WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
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.
Asked Anonymous
2/2 that this is an awful thought process, ones weight holds no gravity in regards to ones worth. That been said, I was wondering if there were any resources you could direct me towards to try and reverse this? Be it other body positive blog links, the names of books or authors who champion all shapes and sizes or any other media you may know of to help nip this ‘thin superiority’ in the bud. Again, I do not mean to offend, I’m horrified and ashamed that I think this way, hence staying on anon xo
TW: Eating Disorders
Hey - I want to start by saying that I am sorry you are suffering, and the fact that you are aware that you have an ED and that you are conscious of the ways that this is warping your thinking is a good first step towards body positivity. The second thing I am going to urge you to do is to get help for your ED. Talk to a therapist or a school psychologist or a friend you trust. I hope that you can find someone in your life to be a resource for you, but if not I will also point you to Tumblr’s list of resources for eating disorders, which can be found here
http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/counseling_prevention_resources
I don’t know a lot about anorexia, and therefore I can only be of limited assistance to you, but I suspect that treating your ED will be a necessary part of changing your feelings about “thin superiority”. You are right that a person’s weight never determines their worth. I hope that you can find the help you need, and maybe one of the other mods can pop into this thread and update it with better information than I have.
Good luck,
Asked skiinny-bitcheslovecats
I’m going to level with you here. I am a recovering purging anorexic.
I’m not going to apologize for you finding fat bodies offensive, because you obviously need to do more work in your recovery.
I am sorry that you were triggered, because that is something that we always try to avoid.
However, thinspo IS destructive. Thinspo is fucking disgusting. So, I’m going to say it again and again - fuck all thinspo. I will NEVER apologize for that. Ever.
Also - do not EVER erase the people who have eating disorders who are not anorexic or bulimic. There are a VAST variety of eating disorders out there and just because a person is not emaciated does not mean they are not suffering as much as an anorexic or bulimic.
And how do you know the lifestyles of the people here are unhealthy? Do you personally stalk all of them? Do you monitor what they eat? Their physical activity? I sincerely doubt you do. Do not allow your eating disorder to make you into a fatphobic jerk.
Also - I am doing a hell of a lot more work for people with ED’s being a body positive advocate than you are right now. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
I am slightly shocked to read you’ve found our blog offensive, and so I made a point to research all your complaints. Firstly, 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.
It’s true we are far more vocal about fat positive body acceptance, but mainly because the majority of our moderators are fat, and we tend to blog our personal opinions and experiences. Many of our mods even have a history of disordered eating, myself included, so please consider
- we don’t discuss height and weight in regards to health - because fixation on these is unhelpful (especially in recovery)
- Body Positivity is being okay with whatever body you have, be it thin, fat, underweight, obese, disabled, healthy, sick
- different people have different triggers; thin bodies trigger me in the way fat bodies obviously do you
- The French Fries are telling you the truth! (and really tasty)
- Thinspo is harmful, ugly, hateful, triggering, presents unrealistic ideals, and promotes self destructive behaviors to reach them
FUCK ALL THINSPO
I feel so badly for you, that you interpret a body positive safe space as offensive and hostile to yourself, simply because your body type is not the ideal featured here with regularity.
tw: eating disorder
You are a complete and total babe. I’m so happy for you and for being in a good place.
i’m sorry for using anon, i’m nervous of admitting things publicly, but as for all your mean anons about nourishment - when i was in the midst of an ED, it was easiest to cut out junk food because that’s known to be ‘unhealthy’. then pasta, bread, rice. pretty soon i was only eating veg. in recovery, i had to teach myself that no food is a ‘bad’ food and it’s even fine to be unhealthy if you want. had to really learn the distinction between unhealthy food and unhealthy habits.
We accidentally deleted this before we could answer :x
This is a brilliant point. Thank you for sharing.
I wish I could expand on it a bit more, but I’m feeling rather dismal about my own eating habits lately, so my thoughts are a bit jumbled and complex.
[TW: Eating Disorders]
Confession: I used to think the ‘I survived anorexia’ t-shirts for fat people were funny.
Asked Anonymous
(TW: Discussion of ED’s, Calories)
The solution is to have people not give a damn about calories.
Calories are just a fraction of the mathematical solution that is nutrition.
If I go to McDonalds and order a quarter double pounder, do you REALLYYY think that I give two fucks about how many calories are in it?
No.
I AM AT MCDONALDS. I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THEY STOPPED GIVING ME COOKIES IN MY HAPPY MEAL AND ARE NOW GIVING ME APPLES. THAT SHIT IS NOT HAPPY. WTF ARE THESE APPLES?!
Okay sorry. I have repressed anger over McDonalds apples.
Anyways.
I think this should cover that
I would rather think of food as FOOD rather than a set of numbers. I’d rather know what it is, what the ingredients are, and where they come from - focus on positive aspects of eating that encourage being mindful rather than neurotic.
Before these little numbers existed on everything we eat, we didn’t count them. We just ate things without assigning a number to them.
Not to mention, it just continues to perpetuate the myth that the human body works on a simple method of calories in/calories out, or eat less/exercise more, in order to become thin and healthy. Which is just plain flawed logic and bad science.
