Great Idea: A Fat Athletes' Resource
Wellroundedtype2 is calling for a safe space for fat athletes. Here's a quote (within a quote!) from an exchange she had with another blogger, spacedcowgirl:
You pose a great question about a safe space for fat athletes. I don't know of one but that would be a seriously awesome resource. (Imagine being able to discuss issues general to fitness, but also fat-specific stuff like chafing or adjusting yoga positions to accommodate one's body, without having to hear about how you should just lose weight.) Maybe you could do a post asking about this so that the Fatosphere feed readers would see it and hopefully offer suggestions.
I think it's a fantastic idea.
BFB's Long National Nightmare is Over | Time to Vote
Posted by paul on October 29, 2008
Cross-posting what I wrote over there:
Some time ago, I started to create a table of weight limits for exercise equipment -- it's now at http://tgeller.com/fat-and-fit . However, I didn't follow up on that.
Since then I've actually become a Drupal administrator, and could build such a site quite nicely and easily. But I'm too busy to run it.
If someone will build a team that will commit managing the content, I'll put together the infrastructure. Write to me privately at tom -at- tomgeller.com .
(P.S. I see you use Drupal, Paul!
)
For anyone on LiveJournal, there's a community called "Fathletes" that's both very jock-friendly and very fat-friendly. there are a couple other communities with an HAES focus or a body positivity focus, too, including "HAES" and "Big Body Yoga" and "body_positive".
http://community.livejournal.com/fathletes/
http://community.livejournal.com/body_positive/
http://community.livejournal.com/haes/
http://community.livejournal.com/bigbody_yoga/
Are there any sites out there for the fat person -- and especially supersize person -- who is just getting moving? Kelly Bliss talks some in encouraging ways, but my sense is that many sites, if they address it at all, address those who are "athletes" and thus presumptively fit (and perhaps exemplary in their fitness). What about sites for people, who are just getting moving? What about sites for people, who after moving for a while, are still feeling soarness and wonder whether this is to be expected? Such people are likely to find sites for athletes whether fat or thin unsafe, and are also quite likely to find sites for new people to exercise equally unsafe. Is there a site for them?
@levye The fathletes and all the other LiveJournal communities (HAES, body_positive, etc) are open and friendly to people who aren't athletes. There doesn't seem to be a presumption of fitness level at all on fathletes, although some of the posters are very physically active. I'm certainly not athlete, but I've found the people who are more experienced are very helpful, and a lot of people who post on fathletes are just starting out.
So no, I wouldn't say there's a specific site/community like you are speaking of, but I think there are appropriate venues. I'm not against someone creating a new site/community, though, the ones available already have low traffic.
Thanks for the response, sevendayswonder. At the risk of sounding churlish, I wanted also to make the point about who and what we choose to focus on -- in this case, athletes rather than the less glamorous supersize fatties. I perceive there to be a bit of conformity among some in the fat community with the emphasis on fitness, health, beauty, etc. The implicit, and sometimes explicit, appeal is accept me because I'm just as beautiful, fit, and healthy as you are. What if you want to question that very norm, whether it be health, beauty, or fitness? And, who is left behind in these appeals? That's why I imagined the unfit supersize person, who would like practical information about her body and might also want to build a community around her "disability." She might not be rejected from the sites and from those who want to celebrate fat athletes, but the message is one that marginalizes her.
In a variety of normative narratives, sometimes diet ones and sometimes exposes on the so-called obesity epidemic, there is a formulaic moment in which the heroine or reporter gazes over at a fat slob on a scooter. Look at me, some say, running with my new slim body, when I could have been him. That person has to bear the burden of representing for us all all that is supposed to be horrible about "obesity." Given this, I wonder where is our one-hundred fatties on a scooter "march"?
You make a really good point, levye. When I see someone on a scooter I try to think of all the ways it must empower the person, how lucky they are to have access to one, and how I wish people wouldn't stigmatize them. I think it would be a wonderful culture shock to have a fatties on scooters march. I know it was a bit of a shock for me just to be around so many people on scooters at a NAAFA conference, but it made me think about my assumptions and my ablism for sure. Anyway, please continue to bring stuff like this up. I've seen some fat and healthy conversations lately that devastated me. Fat acceptance is not past that, and if anything there is more and more of it as we become more "mainstream".
When I see someone on a scooter, I assume that person has a disability, such as arthritis, that keeps him or her from walking. I don't think "OMG, teh fatz!" no matter what size the person is.