Dancin' with my mirror

New entry: how I came upon FA

2008-05-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Despite requests, the links to my blog in the fatosphere still haven't been updated to replace this one by my new wordpress blog... Meh.

So, without further ado, here's another entry on my new blog: How I came upon FA

New post!

2008-05-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

New post over at my wordpress blog: Happy International No-Diet Day!

Aquagym!

2008-04-18T08:32:00.001-07:00

Please visit my Wordpress blog for my latest entry about aquagym, and feel free to leave your comments there. :)

Cruella, how cruel you are!

2008-04-09T11:26:00.001-07:00

While waiting for the Fatosphere list to be updated with the new blog URL, here's the link to my latest entry on my blog: Cruella, how cruel you are!

Feel free to leave comments on the other blog. :)

Time to change...

2008-04-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

I decided to move this blog over to wordpress. I like the interface better than Blogger's. Aside from that, the blog in itself won't be any different from what I've done here. I sure hope to be inspired to write on a semi-regular basis (to be frank, despite my best intentions, I haven't felt much in the mood to blog about anything lately, and this is not just about fat acceptance).

Anyway, come visit the new iteration of this blog, at http://ladyjaye75.wordpress.com.

First ever size-16UK teen to be Miss England finalist!

2008-03-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

According to this article, 16-year-old Chloe Marshall became the first ever size-16UK model (which is equivalent to a size 14 in North America) to reach the Miss England finals, competing against girls who are sizes 6 or 8 (in the article it says 8 or 10, but you gotta consider that it's UK sizing).

She's already made it, no matter how she fares in the Miss England finals, as she signed a contract with the Models Plus agency. I sure wish her lots of success as a plus-size model! :)

Obviously, she's not exactly fat, but she's definitely not skinny. Of course, that just shows how skewed the world is, when someone who's average IRL is deemed way bigger than average in beauty competition and on the runway.

Pre-teen TV role models

2008-03-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Watched this morning a recent interview with Candace Cameron (DJ from Full House) and it made me think how she, along with Tina Yothers (of Family Ties fame), mattered to me when I was a pre-teen because there were 2 girls, slightly chubby, one an all-out tomboy on TV. As a chubby tomboy myself, I certainly related to both of them. They both slimmed down as teens but even then, neither of them were skinny girls. A third girl who'd come close, was Laura in Family Matters (and I'm not even thinking of the wonderful BBWs who played her mother and her grand-mother on the series).

Candace as a kid and as a teen:

Tina as a child and as a teen:

Kellie Williams (Laura in Family Matters):

Unfortunately, it was revealed recently that Yothers was under pressure to lose weight as a teen. Dunno whether that was also the case with Candace Cameron, but nonetheless that sucks. The worst thing is that, considering how Hollywood now works, I'd be doubtful that either one of them as pre-teens would have been able to get work as actresses nowadays -- that's how fucked up the entertainment industry has become.

I gotta wonder: for a young girl today, does she have contemporary not-skinny role models her age that will make her feel more at ease with not looking like a magazine model? Or is she stuck watching reruns of 20-year-old sitcoms just to see someone who's like her? Not every girl looks like Miley Cyrus...

2008-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

La Presse's website reproduced a France-Presse article about a 282-lb German man who was condemned to 5 years in jail for killing his wife by sitting on her after they fought over her playing her favorite song on the computer. He apparently sat on her for 2 minutes and broke 18 ribs of hers, which caused her death a month later. She was about half his weight.

What really shocked me with this article is the image chosen (by La Presse or by France-Press? I don't know. Since Cyberpresse is the only French-speaking Web media outlet to have picked the story, who knows...). It shows the butt of a very fat man sitting on a folding chair -- the kind of pic that the media often use to decry the "obesity epidemic"... *sigh*

New plus-sized thrift shop opens in Montreal!

2008-01-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

I just read on Vive les rondes (a French FA site/community) that the Centre d’éducation et d’action des femmes (Women's learning and action center) in Montreal opened Tallissimo, the first plus-sized thrift store in Canada (so they claim -- is it really the first one? There must be one in Toronto or Vancouver, no?).

Anyways, the ladies behind Tallissimo accept new and used stylish plus-sized clothes and accessories in good condition (including lingerie!), and sell them at an affordable price. Of course, the clothes are washed and ironed before being sold -- it's not because it's a thrift shop set in a poor Montreal neighborhood that it can't show respect toward its customers.

Hopefully, they will also sell shoes and boots with wide calf, a near-impossible thing to find in Montreal (if anyone knows of a Montreal store that does sell that, lemme know -- I don't wanna order online, as my feet are on the wide side too).

I will certainly check out this store in a near future. Hopefully they will have clothes that I like.

Here's the address of the store:

Boutique Tallissimo
2267 Ontario Est
Montreal
514-510-6780
(near Metro Frontenac -- take the westbound bus # 125 - Ontario)

Note: they're open Tuesday-Saturday. Also, I don't know if the shop's owners speak any English, so keep that in mind if you give them a call.

