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My offering for you this week: 92 people have purchased Unpacking Weight Stigma I: A Workbook for Fat Allies and Health at Every Size® Practitioners. 

 

This 15-page workbook contains 34 questions for study, reflection and journaling to spark your awareness of—and help you confront—weight stigma and oppression. Join them >>

Hi friend,

 

There's a pattern I'm seeing in organizations and companies, particularly those that might want to appear diverse or inclusive in a way that includes body size diversity. However, the organization hasn't done its own work around weight stigma, and its members' discomfort with fatness shows in one or more of the following ways:

 

☢️ The inclusion of fat bodies and people is treated as an afterthought

 

☢️ Rather than show a full range of bodies, websites and social media avoid bodies entirely

 

☢️ Size diversity is hinted at on the org's website in a way that's as inoffensive as possible to those with thin privilege

 

☢️ The company/org uses palatable, very smallfat or average-sized bodies as a replacement for the voices, lived experience and representation of fat people

 

☢️ When fat people give feedback, they are asked for continuing labor without compensation

 

☢️ When fat people give feedback, they are asked to volunteer/become part of the organization (without compensation) to create diversity

 

☢️ Rather than build in size diversity from the beginning, the response when asked is always, "We'd love to see more fat people get involved!" without further action

 

In this framework, it is the duty of fat people to insert themselves into a system in order to represent people like themselves, rather than the system proactively expanding to include them. To put it bluntly, that's crap.

 

It's not fat folks' job or duty or responsibility to rescue you -- particularly your for-profit company -- and it's not our duty to keep our mouths shut so as not to mar your public presence and marketing.

Warmly,
Lindley

 

P.S. You can share this week's letter here.

My favorite image this week:

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Image description: A group of people, some sitting and some standing, in a yoga studio with a mirrored wall behind them. Use this stock image >>

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From Me to You

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The Conversation

In the Body Love Shop: Clad in Flowers Fine Art Print

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Image description: A fat white woman is shown from waist to thighs lying nude in a garden, with purple clematis flowers covering her pubic area.

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This week's body mantra:

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Image description: A fat person's feet and tattooed lower legs are shown from the calves down among mulch and leaves. Buy a printable poster book that includes this mantra.

I honor your heels.

 

The heels that strike percussive against the ground in sandals or heels or sneakers or by themselves.

 

I honor the cracked chapped bleeding heels, the smooth heels that require constant maintenance, the heels somewhere in between that you're going to take care of any day now.

 

I honor the heels that propel you forward, the heels that form the base of your mountain pose, the heels that hold strong and support your feet on the ground or on a footrest or that no longer help (or never did) support you at all.

 

I honor your heels.

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Quick Resources: On Navigating Fat Shaming

I'm Lindley, and I work for liberation for all bodies

Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman, is shown shoulders up in a heart-patterned dress. She has blonde hair and glasses, and is smiling.

Hi! I'm Lindley.

 

I'm a photographer and activist (she/her, pronounced LIN-lee) who celebrates the unique beauty of bodies that fall outside conventional "beauty" standards. I live outside Seattle, WA. People come to me for:

  • Body-safe portrait, boudoir and small business photography sessions
  • Diverse, body-positive stock photos & fine art prints
  • Health at Every Size (HAES)-aligned editorial services and consulting
  • The Body Love Shop, a curated resource for body-positive and fat-positive art and products

Get details on all my offerings at bodyliberationphotos.com.

 

Pssst! Did a friend forward you this email? If you'd like to get your own body liberation guide every week, just drop your email address here.

 

You're on this list because you're a current or past client or customer, or you signed up on my website.

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