January 2018 NAAFA Newsletter |
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2017 in Review
by Darliene Howell |
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For NAAFA and our members, 2017 has been a year of both education and action.
Education
NAAFA introduced the
2017 Size Diversity in Employment Tool Kits, designed to address diversity of body size in the workforce and how this can increase brand loyalty, reputation and the bottom line.
Our 2017 NAAFA Advisors Webinar Series was offered free of charge to participants and was very well received. Many of the events were recorded and are still available for viewing/listening from our website at
https://www.naafaonline.com/dev2/community/events.html along with copies of the materials made available during the events. Our featured subject matters/presenters were:
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Why Become an Advocate for HAES (Health at Every Size)? with Joanne Ikeda, MA, RD
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Fatshion as Action - Having Fun With Clothes While Changing the World! with Tigress Osborn (NAAFA Board of Directors) and guests: fashion designer Bertha Pearl of Size Queen Clothing and supersize model Saucye West, founder of #FatAndFree
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Weapons of Mass Distraction - How to deal with the constant questions "But aren't they unhealthy?" and "Why can't they just lose weight?" with Esther Rothblum, Ph.D.
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Human Rights for Fat Humans with Lily O'Hara, Ph.D.
NAAFA updated the
Healthcare Bill of Rights to establish a policy against discriminatory practices based on body weight/size, abilities or health status in the healthcare and health insurance industries.
Our latest brochure update is our
Guidelines for Healthcare Providers With Fat Clients, offering healthcare workers information to better understand and treat fat clients. You can access all of our brochures and tool kits at
https://www.naafaonline.com/dev2/about/brochures.html
Action
2017 was a devastating year for many people beginning with the hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. This is where NAAFA members stepped up and put activism to work in the lives of so many by sending hundreds of pounds of plus-size clothing to aid those that were in need.
But it didn't end there. When the fires that consumed the homes of Northern California residents blazed, NAAFA members once again gave from the heart to people who lost everything by sending more plus-size clothing to that area. We are so grateful to those that were able to contribute to these relief efforts.
Looking forward in 2018
2018 will see us continuing to review and update our educational brochures. NAAFA has also been approached by a Health At Every Size (HAES) practitioner in Mexico that would like to work with us in translating some of our educational brochures into Spanish to make these tools available to Spanish-speaking people.
We will be continuing our webinar series in 2018 and would like your input regarding what types of subject matters you would like to see addressed. If you have a subject matter to suggest, please send me a message at
naafa-secretary@outlook.com
As you know, NAAFA is an all-volunteer organization and it is your membership fees and donations that allow us to continue to do this work. Without your support, this work could not continue. Please consider renewing your annual membership today if you haven't already done so.
Thank you for your continued support of size acceptance and of NAAFA! |
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Health At Every Size and HAES are registered trademarks of the Association for Size Diversity and Health, and are used with permission.
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At press time, we learned of the passing of longtime NAAFA member Cathy Grinels Harrell. We'd like to offer our condolences to Tony and the rest of Cathy's family. Our next issue will contain a memorial to Cathy. (For those in northern Texas, a celebration of Cathy's life will be held this coming Wednesday:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1837984976499392) |
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I hate seeing all the New Year fitness resolution hype.
Most folks drive themselves a little bit crazy this time of year with resolutions. You know what I mean: making big promises about weight loss, exercising, closet cleaning or money that are almost impossible to keep. When I was studying for my Medical Exercise Specialist Certification, the instructor pointed out that many exercise resolutions end with injuries, and he sees the resolution makers in his medical office by Martin Luther King Day. That's just a couple weeks of trying too hard to do something that you're not ready for.
I have a good-feeling approach to New Year's fitness resolutions in just a few simple steps. Step One is to make peace with where you are. When you see clearly where you are, then you can find the next logical step.
