The Curvy Goddess

How to deal with A**holes

I'm really enjoying Kira Cochrane's The reluctant dieter series in the Guardian.

Unfortunately the Guardian doesn't seem to organise their site very well so its not possible to give you a link to all of Kira's writings so far.

Anyway this week's piece was particularly amusing, providing an excellent comeback, should you ever have your weight pointed out to you by some tosser on the street:

"...by Wednesday, some arsehole has called you "fat bitch" in the street, and you find yourself tucking into french bread and brie. Zut alors! Once you can shout back: "Yes, I am fat, and you, my friend, are a wanker," this cycle ceases to exist..."

Kira Cochrane

See here for a fablous column piece from Kira Cochrane who has started writing a regular anti-diet industry, weightloss coloum for the Guardian.

I've really enjoyed she has written so far, but its this latest piece that has really struck a chord with me because she's writing about complications between losing weight and feminism, having been criticised by some readers for dieting.

Kira makes a couple of good points, the first being that by criticising a woman's decision to lose weight is just another way in which women are deined any ownership of their bodies:

"...On the other, the idea that a woman is somehow betraying her entire sex by making a personal decision to lose weight underlines just how much women's individual bodies are still treated as public property, to be picked apart and pilloried, whether because they're considered too fat, too thin..."

Secondly she points out the danger in the path that many overweight/obese women choose - to ignore their bodies altogether:

"...She had had a lifetime of abuse, and, like many women in that situation, decided to ignore her body; to devote herself to the life of the mind. She gradually grew fatter and fatter and fatter (as anyone who has been fat will know, once you're on the slippery slope, it's very easy to keep sliding) until one day the unbearable pain caused by her weight led her to check into hospital for a gastric bypass. While under anaesthetic, she had a heart attack and died.

Hearing about her story at a time when I, too, was taking a completely hands-off approach to my body, I realised that I could quite easily find myself in the same position..."

As I have said nearly 50 million times before feminism, weight and weightloss are complicated issues.  To ignore our bodies and health on one hand is stupid but on the other it seems the BMI is being used as a tool of abuse by the health professions to bully the overweight/obese, doctors feel it their right to make sweeping generalisations about peoples health soley based on the BMI which is also f**king stupid.

Child Obesity Alert

The News lately seems to be awash with news about obesity, one story worried me a great deal.

The government seems to be considering proposals to inform parents if their children are overweight. What particularly worries me is that there seems to be no follow up plans, it would seem as though parents are just going to be told your child is fat. What good is that?

I remember at School having some kind of health check by the School Nurse, who told me I was overweight and should try to lose weight by changing my diet. She then proceeded to tell me not to eat a list of foods that I did not eat and when I told her I didn't eat what she was reeling off, she just ushered me out of the room. This stupid cow of a nurse just made me feel utterly powerless about body and that is just one of many experiences that for so many years haunted me and made feel totally out of control of my body.

My concerns are that some parents won't know how to change their children's diets and that children, will like I did grow up with poor self esteem.

It does seem that there are some excellent and positive schemes out there by the NHS to support overweight/obese children if they want to lose weight, but I suspect that if the government decided to follow this course action there won't be enough cash or places for every overweight child to be involved with one of them.

Oh how I worry.

Fat? Blame Mum. Don't Sneeze! You Might Spread the Obesity Lurgy!

Two fablous reports floating about in the British Press this week.

Firstly from the University of the Daily Mail, if you are a working mum, your child is more likely to be fat.  And secondly skinny people watch out because fat is contagious!  Yes all the way from University of Bullshit Science in America it seems that if your brother/sister or partner is fat you might catch the fat lurgy too! 

Who fucking pays for all of this bullshit research!!!!  Why oh why does only the most ridiclous and stupid research on obesity ever get reported in the press?  Why doesn't anyone do any worthwhile research into the subject?

Anyway back to the stories.  So working mums.  First off what about Dad?  Where does he fit into all of this?  Whilst I understand that in the animal kingdom, it tends to be females that feed the young, we humans are wee bit more sophiticated.  Middle class mums are not puking chips and KFC's in to their kids mouths like birds.  So Institute of Child Health in London - if you are going to do a survey do it properly include Dad too.  And this survey seems to be all about money.  If you are too poor you are too stupid to know what a carrot is.  But too rich?  You shouldn't be feeding your kids marks and spencer's ready meals.

