Body Size Liberation (Warning: Nude Photos)

[freemason9]

modern american obesity is caused by a combination of poverty, lack of self-discipline, indulgence, and precious little physical labor.

i'm gonna get it for saying that, but you know it's true.

can you just sit there quietly without eating?

[LilyPatToo]

An old friend of ours, Laurie Edison is a great photographer and an activist whose focus has been on US society's virulently anti-fat bias for many years now. Several of her photographic subjects are also longtime friends, so I was made aware of the issue a couple of decades ago, long before most of my other friends or family began to discuss it.

Like Laurie, I inherited a naturally small, thin body type, but I still gained 50 lbs. a while back, when I was experiencing a particularly frightening and upsetting amount of "missing time" that included being taken to local military bases and dimly-remembered examinations by doctors, some of which left visible bruises. After a lifetime of being naturally thin, I got my consciousness raised very painfully every time I left the house for 10 years. I'm still not sure which was worse, being constantly objectified by random males when I was thin or realizing that I'd become invisible when I was fat...except to the people I most needed to evade.

After meeting other survivors of sexual abuse, I began to realize how much of my weight gain had been an unconscious (and futile, in my case) strategy to end the unbearable stress of the accessings that were going on then. Those didn't end until the big military bases here were closed in the early-to-mid-90's, but losing the weight took long, frustrating years of effort beyond the base closings. And I ended up with Type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, it wasn't until 2004, when I finally accepted that I was MPD/DID that I was finally able to drop the weight. I also believe that learning about the way that mind control programs are run and about human trafficking has contributed to my keeping the weight off for the 6 years since then.

Now when I see a large person of either sex, I try to be mindful of the likelihood that there may be a history of abuse there or a medical condition or the side-effect of prescribed drugs, something of which most people are unaware. Most of us were programmed by exposure to prejudice against fat kids and adults while growing up, but we don't have to surrender to that programming.

LilyPat

[SanDiegoBuffGuy]

True, freemason, and I'm glad you said it, rather than me. If I said that you'd be sure that there would be pages of hateful crap thrown my way like there were in the healthcare threads.

[JackRiddler]

.

Worth re-quoting!

After several waves of backlash including an outright assault against the word feminism itself, the existence and hegemony of the gaze are topics now relegated to tiny, windowless offices in a few college campuses on the verge of being turned over to janitorial any day now. So unless you want input from say, a 1980's point of view, such an analyst might be difficult to find. Better yet, start another thread and attempt to do a review from the backlash of the so-called third wave to where we are now, a place that has much more to do with the hegemony of market forces and their manipulation of various impulses than any unaddressed, on the ground contention between the sexes. IOW, we are, both sexes, under siege from corporate rule and most of the women who might have been advocating on behalf of their sex, fold their critiques into larger questions on the giant beast dragon that is creeping corporate fascism. Meanwhile, the next generation's heels have grown more torturous, their skirts get shorter and the young women going out to dance in my neighborhood neglect to wear coats. There are a number of differentially directed forces at play and I hate to say it but it almost seemed simpler when my women's studies class took to the streets to cat call men in 1986.

Since it is a statement that I, as a woman, an artist, a feminist, and an activist not only believe in, but could say might be the very organizing principle of my life, I will reassert for all those who might have forgotten their herstory, the personal is political. With that in mind I will share the following.

The aspects of the gaze I found particularly dehumanizing when I was younger have lessened, and I don't think it's because I'm older, I think it has improved somewhat due a great deal to the education and activism that came out of the second wave. Being a woman of some ability and intellect, I always deeply resented being stared at in public, openly treated as a sexual object with every other aspect of my humanity stripped away. The staring or commentary was usually carried out by insecure men who seemed to take particular pleasure in assaulting women outside of their perceived class. I became so intolerant of these daily insults (and others more directly psychical as well) that in my thirties I allowed myself to become obese. That tended to lessen the occurrences, as the more weight I put on, the less of an immediate target I was.

I don't wish to confuse the issue as blatant staring and cat calls in public have little to do with sexual attraction and everything to do with displays of power, however, adding weight to make oneself less sexually attractive is not an uncommon strategy for survivors of sexual trauma. Obesity, however, is a complex issue with many potential causal factors.

The gaze, in its many forms is something, even as a woman now stepping out of certain attention circles in new ways, I have never really acquiesced or numbed myself to. It is omnipresent even though it has, as I mentioned earlier, become less insulting and intrusive over the years. I'd like it if other women spoke to this issue.

Now for the flip side of all of that. Over my long experience, I've seen supposed visually oriented males whose perception was demonstrably skewed, and quite beyond expectation, to reflect desires based in other virtues. Anyone who remembers the hand-drawn avatars I used for awhile and who has seen my real photo is a witness to same. Advertising's manipulation of female attractiveness not only perpetuates destructive expectations of female bodies. It also distorts our shared understanding of male sexual desire, which obviously, and out of necessity, involves far more complex factors than pure visual response.

Now this thread is called "Body Size Liberation", to me that includes men and we have one example. Give us some more meat, will ya?