You cannot find the next logical step if you are filled with anxiety or self-loathing. That's why making peace with where you are is important. Make peace without sugar-coating or being mean to yourself. Tell the truth, then ease into peace and look for your next step. For instance, "I'm not exercising right now and I never really want to" might become peaceful with these words: "Fitness has eluded me so far but I'm going to relax about it intentionally and see what happens next." Relaxing about where you are is the key to finding peace; then, you can be successful with your next step. When you are relaxed about fitness you might wonder if you simply need a different approach. What if this could be easier than you thought?
My definition of fitness is having the strength and stamina to live YOUR life (it has nothing to do with what you eat or how you look). If you adopt my Easy Fitness definition of fitness you may find you can relax about the whole concept. You see, building strength and stamina is a simple process involving small efficient strength exercises that can be done in a few minutes each day. Finding fitness does not have to be a big hairy deal!
You start where you are. And, where you are is your perfect starting place! If you are pretty much sedentary, that's ok, find a small bit of exercise you have time for and would be willing to try. Easy Fitness says that exercise can feel friendly and doable. (Over time you can do harder exercises and they will feel friendly too.) Here are some good starting exercises if you haven't been active in a while and/or you have some injuries:
- Walk a short, friendly-feeling distance on purpose with a smile (a lap around your car before you get in, a lap around the house, 10 steps out, then 10 steps back, 5 or 10 marches while your coffee is brewing).
- Get Ups: If getting out of a chair feels easy, do it again and then give yourself a pat on the back (another great coffee time exercise).
- Stretches: Look up some stretches on YouTube or do some shoulder rolls and wrist circles or flop over onto your kitchen counter and feel your back and legs stretch . . . ahhh.
- Pick up my book Easy Fitness for the Reluctant Exerciser on Amazon and relax, you've got this.
- If you're athletic or have a fitness practice that you'd like to get back to, start reasonably. Maybe go to the gym, pool or class once or twice at the most this week. Look at your calendar and pick the best day. My clients often find going once during the week and once on the weekend is a good way to get some momentum going.
Relax about fitness. Find a friendly-feeling way to proceed from where ever you are. Listen to your body, tell your brain to quiet down and try not to listen to the New Year Fitness hype. Be gentle, appropriate, kind and have fun!
Love,
Cinder |
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Toni Tails: Design with Curve Appeal
by Peggy Howell
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The following is an interview with artist Toni Tails, best known for her depictions of joyful super-sized women. She is a body positive artist and graphic designer whose work includes logos, branding, business cards, flyers, t-shirt design, cartoons, paintings and more under her Toni Tails design with curve appeal brand.
Peggy: Let's start with a little background. I was a chubby girl pretty much from the start. Have you always been a big girl?
Toni: I grew up with a fat mom and dad, and our family regularly went on whatever new fad diet was all the rage. I remember being 110 pounds when I was 14 and thinking. "I need to lose 10 lbs!" I don't know why exactly, and I never talked about it, but I sincerely thought I was fat. I started actually gaining weight in my late teens. By the time I was 16, I wore a size 14 and by 18, I was a size 18 and so forth.
Peggy: I grew up in the Midwest never knowing anything about size acceptance until I learned about NAAFA as an adult living in California. How did you learn about size acceptance? About NAAFA?
Toni: I discovered size acceptance in my early 30s through the internet. It was when my psychiatrist refused to prescribe the medications I take for PTSD and bipolar disorder unless I promised him I would go on a diet. I steadfastly refused to make this promise, and he said, "Oh well. I guess you won't have your medication." Some furious Googling led me to many fat friendly forums and websites, including NAAFA. The rest is history.
Peggy: Have you always had an artistic talent? Did you study art? What inspired you to create your positive super-sized beauties?
Toni: I've always loved to draw and had a natural talent for it. I've never studied art formally, though I pored over art books from an early age. I was directly inspired to create positive fat art by a fellow artist and friend, Nick P Marton. I came across a drawing of his that depicted a gloriously happy fat woman. The emotions that came over me when I saw this surprised me. I had seen sexy fat art before and beautiful paintings, but I'd never seen an expression like hers on a fat character. She was a fully realized woman, happy in her own skin. It brought tears to my eyes, and my pulse quickened. Until that moment, I didn't realize how much I needed representation of that nature. From that day forward, I have created images of fat women that I hope may bring this emotion to someone else out there who needs it.
