Stacy Bias: Press

Have you joined the low-carb revolution?
Fear of fat may be hazardous to your health
Taylor Barnes - vanguardnewsdesk@yahoo.com
May 07, 2004


As U.S. citizens continue to be assaulted by messages selling Atkins diet products, low-carb Ben and Jerry's ice cream, weight-loss pills and gym memberships, many activists feel that one thing is becoming blatantly clear within mainstream U.S. society: being fat is not okay.

The issues of unhealthy body image and eating disorders are not new to the American public, however it seems that current media messages imply that the average consumer has been consuming too much. Suddenly, Kellogg commercials are encouraging viewers to "respect" themselves in the morning by not eating pastries, and 7-11 is urging commuters to "join the low-carb revolution."

These messages can have detrimental consequences on countless psyches, according to Stacy Bias, founder of FatGirl Speaks. Size oppression, often referred to as "fatphobia" by activists, perpetuates unhealthy body ideals, cycles of shame and self-loathing and pumps billions of dollars into the diet industry, she claimed.

"Fatphobia is the application of negative connotations to diversity - specifically, body diversity," Bias said. "It's just one of a thousand phobias and the one we've chosen to tackle with FatGirl Speaks."

Tomorrow night's FatGirl Speaks is described as "a celebration of size, self and sexuality," and was created in hopes of spreading awareness of fatphobia, and to encourage individuals to examine the dominant attitudes about weight.

"I just woke up one morning and thought 'hey, this sucks!' I did, I'm not kidding," she said. "I thought, we should do something about this, sent out some emails and FatGirl Speaks happened."

This year marks the second the event has been held, and organizers are expecting to host another sold-out show. Hosted at the Hollywood Theater last year, an estimated 530 FatGirl Speaks tickets sold within an hour of the show's start. Event staff reportedly had to turn away between 100 and 150 people before the evening was over.

The demand was greater than Bias and other organizers had anticipated, however this year they hope to be better prepared. FatGirl Speaks 2004 will be held in Roseland Theater, not only allowing planners to prepare for nearly double the attendance (there are 850 tickets available), but the facility allows for a new addition to the event: the afterparty. This year attendees will have the opportunity to party long into the night with an abundance of large, lovely ladies after the main event.

Pre-event workshops will cover topics ranging from fat acceptance to big-girl burlesque, and will feature a diverse array of speakers from across the realm of anti-size oppression activism.

More than anything else, though, planners hope that those who attend will leave assured that they can love themselves and their bodies no matter what they look like.

"Basically, it's a place where people are able to say, 'I'm okay, you're okay,'" Marie Fleischmann, FatGirl Speaks organizer, said. "[It's] a place where fat women are first instead of last."

Fleischmann is not stranger to issues of fatphobia. Having grown up with an overweight mother, she explained that she spent the first half of her life accepting the common ideology that fat necessarily means unhealthy.

However, after she started to experience some weight gain, she had to make a decision.

"I started to look like my mother, and I had to decide if I was going to be a happy fat person or listen to what society said," she said.

"You're supposed to wear a muu muu and be sad if you're fat, but these are the same people giving us this information who helped get the current president into office. No matter what I do, I do it from a core value system from inside myself... my mother listened to them and she's a very unhappy person," Fleischmann said. "I don't what to be like that."

Domi Shoemaker, another FatGirl Speaks organizer, stressed the futility of guilt and shame, explaining that those emotions only serve to further oppress both those with and without body image issues.

"I look at people who drive big SUV's and big cars," Shoemaker said. "Where's the guilt in that? But when I self-indulge, I feel guilty. Everyone has the right to live their life without guilt. It's time to throw away the guilt and party."

Though FatGirl Speaks focuses on women, Fleischmann said people need to realize fatphobia affects all individuals, regardless of gender, and that anyone can experience skewed body image.

"Fatphobia is dangerous because of the spiraling self-loathing," Fleischmann explained. "People are spiraling into drastic measures to alter the body. It's not just women who suffer. Yes, we are focusing on women, but as soon as women start to benefit, so do men. Men are silent fat masses; for them it's not OK to talk about [it]."

Though FatGirl Speaks was first created as an annual event, Bias is currently working to expand the groups' reach and role in the anti-size-oppression activist community. Her vision is to eventually sponsor more community-oriented events and help other organizations receive grants and funding.

"We'd like to serve as a professional face to fund and create a gathering spot for all different organizations," she explained. "Right now there's not one place for people to come together and find out what all the groups are up to."

Despite the success and growth of FatGirl Speaks over the last year, the core group has attempted to keep the spirit of the event intact. As Bias put it, the event all started because she was angry and didn't want to be, and thought, "We should have a party."

"And now it's transformed from party into an institution," Shoemaker explained.



Dieting is stupid
One of the obvious signs of fatphobia is the emphasis on dieting in mainstream culture. Many people in this country hold the belief that in order to lose weight,they must diet. However, several organizations and medical professionals are attempting to spread the word that there may be more effective means to shedding unwanted pounds than dangerously reducing one's caloric intake.
Consider the following facts:
* Dieting rarely works. 95% of all dieters regain their lost weight and more within 1 to 5 years.
* "Yo-yo" dieting (repetitive cycles of gaining, losing, & regaining weight) has been shown to have negative health effects, including increased risk of heart disease, long-lasting negative impacts on metabolism, etc.
* Dieting forces your body into starvation mode. It responds by slowing down many of its normal functions to conserve energy. This means your natural metabolism actually slows down.
* Dieters often experience physical consequences such as loss of muscular strength and endurance, decreased oxygen utilization, thinning hair, loss of coordination, dehydration, fainting, weakness, and slowed heart rates.
* Medical studies indicate that people on diets have slower reaction times and a lesser ability to concentrate than people not on a diet.
* All of the stress and anxiety about food and weight that preoccupy dieters actually can consume a portion of a dieters' working memory capacity.
* Numerous studies link chronic dieting with feelings of depression, low-self-esteem and increased stress.
* Many studies and many health professionals note that patients with eating disorders were dieting at the time of the development of their eating disorder. Dieting may not cause an eating disorder, but the constant concern about body weight and shape, fat grams and calories can start a vicious cycle of body dissatisfaction and obsession that can lead all too quickly to an eating disorder.

