http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris/

Created by Winnie Holzman (who was also behind My So-Called Life, and if that’s an indicator of potential I don’t know what is) and daughter Savannah Dooley, the show stars Nikki Blonksy (Hairspray) as Wil Rader, a rebellious feminist who is determined to be the only person to ever leave fat camp having gained weight as both a “fuck you” to her disapproving parents and a society that tells women they can only look one way to be worthy. Wil is friends with Becca (Raven Goodwin), a painfully shy veteran of Camp Victory and has a serious (though unspoken) crush on Ian (Ari Stidham) the indie-music loving introvert with a rockin’ Jew-fro. Unfortunately for Wil, Ian only has eyes on her rival Amber (Hayley Hasselhoff, David’s daughter), a quiet and stunning blonde who would barely even pass as fat in the real world (and she herself has an awkward flirtation with the camp’s junior trainer, a smoking hot college student named George.)

Huge has turned out not only to be a original, but also incredibly compelling. Since it’s debut three weeks ago I’ve become increasingly impressed with the writing and the acting. I particularly love how the writers have incorporated characters and storylines I’ve never seen before on TV – from the ultra-loving parents who can’t bare to part with their daughter when they bring her to camp to tackling the problem of how to tell an acquaintance he needs to take better care of his hygiene. I also find it refreshing that there are no black-and-white villains versus good guys. The head of the camp, Dr. Rand (Gina Torres, of the late, great Firefly), isn’t an image-obsessed slave driver but a caring, insecure woman who’s primary concern is how the campers fare emotionally during the weight-loss struggle. The “popular kids” (because even they exist in this fat-centric pocket of the universe) remain interested in sports and hooking up but aren’t outrageously cruel as they are just…snarky like most adolescence. And they’re still as relatable and vulnerable as our central characters. Best of all our protagonist is an angry, punky anti-heroine with feelings for a fellow dork, not some wallflower every-girl pining after the jock of her dreams. This series, based on the 2007  novel of the same name by author Sasha Paley, doesn’t try extra hard for its audience to like it or try to cater to a certain niche. It’s just teenagers doing their thing.

Watch, watch, watch this show. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before on serialized television.

After a three year hiatus, Calculating the Curvature (formerly known only as Fat Feminism) is back to continue taking on body image, weight, and womanhood in the pop cultural zeitgeist. I’ve had three years to grow up, reevaluate my perspective of body image, and understand my own feminism, and now I’m ready to set my sites on the current fluctuations of weight consciousness in media. In the next coming weeks I am going to tackle the recent attention the fashion world has been paying to plus-size modeling (including the controversy surrounding model Crystal Renn), television’s new focus on fat (from weight-loss reality shows to the new teen drama Huge), and spotlighting full-figured celebrities and their roles in Fighting the Good Fight. I look forward to renewing this challenge and engaging in some dialogue with all of you out there soon! In the meantime, check out my new Twitter page, CalculatingCurv.

Much love,

Robyn

Well, besides that, of course.

So here’s reason number two in my ongoing series about Beth Ditto and the reasons why I adore her:

She is this month’s NME Magazine’s cover girl.

So, did I mention she’s naked on this cover?

Beth has got chutzpah!

And she’s smokin’!

(Thanks to my man Perez for the heads up!)

First, can I just say, HOT?

HOT HOT HOT!!!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this body. It’s not offensive, it’s not unattractive, and it’s not disgusting. It’s beautiful.

Beth Ditto is no doubt the Queen of Cool and she totally rocks this cover. Now, just because I’m plus-size doesn’t mean that I always think a plus-size body always looks good. I’m not very much a “You go, girl!” girl. But Beth totally deserves (an unironic) “You go, girl!”

And now, I will leave you with another Gossip music video, “Standing in the Way of Control”.

This clip I found courtesy of The Superficial makes me absolutely sick with disgust.

Now, it is usually The Superificial that pushes my buttons, but this time, they’re right on the money. The blog reads:

“Fox News brought in the most batshit crazy woman in the world to call the American Idol winner Jordan Sparks obese. I’m all for making fun of people but this bitch is out of her mind. I defy you to sit through this without wanting to punch the woman in the throat.”

I must say, I agree! Views this segment, entitled “Skinny Over Singing? – Should Physicial Size Factor into Who Wins ‘American Idol’?”:

I mean, I’ll admit that Ms. Sparks is a teeny, tiny bit overweight, but in the pleasantly plump/curvaceous sense – not the morbidly obese whale sense that this obviously attention-starved “expert” from the National Action Against Obesity (like anyone’s ever heard of this organization anyway.)

(She’s such a cutie pie!)