Peggy: What is the message you hope people get from the art you create?
Toni: My biggest hope is to help tear down fat stereotypes, and relay the message that we are fully realized individuals. I believe that putting forth more fat images into the world will help to defy the notion that there are limited acceptable body types. The more diversity that is shown in the media, the closer we can come to a shift in how our culture views fat bodies and treats people of size.
Peggy: We know you because of your size positive art, but you own a thriving graphic arts business. What other businesses do you have and what kind of products do you produce?
Toni: My main website is
tonitails.com where you can find prints of my work. I also design plus size dresses through
cowcow.com/tonitails , t-shirt and merchandise through
tonitees.com, and free body positive coloring pages through
facebook.com/bodypositivecoloringbook . You can find me @tonitails on most social media platforms.
Every time I answer this question, I realize I am one busy bee! Thankfully, my mom and sister work with me directly to help manage my large following. My son, niece, and nephew pitch in, too, and help me decide which ideas I should keep working on. My brother-in-law even throws in a "That's cool" every so often. I don't know how I would do it without my family.
Peggy: Do you have something more that you would like to share?
Toni: My friend Chea helped me sum it up with this mission statement:
"As an artist, I most love to celebrate women. I often focus on my plus size sisters and WOC because they are not represented enough in our society and that needs to change. I create works of art that reflect plus size women as; beautiful, sexy, fun, silly, crazy, desirable, vulnerable, amazing, strong - ALL the things! Above all, I like to show that fat people are humans who are worthy. This is how I feel. I hope to encourage and empower everyone to love themselves for who they are." - Toni
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Why Handmade Clothing for Fat Women Makes All the Difference
by Stephen Hadley
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Fat women are often forced to make an unfortunate fashion decision - big, shapeless garments or mass produced pieces that fit a bit better, but still weren't designed for a large woman's body.
Why are major brands just upsizing their standard designs and calling it their new "plus size line"?
It's all about market share. It's 0% about respecting women, respecting their bodies, and encouraging fat ladies to take pride in their beauty.
Where are the clothes specifically designed for fat women? And what's so different about a handmade top in plus size versus a mass produced piece?
Handmade Matters
Clothing design all starts with simple ideas: hand drawn concepts; thoughts on shape, flow, and feel; and notes on texture and draping. These are the details that designers spend time on before they've sewn the first stitch.
From there, ideas are drawn and cut, pinned and adjusted. Textiles are compared and tested to find the best option. And then, finally, after all that work, manufacturing can begin.
The truth is that handmade design requires a lot of work, and the designers who skip this process for plus sizes are not doing fat women justice.
When designers start the entire process thinking about fat female bodies, everything changes. The fit is adjusted in all the right places. The sleeves are crafted to fit comfortably without being constricting or clingy. The hem is flattering and comfortable, falling in just the right place.
Handmade Means Unique
If you're all about wearing all black - more power to you. But that shouldn't be your go-to style just because nothing else is available. Or worse, because you've been told that's all that fat women should wear.
I believe that clothes should be more than just what you wear. Every outfit is an expression of your personality, your inner joy. And the designer you choose to wear should have the same approach.
When I'm designing a new garment, feeling the textiles and creating unique fabrics is my "thing." I love each step, from choosing fabrics to formulating color dyes, and completing the entire crafting process.
I especially love creating patterns and prints that are impossible to duplicate. Tie dye and batik are two of my favorite examples. Hand painted batik is an amazing, ancient art that never turns out exactly the same way twice. And true tie-dye works the same way.
I love seeing how different tying techniques spread out the dyes differently, creating unexpected yet stunning patterns.
Fat Women Deserve Options
Don't feel forced to deal with poorly designed upsized clothing from major brands or boring clothes that don't make you feel beautiful.
Find designers who support you: women and men who craft their designs by hand, start to finish, with a fat woman's unique needs in mind.
