Activism to relieve frustration

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
~Mohandas Gandhi

Though we are still being ignored and laughed at quite a bit, we are starting to encounter some fights over fat rights – especially from those who make their money trying to eradicate us. I am at a busy time in my life, so I am not getting to be as active fighting fat hate as I usually am. So, lately, I have found myself very, very frustrated at all the fat hating talk out there, especially from the experts who so badly want to force us back into the shadows. I find myself being eaten with anger and frustration from the inside. I cannot live there today.

Somewhere along the line, I was taught that, to be less upset about a subject, do something – anything – about it and you will feel better. In a way, fat activism has become a necessary part of my life. To keep from imploding or exploding at the myriad ways fat people are told they are less than, I have to do something every day. And it helps even more if I am getting a little positive feedback for that activism. That is one of the reasons I write for the Fatosphere: because I know that I just might help someone who wants it desperately, who wants to understand this. I want to pass on the gift I have been given.

Marilynn Wann is an AMAZING woman and, I wish I lived in San Francisco to take part in the incredible fat positive stunts she sets up (see Not Blue At All for the latest incredible Feat of Fat Love). But I am not in that city, and I am not in the place to generate such activism. Yet, I do not have to do such incredible things to help this cause. Every time I refuse to hate myself in a public setting, every time I speak up against fat hatred, every time I tell a fat friend that their body is beautiful, I help spread the message of self-love.

I have to remember that remarkable ideas, ideas with truth, spread. They may spread slowly, but they spread. Loving ourselves no matter our size is a remarkable, revolutionary idea that will spread with time. Slowly but surely, our voices will grow to where they can no longer ignore or laugh at us. Slowly, but surely, if we stay with this, we will win. It may be a long way down the road, but WE WILL WIN.

If you find yourself frustrated today, take a deep breath, come to the Fatosphere for reassurance, and keep fighting the good fight – even if the fight is only within yourself. We can do this – if it is only one fat person at a time – we can do this.