• • Body Politics

  Myth Four: Fat is Androgynous

  May 16, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  Dr. Pattie Thomas wrote a book called Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life that is just really awesome. If you haven’t read it, it’s well worth investing in.

  The first chapter of the book has 10 fat myths. As I read them, I had so many ideas and thoughts and things I wanted to say about each one. I contacted Dr. Thomas and she said that it would be okay for me to use her list to talk about each of the myths here. So – welcome to a 10-week series.

  Myth number four on Dr. Thomas’ list: Fat is androgynous.

  (Please note that this post is written only from my own perspective as a fat cis woman. I would love to hear any comments on this issue from people with different gender identities.)

  A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a very feminine picture for the Rad Fatties Project I host on my blog. I put on a little black dress and some fishnets and heels—and nearly died from discomfort. I take pictures outside almost every week and don’t feel particularly embarrassed when a neighbor sees me posing for myself—but that morning it was everything I could do not to run inside.

  (more inside…)

• • Body Politics
  • Media Savvy

  Glee: Does the Fat Girl Have to Want it?

  May 9, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  I recently read an article on Xhibit P by Laura Frater, someone whose opinion I value, that stated that she believes that one of the characters in Glee is getting the short end of the stick.

  That would be Mercedes Jones. She’s a fat black girl with a huge voice, who loves her friends (she’s always the one they can count on) and sometimes feels jealous because she doesn’t get to sing lead often enough.

  The problem that some critics have is that while the rest of the cast are all embroiled with at least one romantic partner, Mercedes hasn’t had a significant story arc written about her love life.

  I get it. The fat girl isn’t getting any. And maybe its because she’s fat. Maybe. But, there is a much fatter girl on the cast who has attracted the attention of a boy for whom she is the fourth conquest since the show started. He fathered a child with the head cheerleader, is the regular booty call for another Cheerio and the some time fallback boy for a girl whose biggest draw for him is that they are both Jewish.

  He even went on a date with Mercedes.

  It took me a while to understand why I wasn’t feeling the uproar about Mercedes not having a sexual interest in this show. Does she deserve one? Well, yeah. If she were a real girl. And if she wanted one. But, saying that the character is being dissed by the writers for not having a boyfriend or girlfriend assumes something that hasn’t been written into the show. That she wants one.

  (more inside…)

• • (dis)Ability
  • Body Politics
  • Sexuality

  The Missing Voices in the Anti-Violence Movement

  May 4, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  This past week I had the pleasure of engaging in a conversation about sexual violence with some awesome young women. It really was a pleasure since I think that this is a topic that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough, and there is far too much silence on the topic. In fact, the majority of the conversation focused around the barriers that prevent young women from openly discussing sexual violence. As awesome as the conversation was, I wanted to take it to the next step and talk a little bit about how this relates to the dis/Ability community.

  Although there are many reasons why women with disabilities are far more likely to have experienced sexual violence, I wanted to address some of the specific issues that they face around speaking about their experiences and finding support.

  One of the big barriers within the dis/Ability community is the way that sex in general is approached. Even today there is still the attitude that most people with disabilities do not have sexual feelings or be can’t perform sexual acts. This attitude is used for an excuse for why persons with disabilities often don’t receive any kind of sex education or information on healthy relationships. If we don’t make the same kind of really basic sex education (however lacking and misguided it may be) available to persons with disabilities, it is no wonder that the space is rarely if ever made to openly talk about sexual violence.

  (more inside…)

• • Body Politics

  Myth Three: Fat is Unwanted

  May 2, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  Dr. Pattie Thomas wrote a book called Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life that is just really awesome. If you haven’t read it, it’s well worth investing in.

  The first chapter of the book has 10 fat myths. As I read them, I had so many ideas and thoughts and things I wanted to say about each one. I contacted Dr. Thomas and she said that it would be okay for me to use her list to talk about each of the myths here. So – welcome to a 10-week series.

  Myth number three on Dr. Thomas’ list: Fat is unwanted.

  (more inside…)

• • Body Politics

  Myth Two: Fat is Mental Illness

  April 25, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  Dr. Pattie Thomas wrote a book called Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life that is just really awesome. If you haven’t read it, it’s well worth checking out.

  The first chapter of the book has 10 fat myths. As I read them, I had so many ideas and thoughts and things I wanted to say about each one. I contacted Dr. Thomas and she said that it would be okay for me to use her list to talk about each of the myths here. So: welcome to a 10-week series.

  The second myth in her book is Fat is Mental Illness.

  * * *

  I’ve thought about this topic, this myth, and for some reason I struggled with it. It made me uncomfortable. And I finally realized the reason is because I was afraid I wouldn’t have the skill to write it in a way that didn’t sound like this:

  We may be fat, but at least we aren’t mentally ill.

  And that isn’t where I want to go. While it is a myth that being fat is a mental illness, that doesn’t mean that having a mental disability is somehow “worse” than being fat (or vice versa.) Or that you can’t be fat and have a mental disability at the same time.

  (more inside…)

• • Body Politics

  An Open Letter to Those Who Judge the Morality of Health

  April 21, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  Arwyn from Raising My Boychick has a post up now about whether or not people have a moral obligation to strive for health.

  It has occurred to me that when someone is in the firing line of hate-for-your-own-good, it can be really difficult to know what to say or how to make it stop.

  I thought I’d offer a response that you may feel free to use any time someone you love, or a perfect stranger, starts talking about what they see as your moral obligation to health.

