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Abundant Bodies 2015 – Support Fat Community Projects

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AbundantBodies2015

The Allied Media Conference will be happening June 19th – 21st and for the second year in a row the Abundant Bodies Media track will be part of the conference for the weekend. I’m one of the coordinators of the track for the year and we are currently fundraising to support our track, session presenters and participants. We’re not only hoping to help people out with travel expenses but to also pay presenters for the knowledge and time they will be giving throughout the weekend.

We have a TON of amazing perks including a fearless craft-a-thon with Marianne Kirby, a gift pack from Re/Dress, tarot readings, a mental health / chronic illness chat and more!

Please consider supporting and sharing our fundraiser with your networks.

The track was created and continues to be primarily ran by Women of Color, our sessions are also primarily ran by People of Color. Here is some more information about the track,

This year at the Allied Media Conference 2015 (June 18-21 in Detroit, MI) we are coming back together to continue our conversations, share skills, experiences, stories, media, knowledge and strategies to build a more beautiful, body accepting and abundant loving future!

ln this track we will gather, share and celebrate the wisdom and abundance of our bodies. Abundant / thick / fat bodies are the target of so much hate, policing and negativity, even in our organizing communities. How do we unlearn mainstream ideas of what a body should look like and (re)-learn to celebrate the diversity, resilience, wisdom and beauty of all bodies? How can we work together to deconstruct fat stigma and other forms of marginalization while building a stronger inclusive fat community? How can we challenge ourselves to decenter whiteness, capitalism, ableism, cissexism, heterosexism and classism while we explore what it means to be fat?

This track will explore these questions and create spaces to challenge the ongoing ways mainstream media shames and harms abundant bodies. Our goal in our organizing and activism is to create media and practical strategies for resistance, healing and community building. We will broaden the conversation around fat activism by centering this track on the voices of Indigenous, Black, People of Color, Dis/abled, Super-sized, Trans and Queer fat folks. Through workshops, panels and skillshares we will transform mainstream ideas around abundant bodies and create resilient communities utilizing different forms of media such as zines, theater, oral histories, poetry, social media, dance, comics, and art.

You can view the entire AMC2015 schedule here and find out about all of the amazing sessions we will be having during the weekend.

And again, please consider supporting and sharing our fundraiser with your networks.

Trolling by Dude Bros™: Fat positive backlash in the spotlight

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If you weren’t already aware, this past week has been dubbed “Fat Shaming Week” by a small group of men who incorrectly assume that shaming will actually make fat women thin. Leaving aside that these dude bros have created a week to shame fat women as they are in tears over their lack of boners because fat women are fat. It sounds like a personal problem and the notion that fat people are unfuckable is unfounded (social construction anyone?). They spent the beginning of the week harassing every fat activist, news source and blogger they could find as an attempt to have their “campaign” get attention.

I was one of about five people who had been tweeted at on Monday when their “campaign” started and like everyone else ignored them until Buzzfeed thoughtlessly pick it up. While I’m happy that the few major sites who wrote something about the week framed it as being disgusting, almost all of them have centered the tweets they shared around the worst tweets that could be found in the hashtag. In the beginning of the week almost all of the tweets were directed specifically at fat women but quickly devolved into arguments about health, which shows how little fat shamers actually care about health and in reality are interested in promoting an ideal body type that they find to be physically / sexually pleasing.

A few other fat / body positive bloggers have written a response to the week and you can find them here, here and here (tw weight loss talk). I wanted to create a post that specifically outlines the kind of responses to this week I had as well as other people on twitter. While most news sources have focused on the hateful tweets by the creator and his numerous fake twitter accounts, the outpouring of people objecting to this week has been too big to ignore.

October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. This week has given even more proof that bullying is not something that only happens when someone is a child but continues on throughout their lifetime and is deeply rooted in different forms of marginalization. Read my post, Bullying It’s Not Just for Kids

Now Accepting Donations

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Below is what I have posted on my tumblr, it not only explains why there has been a long absence from writing posts on this blog but also where I have been the last year or so. I’ve really found a home on twitter and tumblr, but I want to start writing longer posts in the future. The button to donate is located on my tumblr page ( http://fatbodypolitics.tumblr.com/). I also suggest you follow it and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/FatBodyPolitics). I rant there regularly.

Last night I added a donation button to my blog hoping that regular readers and fans of my work would contribute to the blog so that I am able to continue to work I have been doing the last 8 years. All of this time hasn’t been easy, especially the last 2 years while I have been finishing my degree and working 2-3 part time jobs attempting to scrape by. I haven’t been able to contribute to my own blog in the way I would prefer since combined with a lack of funds, depression and anxiety about being broke makes it hard for me to write long coherent posts.

As of now I am currently searching for a full time job without much luck and my one steady gig as a caregiver has been put on hold due to illness with the person I care for. I’m also entering graduate school so I have a little bit of financial aid to keep me afloat for the next few months but not nearly enough to live on.

Asking for donations is something that taken me a long time to accept, partially because this work is not considered to be real or have value and I have had to remind myself that I am valuable. There are other places where you won’t be asked to contribute and I’m completely ok with people feeling like I am asking for too much, but the words I write here, on twitter or on my blog (when I have the energy for a longer post) are my collective experience and knowledge within fat politics and women’s issues overall. I wouldn’t be asking for contributions if I didn’t think that my background was worth it.

If you would prefer to not just give me money willy-nilly I also have an Etsy shop where you can buy things from me instead. FW Originals 

All that said, donations are not an obligation by any means. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read and share what I write regardless of who has the funds to help me out in this dire time. I hope with extra funds I will be able to write longer posts and have more time to work on fat positive projects I have been putting off.

 

-Amanda-