COFRA — Show Your Face videos
I have a secret crush. How much do I love Paul McAleer? A lot, that’s how much. Now that it’s not a secret anymore I can tell you that I quote his witty and smart viewpoints on Big Fat Blog to my husband so often (“Oh my god! Paul said something brilliant! Isn’t he dreamy?”) that now he refers to Paul as my internet boyfriend. OK that’s not true – he doesn’t call Paul my internet boyfriend but it sounded so cute that I’m going to leave it in. Go read what Paul has to say and see for yourself.
Paul invited a bunch of us bloggers to get together in Chicago and talk about Fat Rights, calling us the Coalition of Fat Rights Activists. I’ve wanted to attend the COFRA meetings that have taken place in Chicago only to be thwarted at every turn. Once a wedding, once a business meeting, and once I even bought a plane ticket but all flights were canceled because of a snow storm!
Sigh…one day I will meet Paul and hopefully I will not be a drooling fool (“Oh my gawd you are like so cute and stuff!”) but instead I will be witty and profound and we will have a wonderful conversation and I will write about the momentous occasion in my diary, which is this website, so you will be the first to know!
Paul sent out a call for action calling it Dare to Show Your Face. Confront the media’s obsession with images of neck-down fat bodies and show them your beauty. I spent a lot of time last weekend watching and watching again your incredible videos on You Tube and I gotta say, you people are gorgeous! The videos are beyond fantastic, beyond inspiring, beyond my wildest hopes and dreams. Now what with my not-so-secret crush, of course you can see that I am beside myself with Hunky Paul and the thrilling accomplishment of the COFRA Dare to Show Your Face project. See? I told you he was dreamy.
I often wish I could meet the people who read my blog and when I watch these videos I just want to invite you all over for dinner. I’ll make you a nice leg of lamb, unless you’re vegan and then I’ll make ratatouille. We’ll drink wine and laugh and have wonderful conversation. Then we’ll make a body positive, fat rights video. Today You Tube – tomorrow the world!
*Addendum: I just realized that I didn’t give credit to Abby Niederhauser who posted this video. WTG Abby! Please take some time to see the other videos as well.
Awesome!!
And I’m totally coming over for lamb. Mmm, lamb.
Your video is good…BUT. The “most skinny blonde chicks comment” is out of line. The point of FA isn’t to differentiate fat people as better/funnier/wev.
Julia you should totally come over for lamb. No mint jelly at my house. Lots and lots of rosemary and garlic!
Kristin I really do get it. Some of my best friends are skinny blonde chicks. Really they are – I live in NYC and I have friends who are fashion models and it tics me off when I read insulting comments based on someone being thin.
But I also think that with a lifetime of being put down by her own family, as she states in the video, Abby might be working out some issues. Her personal path to accepting and loving her body might include some stone throwing. I’d like to not throw stones back at her if you please, and give the girl some room to breathe.
I don’t know if any one person can say what the point of Fat Acceptance (FA) is, or is not. It’s not like we are given a handbook at birth on loving ourselves. I would like to think that with COFRA and the people who blog about this subject, we might, as a nation, come to find beauty in a diversity of shapes and sizes.
You can come over for lamb too, if you want, and we can discuss this over a lovely bottle of Spanish wine that I brought back from my recent trip to Barcelona.
This post made me giggle so much.
First, I want to say thanks for supporting DTSYF. We are still looking for people to submit videos or mashups.
Second, I wanna say that we are planning the next Think Tank in Chicago and it is tentatively set for the middle of October. Details should be coming soon.
Finally, yes to your reply about Abby’s video. Abby got comments on her video that were similar to Kristin’s, and she has submitted another version of this video to The Fat Experience Project without that part.