  (more inside…)

• • (dis)Ability
  • Body Politics
  • DIY

  Why My Hearing Aid is a Political Statement

  April 19, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  Sometimes having a disability sucks. It isn’t always about the ableist attitudes of others, sometimes just living in a world where there are things other people can do that you can’t is really crappy too. Not to mention all of the technology that goes along with being disabled, whether it is a white cane, voice to speech or speech to voice software, a wheelchair, crutches or a hearing aid. Virtually any disability comes with some sort of technology that either marks someone as disabled or tries to mediate that disability.

  For my hearing loss I use lots of different things depending on the situation I am in. When I’m at school or in bigger events I use sign language interpreters. For me that is amazing because I know ASL, and they are situations that a hearing aid can never cope with. Usually when I am in small groups, at home (no one in my family signs) or one on one with people I use a hearing aid, either with or without an FM system.

  Hearing aids aren’t like regular ears or regular hearing. While most people can tune out the sound of a person turning the pages of their newspaper, or an annoyingly loud fan, a hearing aid catches all sound regardless of what it is and amplifies it. This means that a newspaper can becoming deafening or a fan can completely overpower a conversation. To try and fix this, we get even more technology, that is the FM system. The FM system has a microphone that you can move closer to the person who is talking so that you can cut out more of the background noise. It also has all these fancy programs that are supposed to make the person sound louder against the background noise too, but how well it works really depends on the person and the hearing loss and the way their hearing aid is programmed. For me it helps a lot in some situations, and in others, we’re still trying to work out all of the bugs in the system.

  (more inside…)

• • (dis)Ability
  • All About Shameless
  • Body Politics

  Meet Shoshana!

  April 18, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  Hey Everyone!

  I’m Shoshana and it is super exciting to be joining everyone in the conversation happening here at Shameless!

  I’m going to be talking about disability and the many ways that it plays out in all of our lives.

  I have been disabled for most of my life, but I’m still pretty new to the disabled community. For me it is really interesting how even though I’ve been able to fall under the disability umbrella in terms of Chronic Illness and at times mental health stuff (how I feel about the language used to describe that is a topic for a completely different day) since I was a child, it took losing my hearing and being able to claim a “legitimate” physical disability that I came to understand and see myself as a disabled person. That discovery opened up my mind to a world of theories, discourses and ways of understanding the things that I always knew were going on around me but never had the words to name, and allowed my world to make sense to me in a way that it hadn’t before. It gave me tools to challenge the way that things are done, and has allowed me to find a home in many communities where there are people like me.

  I think that disability cannot help but be both personal and political. It centers around how people and their bodies are seen, included or excluded. Every interaction, should it be using my hands and eyes to express myself and receive information rather than my mouth and ears, or by making choices about what treatments are best for my body, is a political statement about how we see and experience disability. Our bodies are profoundly personal, and all too often a disabled person’s experience of living in their body is completely discounted, particularly by the medical profession.

  I’m looking forward to starting this conversation with everyone. I know that disability can sometimes seem overwhelming, and a bit like a club where you have to have a disability to belong, but I want to specifically take a minute to say that disability is about everyone. Many disabilities are acquired later on in life, and I’ve yet to meet someone who hasn’t had some encounter with disability. Allies are important in any community, and especially within the disability community. Please feel free to ask questions, add your input and your own experiences. Although I am disabled, I am by far not the defining disability experience, and many others have different experiences and views that are equally valuable and important. So, I encourage you all to come along with me for the ride, and share your stories and experiences so that we can make sure that our community has the voice and attention that it deserves!

• • Bibliothèque
  • Body Politics

  Myth One: Fat is Unhealthy

  April 18, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  Dr. Pattie Thomas wrote a book called Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life that is just really awesome.

  The first chapter of the book has 10 fat myths.

  As I read them, I had so many ideas and thoughts and things I wanted to say about each one. I contacted Dr. Thomas and she said that it would be okay for me to use her list to talk about each of the myths here. So—welcome to a 10-week series.

  Myth number one on Dr. Thomas’ list: Fat is unhealthy.

  (more inside…)

• • All About Shameless
  • Body Politics

  Meet Shaunta . . .

  April 11, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

  When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s in a pretty severely messed up family there was one place where I reliably found peace.

  The swimming pool.

  Water made everything go away for a couple of hours every afternoon as I swam my laps and worked with my coach to get faster and stronger. It didn’t really matter that the rest of my world was falling apart. I was an athlete, and in that one place—underwater—I was safe.

  I realized one day, not too long ago, that I missed being an athlete. And, in the next breath, that I could be an athlete if I wanted to. There are really only two steps to being an athlete. I’ll tell you a secret: neither of them have anything to do with the size of my butt.

  All I had to do was 1) decide I wanted to be an athlete and 2) start training. The simple shift in paradigm from exercise as weight loss to exercise as training was incredible. And it changed everything.

  It’s taken me a long, long time to get back to a place where being athletic is safe again. I work everyday to defy the social myth that athletes are lean and young, and that if you are almost 40 and fat, the only reason to exercise is to lose weight.

  I’m passionate about sharing what I’m learning about athleticism with anyone who will listen. And I’m so pleased and honored to come on board at Shameless to write a weekly column about body acceptance and athleticism at every size.

  One of the first things I learned is that athleticism is for everyone. It does not belong to the able-bodied or the wealthy, anymore than it belongs to those who are slender or so-called “natural athletes.” It’s also not an obligation. Maybe you don’t want it. And that’s okay. But if you do want it, I’ll be here to encourage you to reach out and take it.

  My first articles will be a series based on a list of Fat Myths listed by Dr. Pattie Thomas in her wonderful book Taking Up Space.

  My very favorite part about blogging is hearing other voices. I am so looking forward to joining the Shameless conversation.

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