Well, my little chickadees, I didn’t win last night’s Mega Millions six hundred freaking millions jackpot, so I guess it’s back to work for me today, isn’t it?

Oh well.

Don’t worry. I’m not in need of an intervention. I spent a whole two bucks, which I could just as easily have spent on a decent quality bar of chocolate or a small espresso drink.

What? A girl’s gotta dream sometimes.

Anyway.

Back to it.

It’s been an exciting couple weeks in the Fatosphere. There’s been a lot of good stuff going down, and here are a few examples.

Deb Burgard PhD did a lovely post at the Health at Every Size blog analyzing a recent study done on the Jenny Craig program by the folks at – you guessed it! – Jenny Craig. The title? How to Photoshop a Research Study.

The Fat Nutrutionist has been doing a fabulous series on eating without drama that is a must read. She published the seventh lesson, Finding Fullness, the other day. If you haven’t read it, I suggest doing so now… as well as the other lessons in the series, particularly the one on giving yourself permission and the one on nutrition agnosticism.

Back to the Health at Every Size blog, Dr. Linda Bacon has some great tips for de-stigmatizing your workplace.

Not actually a codified part of the Fatosphere, but I loved this article by Kate of Eat the Damn Cake on her musings about Fifty Shades of Grey. Oh, and while you’re in the neighborhood, check out her gallery of women eating cake. Beyond delicious.

If you’ve been anywhere on the Fat-o-Sphere lately, chances are you’ve heard about Georgia’s new ‘Strong 4 Life’ campaign against childhood obesity. Don’t even get me started on state programs that use numbers instead of the homonym words they represent. We don’t have the next five years.

Anyway.

The real thing that’s getting my knickers in a major and painful twist isn’t the revolting assault on correct grammar, it’s the fact that this campaign boils down to government sponsored bullying of children ‘for their own good.’

It consists mostly of black and white images and short videos of children talking about their experiences being fat. They talk about being bullied, having no friends, and generally being miserable. And that’s when the message  begins that it’s all their own fault. If only they ate their vegetables instead of deep fried Twinkies, if only they played baseball instead of video games, if only they really cared about themselves, they would be thin and happy and healthy.

What message does that send fat kids who love broccoli and run around outside already? That these things are worthless if they don’t make you thin.

What message does it send fat kids who do eat some sweets and really prefer television to soccer? That they’re lazy, unloveable slobs who don’t deserve to live if they don’t stop what they’re doing and get thin,

What message does it send thin kids who eat some sweets and prefer television? That fat kids must be the laziest slobs on the earth and that they, themselves, are perfectly healthy and therefore morally superior.

What message does it send thin kids who can’t get enough spinach and love spending time shooting hoops? That if they ever eat a slice of birthday cake or spend a couple hours reading they might become fat and disgusting, so they’d better never stop even for a minute. Oh, and if  they bully a fat kid, that’s extra anti-fat brownie points.

What message does it send to parents? That the only thing that matters about their children is whether or not they are thin. That they must bully, restrict, and terrorize their children for their own good.

This makes me want to put on my Fat Avenger Super Suit and go knock some heads together.

Luckily, someone else beat me to the punch. There’s a petition up on Change.org asking the state of Georgia to end this public policy disaster. Regan at Dances with Fat and Harriet Brown at Feed Me have both talked about this petition, but it will take more voices to make change happen.

Sure, you’re just one voice, but yours could be the one that tips the scales. Sign the petition, spread the word. Let’s think of the children.

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these roundups, and a lot of good stuff has been posted in the Fatosphere and elsewhere about living larger than average. So here are some of the highlights.

First up, Adios Barbie has a great interview with the fabulous Marilyn Wann, pictured above. Wann  has a lot of great things to say. Here’s just one example:

 There is kind of an attitude that bullying or teasing is somehow a necessary or required part of growing up. And I think that it’s just adults being fearful and cowards because this is not necessary. This is something anyone can stand up to. There is even a wonderful book by an eight-year old girl in Chicago about how she didn’t choose to be fat and she shouldn’t be teased for it. I think it’s up to all of us as human beings to stand up against hurtfulness.

One of my personal favorite blogs, Family Feeding Dynamics, has a great two-part series on food insecurity and how it affects how people eat. The second part is mostly a link to Morgan Spurlock’s experiment on living on minimum wage for thirty days… but it’s worth clicking for Katja’s concept of a really compelling potential reality show. Seriously, Katja, I think you should shop that concept to the networks. I’d totally watch that show and laugh my well-padded posterior off. Heck, if I had the money, I’d produce the sucker!

The always amazing and glorious Sleepy Dumpling at Fat Heffalump has a great essay on how dieting really affects many people in terms of both physical and mental health. The essay itself is powerful, and the comments are quite interesting, too.

