OH HEY SUN.

It was kind of nice yesterday, so I thought I’d have my photo taking squinting awkwardly in the sun instead. I pilfered my boyfriend’s t-shirt again, and this time knotted it over a high waisted pencil skirt from Forever 21. The skirt is new and still on site here - a bit of a bargain at £8.25. I actually have this in red too, and love both. This is a 2X – it comes up pretty generously and I wanted a snug fit. I’m a 24 on my bottom half, so the 3X would probably fit more of a size 26, larger than you might think.


Top, pilfered from my boyfriend (it's from a shop called Sleazy Seagull on etsy)
Skirt, Forever 21, £8.25
Shoes, Crocs, £22

Another quick post about clothes swapping fun. I’m hoping that myself and the other members of the Yorkshire Rad Fat Collective (join ussssss) will be able to organise another swap in August. In order to set a rough date to start thinking about planning it, I created a doodle poll, which checks anyone who is interested in attending’s availability over the month. It takes a few seconds and no registration, so if you’d like to come swapping, let me know which weekends would suit you. We’ll plan it for the weekend where most are available.

Fill it out here.

xx


P.S. I now have a facebook page for this blog! Likes are appreciated (aren't they always?). Find me here. 

I have been buying a few things lately, trying to fill the gaps in my wardrobe. I’m an impulse shopper, which sometimes works in my favour and sometimes doesn’t, but the main down side of this is that I don’t tend to seek out particular items. As a result I often find that I lack something as simple as a pair of blue jeans! I had my Beth Ditto skinnies, but they got a bit tight, so have now been sold on (though I finally found a pair on eBay in a size larger! Hurrah!). They were the perfect jeans – tight, well fitted with minimal stretching out over time – and unfortunately, rather impossible to find again. However, this pair are definitely a close second.

I got them from Forever 21’s plus size range (you can still find them on site here). They’re a lightweight medium blue jean in a size 20 (American sizing I think – their 20 is much more like a UK 24). Forever 21 skinnies are great for me – they are actually tight, and I find that the 20 is just big enough to be comfortable without losing shape. The lightweight material for these is wonderful in hot weather, and the length is perfect for me (at 5’9” I often find regular fit jeans slightly too short). They’re breathable, comfortable and nice dressed up or down.

Actually, everything here is new! I got the blouse just yesterday in the Dorothy Perkins sale (it’s still available here). It’s got a nice button up back and subtle peplum. The print is of hummingbirds, and I love the soft blush colour. The material could be better – it’s man made and not great in the warm weather, though thankfully my part of the world isn’t often blessed with sun!

The shoes, finally, are one of my favourite recent purchases. They’re Crocs (yeah, I know, what?!)! I’m not a Crocs person, and you would never catch me in their more traditional styles, but they actually have some cute styles right now. These are leopard print, peep toe flats, and they are seriously the most comfortable shoes ever. I love leopard print as a pattern, it seems to co-ordinate with everything (it’s almost a neutral), and I’ve been after a pair of flats in it for ages. These have a nice slightly metallic sheen to them. They RRP for I think £35, but I managed to find them on Amazon for slightly cheaper, shaving a further 20% a discount code by signing up to their newsletter, taking them to £22.00 total. 

My hair is almost long enough to tie up now, so I’ve been pinning it back messily lots. Today I went with a quiff and two small side buns:

Details:

Blouse, Dorothy Perkins, £15

Jeans, Forever 21 +, £18

Shoes, Crocs, £22 (via amazon and a discount voucher)

A goofy grin and a remixed outfit today. I actually can't believe I've never owned a denim jacket before - they go with everything and enable me to buy a copious amount of badges and pins. Huzzah! 

Top, £7, Dorothy Perkins

Skirt, clothes swap, free

Belt, £5, Dorothy Perkins

Shoes, Primark, £12

Denim jacket, New Look Inspire, £20

The British weather continues to be as frustrating as ever – a jumper and thick tights shouldn’t be necessary in June, however they were. I wore this to get curry (mushroom and aubergine korma!) and hang out with my boyfriend. I made this haphazard felt femme brooch with some leftover material and decided it was particularly garish in combo with my jumper:

Jumper, £1.50, charity shop

Brooch, handmade

Skirt, clothes swap

Tights, M&S

Shoes, Primark, £12

Hello everyone

Radio silence is now ceasing! Sorry I’ve been avoiding you, blog, but life kind of got in the way (by that I mean I have been procrastinating a lot). Anyway, I’ve worn some super fancy clothes lately, so I feel like being vain again and prancing about in front of the camera.