You'll look better, you'll feel better, and you'll support the small part of the gigantic fashion industry that's rooting for you.
Stephen Hadley has been exclusively creating plus size clothing for women (up to 2x to 4x depending on the item) since 2002. He designs fabric and garments for
GenerousFashions.com and his
Etsy shop, which offers NAAFA readers a
10% discount. Sign up for the Generous Fashions newsletter for new arrivals and member discounts. |
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Media and Research Roundup
by Bill and Terri Weitze
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April 2017: Researchers looking at social interactions find that fat women show the strongest increase in parasympathetic activity and the strongest decrease in mood after social exclusion.
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0482-8
December 2017: Volume 7 of Fat Studies is released with the focus on methods of teaching fat studies.
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ufts20/7/1?nav=tocList
December 15, 2017: Type 2 diabetes is growing in some of the poorest populations of India, and according to researchers this may be due to a vitamin B12 deficiency, leading to more visceral fat despite a low overall weight.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d7yewv/how-a-bmi-fallacy-convinced-the-world-that-diabetes-is-a-disease-of-excess
https://doi.org/10.2217/epi-2017-0102
December 17, 2017: The Mayor of Paris launches a campaign against fat shaming in the wake of the success of the Gabrielle Deydier's book You Are Not Born Fat.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/12/17/paris-the-city-of-the-svelte-is-cracking-down-on-fat-shaming.html
December 2017: We are sorry to say that Patricia Schwarz, photographer well known for her beautiful fat people, has passed away. The link below is Marilyn Wann's Facebook post and the many kind condolences.
https://www.facebook.com/marilynwann/posts/10159856081670158?pnref=story
December 21, 2017: A paper looking at cardiometabolic health, scheduled for publication in Postgraduate Medicine, provides a primer for healthcare focused on reducing risk factors in light of social structures faced by the patient. (Warning: the paper becomes more antifat toward the end.)
https://doi.org/10.1080/00325481.2018.1421395
December 26, 2017: In the United States, black individuals are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as white individuals. However, a new study shows that this difference is due entirely to biological, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors during young adulthood. Of course, the media pick up only one of these factors, fatness, even though "obesity" and "BMI" aren't even mentioned in the abstract.
http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2018/jan/05/obesity-poverty-help-explain-higher-diabetes-risk
https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.19546
January 2018: Despite spending more per capita for health care, the United States has poorer child health outcomes than any other industrialized nation.
https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0767
January 3, 2018: An article provides some good suggestions to avoid the pitfalls of parents restricting their children's food types or amounts, which can backfire and cause a myriad of food and eating related problems.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/banning-soda-sugary-cereal-or-ice-cream-for-your-kids-may-not-be-the-best-strategy/2018/01/03/af99c73a-d555-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html
January 8, 2018: A small reduction in the rates of severe obesity in 2 to 4 year olds from poor families who are part of a governmental special supplemental nutrition program yields much speculation as to the cause.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/fewer-of-america-s-poor-kids-are-becoming-obese-729978.html
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.4301
January 8, 2018: Doctor Perri Klass contemplates parents' roles in the weight of their children and advises that being fat is not just a matter of what your child eats or how much your child exercises.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/well/family/do-parents-make-kids-fat.html
January 12, 2018: Fat activist Jewelz talks about finding fat acceptance at age 23 and her determination to reclaim the word "fat".
http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/12/plus-size-activist-jewelz-wants-inspire-people-reclaim-word-fat-7224481
January 12, 2018: A novice flier gives some basic tips on flying while fat with Southwest Airlines, many of which apply generally.
http://www.theradicalnotion.com/flying-while-fat |
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Founded in 1969, NAAFA, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, is a non-profit human rights organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for fat people. NAAFA works to eliminate discrimination based on body size and provide fat people with the tools for self-empowerment through public education, advocacy, and member support.
Comments:
pr@naafa.org
Any products or services mentioned in articles in this newsletter are for information only and should not be considered endorsements by NAAFA. |
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