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.

I have, actually. Slowly, only to close friends and my partner and my daughter. And no one has reacted badly.

They've been confused, and asked questions, and they've told me they don't understand. Only one has expressed some health concerns, but she didn't push it.

Of course, I had done a lot of preparation with people, so they knew I was active in fat liberation, and that I had read a lot, and written a bit. So they already knew I am fat-positive, if you will.

So yeah, my feeling is that it takes a lot of courage, and it takes a lot of thought about how you want to phrase things, but it's *totally* worth doing. I can't tell you how liberated I feel by it.

So I wrote an enquiry to Bitch magazine about a piece on feeding. (If you don't know who they are, you should, so go google them.) Anyway, they said they were interested, and I should write the piece.

So I did. A few people gave me some feedback on it, worked some more, and submitted it.

They rejected it. Why? Because it was 'just a response to their piece from last year.' Idiot trogs. Like that piece wasn't expressing the fat feminist party line. Sigh.

So, I'd appreciate some advice and some help.

1) Is there somewhere else obvious to send it?

2) Can anyone tell me a few places where we've been bashed by feminist size activists?

3) Can you think of another way to address this issue publicly?

All input very gratefully accepted...

Hee hee. I quite like that, too. Any votes for 'larder' vs. 'fridge'? I forget who came up with that--was it ThatReesesGirl?