Hello! Long time no post. Right? Things have been crazy for me lately – life, schedule, school… Just a couple more weeks until I’m free from this stressful semester and let the fun begin!
Friday was International No Diet Day and I had the chance to participate in an event organized by Marilyn Wann (with a bunch of other rad fatties and allies) to interrupt an obesity conference in San Francisco.
I haven’t participated in anything like this before and can’t even begin to describe the feeling. I knew what was on the agenda for the day but actually doing it was a completely different experience. It was both scary and exciting! Naturally, I wanted to record things through photos and if you’re interested, I have the complete set of pictures over here.
In honor of the day, Marilyn composed a song for us to sing and dance to:
Chins. Bellies. Hips…and ass. Hips…and ass.
Chins. Bellies. Hips…and ass. Hips…and ass.
Chins. Bellies. Hips…and ass. Hips…and ass.
We love our bodies the weigh we are. Wouldn’t change a thing!
And we did! She blew a whistle to draw attention, started the music and we strutted our stuff down the aisle to the front of the room. Some people were shocked, others smiled. The speaker stuttered and tried to continue his speech. It was interesting to see that at a so-called “obesity” conference that fat bodies were not well represented.
Good thing we showed up. Hopefully our demonstration made an impact!
You can read Marilyn’s detailed account of the day on Facebook here.
Cardigan – Liz Claiborne
Top – Onestopplus
Skirt – Taillissime
Flats – Evans
Belt – Torrid
Necklace – definatalie.com
The outfit I wore is something typical for me – high waisted skirt, top and cardigan for a cool day in San Francisco. I planned to wear it sans cardigan but I am so glad I brought it! Turns out a mesh sleeves don’t keep you very warm. This top is actually really cute – it has a sweetheart-ish neckline and the neck/sleeves are mesh. You can’t really tell in the photos because I’m pretty much the same color as the shirt. Ha!
I even ironed my skirt for the occasion… but after an hour ride on BART – you can’t really tell.
Marilyn and I
Margarita, Sarah and I
A big thank you to Sarah for taking my outfit pictures and tolerating my instructions. <3 I took a couple clips of video and someone was filming the whole thing – I’ll post the link to that as soon as it is available.
How did you celebrate International No Diet Day?
Tags: activism, evans, fat, fat acceptance, indd, international no diet day, ootd, torrid
That’s so awesome! I didn’t actually know it was no diet day… but I still celebrated by not dieting :). Wait, every day is no diet day for me! :)
Me too! Best decision I ever made too. Ha!
Gurl! I almost started crying when I saw the pictures! So lovely! You amaze me! I am so grateful to have you in my life. <3
I friggin' love that pic of you biting the fat necklace! And that one of me, you and Margarita? Flawless!
Now, to plan our big fashion shoot! =0)
You’re silly! I swore I applied to these comments ages ago – finals must have really done a number on me.
Aww, you’re too sweet! I’m so glad to have you as a friend. And thank you for taking my outfit pictures!
Yes, we definitely need a big fat fashion shoot!
Bravo! I truly applaud and commend taking a stand against ‘anti obesity’… we come in all shapes, sizes, pounds, weights, colors, genders… this is not only about fat acceptance but about people acceptance for everyone.
Kudos!
Well said Dana! Fat acceptance is for everyone – not just fat people.
Here’s a few things you may not know about Xavier Pi-Sunyer, the guy you
interrupted.
Xavier is more responsible for the obesity crisis panic in the medical arena
than any other expert. First, he wrote several reviews of the supposed health
hazards of obesity that were little more than lists of various conditions that
had ever been connected to increased BMI. If the source he cited was
contradicted by other sources, he ignored it. He paid no attention to the size
of the risk, or the level of BMI needed to get the risk, or any confounding
factors. For example, he states that gallstones are caused by obesity when they
are actually caused by rapid weight loss. It just so happens that most crash
dieting is done by big people, so big people are the ones who mainly get
gallstones. He includes many rare diseases and lumps them in with common
diseases, making it sound like every person with a BMI over 25 is gauranteed to
get every one of these conditions.
Xavier is the author of a viral PowerPoint slide that shows an uglified generic
fat body shot through with dozens of arrows, each arrow labeled with a different
disease. I have seen this slide easily a hundred times.
The slide was distributed widely by different drug companies. Xavier belongs to
many speaker’s bureau’s organized by drug companies. Most notoriously, he was
hired by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in advance of the approval of Redux (part of
fen-phen) to promote the idea that obesity was a dangerous disease and that
dangerous treatments were justified. He has traveled the country continuously
since the 1990′s promoting the dangers of obesity, all financed by drug
companies. He has promoted every diet pill in existence, and has promoted every
type of surgery. He has promoted drugs even before they were approved by the
FDA, like the disasterous riomibant (pot blocker drug) that was cancelled
because it caused suicides (it was approved in Europe and Xavier promoted it
over there).
Xavier is, in my opinion, the Darth Vader of the anti-obesity movement.
Thanks for the information Paul! I knew some of the general information but not all the details.
I probably mentioned this before, and it does date me a bit, but it also dates Xavier Pi-Sunyer. He’s been at this for quite a long time. When I joined NAAFA while in college, I was editing something in Appleworks on my Apple II GS. I had written Pi-Sunyer’s name, and while spell-checking the document, Appleworks highlighted his name and said….
Spell Checker does not recognize this word. Did you mean to write “Poisoner?”
God, you guys looked fabulous! I’m sure that was a hit to the conference, having so many awesome, successful fats showing up and taking up space unapologetically. We are here. We are fat. We are fabulous :)
Thanks! I loved some of the expressions that I caught inside the conference. Good times!
It was such a rush.
Rachel said it all. You and the women who interrupted the conference are totally bad-ass and give me motivation to fight against anti-obesity where ever and however I can!
I was so glad to be there with veteran rad fatties like Marilyn Wann, etc. Very inspirational! I can’t wait to do more when the opportunities arise.
This is amazing! I love International No-Diet Day, I love that you guys stormed into an obesity conference, and I love your outfit! Everything about this post is super amazing! <3
Aww, thanks! We had tons of fun and it was great meeting and talking to new people. I can’t wait to see the video.