This t-shirt is actually my boyfriend’s – it was a birthday present this year for him from etsy (you can buy it here). He’s a punk geek, and a cat fan, so well, it had to be done. Luckily for me, he likes his tees oversized and I like mine tight fitting, so, despite a 15” difference in waist measurements, I can steal it too! I wore it over a vintage dress with some clashing tights for fun.

Dress, vintage via charity shop, £4

T-shirt via Sleazy Seagull on etsy

Tights, We Love Colours

Shoes, Primark, £12

I wore this get up yesterday to meet some rats at a local animal rescue. My partner and I have been wanting some for years, but I wasn’t sure if we were ready. Anyway, we took the plunge and adopted a pair of boys, called Pierre and Pascal. They are the cutest, and I’m full of awkward new pet parent gushing. Consider yourself lucky though readers, because I’ll try and keep the rat talk off here… bar this quick photo (SORRY):

Transformation Narratives

There have been a few fat positive books released over the last couple of years, which is awesome. I’ve read some, but not all (though I want to), so this post is not targeted specifically at any particular book, more generally at the way publishers and editors seem to appropriate the movement.

I’m interested in the ways in which body acceptance narratives are presented in a more mainstream setting. Generally speaking, fat activists are introduced into mainstream discourses through history – I experienced this myself when I was filmed to be on Cherry’s Body Dilemmas last year. It’s necessary to justify our position as fat activists through the reiteration of suffering that we’re experienced before getting to that point. I am NOT interested in denying that we all face abuse on different levels, but it’s interesting that our acceptance is always framed around it. How would I have been portrayed if I’d always been happy, and never dieted, rather than having gone through eating problems, fad diets and lots of abuse in various settings? Would my acceptance have been presented as more or less valid? Would I have had different reactions?

My interest in fat narratives has developed recently as more books have been published with a “how to love your body” slant – self help, but from a fat positive, more radical angle. I get that books need to offer something unique, powerful and individual that makes a reader pick it from a bookshelf (rather than the many alternatives), but I find these prescribed narratives frustrating for a whole bunch of reasons, which I’m going to try and explain here:

-          The process of “transforming” is often used when talking about fat people – i.e. the before/after process of dieting, the abjection of fat bodies etc. The presentation of us as inadequate subjects/humans means that we have to undergo a process to become an acceptable member of society – normally dieting, but I wonder how these narratives fit in here too? Yes, they’re subversive in some ways, but they’re also still reliant in this transformation in order to become acceptable.

-          I get frustrated with the before/after presentation (i.e. before I hated myself, dressed in just black and now I am really happy and wear bright, tight things) because it makes it impossible to complicate the process – you’re either just happy or not happy at all. The truth is that body acceptance is a process, and it doesn’t happen overnight, and neither is it easy to completely shake off self hate. Everyone has ups and downs, whether you’re super body confident or negative – the levels just change. I cannot stress how hard it is to completely shut out fat negativity and hate when it’s around you constantly – however, what’s important is learning to decode these messages, how to compensate and deal with feeling upset by them, and how to support your body in spaces which don’t do the same. It’s okay to be upset and angry – but try and find ways to channel that upset and anger at the source, rather than at you or those close to you.

-          Focusing on an end point (when you completely love yourself and EVERYTHING IS HUNKY DORY) is kind of unproductive – like I’ve already said, that end point is tough, and you might not ever get there entirely. However, if you’ve made any progress at all, that’s fine, because you’re still resisting at some level.

-          Body acceptance is different for everyone!! I can tell you how I started to accept myself, and I can see commonalities between my methods of acceptance and self-care and others’, but our own methods and backgrounds are incredibly different. Fat acceptance is incredibly diverse, and to me, is built on difference – some of us got into it through academia, some clothes, some exercise, some community activism, some sex positivity, and the list goes on! Also, I find these “how to” narratives frustrating because they exclude people without certain resources, and always seem to be written from a privileged position in society, and targeted at a similar group.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the contribution to publishing that fat activists have made (I wouldn’t be here without having read some of these books!), but I’d like to see more people queering and actively questioning these transformation narratives and the structure behind them.