--From www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

In an effort to combat fat oppression and fatphobia, people of varying shapes and sizes gathered at the Hollywood Theater last Saturday, May 3, to attend the size-positive event FatGirl Speaks.

Organized by Stacy Bias, owner of technodyke.com, the event showcased original music, spoken word, burlesque and the cheerleading squad Fat Action Team Allstar Spirit Squad, better known as F.A.T.A.S.S. PDX, in a celebration of size and sexuality.

"It's about looking at fat differently," said Liv McClelland, Portland State University student, event organizer and F.A.T.A.S.S. cheerleader. "Everyone always says, 'I have a problem with weight,' but it's not about weight, it's about being happy with yourself. We're fat, we know it, and now we're gonna show it. We're not going to hide behind long sleeves and muumuus. Damn it, I'm hot!"

Though estimates of attendance before the event were tentatively placed at approximately 200 people, FatGirl Speaks sold out before the night was half over, forcing organizers to turn countless people away at the door, McClelland said. In the end, nearly 530 tickets were sold, sending the clear message that there is a place for size pride in the Portland community.

"Next year, we're moving to a larger venue," McClelland said. "There is definitely a need for this kind of event. The energy in the room was amazing, it was so positive."

In addition to the evening event, participants had the option of attending both body-positivity and burlesque workshops before the later performances.

In one such workshop, Queen Size Revolution, a Portland based activist group, led attendees in a discussion about fat-acceptance, self-acceptance, fatphobia, as well as misinformation in American society about obesity.

"The most important thing for us to do is to outwardly say, proudly, I'm fat," said Chelsea Lincoln, co-founder of the group. "If other people hear you say, 'I'm fat,' and not in a negative context, then hopefully they'll realize, 'They're fat, that's okay.'"

Though most people don't realize it, much of the medical information surrounding obesity is questionable at best, Lincoln explained. Many studies focus on correlative, not causal research, and rarely take lifestyle, diet or environment into account, she said.

"Do your research," she said. "It's important to know where this information is coming from."

Lincoln also explained that when patients are overweight, many doctors blame symptoms on their obesity without actually looking into whatever other health problems they might be experiencing. Misdiagnosis also occurs when doctors are unable to accommodate larger patients; if a patient's blood pressure is taken with a cuff that is too small, they will be diagnosed with high blood pressure whether they have it or not, she said.

Due to such misinformation, members of Queen Size Revolution question the validity of many recent studies, and instead suggest the need to examine the link between obesity and stress within American society, Lincoln said.

"Living day after day under such intense societal pressure, stress has horrible effects on the body," she said. "It causes heart problems, hypertension. Doctors say health problems are due to obesity, but it could be stress. They're said to cause the same diseases, same conditions."

At this point, it is important for all size-positive people to combat fat-oppression and fatphobia whenever they can, said Shilo George, co-founder of Queen Size Revolution.

"Our thinner counterparts are key to the Queen Size Revolution, and quite frankly, we need them," she said. "If we can all start calling people on their crap, they'll get the message and know, hey, this isn't okay anymore."

Other performers shared a similar message with the audience as the night wore on.

F.A.T.A.S.S. PDX shared many political and self-affirming cheers throughout the night because, as they were quoted in the evening's program, "nothing says 'Screw you, Jenny Craig" like FatGirls with pom-poms!"

With shouts of "Be progressive! Be, be, progressive!" and "Love your body R-I-G-H-T N-O-W!," F.A.T.A.S.S. PDX was warmly received, and have already 10 invitations to perform at future events around Portland, McClelland said.

Bias, as well as Ashley Shram of Vancouver, B.C., performed music, and spoken word performers from various locations shared their experiences of living in a fatphobic society.

"We had outstanding musicians," McClelland said. "It was amazing to hear the common shared experience. They were the voice for every woman in the theater. Every person there could identify with what was being said."

McClelland explained the goal of the evening was "for every person who walks in that door to walk out feeling better, and knowing that they have a community who sees them. We want people to have a good time, and to spread the message that they can be fat and fit. Just because you're fat doesn't mean that you can't participate in society."

Organizers are optimistic about the future of FatGirl Speaks, and, after recovering from last Saturday, will start planning next year's event, she said.

"We pulled this one together in four months, imagine what we can do in a whole year," she said. "We're nicely settled between San Francisco, Seattle and British Columbia, we hope to draw to people up from all over."

With plans to continue FatGirl Speaks as an annual affair, McClelland explained that the most important message the event can relay is the need for people to have self-acceptance.

As the event program stated, "The most progressive radical feminist thing any woman can do in this day and age is to love herself and her body."

For more information on FatGirl Speaks, go to www.fatgirlspeaks.com.

Taylor Barnes

taylorb@vg.pdx.edu