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lol soz, didn't mean it as us against them, was more the other way around. I'm all for advancing fat acceptance, I just don't think the fat acceptance movement wants us...

abeamt RE: Feederism and Fat Acceptance 1 day ago

Member
Joined 2 years ago
62 posts It won't let me quote you, Moonchild, but I agree with you about how we're more concerned with the products of the goal rather than the goal itself. In fact, I've commented on it a few times before, the whole symptoms vs. disease issue.

So the NAAFA is all about acceptance, right? So it is hypocritical of them to not accept us. I just get teh feeling that they're whole stance is, "I'm tired of being put down for the things that are wrong with me." We're coming from the stance, "there is nothing wrong with me, so stop putting me down."

Really, they're all about accepting their bodies, but enjoying them is wrong apparently, because afterall, they are fat, and that's gross.

Saw this post in another thread *cough* and thought it really summed up what I was intially trying to say here. Didn't want to lose it so thought i'd repost it here. (having trouble quoting lol)

My own sense of this is that the fat acceptance movement focuses on the notion that people aren't fat by choice. As it happens, I think that's generally right--people are or get fat for all kinds of reasons, not just the way we do. In fact, more of my fat comes from trying really hard NOT to be fat than the # of pounds that are intentional.

But they're running the line that they can't be blamed for anything, so people should accept them as they are--after all, it's not their fault.

Seems to me--and I say this knowing full well it will make some people angry--that is the exact same logic LGBT folk use when they insist that their sexuality is genetic. It may well be, and I'm totally sure fat is on some people, But the problem is, the second you insist that your identity is genetic, you have to disavow anyone who joins your ranks by choice. I think that's the main reason the size acceptance folks are so nasty about us.

Well said Juicy and Molly.

(Also sorry about not correcting the quote spelling xD)

Moonchild said:
"Being fat, even being unhealthy does not entitle anyone to less respect from others."

Juicy says:

Moonchild, I love you.

I've thought of that before, it really is a form of body modification, i'm just not sure if people who get tats and piercings do it for sexual satisfaction or not lol.

My wife and I were active on the inside of NAAFA in the 1990's. We were not involved with the policy making, but did a lot of the leg work, including dealing with the media.

It is uneblievable how bad the media is. Even the local news tries to make fat people look like Jerry Springer guests. The first thing they like to ask is about how 2 fat people have sex. At a serious national convention we try to get them to focus on our experiences at the workshops. But all they want is videos of people eating. We try to show them fashionable clothes at the fashion shows. But they would rather show a women in her bikini and make comments.

Some of the old NAAFA members will remember footage from a NAAFA convention that ended up in a porn movies called "The Sex O'Clock News." It showed NAAFA members put to the sound track of pigs snorting.

So, NAAFA needs to be really careful in what the media sees. If there were 200 people who accepted their weight, and 2 people who were trying to gain, the media would focus on the 2 people gaining on purpose and say everyone in NAAFA wants to gain on purpose. That would deflect NAAFA's message.

All a person has to do is listen to Glen Beck, and you'll understand the stereotypes that NAAFA deals with, dealing with the media.

I have come across that idea before, Molly--have you written about it somewhere? I know I saw someone framing gaining as a body mod activity, but I can't remember who/where. It's a compelling idea.

But johnxyz's point sounds immediately correct to me, and it made me so sad. I know things are bad, and most news media are sensationalist and getting all the more so by the day, but some of those stories are really appalling. (Not to mention the OUTRAGE of the porn thing...)

I still think that 1) we need more conversations about fat acceptance, fat activism, and fat liberation in our communities, 2) there are a lot of people among us with strange and wrong ideas about fat and health, and 3) as much as I take johnxyz's point, I'm quite sure the fat liberation cannot begin to happen seriously until we're included in the package.

I also agree with the first two points raised by juicy, especially the second. The fact is, while as a community we may not be a danger to the Fat Acceptance movement, there are deffinetly individuals within our community who give fuel to the argument that feederism is the opposite of fat acceptance.

I see many people who seem so obssessed with the idea of growing and having to be fatter (be it themselves or someone else) that it is really no different to societies obsession with the idea of losing and getting thinner.

Feederism needs to bring the idea to the world that fat is just as desirable an ideal as thin and that there are people that strive for it, not that we are hell bent on exchanging one societal extreme for another.

@Max--Your point about gaining and dieting being similar is what the fat acceptance folks disapprove of about us. Or what they say, at least. And I agree with you, some in our community are guilty of making themselves or the other person feel like THIS body isn't good enough until it changes. I think we need to discourage that as much as possible.

@Winter--I love that piece, and I do think she has a great point.

What I meant by my third point, which everyone seems to disagree with , is that if fat liberation is only for some fat people, and in particular only for people who are fat by accident, then it isn't real liberation. That's all.