When I first read that, I thought you said 'My last name is palindrome', and I though, 'I don't believe you.' But *a* palindrome, that's certainly believable.

Mine's boring--and I might have posted it ages ago and forgotten. Many years ago, I wanted to use the yahoo bbw chatrooms, and I wanted a name that meant 'fat', but that felt too aggressive. When I thought of all the euphemisms, they all seemed embarrassed and apologetic, which I didn't want. Then I came upon the translation of 'zaftig', a Yiddish word often used for fuller women, which is 'juicy'.

And here I am, ever since.

We're going to lose a chance at a sympathetic story if someone doesn't step up, team...

From the always wise Bella:

To me it makes more sense to work on respect. Respect for diversity and respect for the individual. Getting the general population to accept fat people not to mention feederism requires people to learn respect as a first if anything is going to happen. Some things simply can't be understood, and it's a lost cause trying to convince everyone, however learning to respect that people are different, have different dreams and desires and that diversity is a good thing, a sign of a healthy society should be achievable.
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I agree completely. The question, then, is: how do we go about that? I think on some level all efforts--whether militant or legislative or whatever else--have all been trying ultimately to reach that point. How do you get people to respect each other?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for that. Disappointing, and sad. Ah, well.

Regardless of the source, however, I suppose the question still remains: Is 'obese' a word that CAN be reclaimed? And should it?

My own sense, as I think more about it, is that all the words that have been reclaimed by communities--nigger, queer, etc.--have been words that were insults. 'Obese' has never been an insult in that way, but rather a medical categorisation. I can't think of a thing from medical terminology that has been reclaimed. Maybe that's because as we collectively (everyone, not us here) have too much faith in the profession as a whole?

Hey all,

I heard from the woman who's trying to write a piece for *Stella*. I'm the only one who talked to her, and she needs one more person. She would be happy to talk to someone who fantasises about gaining, even without doing anything irl about it.

But I can't really be the only gainer or feedee or mutual gainer in the UK that would be willing to talk to her? Are we THAT closeted? And as I said above, someone with the fantasies but who isn't acting on them would be great, too.

If you're willing to talk to her, totally anonymously, please do get in touch--we need the exposure if we're ever going to stop being hated. (I know, it's a long haul. Feel free to come to the Fat Liberation forum to discuss it.) Her name is Anna Moore <annamoore@talktalk.net>

I'd never heard of them before, Tubby. Who are they, do you know?

That was exactly the point of the author of the blog/article. Part of me wants a genuine magazine for fat people, with ads for clothes for us, and other kinds of things we need. Though you're totally right, Chub, 14-20 is completely ridiculous.

But part of me agrees that segregating us is a bad idea. Well, I definitely think segregating us is a bad idea, but I actually think we should be included in general mags AND have something for ourselves. And that something should be a lot better than *Just As Beautiful*.

I have always carried the party line on that one, and thought that 'obesity' and 'obese' should not be used. I assumed they were medical inventions. But I just looked in the dictionary, and it has its roots in the 1500s. So I thought about it more, and she's quite right. A word is a word is a word, and we should reclaim any of them that don't have bad values built in (like 'overweight', as she points out).

Hard to imagine calling myself 'obese' and enjoying it the way I do 'fat', though...

Dunno. I do love 'fridge', but 'pantry' is pretty great, too. Though it doesn't sound as small, it's true...

So we appear to have a new print magazine in the UK--Just As Beautiful. I will refrain from commenting on the title. But here's a link to a piece that doesn't like the mag for some really interesting reasons:

uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/family-parenting/just-as-beautiful-britains-first-plus-size-magazine-blog-10-vanessa-green.html

She thinks having a mag just for larger women continues to segregate us. It's a good little piece, so please do read it. I'd love to know what others think about her opinion.