Okay, the first Google image hit for <fat man> reveals the following page, with an interesting visual formula.

http://www.professionalmuscle.com/forum ... event.html

+



=

Possible premise for further discussion:

I think this equation would be just as true, in a different, spiritual sense, if you were to subtract the "nutter butter" and just had the one man equaling the other. For starters, both bodies are likely the products of compulsions. Second, the jury is most definitely out on which one is truly the healthier, or, to be more precise: making the lifestyle decisions likelier to result in longevity and good health, all other things being the same. I do know which of the two is the more natural, although neither is quite that, except relatively speaking. But it's not "Number 79."

modern american obesity is caused by a combination of poverty, lack of self-discipline, indulgence, and precious little physical labor.

i'm gonna get it for saying that, but you know it's true.

can you just sit there quietly without eating?

As a generality I don't think this is nearly as controversial as you seem to think, though it lacks for fine grain and context. As some kind of high-horse finger-wagging admonition, maybe. Like that last sentence.

But hey: you're a smoker, you're probably okay.

.

[Project Willow]

lack of self-discipline, indulgence,

Yeah, I'll give it to you, I find that offensive. I'll point you to this Mate thread as in terms of compulsive behavior and addictions, he deals with those kinds of attitudes very effectively.

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?p=374495#p374495

.......

Worth re-quoting!

I only vaguely remember writing that post. Thanks for bumping it Jack.

I did rather narrowly focus on cultural forces, but I think that reflects the original discussion, how we got into this offshoot. If I were to make a more comprehensive analysis of my personal case, I'd have to admit that I probably would have had a less drastic reaction to objectification if I felt more powerful in relation to my sexuality which was impacted by years of sexual trauma. Although, according to some feminists, public displays and sexual abuse are part of the same process.

.............. triggers, trauma material ...................



I identify with what LilyPat shared. I remember a handler (and they almost always work in teams in the field) asking his partner, "OK, who wants to *#@^ the fat chick?" Rape, sexual torture and manipulated sexual pleasure are all bound up in mc conditioning and slave/handler relationships. You do what you must to try to assert control in various situations.

As for other contributing factors, I indulge in poor food choices and proportions far less than some skinny people I know, I just don't move enough. I've spent years uncovering various memory scenes of tortures, from simple to elaborate, involving my legs and moving my legs. (On edit: they wanted to condition certain alters against taking over the body and somehow their efforts centered on moving the legs.) I have not been successful in clearing the somatic residue from these experiences and I often feel dread and then phantom pain in my limbs when I initiate movement. That is one reason I gravitate to computer work. It's better now, but for a number of years remaining absolutely prone for hours was probably the worst addiction I had.

There are even more factors I could list but hopefully that's sufficient. Obesity is a complex phenomenon.

.............

Bottom line, don't anyone preach to me about self discipline unless you can claim you've revisited every horror from your past in order to combat your own neurotic compulsions.

[blanc]

There are two things going on in this thread. One is discussion of issues around weight and obesity, the other is nudity, and particularly forced nudity. Clothing is part of our defense against the world, against dirt, disease, heat, cold and also against being accessed by others. Cordelia alluded to corporate bullying to participate in nakedness. When I look at photos like the original one the thread began with, I wonder what induced the models to participate, and why our society now keeps pressurising people to give up their defenses, and why we accept this.

[jam.fuse]

I read in an astrology journal that obesity is caused (paraphrasing from memory) by growing up in an environment in which one is denied any kind of personal emotional space, basically.

[annie aronburg]

[TheDuke]

Yay! Let's celebrate gluttony!

[JackRiddler]

Yay! Let's celebrate gluttony!

You might as well, since you apparently can't do irony.

[TheDuke]

do so

[JackRiddler]

do so

Looks like you've out-ironied me!

.

[TheDuke]

I'm always having to apologise online. Sorry Jack. My comment was uncalled for and not in the spirit of the thread.

[jam.fuse]

My Big, Fat Photo Spoof

I entered American Apparel’s “plus-size model” contest as a joke—and won. But I want nothing to do with a company that’s wanted nothing to do with large women until now.

--- Nancy Upton

An article by, I believe, the woman who appears in the above gluttony/irony photos.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... spoof.html

[sw]

It felt liberating once I felt that my body was mine.

I did not feel liberated once I actually got inside my body instead of hovering over it for so long. Now, I have gotten used to being inside my body and not hovering anymore.

Once I got inside. all kinds of things changed like I gained weight. I was more aware of my body.

So far I have freed my feet and legs. I don't wear shoes much anymore and I can have my feet touched.

I feel female for the first time. I may have said this years earlier, but I didn't know then, that femaleness was even bigger and I have gotten there.

I have embraced that I am a female and I love myself. That was a long time in coming. I went to this lady who did psychic work and she asked me to visualize my inner child. I did. She asked me what she looked like. I said , he is a he. She opened her eyes and asked me if I was a male previously and I said no, my inner child that I relate to is a boy, Space. She said, well you can't have an inner child be a boy. So, I so okay, and switched to a visual of another inner child I felt close to that was female. The rest of the reading was off because I think she was upset that I wanted a male inner child.

Bodies are a lot of work to keep up. I never invested in body care because I just didn't think I'd live this long, as I've said before.

anyway, once my body was liberated, it got all curvy and I have roles of fat. After being a size zero for a long time, it was strange. I like it way better having body fat. It is much easier to hug when one is not all bones.

Because I was so skinny, I never had breasts. Nothing. Nada. Looked like a boy. Now I am bigger and it's very odd to look at this body and see female parts.

I also like to take showers now. A clean body feels way better than being dirty. I rarely showed growning up. too scary taking ones clothes off. I didn't know how dirty I was until I became clean.