Oh noze! Coffee makes you fat!!!

2008-01-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

The British watchdog group Which? has evaluated the calorie content, price and taste of coffee shops in the UK, including Starbucks.

Of course, according to The Guardian, "A Starbucks large white chocolate mocha with whipped cream and made with whole milk was found to contain 628 calories - nearly a third of the recommended daily amount for women. A medium whole milk caffe mocha with whipped cream from the same chain had 396 calories."

The problem with this (unless it just wasn't part of the article but actually was in the report) is that the focus is on specialty drinks, not on actual coffee. Can't they evaluate actual cups of coffee instead of frappuccinos, mokaccinos, etc.?

What does that have to do with FA? Well, some people are quick to jump on the OMG, coffee makes you fat!!!111!! bandwagon. Hmmm, it's not the actual coffee but what's added to it that's the issue (if you want to consider it an issue).

Do people in the US still drink actual filter coffee (or espresso)? Or is it necessary to sweeten it beyond recognition in order to drink it? I never was one to put much sugar or milk in my coffee and I eventually started drinking it black (except when I am in a diner where the coffee's quality is suspect). I don't mind a mokaccino once in a while, but to me that's not coffee.

2008-01-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

I never realized that Pierce Brosnan's current wife (Keely Shaye Smith) is a BBW... Don't they look lovely? It's a reminder that we don't need to be skinny to rock the beach... :) Sure makes me wanna escape the snow and go south and rock my black-and-red one-piece Roots suit!

Of course, TMZ's reaction to the pics is a double oh-no, but I don't give a shit, I think they both look amazing. Don't you?

2008-01-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've last updated this blog. I've been busy IRL with the holidays period always being so social and also *ahem* spending a lot of time with a certain someone...

I just haven't had much to blog about lately, and that's not strictly the case of fat acceptance. In general, I just haven't blogged much in the past couple of months, as my slowed-down posting on livejournal can attest.

However, this blog isn't dead or even dormant. In fact I do have one topic in my mind that I want to write about. :)

In the meantime, my new discovery among fat-acceptance blogs is Diary of a Fat Teenager. Great talent there, I think she'll go far... :)

2007-11-06T06:21:00.001-08:00

I think I found the perfect dress for the Christmas party at work, but is it worth it? It's a somewhat retro-looking dress in black with a burgundy pattern. The color is gorgeous.

Of course before I run to Addition-Elle and dish out cash for it, I'll need to check a couple of things -- how expensive is the dress? does it fit me well (I'm small, so I don't want the hem to fall weirdly on my legs)...

On the other hand, I could just use what I have at home and wear my long flowing black skirt (worse comes to worse, buy a new top).

2007-11-04T04:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think there's still the fat, nerdy kid stigma attached to me. I've found a lot of high school friends and buddies on Facebook, and it happened with TWO different people that I've posted a message on their wall only to notice that it was deleted, with no reply, no Facebook email, nothing.

For Christ's sake, are they fucking ashamed that I deign writing them in public?!? Geeze, I'm still fat but I'm not contagious. Plus I'm no longer the socially awkward nerd I was 15 years ago. I think anyone who'd read my Facebook page for more than two seconds would notice that... >_<

It's just so fucking rude. Why accept my friend request in the first place if it's to shun me like that? I don't need assholes like that.

2007-11-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

It's funny how people assume that you're necessarily self-conscious when you're fat. Recently a lover made that assumption -- granted, he was just trying to reassure me that I didn't need to be self-conscious with him, etc. but I never expressed such self-consciousness in the first place.

Personally, I know what I look like, and I don't look slimmer when I wear clothes... LOL
Actually, I might be accused on the contrary of having too much of an ego. ;)

Guess it's telling though how many girls out there feel self-conscious, whether they're fat or not...

2007-10-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went out to buy food and got sidetracked (finally, I never did buy the food, so I have to do this today). Anyways, I was on trendy Mont-Royal street when I decided to enter the Aldo shoe store. Just as I entered, the song Big Girl You Are Beautiful by Mika starts playing. Now I suppose that they were just playing the album and it happened that it got to the song, but either way, no one just hit forward to the next song. :)

It would have been even better if Aldo had been selling wider-calf boots, but it's still an almost surreal experience. Of course, it would have been even more surreal in some skinny-size clothing store...

Video: It's Raining Men

2007-10-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

Forget about the cover done a few years ago by a scary-looking Ginger Spice. Here's the original video for It's Raining Men, sung by The Weather Girls (who were 2 BBWs). Nowadays, it'd be unthinkable that a pop song, especially one about self-confidence women singing about their love of men, would be done by anyone who's fat in any way.

Then again, a mere few years passed before the pop music industry gave us Milli Vanelli. The official Milli Vanelli were eye candy. The real Milli Vanelli were 2 fat guys...

Montreal Fashion Week: No skinny girls, no under-16!

