Just now, I ran into a woman who works for the same organisation I do. I don’t know her well, but she’s one of those people who, because of her job, knows just about everyone by name. We had a conversation that included the following: Her (in a positive tone): You’ve lost weight! Me (in [...]
Posts Tagged ‘body image’
A conversation
Posted in body image, feminism, tagged body image, feminism on 11 May 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Hair, more or less
Posted in body image, tagged beauty, body image, hair on 22 January 2011 | 6 Comments »
Chally’s recent post about her adventures with hair-cutting sounded eerily familiar in a couple of important respects. I also have curly hair, although for me it is not a racial identifier. As such, my curls have always brought quite a different reaction to those described by Chally. The reactions from one group have been much [...]
Quickhit: And here I was, thinking the use of the term “deathfatz” was ironic…
Posted in health, you don't say!, tagged body image, fat acceptance, health, health at every size, illogic, Oh really? on 3 December 2009 | 3 Comments »
Headline: “How lethal is your load?”. Subhead: “Even skinny people may be carrying a mother lode of toxic fat”. It’s the DEATHFATZ! FOR REALZ! The article seems incredibly confused over the issue of good fat vs bad fat. For example, the journo seems to have understood that fat in certain locations is a better indicator [...]
Catholic school suspends student for shaving head
Posted in freedom of speech, you WHAT?, tagged body image, children, choice, culture, discrimination, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, gender roles, human rights on 10 November 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The title of this post says it all. See the SMH’s article for more detail. (By the way, SMH, I fixed that passive-voiced headline for you!) Look, I’m not pissed off that the Catholic school has suspended the student for shaving her head as a fundraiser for cancer. I’m pissed off that the Catholic school [...]
“You look nice!”
Posted in body image, feminism, tagged body image, community, complicity, culture, equality, feminism, gender roles, institutional sexism, privilege, sexism on 2 June 2009 | 27 Comments »
I don’t wear make-up very often. I tend to reserve it for three general situations: (1) where formal wear is required; (2) slightly more formal than usual work situations (eg job interviews); and (3) when I’m in the mood, because playing dress-up can be fun sometimes. I’m wearing my red lipstick today in honour of [...]
Healthism in yoga
Posted in disability rights, health, tagged BADD, Blogging Against Disablism Day, body image, community, culture, disability rights, discrimination, equality, health on 26 May 2009 | 7 Comments »
A couple of months ago, I wrote against the healthist attitude displayed by a yoga instructor. This post is a sort of corollary to that post. I originally thought of writing it for Blogging Against Disablism Day, but it seemed a bit much of the “all about me” kind, which I didn’t think was appropriate [...]
You cannot assess a person’s health by looking at them
Posted in body image, health, tagged body image, fat acceptance, health, health at every size, language on 5 May 2009 | 3 Comments »
Rachel Hills’ recent post highlighted for me one of my bugbears. On the whole, I agreed with her post. I did think it was going to go towards what I think is the real problem with the pursuit of thinness (by the fashion industry, but also more generally): that is the fact that almost all [...]

