Can I get a holla for the beautiful picture on today’s Never Say Diet post? When you’re limited to stock photography collections (as we are in daily blog land, since there isn’t enough lead time or money to go out and shoot our own stuff) the body positive pickings can be pretty slim — which often translates to nothing but skinny white girls, as you guys have noted in your comments. But uber-talented iVillage folks have been on the case and here we are. Hooray for a little diversity!
Now you know I don’t mean this in that unhelpful “finally, a REAL woman!” way. Because skinny white girls are real women too. The goal is to represent everybody (and every body), not just flip size discrimination on its head. Which is a concept the purveyors of plus size yoga seem to be having trouble grasping, so you should go check out today’s post about that.
I have to say, I disagree with you on this, Virginia. I mean, I get what you mean and theoretically I agree — everyone should be accepted everywhere. However, that is not the case in the real world, and one of the biggest impediments for us fat chicks getting out and moving is the cruel ridicule we experience when we do. There is a reason my yoga routine happens in my living room with my Megan Garcia DVD and MegaYoga book, after all.
If you accept that there is a thin privilege at work in the world (just as there is a male privilege and white privilege) I think you have to accept that larger-bodies-only spaces are as important as women-only and POC-only spaces for the sanity of those without said privileges. And it feels just plain wrong to tell fat people they have to suffer through the angst, negativity and micro aggressions that a shared space will cause them for the sake of not being ‘discriminatory.’ Thin people wanting to horn in on a safe space for larger folk makes it the exact opposite of ‘safe.’ This really isn’t news.
I do agree that a place like this shouldn’t be about pushing weight loss but I don’t think I can call it ‘icky’ without more information. The few companies that make plus-size clothes, for example, are ‘capitalizing off our culture’s fat bias’ — the bias that makes most people not want to create plus-size clothing or have their designs seen on fat people. But without SOMEONE making clothes, I’d have to learn to sew or get a job working from home where I could live in my pajamas 24/7.