2007-10-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

The organizers of next week's Montreal Fashion Week have announced that they're banning models showing signs of anorexia and models younger than 16 on their catwalk.

This is great news, but I hope this is only the first step. I'm still hoping that one day, organizers of Fashion Weeks will push for more diversity on the catwalk, encouraging designers to include larger models too. Obviously, the fashion world isn't made for the ordinary human being (look at how tall models are compared to the average person...), but not everyone is a size 0 either.

New Dove ad: Onslaught

2007-10-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's interesting how, right after I posted the video for TLC's Unpretty, I read a blog entry about the new Dove ad, Onslaught, which shows all the beauty industry images that a young girl is exposed to, encouraging parents to talk to their daughters before the beauty industry does (and fucks up her self-esteem).

As it was pointed out elsewhere, yes, there are commercial reasons behind that ad (ie. selling beauty cream), but the ad's message is pretty powerful. If it helps even one girl to develop good self-esteem, then this ad was not made in vain.

Video: Unpretty, by TLC

2007-10-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

I've always liked this video and song. I especially like the fat teen in the video, even though this is not covered in the song (well, you can always replace the bit "just a little skinny" by "just a little chubby"...) Nevertheless, this song remains as powerful today as it was 10 years ago, maybe even more so now that the use of Photoshop allows the creation of bodies that don't correspond to the person supposedly photographed (see most ads and magazine photo shoots, especially covers).

This is a great song to listen to on a "blah" body day...

My readings: Losing It, by Laura Fraser

2007-09-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been re-reading my self-acceptance books, fat-positive blogs, etc. One of my favorite books in the genre is Losing It, by Laura Fraser.

Published in 1997, it debunks the myths of diets and "obesity treatments" such as weight-loss surgery. Written like a book-length magazine article, it is a compelling and very informative essay. It's not a fat acceptance book per se, but the debunking of the diet industry is still an eye-opener.

Unfortunately, this book is out of print. Since a decade has gone by since its publication, I wish that a new edition of this book would be published (although, the more things change, the more they're the same -- witness the resurgence of the Atkins diet after Losing It was published). I'd sure be interested in reading her take on these unfortunate stories of children being taken from their parents for being fat (or other fat kids getting WLS).

There are copies of the book sold by third party sellers on Amazon, so if you can't find a copy at your local bookstore or library, that's always a possible route to take. You can read an excerpt from the book on that same Amazon page.

Welcome to my fat acceptance blog!

2007-09-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

So here I am, joining the fat acceptance blogging community (well, actually, I already have such a blog, but it is in French and hosted over at Vivelesrondes.com). Since it's difficult to maintain a unique blog in both French and English, I decided that this would be the English version of the other blog. A single bilingual blog is too tiring too read and maintain (at least until one of the blogs providers start offering a multilingual option where the reader can choose to read entries in either language or in all languages).

Why is this blog titled Dancin' with my Mirror? Well, it's the title of an old Corey Hart song that I really like, and also because it's hard to dance with your mirror if you don't like yourself. Since I don't avoid mirrors, I thought that this would be a more than appropriate title for a self-acceptance blog.

Now, how about myself? Well, I've been fat for most of my life. "Skinny" for my body means 150lb, so I am not meant to be skinny (a quick glance at family pictures will convince anyone that I've inherited those fat genes from my grandmother's side, along with most of my genetic baggage it seems). However, even though I was a bit chubby as a child and as a teen, I was not a complete couch potato. Sure I loved videogames and watching TV, but I also spent quite of bit of time playing outside. Whether it was street hockey, riding my bike, playing softball, racing Seb to see how fast we could run... I was a fit kid. In high school, I played volleyball and ice hockey (on top of the regular phys. ed. class, which I usually enjoyed, unless it was a sport or discipline I didn't like as much like gymnastics).

As an adult, I became more sedentary, unfortunately. However, I decided to get fit again this year. I've been biking to work most days since June (a 40-45 minute ride no less on a slight slope) and started an aquagym class last week. And I love it. I'm getting reacquainted with the pleasure of playing, of moving around. I was thinking about this last night, how doing sports came so easily to me as a kid because it was play. I really want to cross-country ski on a regular basis this year, and I want to start playing softball again next summer. All this is not a weight loss thing (in fact, I don't care about that kind of outcome. My body will adjust itself as it pleases, that's all), but rather to reap all the benefits of good fitness levels (better inner body workings, more stamina, more energy, better sleep, more flexibility).

Oh, and being fat in my body doesn't mean that I hide behind tents or tomboy clothes (which I did for too long). Don't get me wrong, sometimes I wear guys' t-shirts and dress really casually, but most of the time I like wearing nice girly tops, skirts, etc. However, I usually wear comfy girls' skater shoes -- nice dress shoes are hell to find for me since I have wide feet.

This is what I look like (as of 2 weeks ago). It's not a perfect pic (the top of my hair is missing...), but that's what happens when you do self-photography at 8am on a weekday. LOL