Our culture's idealizalion of slenderness results in personal and cultural biases against fat people, and causes discrimination against those who are larger than average. As an ally to fat people and to the size acceptance movement, there are a number of things you can do to help reverse this bias and end size discrimination.
Become a member of NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) and renew your membership every year. To join, send your name, address, and $35 to: NAAFA, P.O. Box 188620, Sacramento, CA 95818. A sliding scale of $20-$34 is available for students, senior citizens, and limited income members.
Subscribe to Radiance Magazine (cost: $15 one year, $25 two years) and leave current issues around the house (or office) where they may be noticed by people who visit. Radiance is an "upbeat , positive quarterly magazine for women all sizes of large, of all ages, lifestyles, and ethnic groups. Each issue features articles on health, media, and fashion, along with compelling profiles of successful large women from all walks of life... Radiance encourages and supports its readers to live fully now, whatever their size."
If you are a health professional with a waiting area outside your office, keep current issues of the NAAFA Newsletter and Radiance on hand for waiting clients. Recommend both NAAFA and Radiance to fat clients. Consider displaying prints or art reproductions which celebrate large/fat people.
Do not work to maintain an unnaturally low weight. Do not go on weight-loss diets or engage in compulsive or excessive exercise programs.
Avoid all discussions of "good/bad" food and being "good/bad" in relation to eating.
Do not compliment anyone for losing weight, do not criticize anyone for gaining weight.
If you struggle with body image issues, try to discuss your feelings only with close friends, family, and/or a therapist. For instance, do not complain in public that you "hate your fat thighs" or "wish you were thinner" etc. Try to learn to accept/love your body.
Encourage your close friends and relatives to do some or all of the following: question their own fattist assumptions and attitudes, eliminate fattist behavior, stop idealizing slenderness, stop participating in the diet culture, and support fat people's rights and dignity.
When you hear comments or see behavior which troubles you, consider saying something. You can't say something at every single opportunity or you'll quickly "bum out" and give up. But when you feel up to it and you feel able to say something in a constructive way - do it!
Encourage colleagues to do some or all of the above. Focus your energy on people with similar degrees/positions to your own (e.g. doctors focus on enlightening other doctors, nutritionists other nutritionists, and so forth).
Keep a small lending library of information so that you can offer written material to people who are interested and/or skeptical. Your library might include:
Rethinking Obesity: An Alternative View of Its Health
Implications
by Paul Ernsberger and Paul Haskew, Human
Services Press, 1987.
Especially good to lend M.D.s and their
like. Provides a very well documented rebuttal to the old NIH Panel
pronouncement that obesity is a "killer disease."
Originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Obesity and
Weight Regulation.
The Dieter's Dilemma: Eating Less and Weighing More
by William Bennett, M.D., and Joel Gurin, Basic Books, 1982.
Good for doctors and other health professionals who are still
recommending weight loss diets. Explains why diets are obsolete and
discusses setpoint theory.
NAAFA Workbook, NAAFA, 1990.
An
introduction to the body of writing, theory, and policy which has
evolved into NAAFA and the size acceptance movement. Includes chapters
on health, fashion, employment, self-esteem, fat admirers, and activism.
Overcoming Fear of Fat
Edited by Laura S.
Brown, Esther Rothblum, PhD., Harrington Park Press, 1989. Experts
share personal and professional experiences of challenging fat
oppression. An empowering guide for fat people and their supporters.
Making Peace With Food by Susan Kano.
A
self-help text and workbook for chronic dieters of all sizes and
eating-disorder sufferers. Also useful for doctors and therapists who
are interested in an alternative to weight-loss diets.
Great Shape by Pat Lyons and Debby Burgard, Bull
Publishing, 1990.
An empowering, joyful exercise guide for
large, fat women. A great resource for doctors and therapists who don't
want to tell their fat female clients to go on another diet.
Are You Too Fat, Ginny? by Karin Jasper, Is Five
Press.
Written for young girls but also useful to parents and
teachers. Challenges myths about fatness and dieting in adolescence and
encourages self-acceptance.
Weight Loss Surgery Kit, NAAFA.
Includes
Paul Ernsberger' s report on weight loss surgery, first person
narratives, and material presented at the 1992 NIH Weight Loss Surgery
Consensus Panel.
NAAFA Educational Brochures:
NOTE: Most of the materials listed above (and many more) are available from the NAAFA Book Service.
The information in this brochure was developed by Susan Kano, author of Making Peace With Food, and is reprinted with her kind permission.
© NAAFA National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance Email:naafa@world.std.com
PO BOX 188620, Sacramento, CA 95818 Phone:(916) 558-6880 Fax:(916) 558-6881