So, I don’t know. I’m not fussed with Nutrition Facts, in general. They are held within a tiny little box on the things I buy and I can ignore them quite easily.
I’d just rather be able to choose whether or not I’d like to view them, and when it’s on the menu right next to the name of what I’m going to buy - that makes it a tiny bit difficult.
Asked iheldtegenstemmer
I wish I knew WHY it was decided that a person must have a BMI under 17.5 to be considered anorexic. If you’re asking me personally - I think it’s complete bullshit. (Also fun fact, you can’t menstruate for three months if you’re female.) Some doctors will still give the diagnosis without these requirements, but most still look for them in ED patients.
Personally, I was diagnosed as EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) before I was diagnosed as Anorexic due to not falling into the proper weight classification and the fact that I was still menstruating. I was informed of this by my heath care professional at the time.
Asked Anonymous
(tw: discussion of eating disorders
(cntd.)you should know because a lot of your followers ARE people with eating disorders who might be hurt by some of your posts about privilege and thinness. When you have an eating disorder that is killing you, it is hurtful to hear that the thing killing you is a ‘privilege’. It negates the pain that we, as ED sufferers, might feel, and purely on the basis of appearances. I used to be fat before my anorexia, so I have seen the world from both extremes. Neither felt like a privilege and I actually felt better about myself as a fat person than a thin person. I just felt that I should inform you. People with eating disorders want to have self love and acceptance, too. Being thin is not a privilege but the consequence of an illness. I just did not expect a blog about body image to be so exclusive, when everyone with a shadow has a body.
I’m truly sorry that you have felt hurt by this blog, genuinely. As someone who has suffered from an eating disorder I can understand the pain caused by one and the difficulty I felt when I was in recovery and gaining my weight back. However, when ‘thin privilege’ is discussed it is not in reference to people who have eating disorders. It is not ‘eating disorder privilege.’ And eating disorder is a mental illness, a mental illness is NEVER a privilege to have - EVER. But you also need to realize that anorexia is not the ONLY eating disorder out there. There are some women who have binge eating disorders, and they are just as disordered as you are. Also, anorexia nervousa is the ONLY eating disorder that comes with a BMI requirement. This blog is about redefining societies body image - not yours, that is what YOUR work needs to be in your own recovery from your ED.
Also, when you discuss being “fat” before your anorexia, it is very possible that because of your eating disorder you suffer from body dysmorphic disorder and may have a skewed sense of self image. Ergo - you might have thought you were “fat” when you weren’t.
Also, being thin is not ALWAYS the result of an illness, which is why there is thin privilege.
Again, I’m sorry that you felt hurt in this way - the intention of this blog is never to harm, but to heal.
I encourage you to look at fyoured - it has really helped me along in my recovery!
All the best!
Redefining Body Image: [tw: disordered eating]“There’s no real name for just not eating if…
[tw: disordered eating]
“There’s no real name for just not eating if you’re fat. Mostly there is this idea that, if you are fat, not eating is precisely what you should be doing.” - Marianne Kirby
It sometimes feels as if I’ve forgotten how to eat properly.
I’ve been quietly examining my…
Disordered Eating. I never really had a name for it. Thank you.
I use the term “disordered eating” when an eating disorder isn’t specified. I’ve never been diagnosed with one, but my food issues are obvious when I try to understand them. Unless I’m reading too much into my own habits.
There IS an actual term used for this, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). The term covers a variety of disordered eating patterns and is much more common than authorities believed previously. In some cases it is considered just as harmful if not more so than those that we already acknowledge and just as difficult to overcome. Fat and food hysteria is so powerful that people will often surrender to distructive thought patterns and habits to their own detriment. Support from the community is near non existant for most people though there is an abundance of resounding support for fat people to keep up the good work when they are at their worst with the disorder.
Bolded the above statement for factual accuracy. Really this entire post is brilliant.
The biggest hurdle for fat people living with mental illness and disordered eating is that yes, they are often applauded for “keeping up the good work” when at their worst. I have experienced this first hand.
I am aware of EDNOS but as I’ve never been told “you have an eating disorder not otherwise specified” but I can still see destructive patterns in my own habits, I stick with “disordered eating” until I can come to some better conclusion with my therapist and psychiatrist, if a conclusion even needs to be made.
I find that I’m often fixated on trying to figure out exactly what is going on with me, as if naming it will make it that much easier to overcome.
I was actually diagnosed as EDNOS before I was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa with purging tendencies because I did not fall into the proper weight classification for Anorexia. When I was in treatment I found that there are a lot of patients who are diagnosed as EDNOS because they do not fall into the weight classification for Anorexia, and often some males are diagnosed as EDNOS because Anorexia is seen as a “women’s disease.” Also, some people with Binge ED’s are misdiagnosed as EDNOS, or often not diagnosed at all due to weight discrimination.
Personally I think that the weight classification for Anorexia needs to be taken off, because I was blatantly told by my doctor that was the reason for my EDNOS diagnosis and it triggered more harmful behavior that eventually almost killed me.