Although I don't always agree with every she has to say Zoe Williams at the Guardian has some amusing mullings on the subject too.

Now I always thought Havard was one of those posh American universities, that captured all the smart people in America.  That could be my poor understanding of education abroad, but research saying that obesity is contagious I thought would have come from the University of the sort of west of America, not Havard.  But I guess it goes to show that stupid funding and research goes on, no matter how good the university.

Apparently the more fat people around you the more likely you are to think that it is okay to be obese.  And to quote Professor Nicholas Christakis:

"What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size."

Interesting really because aren't people also trying to achieve the mystical size zero?  And if you read the comments of the average person on for example the BBC's have your say or the Daily Mail's comments facility on their articles, you will see that average person is actually quite nasty and vindictive about obese people.  That does not sound like the sort of environment that will allow obesity to become normal.

Hopefully there will be less of these bullshit studies next week.

Or maybe one day someone might even do some meaningful research...

NME - Beth Ditto in Mustard Leggings???? What the Hell Were They Thinking?????

My house mate called me the other day to ask if I wanted his copy of NME which featured Beth Ditto naked...  I'm not really sure what to make of the whole media love of Ms Ditto, but I thought I would have the NME to see what she has to say anyway...

I read the her interview today (thank you James) and to be honest the thing that has stood out from all other things is the photo with her clothes back on...  Some sick and twisted individual dressed her in MUSTARD LEGGINGS?  WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING?  Mustard yellow is revolting colour anyway, actually it could be some kind of mustardy green, whatever the leggings look fucking vile.  An even more terrifying thought is that Beth Ditto may have actually chosen that outfit for herself and there is a mention in the interview that she would like to design plus size clothes for the larger woman.  Please god don't let her near sketchpad or we could see more women walking around in vomit green coloured leggings.

Of course I am all for every sized woman having access to fashionable and flattering clothes.  The problem with leggings is that they make a large woman look like a chicken, all big up top and thin at the bottom.  And the problem with fashion at the moment, is that a lot of the trends just don't look good on larger women, so therefore fashion designers should be whipped and beaten for creating such a shit season's worth of clothes.

I do appreciate that perhaps Ms Ditto may actually want to look like a chicken and thereby drawing attention to her size, but it looks so ugly.  I would much rather she drew attention to her size by emphasising her good bits (not her just her face as mentioned in the interview) and wearing some decent clothes.  Maybe ironically either Beth or the stylist couldn't find any young hip clothes for her, welcome to our world - it fucking sucks doesn't it???!!!!

Rant over with. 

...Very soon (so close to be finished) I shall be posting here the best places to get alternative plus size clothing here in the UK and there won't be any leggings, tunics or maxi dresses but there will be plenty of velvet, lace, corsets and PVC...

Superskinny Me

Despite my lack of weight loss lately, I've been feeling masses better about myself.

I have found a few pairs of size 16 jeans that fit me well.

I have discovered that knee length a-line skirts are very flattering on me, I feel all slim and girly in them :-)

I live in Brighton which is full of unusual, gothy and bohemian shops.  Most of the clothes in these shops have been out of my reach for a long time.  I can now fit into some of these clothes and made my inner goth very happy through buying this skirt with my birthday money.

And then I watched Superskinny Me: The Race to Size Double Zero and ploop I feel shite...

One of the girls in this managed to only lose a stone and dropped six dress sizes!!!  Of course she felt crap for doing it and regained half a stone of the weight quickly, but still I want to lose six dress sizes!

That all aside it was both disturbing and intriguing stuff.  I can't believe the diets the girls did (lemonade diet, watercress diet...), the exercise and colonic irrigation!!!  Plus the toll on them emotionally was quite bad - particularly for one of the journalists in this 'experiment' - she had to stop because she was on the verge of developing an eating disorder.

If celebrities really do these sorts of diets they must be fucking insane.

What really got to me though was that many of the things said in this programme, I could very much relate to.  Mainly thinking about food all the time and the major guilt and disgust I feel when I eat bad foods.

Truth is, I hate dieting.  But more than anything I want to be nine stone and healthy.  Quite simply I cannot wait for it to be over with.

