spaces that are visually interesting and geographically diverse. I try to place myself in compositions that contain feminine icons or advertisements. Otherwise, I position myself and the camera in a pool of people…and wait [#]

The images capture the gazer in a microsecond moment where they, for unknowable reasons, have a look on their face that questions my presence. Whether they are questioning my position in front of the lens or questioning my body size, the gazer appears to be visually troubled that I am in front of them [#]

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

You can find more photos from this series over on Haley Morris-Cafiero’s personal website.

Not going to lie. I had a hard time viewing these. We’ve all caught those looks.

what a powerful project. i really, really love the idea, even if it is hard to look at the end results.

Amazing project.

Source: youdontlooklikeafeminist

The Pervocracy: Cosmocking: March '13!

The 3 Words He Never Wants to Hear You Say 

Imagine the worst thing a guy could say to your (thought joggers: “I’m in love with your sister,” “I killed a man…”), multiply it by 10, add a full weekend of nothing but golf on TV—and you’ll start to understand how awful it is for us to hear “I look fat” coming out of a girl’s mouth.

Oh God.  This is that awful game where you have to obsess over your weight to be sexy, but if you ever let it be known that you’re obsessing over your weight, that’s terrible.  Sometimes it goes by “order a steak on dates so he knows you’re laid-back” followed by five pages of diet tips.  This time it goes by “hearing your insecurities is so hard for me.”

Fat bodies are seen as “evidence”. People try to claim that our bodies are evidence of unhealthy behaviors, lack of willpower, lack of self-care. Then they claim that this evidence is compelling enough to make it ok to target us for shame, stigma and humiliation “for our own good”. Even more damaging, fat people start to internalize this message thinking “If I’m fat then no matter how healthy my habits are I must be doing something wrong. I deserve to be treated poorly and have my body and choices treated like public property.” This is just not true. Fat bodies are not public property, they are not evidence, and they are not a sign that we need someone to step in and tell us how to take care of ourselves. First because nobody can tell what our habits are based on our body size. Second because our health is our decision – we each get to choose how highly to prioritize our health and what path we want to take to get there, with the understanding that we may be limited by the resources that are available to us.
Fat Bodies are Not Evidence « Dances With Fat  (via mmmajestic)

(via fatladyfem)

Source: danceswithfat.wordpress.com

youknownothingjimkirk: thisisthinprivilege: nbcbiggestloser: Jillian is really pushing the contestants to dig deep this season. Actually, you want to abuse fat people because it’s good TV.  The Biggest Loser isn’t “healthy.” It’s a staged horror show.  You brainwash your contestants into thinking they’re “so lucky” to be there. That they should be grateful to be forced to work out while severely injured, and if they complain to working out with bad knees and torn muscles, even if their doctor is saying, ‘she shouldn’t work out,’ you’ll edit footage to make it look like the contestant’s just a ‘lazy fatty who doesn’t want to do what’s best for her.’  You profit on the fat hate and discrimination that already exists in the culture, and you work to perpetuate that. As long as you keep viewers believing that fat people are lazy, broken, and stupid, you can frame yourself as the good guy who’s reforming them away from their ‘bad behaviors.’  You encourage the development of eating disorders, which have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder. You put your contestants in mortal danger for ratings, and when they or their doctors try to do what they need to do to protect their LIVES, you edit the footage to make them look like they’re rejecting this grand ‘gift of health’ that you’re offering them. In 100 years (hopefully sooner) humanity will look back on the Biggest Loser as the barbaric torture-game it is. Your producers should be in jail. No one can sign their bodily autonomy away. All it takes is a few contestants who are willing to speak out, and you’re going to get a huge cultural lashback. You can’t plug that many leaks. And just wait until your trainers and ‘program’ put someone into cardiac arrest. How are you going to spin that? Are you going to blame it on that person — “Oh, we tried to save them, but we were too late, all those years of obesity finally killed them!”  You immoral fucks at NBC — producers and trainers participating in this torture scam — are the subhumans. Not fat people. -ArteToLife boom roasted
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youknownothingjimkirk:

thisisthinprivilege:

nbcbiggestloser:

Jillian is really pushing the contestants to dig deep this season.

Actually, you want to abuse fat people because it’s good TV. 

The Biggest Loser isn’t “healthy.” It’s a staged horror show. 

You brainwash your contestants into thinking they’re “so lucky” to be there. That they should be grateful to be forced to work out while severely injured, and if they complain to working out with bad knees and torn muscles, even if their doctor is saying, ‘she shouldn’t work out,’ you’ll edit footage to make it look like the contestant’s just a ‘lazy fatty who doesn’t want to do what’s best for her.’ 

You profit on the fat hate and discrimination that already exists in the culture, and you work to perpetuate that. As long as you keep viewers believing that fat people are lazy, broken, and stupid, you can frame yourself as the good guy who’s reforming them away from their ‘bad behaviors.’ 

You encourage the development of eating disorders, which have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder.

You put your contestants in mortal danger for ratings, and when they or their doctors try to do what they need to do to protect their LIVES, you edit the footage to make them look like they’re rejecting this grand ‘gift of health’ that you’re offering them.

