A lot of the projects that we do on this blog are large scale, and that’s cool and there are lots of good things that come from that. But I believe that the majority of the acts of a successful revolution are tiny acts done by a lot of people. I’ve heard this called everyday activism or armchair activism. Whatever we want to call it, I think it’s important to realize that there are things people of every size can do every day to make the world a more size accepting place. Here are some ideas, I absolutely encourage you to add your ideas in the comments!
Positive Body Talk
I was recently at a school where they are dealing with an online forum that is used to perpetuate all kinds of hate – racism, sexism, sizeism, homophobia etc. My suggestion was to flood the site with positive messages so that the haters have to sift through hundreds of positive messages to get their “hate fix”. This is something that we can do all over the place. In this culture, no matter what your size, loving your body and how you look is absolutely an act of revolution. There are lots of ways to do this depending on where you are on your personal journey. Choose not to engage in negative body talk or body snarking of any kind. Choose to say positive things about other people’s bodies and your own body. When you overhear others engaging in negative body talk, interject positive talk, or say something like “I look forward to living in a world where we can see beauty in every body.”
Purchasing Decisions
The diet and beauty machine that oppresses us runs on our time, energy, and money. We can take the fuel away and shut the machine down. There are lots of ways to do that. Cancel your subscriptions and/or don’t buy beauty magazines (including those that disguise themselves as health magazines). Stop clicking on articles about the “best and worst bikini bodies” or worst Oscar dresses, or how to hide figure “flaws”, or any article that shames people for how they look in any way. Don’t buy things that sell using a diet/weight loss message. Don’t buy anything that tries to sell you something by making you feel bad about yourself. Don’t buy products whose marketing suggests that you’ll never be happy, find love, be desirable etc. unless you buy it. Send them an e-mail and let them know why they aren’t getting your money. Do buy products that you notice use positive advertising. Do buy from business that are specifically size inclusive. send them some customer feedback letting them know how much you appreciate what they do. If your favorite product puts out a commercial or ad that lets you down, or isn’t size inclusive shoot them an e-mail and let them know how you feel.
Do the Thing
You know the thing you’re not doing because you’re scared that you’re too fat, too old, too short, too tall, too whatever? Whatever it is, consider doing it. Maybe people will say or think negative things but I suggest it’s not about them – while it’s kind of you to do people the courtesy of giving them the opportunity to reconsider their stereotypes, I think it’s about the person who also thinks that they are too fat, old, short or whatever, then when they see you try it gives them the courage to try. They give someone else the courage and then someone else and soon the haters are outnumbered by the people who refuse to make their choices based on the bigotry and hatred of others. Then it’s a party.
Sometimes people suggest that a single individual can’t make a difference, but when I look at it, is seems like one person is the only thing that can make a difference. A massive protest doesn’t work unless each individual gets up and goes to the protest, a corporation-crippling boycott doesn’t work unless individuals choose to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to do the boycott, and a revolution doesn’t happen without tons of tiny acts of revolution from tons of individual revolutionaries. Viva la tiny revolution!!!
Like the blog? Here’s more of my stuff:
The Book: Fat: The Owner’s Manual The E-Book is Name Your Own Price! Click here for details
The Dance Class DVDs: Buy the Dance Class DVDs for Every Body Dance Now! Click here for the details
Become a Member, Support My Projects, and Get Special Deals from Size Positive Businesses
I do size acceptance activism full time. I created a membership program so that people who read the blog and feel they get value out of it and want to support the work I do can become members for ten bucks a month To make that even cooler, I’ve now added a component called “DancesWithFat Deals” which are special deals to my members from size positive merchants. Once you are a member I send out an e-mail once a month with the various deals and how to redeem them – your contact info always stays completely private.
