WHAT WE'RE ABOUT

RBI focuses on using expressive writing, design-oriented work, photography, media, research, and community input to fuel fat positive, body acceptance, discussion, and outreach. Our goal is to redefine the way we view and think about body image, size, fat, discrimination, health, fitness, wellness, mental/chronic illness, stigma, and other related topics.

We are constantly redefining our own perspectives, and therefore tend to write a lot about our personal experiences. Many followers and contributors are living with anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and a variety of other body image disorders or mental illnesses, so please be respectful and remember that health applies differently to everyone. Any and all potentially triggering content will be prefaced with a trigger warning.

RBI supports all races, genders, classes, and sizes. We try our best to make this a safe space for everyone. If we are not doing our job or checking our privilege, we invite you to please inform us.

Some of the artwork you see here has been created by our founder or moderators, some sourced when applicable. Please be kind enough to source this blog whenever you share it's content.

We are not health professionals. Any and all advice provided on this blog is supported only by our own research, studies, and personal experiences; nothing more.

This blog is part of the Safe Space Network.

infinitetransit:

lapocketrocket:

datingdisastersofaqueergirl:

I wanna take a second out of my busy Supernatural marathon/cat cuddling/black berry eating self care day to talk about something that is becoming increasingly more frustrating to me.

Tumblr, I’m gonna need you to stop posting pictures/drawings of the same type of fat body that you find acceptable. You think you’re so rad and body positive because you’ve reblogged a couple of pictures of size 16 ladies with hourglass shapes? No. You’re not. You’re just annoying me.

See, those of us who are fat know something y’all don’t. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter how much you weigh or how big you are. Sometimes the difference between being celebrated and being ignored is a distribution of body fat. There are acceptable fat bodies and there are unacceptable fat bodies. Guess which one I live in?

Here are the qualities of an acceptable fat body for ladies/femmes/non-dudes:

1. white (pretty obvious)

2. non-droopy breasts for folks who have ‘em

3. comparatively smaller waist than hips and chest

4. proportionate butt and hips

5. thinner looking face/no double chin

Examples:

see also: Beth Ditto, every model on Torrid, etc.

Unacceptable fat body characteristics (aka I look in a mirror and list all the things I feel dysphoric about errrday)

1. double chin/fat face

2. shaped like a rectangle with no discernible waist

3. no ass

4. back fat

5. droopy breasts (for those who have ‘em)

examples:

Me looking super unimpressed before queer prom.

Other examples: Lauren from Glee,Gabourey Sidibe, etc

I know thin folks don’t get it. I know you think fat is fat. I know this because I have this argument with you like once a week (literally like once a week cuz like all my partners are skinny right now and so are all my friends). You’ll tell me about a club/meeting/event/party/house/whatever and I’ll say, “Were there fat kids there?” and you’ll look at me all uncomfortable and say, “Yeah…maybe” and I’ll be like, “Sigh. Ok. Were there kids there whose bodies looked like mine?” and you’ll be like, “Uh…” and then I’ll go/see pictures and there’s like one size 12 kid with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in my face and I don’t get sprung I just get annoyed.

Fat kids with acceptable bodies, I love you too. I ain’t mad that you get the “nicer” bod. And I know y’all get hella sexualized and fetishized too so it’s not all of bed of cakes. But hey, how about some solidarity with the rest of us?

I don’t have any other analysis, really. I’m not gonna tell y’all that all bodies are beautiful and body shape diversity is important in fat liberation because whatever, you know? I just started thinking about how this kind of hourglassbodypedestal is actually pretty transphobic too because those bodies are read as “natural” and “feminine” and all that gaggy stuff. But I ain’t a rectangle trans lady, just a rectangle cis lady so I’ll leave that analysis for someone who’s lived it.

Anyway seriously Tumblr I’m calling you out for your weird bodyshape politics. Knock it off, dudes.

Perfect post, really. Rectangle pride! (Or butternut squash in my case)

These are really important points.

There needs to be more of a discourse on how different sorts of fat bodies are perceived respectively because yeah, the hourglass shape has kind of become the image of FA on tumblr. Those are not the only kinds of fat bodies and in implying so/using the “real woman” (gag) rhetoric, we also recreate this hierarchy where the sexual desires of others validate someone’s worth… in effect we’re just moving the goal posts there when we should be refusing to play altogether. 

YES YES YES

549 notes

\This was posted 11 months ago
1This was reblogged from infinitetransit
zThis has been tagged with: body, bodies, body image, fat, fat bodies, thehourglassprivilege,
  1. relevanttomyinterests reblogged this from fancybidet
  2. cardiactheatre reblogged this from worsethanqueer and added:
    I’m with you on this, so much body positively tends towards finding non-mainstream bodies which still meeting certain...
  3. worsethanqueer reblogged this from mybodythehandgrenade and added:
    I feel this way about even being a bit of a chubby girl. What happens is my stomach and arms get bigger while my breasts...
  4. lakefruit reblogged this from mybodythehandgrenade and added:
    1) Things to think and remember. 2) “‘Uh…’ and then I’ll go/see pictures and there’s like one size 12 kid with an itty...
  5. mybodythehandgrenade reblogged this from donotpressrepeat
  6. donotpressrepeat reblogged this from cleverbitch
  7. cleverbitch reblogged this from unintentionalgenius
  8. firm-believer reblogged this from bigblondandbeautiful
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  13. unintentionalgenius reblogged this from kengrii
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  16. thelouringlady reblogged this from sleepydumpling
  17. copperandstarrs reblogged this from sleepydumpling
  18. sleepydumpling reblogged this from terrificradianthumble and added:
    YES! It’s so hard to find photographs and art of truly diverse fat bodies. All fat bodies are not white, hairless,...
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