Okay, breathe. This is actually so ridiculous that I need to laugh. Thank you, Fox News for this enlightening segment. Thank you Ms. MeMei Roth for entertaining me with your idiocy. And most importantly, thank you Jordin Sparks for conquering your horrific monstrosity obesity and winning American Idol. Don’t forget to drop 40 lbs to be a good role model for our kids.

This, folks, is the “WTF?! Moment” of May 2007.

And to be honest, she looked great in my opinion. I mean, she didn’t always wear the most body-appropriate clothing when she was heavy, but she still looked much healthier than she did before. She’s a very beautiful woman (I don’t care what people have to say about her antics, beauty is beauty) and the extra weight on her figure added to her good looks. Before she put on the weight, she was heavily into drugs, making her look emaciated and strung-out.

She looked full and curvaceous and lively. She looked healthy, she looked ripe. But there was no mistaking it – she was fat.

(No one wants a bone but a dog, right?)

Even when she put on the weight about two or so years ago and people mocked her for it, she fought back against the criticism:

LOVE DEFENDS WEIGHT GAIN

Reformed rocker Courtney Love has lashed out at critics of her recent weight gain, insisting her drug addiction was the reason behind her previously skinny frame.

The former HOLE frontwoman is finally sober after years of drug problems and is happy with her fuller figure, because it means she is now healthy, reports the New York Daily News.

Love says, “I was really, really thin because of what I was doing.”

Love alluded to teen Hollywood stars who are currently under scrutiny by the media over their increasingly gaunt appearance.

She explains, “When all these little teenyboppers finally go into rehab, they’re going to get fat, too.”

But now she’s back to where she started – thin. And not just thin (because there’s certainly nothing wrong with being thin), but skeletally, unhealthily thin. This time, without the drugs as far as we know.

(What happened to her once-ample bosom?!)

(Bottom photo courtesy of my man Perez.)

Honestly, should a 42 year-old woman look so emaciated? I mean, the gossip blogs are all up in arms about her “rockin’ body”, but I actually find such a dramatic weight-loss disturbing. I think she looked healthier (and much more attractive) before! Then again, maybe I’m bias to a more full-figured look….

There’s nothing wrong with being skinny and trying to be healthy. But since her recent weight-loss, she looks bony and not at all in the best of health.

Says Courtney about her recent transformation:

“i couldnt get that suregry iof i begged for it
FDA says you have to have a BMI of above 40 and that equals at least being 100 pounds overweight at least other wsie its ILLEGAL.
I know spmeone who troed to get that shit and no dr would give it to her an dhse was pudgier than i was, its total utter shite, i lost weightthe hard way and people cant accept it,whwnever ANYONE loses weight by determintaion and grit fast its suspect i got muyinspirationf rom Oprah losing so much weight on Slim Fast,. thats how i did it, thio sis nonsesne my breath is great and i dont “vomit inot a towel” it sjust cynical crazy bullshit,
i started weight training three days go to get rid of the saggy ass and loose tummy i pln on hving perrrfect six pack by summer, and be extra strong so when i play shows ill be strong nd not weak,
Thizs is bullshit as is the tummy tuck rumour or the 200k in liopo rumpur ( you dont lose eoght all over from lipo) ( noone loses more than 15 lbs from lipo ever they “resculpt”) thi sisjust nnoying gross BULLSHIT. from people who cant lose wieght through ld fashioned discipline but dont think for second if it was legal i wouldnt think bout it sure i would but losing ll you rintesines doesnt appeal to me and im ton macro so i dont get cancer ( i kno wthe smnoking hs to go) banding s supposed to up your vchances for colon cancer as well as other terroble health problems,
again this is BULLSHIT. i worked my ss off and m always fucking hingry though ive gotten used to it, bno dr in the world would give me gastric bypass or gastric banding i dont meet the pproval of ny western country , it would be illegal and im[ossible fvor me to find dr to perform this surgery on me.
zso thats THAT.
Jealous Cynical people who anta cceopt that somneone cn lose alot of weight the old fshioned wy ive exercised mya ss off obv iously not enough in my stomach but xdone tons and tons aof cardio, so enough said on this nonsense jealous cynical lie.
good night.”

I’m not going to call Courtney a hypocrite, because she’s not. She never really loved her fuller figure, she only liked the fact that it meant she was off of drugs. I believe her when she’s worked hard to lose the weight, but I still can’t help feeling disappointed that we lost another plump media figure to weight-loss. I mean, Courtney’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this topic. America Ferrera, Sarah Rue, Ricki Lake are all melting away as we speak and it makes me feel betrayed, as Big Fat Deal puts it.

More to come on fat celebrity weight-loss.

Beth Ditto, if you are unaware, is the lead singer of the band indie queercore band, The Gossip. She is a talented singer, an advocate for gay rights, and an atypical sex symbol. The woman is just fab.

