Today I had a paradigm shift. So one of the reasons I came to community is because I wanted to be more social and out going, another reason was I have been listening to a podcast with these two fat activist (Two Whole Cakes-check it out!) and made me want to try to inspire other fat people (I am going to start using the term fatties here but I don't mean it in a hostile or derogatory way) to not hold back, not stay on the sidelines and to not be ashamed to be fat and out in public which cannot happen in a place like NYC. In NYC you are categorized, judged and labeled according to how you look (my opinion) and it takes (sometimes) a tremendous amount of effort to get people to look past the label of fat.
It happens here in community as well, I can see some people putting up barriers because I make them uncomfortable. Well I digressed a little. So another reason I came to Live In Community was so that I could in some small or indirect way inspire other fatties to feel more comfortable around things that they may not be totally comfortable about. So if you are wondering what I do (and you haven't read my Naked In the Sauna post) I walk around naked in the ladies locker room, I refuse to crouch around behind a towel and apologize for taking up so much space in the locker room. I refuse to wear a bathing suit in the whirlpool and I walk in as slowly as possible, I am naked in the sauna (though I do put a cold towel over my face so I don't come out looking like a boiled beet). I shake my fat ass is YogaDance refusing to feel self conscious about the size of the object being shaken instead I wave my hands in the air and dance in the center of the room with all of the other dancers. If I see a fattie in the doorway I wave them in. I would go over and grab their hands and pull them in but that seems too invasive.
So on to the paradigm shift, I came here with the idea that I could only inspire fatties but yesterday in YogaDance (while shaking my fat ass) someone told me I was amazing and I realized that I could and should be a fat activist for everyone, not just fatties. Let everyone know that there are fatties out there who love to dance as much as everyone else (e.g. non-fatties). Let everyone know that there are fatties who are not ashamed to walk around naked in the ladies locker room and most of all that there are fatties (like ME) that can inspire. If you let them inspire you.
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