In 100 years (hopefully sooner) humanity will look back on the Biggest Loser as the barbaric torture-game it is. Your producers should be in jail. No one can sign their bodily autonomy away. All it takes is a few contestants who are willing to speak out, and you’re going to get a huge cultural lashback. You can’t plug that many leaks. And just wait until your trainers and ‘program’ put someone into cardiac arrest. How are you going to spin that? Are you going to blame it on that person — “Oh, we tried to save them, but we were too late, all those years of obesity finally killed them!” 

You immoral fucks at NBC — producers and trainers participating in this torture scam — are the subhumans. Not fat people.

-ArteToLife

boom roasted

(via glittertitties-deactivated20130)

Source: nbcbiggestloser

[Trigger Warning: Fat shaming] Glorifying Unhealthy Eating Habits in Skinny Women

jennylewren:

Anyone who’s spent a fair amount of time living in a fat body understands that when you’re eating something you become hypervisible. That the people around you will scope what you’re eating and cast judgement on you. Often times you can be served the wrong order in restaurants. And sometimes friends or relatives might even make you special “healthy” plates because they are “concerned” for your health. 

And I’m becoming increasingly frustrated by television featuring skinny women who eat copious amounts of junk food and are deemed sexually attractive for it.

Because it’s just thin privilege in action. A fat girl on a television show will be teased and mocked mercilessly for eating large amounts of food or junk food, but if a woman is thin and attractive it distinguishes her as different from the majority of thin and pretty women, women who are portrayed as having birdlike appetites.

Not understanding how it fits into thin privilege? If you are thin, you have the freedom to eat whatever you want without judgement. In fact if you “eat like a fat girl” it’s highly likely that you’ll be deemed as even more attractive.


If you look like Winifred Burkle you will be described as: “A remarkable woman. Particularly the way you can shovel a mountain range of food into your mouth. That is some Olympian feat, that much eating”


If you look like Rory Gilmore, you’ll be able to eat a large amount of junk food and have men tell you that they enjoy the fact that you can eat, or: “half the fun in being with you is the horrified looks on the waiters’ faces.” 

But if you look like Lauren Zizes, the food you eat will define you and be used as comedic relief. You’ll be made fun of for eating an entire box of chocolates and other characters will make comments about you wanting your ”damn candy!” 

If you’re a fat girl eating a mountain of food, you’re not told you’re remarkable or that it’s charming. You’re told that you have no sense of self control and should be ashamed of yourself. You’re told that you’re a poster child for unhealthy lifestyles. You’re called names and probably told much more traumatizing things than I mentioned here.

I mentioned a long time ago that I think one of the reasons why our culture is paranoid about becoming fat and constantly trying to lose weight or demoralizing fat people is because most of society has unresolved issues with regard to their own sexuality. Humans are desiring of flesh, and the fact that fat people have more flesh which is the object their desire, can be deeply disturbing and a hard concept to grasp.

And the more culture I soak up, the more I think that it’s not just about flesh. Food isn’t just fuel for our bodies. Food can be an experience, a trigger for our memories, and an aphrodisiac. I think food plays a much larger role in human sexuality than we give it credit for. 

Too bad it’s only culturally okay for thin people to explore it.

(via evilwashian)

Source: jennylewren

red3blog:

thisisthinprivilege:

Thin privilege is being able to walk into Olympic Stadium in an outfit that makes you feel part of the team, instead of being forced to wear the only outfit that fits because Ralph Lauren won’t make the outfit you want to be wearing in your size.

“Before heading to NY for the P&G announcement, I had a photo shoot. We were supposed to wear white button up shirts. The woman’s shirts that were provided were too small in the back and the shoulders. My only option was wearing a man’s shirt. It was very ill fitting and I was feeling pretty self conscious about it. I hate not being able to wear a majority of woman’s clothing. When I got to NY they had a different man’s shirt for me to wear that was much better looking. I rolled the sleeves up and tried to look as feminine as possible.  My mother was the only mother there who hadn’t a jacket like the other moms because there wasn’t one provided in her size.” - Sarah Robles, Team USA Olympian

I’d strongly suggest clicking through to read the full article by Sarah Robles. Depressing, but very illuminating.

(via queenofattolia)

Source: thisisthinprivilege

Like it or not, fat people are at war. I’m not hyperbolizing or dramatizing. If you don’t believe me, Google “War on obesity”. Tonight HBO premiered its new documentary series “The Weight of a Nation”. On the premiere page it says “Obesity in America has reached a catastrophic level. Almost every aspect of our lives is threatened. The first step toward ending the damage is learning how to fight back.”

I spend a lot of my time politely asking people to please stop oppressing me. I don’t apologize for that, nor do I begrudge it – it’s proven to be a very effective way to create change and I think that people deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt and the support they need to shift their thinking, and it’s a reasonably pleasant form of activism. I will continue to do it.

But I also have to acknowledge that there is a war being waged against me because of how I look, by people who have been given every opportunity to know better. In concert with HBO’s documentary, I received a Tweet letting me know that Kaiser Permanente is launching the “most aggressive anti-obesity campaign in history.”

