Portrait of Natalie holding a huge pencil to her lips, bordered in a hand drawn fancy frame.

definatalie's bits

This isn't my real blog, that's over here. I use Tumblr for fun and discussion about body image, fat acceptance and other stuff. I often talk about things that make people uncomfortable but I like to provide trigger warnings.

You might see me talk about disability and illness. I have Major Depressive Disorder, Social Anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Type 1 Diabetes and Graves disease. ~FIST PUMP~

I think Health at Every Size is a cool concept, but always like to consider the definition of "health" considering I have chronic illnesses that preclude me from identifying as "healthy". I believe I am a valid human being who deserves respect, and I believe you are too.

I live in Brisbane, Australia. It's a prawn, not a shrimp and it's Astraya, not Australia. Mate. I'm not terribly tied to any notions of national pride, but am aware of my privilege as a person who is white, middle class and born in Australia.

I'm an artist, activist, designer, fatshionista and I'm on twitter.

Did you know you can buy fat activisty things from my shop, Fancy Lady Industries?

Recent Tweets @definatalie

Asker

Anonymous Asks:

I don't understand how you can push body/fat/shape acceptance, but when other people with basically the same goal join you, follow your blog, and say hello you have to create a disclaimer saying, "I'm not affiliated or in agreement with this person's body/fat/skinny/shape acceptance movement, only my own." What the eff is the point of that? The girl FuckYeahSkinnyChicks sounds like she is promoting acceptance of her body type because that is what hits closest to home, exactly like you promote fat acceptance because that is your reality. You sound like because she is promoting anything other than fat and obese body types that her acceptance isn't worth anything. Why not just say, "Cool, awesome. Someday hopefully we can have acceptance of EVERYONE, everywhere." instead of being a bit of a bitch?

definatalie

definatalie Said:

Look, in this game I’m gonna come off as a bitch. I can’t be emitting warm and fuzzies on command, and this last week has been a bad time for me. But you don’t care about what’s going on in my real life, or the kind of crap I have to deal with as an activist.

I am fat and I am a woman. My body has had war declared on it since I was born. I’ve never known what it’s like to be skinny, even just before I was diagnosed with t1 diabetes when I lost a lot of weight (because I was dying! FUN!) Our society favours skinny women. This is not imaginary, just open up a magazine and try and find someone who ISN’T white, skinny or able bodied.

This is why when someone runs a tumblr called “fuck yeah skinny chicks” and tries to align it with fat acceptance, I get defensive. I’m a human being who has real visceral reactions to things based on my lived experiences. I have huge problems with such a tumblr being considered body acceptance so long as it only represents the norm, the most idealised female body - free from diversity.

I don’t hate skinny women. I don’t think that any woman should be denied self acceptance. As women, regardless of body size, we all suffer doubt because of the bullshit notions of “beauty” bandied about in western culture. I’m just speaking for human bodies who are suppressed, ignored, demonised and desexualised.

Answer