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I spent a semester researching the BMI and other factors that contribute to the way we perceive healthy bodies, and I see you’re spreading a similar message: the BMI is BS! I wrote a post on my website about my research. As you know, it’s entirely appearance-based and exclusively revolves around thinness and weight loss. I’m a PhD student who studies media ideals and body image, and my particular area of focus is how health is represented to women. I’ve been directed to your site by a couple of friends recently and I’m so glad I finally checked you out! You’re doing such wonderful work here! Your message about health having nothing to do with appearance is one I’m very strongly for. Hey Ragen! I just read your article about the Wii fit in the Vancouver Sun,and decided to check you .It’s about time that people realise that healthy can be all shapes and sizes in my yoga class for example,we have tons of people who are fierce and curvacious and can rock out some super advanced poses!People used to tease me about my weight too,and i’m one of the “skinny bitches” It used to bug me a lot,being accused of not eating, by complete strangers no less.I envied some of my friend’s womanly curves.One of them said to me “why do you care what they think anyway?You have never looked at my body as anything but beautiful,and I learned to accept myself from that.Please learn to do the same!I love you for who you are!”That officially turned my insecurities on it’s head.I started to concentrate on building strength and health instead of just looking at the appearance.I still get an awesome kick out of the astonished looks that I get when i lift something that is 90% of my own body weight! )stay wonderful!!-jude
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The rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and basic human respect are not, and should never be, size dependent. I am an unwavering advocate for Size Acceptance – the civil rights fact that fat people have the right to live in fat bodies, and it doesn’t matter why we’re fat, what “the consequences” of being fat might be, and whether we want to, or even can, become thin. While I discuss my own journey as a fathlete, I always want to be crystal clear that nobody is ever obligated to participate in fitness, and that my goal is just to make sure that every body is welcome. I consider my greatest accomplishment to be learning to love myself and my body, and to be truly happy living completely outside the cultural beauty norm. In 2011 I left a successful consulting career for my dream job of speaking and writing full-time about Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size. I’ve published books, started successful businesses, won three National Dance Championships, and hold the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Women to Complete a Marathon. I’ve been a cheerleading captain, a multi-sport varsity athlete, my class valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar, and played Carnegie Hall. I’ve been lucky to have had a lot of opportunities and experiences in my life. You can also color me in Allion Tunis’s absolutely amazing Body Love: A Fat Activist Coloring Book (After you color it you can even post it to The Coloring Book’s Facebook page) You can color me! I’m super excited to be part of Toni Tails Body Positive Coloring Book, click the image below to download and color. Want to see some of that dancing? This is my coach and I doing a West Coast Swing showcase to Bette Midler’s I’m Beautiful. Enjoy! I know that ally is a verb, and I know that understanding my own privilege and using it to help dismantle the systems of oppression from which I directly benefit (including, in my case, racism, ableism, healthism, transphobia, and the good fatty/bad fatty dichotomy and more) is crucial, and my basic responsibility in order to be a decent human being. I believe in the concept of Intersectional social justice and I wear the label of Social Justice Warrior like a badge of honor. I believe that basic human respect is for people of all sizes. My goal is and has always been to let as many people as possible know about the options of Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size. I’m not trying to tell anybody what personal choices they have to make. I blogged here because there are people who hate themselves and their bodies because they don’t think they have another choice, and because there are people who diet only because they think it’s the only way to pursue health or happiness. Why “danceswithfat?” I started this blog when I was competing in partner dancing. Subscribe to my blog (up there on the right-hand corner) (Video and Pay-What-You-Can Option Included) Getting Jiggly With it – Movement in a Fat Body!