So, reason #1:

Because she does stuff like this.

Dittoh no! Beth strips at show

May 18, 2007

HERE’S BETH DITTO giving a gutsy performance in just bra and pants.

THE GOSSIP singer stripped off during her set at North London’s The Barfly.

And the crowd loved it – except for one chap who was hit in the face by a flying sanitary towel.

Later sozzled Beth stole a camera from the paparazzi to snap them, but by the night’s end she was slumped on the floor.

The woman’s got chutzpah. I would never have the guts to ever show off my stomach in front of my friends, let alone at a music gig. Her middle doesn’t look that bad to me, but then again, I’m more used to seeing women who look like that because I was raised in a family of full of them. I say, more power to her.

And while the purpose of turning this relatively minor event into a story for Victoria Newton’s Bizarre section of The Sun was just this side of mean-spirited, the comments on the story were not nearly as mocking or hateful as I was expecting. I mean, you’re always going to get the “Slim-Fast works!”/”Keep your clothes on!”-type comments, but some were actually on the “You go, girl!” side, too.

More power to her. Bet those of you saying she needs slimfast are no supermodels. Live and let live. She’s up there as a musician not a model – a lot of artists today seem to confuse the two! Go BETH!
Posted_by: haleypaley

makes a pleasant change from skeletal size zeros. why shouldnt she show herself,she is confident and successful woman, walk down to any beach and u see men with their beer bellies hanging out …but thats ok? yet people seem to think she should cover up…its about time people wise up, and be proud of who they are, a lot of men love BBWs. Good on her.
Posted_by: BrokenBritish

i’m sorry, but beth ditto is one of the hottest chicks on this planet. i don’t care what size a woman is if she’s got the kind of self-confidence beth’s got, she can share my bed any day! keep stripping, beth. keep rockin like you wanna. and for those of you who commented negatively and have never seen the gossip live… you have no idea. by the time they leave the stage every man, woman, and child, gay, straight, or asexual wants to get in her panties. she’s no joke, kids.
Posted_by: syllepsis

What got me, though, was this comment:

I am a big lady myself, but I would never expose myself like this. She is a good performer, but I still do not believe in promoting obesity. yeah some man like big woman bla bla … But it is health problem! I do not mind a bit of meet on my bones … But this is way too much!This women need a make-over, starting with her brain ….

Posted_by: turkishdelight

I’m sorry, but I really don’t see how Beth taking off her shirt is an act of promoting obesity. I mean, why must everything be a political statement? I’m sure there was a sexual or defiant motive behind it, but how is this actively advocating obesity? What it’s advocating, if anything, (and I really hate to sound cliche and feminazi-ish) is that a woman should be able to do what she wants without having to mold herself to what society wants her to do. And if that means a fat woman is going to take off her shirt, then a fat woman takes off her shirt. Big whoop.

Yes, we all know obesity is a health problem, but it’s like saying that a photograph of someone eating a piece of candy promotes diabetes. This is a woman, people! She’s not a darn billboard!

So, enough ranting. For your entertainment, I suggest taking a look at one of The Gossip’s music videos so you can actually see Ms. Ditto in action. Here’s “Jealous Girls”:

According to this blog entry she posted this past weekend on her official MySpace page, it seems as though Miss Allen is in desperate need of help.

She writes:

Saturday, May 12, 2007

fat, ugly and shitter than winehouse

that is all i am, im on my own in america again. I used to pride myself on being strong minded and not being some stupid girl obsessed with the way I look. I felt like it didnt matter if I was a bit chubby cause, im not a model, I’m a singer. Im afraid I am not strong and have fallen victim to the evil machine. I write to you in a sea of tears from my hotel bed in Seattle, I have spent the past hour researching gastric bypass surgery, and laser lipo suction.

A bit chubby? Gastric Bypass? Lip Suction? Where do these phrases even enter into Allen’s orbit?

To me, she is gorgeous. She’s right though – she’s not stick thin. But who really wants her to be? She’s average and curvy. She doesn’t look disgusting, she looks healthy and beautiful. And not just beautiful, but hot!

Wasn’t she once proud of being natural? Wasn’t she once an opponent of the media’s standards? In this clip, she claims, “I’m not going to stop enjoying myself just because fashion tells me I shouldn’t be.”

(Thanks to CeleBodies for the link.)

This makes me very sad. I mean, first of all, she’s hardly chubby. But I can see how she might feel she is when paparazzi release unflattering pictures like these:

This wouldn’t make me feel good about myself either. But what she doesn’t realize is you just can’t look fantastic all the time (although she usually does.)

