I Try To Love Myself As Much As She Loved Me
Liz was fat, too. Not just sort of in between fat, either, like my mom and other female relatives were at the time (though now, of course, most of them are around my size). She was short and round, with a round face, black curly hair and a mouth that was always smiling. She was half Italian half Mexican and very girly.
The first time we met, Liz was ready to be a huge part of my life. I was mistrustful and didn’t understand why she loved me so much already. I was used to adults liking me, since as an only child I learned to socialize well with grown-ups and I was very bright. But the way she just immediately loved me, in that I-loved-you-before-I-knew-you way that parents talk about felt so weird. As I continued into adolescence and hated myself more and more, the more suspicious I was of her unconditional love.
World AIDS Day & More on Medical Self-Advocacy
Take it from someone whose routine trip to the GYN turned into a kerfuffle of mis[fat]diagnosis—when a doctor is supposed to be treating you for something and launches into the fat talk you can politely tell them “I am not here to discuss my weight with you. I am here to discuss my bits, my HIV status and whether I am at risk for cancers.” I like to have a mantra to prepare ahead of time.
Single in Sharp Relief
Thanksgiving is a really hard time of year for me. It is one of those holidays that puts into sharp relief how very single I am. I am happy with my life, I am making my life into the kind of life I want to be living and am extremely grateful that I’m not in an unhappy, unsatisfying and sad lesbian foot warming* kind of relationship.
However, when you were in a relationship (or 2 back to back relationships, in my case) where you were creating a family… Thanksgiving is just one of those family holidays where you feel extra weird when your day to day family doesn’t involve other people.
Just like Bad Fat Days, which happen to all fat activists and body loving fat people, being Single in Sharp Relief can be jarring even for the most ardently happy single person. But we already have all the coping mechanisms we need to get through it, just like Bad Fat Days.
Update about the Femme Conference
Your Femme Steering Committee hopes that you are having a wonderful year. As you may have guessed it is about time for us to start gearing up for 2010. We are very excited about Femme2010 and hope you are too! For those of you who were with us in 2008, you know that we ran at a $3995.07 deficit. We have managed, through generous donations from Femme Conference supporters, to raise $1606.45 to offset the deficit, but we are still short $2388.62. You can check out the financials page for 2008 here.
The Queer Fat Femme Guide to Starting a Community Group
I guess what I was really wondering is if you could offer any advice on how to get started, a good way to find some femmes and to create an interest in forming a femme community for support, to open discussion and to hopefully create a loud sparkly place in Idaho for us.
The QFF Guide to dealing with social situations with a potentially fatphobic acquaintance
Bevin, my bright and compassionate role model, how would you handle yourself at a social event with an acquaintance who hates/dislikes/at the very least disapproves of you based on something as stupid and arbitrary as weight? You see, I’m going to an event and I just discovered that the person I was most looking forward to hanging out with is part of an online social networking website group about fat hatred.
Help Heal Fran for Leah’s Birthday!
FemmeCast’s Femme Shark Correspondent Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha came out for a clandestine visit/gig for API month at Swarthmore last weekend and it was a welcome distraction from everything to hang out and do life planning and road tripping with her. She went looking for apartments with me and I caught a bit on tape. (I want to start a video blog but need to figure out how to get the video editing software I need for PC. Eventually.) So here’s a bit of that adventure, for your pleasure.
Guest Post: Zoe’s Break-up Survival Guide
When FemmeCast was just getting started, Bevin decided to do an episode about breakups and she asked me to share with listeners my tips for getting over a broken heart. As, at the time, the self-described “Queen of Heartbreak,” I felt well qualified to address this issue.
Upcoming Gigs and the Trifecta Falling Apart
I call these the “Big Three Issues”, Home, Job, Romance. When one is down it’s hard enough to deal with. The trifecta is really throwing me for a loop and I’m hanging onto my besties’ hands for dear life right now.
Unicorn Dick
The next few weeks and follow-up visit have had me thinking a lot about Unicorn Dick in the context of the Queer Fat Femme lifestyle. Anyone who has done the dating thing as a Queer Femme knows how hard it is to find someone that embodies the killer combo of personality, looks, chemistry, smarts and timing.
Happy Validation* Day from FemmeCast!
Substantia Jones for the Adipositivity project asked me to select the “partner of my choice” to pose with me. Since Zoe is my Consigliere, BFF and life partner, I asked her first and she readily agreed.
New Episode of FemmeCast Now Available!
In this episode host Bevin Branlandingham and FemmeCast contributors discuss their strategies for learning to push past the Steel Magnolias facade and receive help.
www.Femme-Cast.com