Yep. Glad it seems that way to you, too.

And guys? Relax just a bit? There are some people, me included, who, while enjoying the occasional rant about the creeps, have always known that the good ones are here and in the mix. You think you got a worse rap than you did. The point of the thread was to encourage some of the people who know better to speak up, but they haven't yet. I know you're out there... *points chubby finger in your direction*

Thanks for the thanks, Sethman and Moonchild. I think it's important for us, as Moonchild says, to be thinking and talking about these issues as a community. Some of us do, but many don't. I wonder how we start the conversation--any ideas?

I think we need to factor in two things here, that we all know, but that have only come up tangentially in this thread so far:

1)We're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry. The last figures I saw were US$40 billion annually, and that's old data.

2) There are some very good theories to describe how the media affect our thinking, but I think many (most?) serious scholars believe that we are affected subconsciously, and the range of possible ideas is limited by what the media present.

If only we could get to some serious news presenter and get them to present the counter arguments to the obesity industry. <dreams>

If you just google 'large size men's clothing UK' or something similar, you'll get answers. Jacamo is one nice place, and there are a number of others. Don't worry--be happy

Your body will almost always 'want' to return to it's former (larger) size. If it feels good to you, by all means, go ahead.

I just linked to that piece in a new thread I started--I'm SOOOOOO happy they interviewed you as their model feeder. It's about time people started realising we're complicated and multiple and don't all fit a single model.

Hooray!!! Go you. I, for one, am very grateful for all you do to put us out there in a positive and realistic light.

Really often, we talk about how unpleasant some of the men here can be. Since I've been moderating the dating ad section, I've read some of the most charming, funny, enticing, smart ads imaginable, and I'm very impressed with the proportions of different attitudes in them.

I haven't counted--though I may, one of these days--but it seems quite clear to me that a very high proportion of men say something like 'personality first'. Or 'I don't know my ideal woman because I haven't met her yet'. This feels like a big improvement over what I might have imagined, which would have been 'I want a girl [not a woman, of course] with a huge, hanging belly'. There are those, and it's honest enough, but it's nice to see so many people not making that a first priority.

The other wonderful thing I see a lot of in the ads is guys wanting their ideal match to be smart, funny, engaged in arts/culture. In a world where smart women still can feel at a disadvantage in the dating scene, this is very welcome indeed.

So thanks, FF guys. You take a lot of heat for the vile among you, but this post is about thanking the significant numbers of you who have awfully cool priorities.

So, I've been shocked on and off since I started coming here at how few people, especially skinny people, on FF are interested in size acceptance and fat liberation. This manifests in a whole lot of ways, two of them being the way we talk about health and the words we use.

The fantastic blog Feedee World pointed readers towards an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit that is about the former:
feedeeworld.wordpress.com/
and it also pointed towards The Appetites Project, which begins with a piece on feederism:
feedeeworld.wordpress.com/
that is followed by a second piece interviewing our own MollyRen:
feedeeworld.wordpress.com/
and that also led me to a wonderful piece on the word 'fat' in the FAQ for Kate Harding's blog Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere:
feedeeworld.wordpress.com/

I hope some people who still think that being fat is necessarily unhealthy watch Penn & Teller. I hope some of you who don't like the word 'fat' read Kate's FAQ. And I hope we can have more conversations about these topics.

And for all of you with whom I've spoken about these things, or who care about them but we haven't met yet--thanks. No matter how much the fat lib folks hate us, we HAVE to care about their issues.

/rant over

^^ This. Smart man. When we label ourselves, it can be very very useful. When other people label us, it is often subtractive, that is, meant to lessen us. (Though not always, which is important.) And finally, the problem isn't with the label, but with the intent to lessen us.

I'm glad to know FAs, feeder, and feedees, even though I find not a single one of those terms especially congenial.