34 Stone Teenager - Catch Up

Last year there was loads of controversy over a programme which looked at the life of the 34 stone teenager, Bethany Walton...

Found this article on the guardian website about Bethany's progress since then.  Very refreshingly it is quite scathing of the press surrounding Bethany at the time.  Inspiring stuff, but sad too - I really hope that Bethany has a better future.

However this quote from Bethany made me laugh:

"I feel that I can do things now. I can wear more clothes, although I'm struggling at the moment, because most of the fashions are just a long top with leggings, aren't they?"

So dieters out their everywhere remember that fashion is out to get you because as soon as you lose weight crap clothes will be 'in'.

I say - burn:

• Tunic Tops
• Leggings
• Smock tops and dress
• Designers who thought these were great fashion ideas!  Ooops maybe that is a bit harsh?  Nah...

Roll on the next season - please designers make decent clothes the slimmer me will love.

It Sucks Being Female...

...It ain't just hard being a woman, it is fucking irritating!  Last week I was most pissed off by this piece, in the Comment is Free Section of the Guardian website, written by Zoe Williams.  Ms Williams thinks all women who worry about their weight are "vain and stupid".

Sure I'll admit that weight loss, dieting and body shape hardly require Mensa membership to grasp, but am I really stupid for losing weight to improve my health?  I don't think so bitch.  I'll take living longer thanks.

Upon reading the article at first I thought oh she's got this piece all wrong, she shouldn't be dissing overweight, intelligent women for losing weight, but instead slating all this focus on becoming size zero.

That got me thinking - is the average sized woman really stupid for being concerned about her weight?  After all you'd have to have a brain made of steel not to notice all the images, magazines, newspapers, clothes shops and general attitude of other women about body shape.  Today women can have it all, but must also remain beautiful and thin.  Rarely it seems that intelligence is something to be sought after.  But to say women are stupid for being affected by all this is just naive.  Worst of all, this mentality is impossible to shake off because it seems to me that this desire to be thin is being perpetrated by women, we are body fascists.

However where does health fit into all of this?  And vice versa.  This is a complex issue and it is hard to draw a line between being healthy and some fucked up desire to be a size zero, whatever that is. 

So Zoe no woman is stupid for being concerned about her weight, we are just the biggest victims in society's current examination of body shape and we don't need another woman slating us.  You can fuck off.

A Quick Fix - The 'Obesity-Busting Gum'

Well some clever scientists have created this...

I can stop dieting now because some obesity-busting gum is gonna save me from obesity.  The scientists who created it know it will work because according to them:

"We hit on the idea of a chewing gum because obese people like chewing."

The scientists have yet to actually test it on obese people.

It is articles like these which make me want to repeatedly smash my head on something sharp, or better still I could beat these scientists to death with their f**king gum.  Who actually funded this research?  They must have far too much money and very little sense. 

Okay so potentially people could reduce their food intake by 20% - so what?  Will that actually lead to weight-loss?  And just say someone does manage to lose some weight with this gum - it will not address any problems with food they might have or re-educate them into eating healthily, so the weight could easily go back on.  Magically there is another way to reduce the amount of food you eat - it is called a DIET...  And there is also this wacky notion of EXERCISE...

There is no quick fix to solving the obesity crisis here in the UK and I personally do not think that the problem is being addressed very well by the government, the NHS or any research groups out there.  Everyone seems to be seeking a cure, rather than actually addressing the problem that people eat crap food and don't do enough exercise.

GRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Size 12 Model Too Fat?

Now I am aiming to slim to a healthy weight as defined by the body mass index (even if it is flawed!) I can appreciate that just because someone is size 12 or 14 they may not necessarily be healthy...  However to call someone fat at either of those sizes is just plain insulting and FUCKING CRAZY!  What is wrong with the world?  Why is skinny to the bone considered fashionable? WHY, why, why...

Read here to see the cause of my rage.  I'll be honest with you - I hate the Daily Mail - they are an evil misogynistic newspaper, who blame all of society's ills on working mothers.  But they may have got it right for a change.

As much as I love clothes I can only make assumptions about the fashion industry, they must hate women and all things natural about our body shapes, I guess bony models are the only way to hide the curves they despise.