One thing that fat people often tell me makes them uncomfortable is the idea that they take up too much space. Here’s what I think about that. I think that our bodies take up just the right amount of space, whatever size they are. If they get bigger or smaller they still take up just the right amount of space. Because they are our BODIES.
It is ridiculous for people to think that they, and anyone smaller than them, take up “the right” amount of space, but those bigger than them take up too much. Spare me.
Nobody takes up too much space just by virtue of existing. Tall people don’t take up too much space. People in wheelchairs don’t take up too much space. Fat people don’t take up too much space. If you are on a crowded train and you sit with your legs completely splayed out sprawling across as much space as you can, then an argument can be made that you are taking up too much space, but it is impossible that your body takes up too much space just being your body
There are things in the world that are made to fit only people of a certain size but that doesn’t make all other bodies wrong. It means that when they manufactured those things, they either pretended that bodies outside of those sizes don’t exist, or they simply made the decision not to accommodate people of all sizes. When I encounter these situations I can choose activism, or not. If I go into a restaurant and I’m not comfortable in their booths or the arms on their chairs pinch I have a few options. I can say nothing and suffer through, or I can leave immediately. I can let the management know about the problem and give them a chance to accommodate me, or I can just decide that if they wanted my business they would have made different choices and so leave and never come back.
Regardless of what I choose the problem resides with the booths and the chairs and not with my body. I take up exactly the right amount of space and I believe that you do too.
Could you spare 30 second to support theFat Activist History Project? A friend of mine needs to get a ONE-question survey completed by as many women as possible this week for a client of hers, so she offered fundraising help in exchange for me recruiting participants.
1. Complete the ONE-question survey at the link below.
2. Put “Ragen” as your referral
3. For each survey completed, my friend will donate $1 toward The Fat History Project! (www.fatactivisthistory.org)
Here’s the Survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aMUgXMN8keurVJZru9W_BT3d_0x7VBwt5-AeEyMfHto/viewform
Help the project, help my friend, help my friend’s client, all in 30 seconds. Woot! Thanks for helping out – and please feel free to share!
Like my blog? Here’s more of my stuff!
Become a member: For just ten bucks a month you can keep this blog ad-free, support the activism work I do, and get deals from cool businesses Click here for details
Interviews with Amazing Activists!! Help Activists tell our movement’s history in their own words. Support In Our Own Words: A Fat Activist History Project!
The Book: Fat: The Owner’s Manual The E-Book is Name Your Own Price! Click here for details
Dance Classes: Buy the Dance Class DVDs or download individual classes – Every Body Dance Now! Click here for details
If my selling things on the blog makes you uncomfortable, you might want to check out this post. Thanks for reading! ~Ragen