They know that there are healthy fat people and unhealthy thin people. They know that not a shred of research shows that any method of weight loss works in the long term. They know that research shows us that we could vastly increase health by providing access to healthy foods, safe movement options, and affordable/free evidence based health care. Nobody is obligated to be healthy or thin; however, I wonder how many people would make different choices if they knew they just need 30 minutes of moderate movement 5 days a week? If they knew that people who choose simple healthy habits have very similar health outcomes regardless of weight. What would people choose if they knew they could abandon the goal of weight loss completely and they could still pursue health. America could be a successful role model for giving people access to health, but instead they are choosing to be a failed role model for thinness - waging war on people based on their appearance for tremendous profit and actively blaming the casualties of the war for the war’s massive failures.

Let’s be clear - they are pathologizing a body size. It doesn’t matter if they say that we need to seek solutions environmentally instead of at the individual level, or if they say that we should have “compassion” for fat people – they are still telling people that is is not ok to exist in fat bodies and that they should see fat bodies as a threat to America. There are tons of thin people who eat unhealthy foods and are sedentary (which is completely their right), but as far as the government is concerned, as long as you are thin you’re part of the “solution,” feel free to do whatever you want. They want people to look at me (and you, if you’re fat) and think “She is part of a catastrophe. She is threatening almost every aspect of our lives. The first step toward ending the damage is learning how to fight back against her.”

I say that if they want a war, I will damn well give them one.

They Want A War, Let’s Give Them One - By Ragen Chastain (via redefiningbodyimage)

And that comes with the new stats on heart-related diseases and how they have no correlation with weight - though, plenty of correlation with how healthy you are.

(via bulletinaweave)

(via bulletinaweave)

Source: danceswithfat.wordpress.com

The reality is that fat people are often supported in hating their bodies, in starving themselves, in engaging in unsafe exercise, and in seeking out weight loss by any means necessary. A thin person who does these things is considered mentally ill. A fat person who does these things is redeemed by them. This is why our culture has no concept of a fat person who also has an eating disorder. If you’re fat, it’s not an eating disorder — it’s a lifestyle change.

Lesley Kinzel (via curvesahead)

I will always reblog this because it is so so important. 

(via infinitetransit)

this. and hello high school me. hello roughly 12 years of my life when I couldn’t enjoy food ever or eat in public comfortably.

(via listofnow)

(via listofnow)

Source: xojane.com

A baffling, infuriating trend has cropped up in reviews of The Hunger Games: critics bodysnarking on Jennifer Lawrence. ‘A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss,’ writes the New York Times’ Manohla Dargis, ‘but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission.’ The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy comments that Lawrence’s ‘lingering baby fat shows here.’ And—most bluntly—Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells calls Lawrence a ‘fairly tall, big-boned lady’ who’s ‘too big’ for Josh Hutcherson, who plays Katniss’s romantic interest. (In case the message didn’t come through: Wells thinks Jennifer Lawrence is BIG. He also thinks we should be wary of ‘certain female critics’ who ‘may be susceptible to the lore of this young-female-adult-propelled franchise.’)

Jennifer Lawrence Is Not “Too Big” to Play Katniss (via usakeh)

“if critics are going to pick on a 21-year-old woman for not being skinny enough for a fantasy film, why haven’t they been more consistent in their critiques of actors’ bodies? I haven’t seen much concern about Liam Hemsworth’s muscular frame, even though his character in The Hunger Games occupies the same food-strapped world as Katniss.”

(via dupery)

I will kill them with my bare hands

(via bb-goose)

(via ibtk)

I am chunky. I am chunky and beautiful. And even if you don’t think I’m chunky—I want to be able to be chunky. I want to be able to gain more weight without having to feel ugly. And I don’t want it to be because I have a pretty face. I don’t have a conventional face. And now I don’t have a conventional body. Nothing about me is conventional anymore. It’s all different. It’s all difficult. And I want that to be beautiful.
Eat the Damn Cake: the chunky/gorgeous woman on the subway

Source: eatthedamncake.com

Tell me! I want to know! I want to know what you think!”

“I don’t know…She’s not thin…”

“Then I’m not thin! Look at her arms!” I seized one of my arms and waved the fat at him. If I could throw my arm fat in his face, I probably would have. “Her arms are SMALLER THAN MINE. I am not thin, by your standards.”

“You look perfect. And you are thin.”

I laughed gleefully. “Oh! Good! I’m perfect because I’m still somehow thin enough! Thank God. Let’s pray I don’t gain five more pounds and get disproportionate. Let’s take a moment to pray for my thighs.
via Eat the Damn Cake: the chunky/gorgeous woman on the subway

Source: eatthedamncake.com

no shit.

inkdot:

This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.

A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.

Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic?  She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing.  But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great.  She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success.  So - what gives?

His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear.  Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles.  He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses.  You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on.  Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered.  He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit.  That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.

I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way.  I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did. 

It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this.  But no one ever told me.  I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes.  No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.

I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed.  I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to.  No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to.  I guess I just didn’t know.  I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.

I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.

I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.

So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while.  But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not.  Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.