I also feel the need to mention that when I was diagnosed with EDNOS, I was told by my doctor that I was “clinically overweight” and to “do something about it.”
I had been living with an eating disorder since I was 11. He told me this at 20.
(tw: eating disorder)
Today I was bored and ended up reading about minor X-Men characters. This is Big Bertha. She’s a mutant supermodel who can become super durable and strong by gaining weight. She shrinks back down to her original size by vomiting.
…I can’t even express how angry I am at this. Marvel, what the fuck are you trying to say here?
What.
[tw: disordered eating]
“There’s no real name for just not eating if you’re fat. Mostly there is this idea that, if you are fat, not eating is precisely what you should be doing.” - Marianne Kirby
It sometimes feels as if I’ve forgotten how to eat properly.
I’ve been quietly examining my…
Disordered Eating. I never really had a name for it. Thank you.
I use the term “disordered eating” when an eating disorder isn’t specified. I’ve never been diagnosed with one, but my food issues are obvious when I try to understand them. Unless I’m reading too much into my own habits.
There IS an actual term used for this, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). The term covers a variety of disordered eating patterns and is much more common than authorities believed previously. In some cases it is considered just as harmful if not more so than those that we already acknowledge and just as difficult to overcome. Fat and food hysteria is so powerful that people will often surrender to distructive thought patterns and habits to their own detriment. Support from the community is near non existant for most people though there is an abundance of resounding support for fat people to keep up the good work when they are at their worst with the disorder.
Bolded the above statement for factual accuracy. Really this entire post is brilliant.
The biggest hurdle for fat people living with mental illness and disordered eating is that yes, they are often applauded for “keeping up the good work” when at their worst. I have experienced this first hand.
I am aware of EDNOS but as I’ve never been told “you have an eating disorder not otherwise specified” but I can still see destructive patterns in my own habits, I stick with “disordered eating” until I can come to some better conclusion with my therapist and psychiatrist, if a conclusion even needs to be made.
I find that I’m often fixated on trying to figure out exactly what is going on with me, as if naming it will make it that much easier to overcome.
- ED: You are not sick enough
- Truth: There is no 'sick enough.' All and any eating disorders kill. Every eating disorder is dangerous and every sufferer, no matter what weight, needs help.
- ED: 'I'll stop when I'm x weight'
- Truth: Nothing will ever be good enough for the eating disorder. Period. It is only lying when it says this.
- ED: There are others who have it worse, you don't deserve help.
- Truth: Yes, some others may have worse situations, but that does not invalidate your disorder. You deserve health, help and happiness just as much as anyone.
- ED: It's not really hurting/damaging
- Truth: Any/all ED behaviours are damaging to your mind and body. Whether it is abuse of pills, purging, restricting or anything in between, it is a fatal action that is dangerous.
- ED: These are bad foods, these are good foods.
- Truth: There is no bad or good food. Food is neutral. Eat what makes your body feel good, don't make rules about certain types of food due to calorie content or nutritional value.
- ED: You are worthless.
- Truth: No one on this planet is worthless. Every single person has a place, a reason and worth.
- ED: Only I can make you happy.
- Truth: An eating disorder will never satisfy you. It will lie and deceive while slowly killing you. It's an enemy, not a friend.
- ED: The treatment professionals are lying to you. They want to hurt you.
- Truth: They're tying to help and the eaitng disorder is lying. Separate yourself from the eating disorder here and think of what YOU want, not the ED.
- ED: You can start recovering when you reach x weight
- Truth: Nothing is good enough for the eating disorder. You may reach x weight, but you'll only be caught up in the vicious cycle of an ED and be dragged in deeper. Recovery does not have a number limit.
TALKING BACK TO YOUR EATING DISORDER LIKE IT’S A HILARIOUS PIECE OF SHIT.
This is amazing and real and raw and sassy and I love it.
Today, I taught two group fitness classes in a shirt I accidentally bought a size too small on me. I immediately became horribly self-conscious during the first ten minutes of the first one that my belly would peek out and everyone would vomit from my pouch or something. This lasted through most of the second hour-long class until a point when I realized, I’m supposed to be a leader of health. Health that isn’t dictated by size or shape or a perfect airbrushed set of abs. I am strong enough to get through these classes everyday, I was strong enough to stop my disordered and destructive behaviors, and I will be strong enough to stand up for myself and everyone else like me who can’t stand up for themselves. I have cellulite. I have a grabbable amount of fluff. And I am healthy as fuck.
So, fuck you if you winced at this. Fuck my eating disorder for telling me how unacceptable this is and how I shouldn’t post it. Fuck a society that wants more than I can give. Fuck it.
(TW ED)
I have been recovering from bulimia nervosa/substance abuse problems for nearly a year now. There has never been a point in my life where I have been happy with myself or my appearance so I would always try to change and numb myself out through weight-loss and getting high. Through recovery I am slowly learning that size is of ZERO importance, and has absolutely nothing to do with my happiness or self-worth. Despite continuous relapses I am still pushing towards health and happiness and a positive body image. Because I deserve it.