So, what’s wrong with being real? (even though her definition of being “real” is much thinner than our “real”.) Aren’t real women supposed to have curves? Does she want to look as haggard and emaciated as her supposed foil Amy Winehouse?

Honestly, though I love her music, I have to admit that Amy looks horrible. I don’t want Lily ending up like this. I don’t want her going through the same transformation that Amy went through when she went from looking normal like this:

To looking skeletal like this:

Finally, Lily, can’t weigh more than 130 lbs at most. You need to be at least over one hundred pounds overweight to even be considered for gastric bypass. What is she thinking? What’s going through her mind that makes her think you need a surgery like that or even lipo?

Lily, you’re not fat. Be a healthy role model, not a pathetic, clichéd statistic.

Thanks to Ajaramillo of Girlpower + 1 for pointing out this interesting New York Times article to me about Leonard Nimoy’s

new photography collection featuring fat women posing nude.

Nimoy’s “Full Body Project” presents a little over a dozen black-and-white photographs of plus-size women prancing about in the nude (and one of them wearing sexy corsets.) It’s a tad exploitative (I mean, using any group of people for art like this is technically exploiting them for their “interesting features”), though it’s not nearly as extreme as Gaultier’s fat faux pas last October considering that the motivations behind this endeavor were so much more benevolent than the fashion designer’s.

And to be honest, I’m not even really offended by the fatsploitation. More power to it, I say! These photos are just too beautiful to take any sort of umbrage with. Take a look:

I really love how these women look. The photos are so beautiful and tasteful, quite unlike so many other depictions of fat nudity (read: fat pornography) that’s out there.

There is something so comforting about their bodies. The images make me feel safe and secure, probably because their bodies are so similar to the bodies of the women in my family, from my mother and grandmothers, to aunts and my cousins. These bodies look similar to my own. And they are beautiful.

Nimoy really captures the element of sisterhood in the between fat women. I don’t know if every fat women feels this way, but when I see another fat woman, I feel an instant camaraderie with her. “A woman like myself,” I think. Without even meeting each other, we already know that we’ve already had the same experiences, felt the same feelings, and shared the bond of being fat.

And we attract each other. I’m much more likely to feel comfortable randomly striking up a conversation with a heavy women like myself than a slender woman. I’m not consciously discriminating against the slender woman, I’m just more instantly drawn to the heavier woman based on our obvious outward similarities.

The collection is being featured in the Pioneer Valley’s very own Northampton (wut-wut Noho!), so if you’re in the Western Massachusetts area and are are blessed with the means of convenient travel, take advantage of this opportunity. I would really like to see them in person myself, but alas! the lack of car.

So, thank you to Mr. Nimoy for your creative vision and your interest in Fat Acceptance.

That’ll do, Spock. That’ll do.

So, what to make of this?

Well, the first thing I thought was, “Ugh. That’s annoying.”

What I didn’t think, however, was that this was some defeat for the underdogs in the “War Against Fat”, or whatever certain members of Fat Acceptence movement are calling it.

In fact, I really don’t think this has anything to do with fat acceptance or fat discrimination or sizism as all.

I think it’s about, like all else in the world, money.

As my father always used to tell me, “Follow the money trail.”I doubt Old Navy would decide to drop a line of clothing from its stores just because they want to discriminate against fat women. What I’m guessing is that the line wasn’t profiting them the way they had hoped and it’s probably costing the company more money to keep the clothing in stores than it’s worth. I mean, I can’t imagine any other reason Old Navy would make a move like this. Still, they certainly must be making some money off the items, otherwise they wouldn’t continue producing the clothing, but probably only just enough to keep the line running online.

It makes sense in a lot of ways. Just from being fat and observing how I and others like myself shop for clothing, it seems that the online world is much more accessible for shopping than real life. Though it’s a pain to buy something not knowing how it’s going to fit or what it’s going to look like, online shopping for plus-size clothing is definitely booming. I see Old Navy’s move as being up-and-coming towards the future of retail, not a step backward for heavy women. In fact, a few weeks before news broke, I did actually buy a summer top off of Old Navy’s website and nothing went awry:

(Like my new shirt?)

And finally, to be honest, I agree with Truly Curvaceous in her assessment (which I couldn’t link because I can’t find the page) that Old Navy clothing, while inexpensive, just isn’t that well-made. It’s alright, I mean, but it’s not like we’re losing out on very much. Furthermore, as Elegant Plus Magazine points out, there were numerous problems with the line and its marketing to begin with. Thus, I don’t see the loss of real-life assessibility being any sort of tragedy. Target, Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx, and Kohl’s still carry plus-sizes at discount prices in stores, not to mention New York & Company, which, while slightly more expensive than these stores, offers really fashionable styles and products that will last you a long while.

So please, don’t cry over spilled fabric.