Ragen at Dances With Fat has an excellent article on David Letterman’s recent fat-joke attack on Chris Christie. If you don’t like a politician, fight the politics, not the waistline. It wasn’t right when people pulled that on Bill Clinton, and it isn’t right when they do the same to Chris Christie. Believe me, if you’re talking about someone who has ever held elected office, you can find something to disagree with and make it funny. The same subject is given another excellent dressing down by the ever-awesome  Red No.3. I highly recommend reading both, because they have different points to make.

Happy reading, folks! There’s a lot of great fat to chew over.

Being a child of the sixties, I’ve been thinking a lot of late about one of the catchphrases of the era: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

And then I ran across the quote from Alice Walker that is currently festooning the head of this article. I think I like that version of the sentiment better. It’s not as accusing. It’s more welcoming. And  by being less aggressive in tone, it makes it easier for others to look at it and think to themselves ‘have I been paying my rent like a good citizen of the planet?’ rather than raising a mental middle finger and saying ‘and you’re telling me this while wearing those shoes?’

As I contemplated all of this, along came some fabulous news from Brit Fat Activist Charlotte Cooper. Her Bad Art Collective has been accepted to be Artists in Residence at the Researching Feminist Futures symposium at the University of Edinburgh in September.

Their project is called Bombarded By Images a multi-media performance based installation.

Cooper et al are tired of the phrase ‘Bombarded by images’ used in so many cultural discussions. For one thing, they feel that ‘media’ gets used to describe an impenetrable monolith, while the fact is that media… well… covers a heck of a lot of things that are approached from radically different angles. What’s more, the Bad Art Collective have decided they can be a medium, too, and bombard the world with very different images of fat, of womanhood, of feminism, and of random ponies.

And you know what? They can. I can. You can. We all can.

I don’t care what your cause is. I’ve chosen several for myself, and I write about them, talk about them, donate to groups fighting for the causes that matter to me. Your causes may be quite different from mine. That’s no biggie to me. I’m not even that much bothered if our causes are in direct conflict. I will disagree with them, but I can still engage with you as a human being without rancor. Each of us must find our own beliefs that work for us as individuals, and then act on those beliefs as our consciences direct us.

If you’re worried that you can’t be an activist because you can’t devote your whole life to one cause or you don’t have a lot of money, don’t panic. Just read this article from last year at All Things Wildly Considered about activism. Then figure out what matters to you.

Whether you choose feeding the hungry, FA, feminism, literacy, drug abuse prevention/treatment, fighting a disease that has affected your life, your church, atheism, animal rights, your favorite political party, free speech, the care and feeding of attractive rugby players, something else, or half a dozen different causes at once, just get involved in something. Care. Engage.

We all have something to give. Each and every one of us will need help at some point in some way. It feels good to pay the rent.

And there is nothing more superfantastic than passion.

She’s half Wonder Woman,

Half Jennifer Patterson of Two Fat Ladies:

and 100% the fabulous brainchild of Stacy Bias.

It’s the Badass Fatass Superhero Name Generator!

Who will you turn out to be?

As it turns out, my superhero name is: The BMI Bustin’ Tornado. I think that has rather a nice ring to it.

So who wants to go superheroing with me? What’s your superhero name?

In other news, tomorrow Mr. Twistie and I celebrate eighteen years of ridiculously happy marriage. If I had it all to do over again, I would definitely make the same choice. May all of you make major life choices that make you every bit as happy as this one has made me.

Dr. Samantha Thomas over at Discourse has a lovely project we can all share in if we please. It’s the I Love My Bum Campaign. To join, send a photo of your backside to Samantha and tell her why you love your bum. The image above is one of the contributions she has already received and is captioned on Discourse with the simple legend: “It’s true.”

The fabulous Shaunta over at Live Once, Juicy (see her header for her lovely entry to the I Love My Bum Campaign) has had a brilliant idea. Encourage it. After a discussion with someone trying to set up a fitness program that isn’t really about weight loss by talking a lot about weight loss, Shaunta has decided to create a curriculum to get people stared on an HAES program for those who want to feel better and build their strength without concerning themselves about their weight. Good on her!

Not Blue At All has a lovely, touching Love Letter to her body. Read it with a hanky at the ready.

And last but far from least, the always amazing Sleepy Dumpling at Fat Heffalump raises her middle fingers on high to someone who tells us everyone is beautiful in their own way… unless they happen to be fat.

The image above is from the flooding in Brisbane, Australia. The images have been scary, but the reality of the devastation is far worse. People have lost their homes, their businesses, their clean water and electricity, and some have lost their lives.

If you want to help with this – or with another great cause, hie thee over to Fat Heffalump where the glorious and charming Sleepy Dumpling is raising money.

A couple months ago, Sleepy Dumpling announced that she was going to shave her head for charity later in January. The original plan was to raise money for the Cancer Council of Australia, and the money she has raised thus far is still going there. But in light of the flooding (which came precariously close to where she lives, but missed her), she wishes to donate any further funds raised to the Queensland Flood Appeal.

Please, if you have funds to spare, consider this excellent cause.