Y 2 K - B B W

What will the day to day future hold for
the BBW? I have often said that I get
optimistic when I see a science fiction
show on television showing a bbw in the role
of a futuristic space traveller. At least
in the producer's mind there is a subtle
realization that people are meant to be
different and diverse even in the "near perfect"
future created in a tv show. Maybe it would take
the vision and the creativity of a science
fiction writer to include the diversity of
size along with diversity in race, age, religion,
and even planet of origin.

Shows of this nature are just simple, fable
type plots sprinkled with special effects
and impossible inventions. They capture
the attention and imagination of the viewer
by dazzling and impressing, and all the while
the stories are usually the same tired old
good vrs evil plots. For this reason, a
show that includes as much diversity as
possible will probably be more popular.
People would simply stop going to the
2nd and 3rd sequel to a science fiction classic
if there were not "all new" special effects
and dazzling and impressive innovative ideas
to go along with the same old "save the universe"
routine.

All of this goes towards making my point that people
are different for a reason. While in this plane of
our existance we are not be gifted with the reason
behind these diverse and unique differences between
us as people. We can still learn to appreciate and
benefit from the different strengths and gifts of
different cultures and social groups though.
I have heard from other people and I agree that
life would be rather boring if we were all
"plain vanilla" variety human beings with no
differences and no unique appeal.
It's the very things that make us different
that we should celebrate and enjoy as members
of this human race. I'm sure that the people
who created the first multi-million-dollar making
science fiction movie knew they were onto something
when they created entire scenes featuring
members of several various races of aliens
scurrying about around the main characters.
I can remember thinking that a certain bar
scene from a science fiction classic was
almost juvenille in the way that the different
aliens bounced and roamed about, even singing
and creating a top 40 dance
song because it was so popular.

In the future, I hope that size acceptance will
be embraced, and I also really hope that people
who come in different shapes and sizes will be
treated with the same kind of respect and protection
as people with different color skin or different
religions. I hope that in the future people who
have a higher number as their dress size will get
the same kind of respect and proper treatment as
those people who happen to have a higher number as
their age. I know that when laws are finally put
on the books to protect the interest of people
of size, discrimination will still continue.
While laws on the books will not be enough to
stop the unfair and unjust treatment of people
of size, at least people will be made aware that
it is not o.k. to ridicule or discriminate
against someone just because of their size.
It has to start to "sink in" now. People have
got to be made aware that rude treatment of
people of size is not to be tolerated or even
allowed by the person for whom such unfairness is
directed at. People have to be made aware that such
treatment is tacky, unfeeling, unthinking, and
just plain rude and wrong. The first step, before
things can really change, is going to have to come
from the people though. People out there can't just
bitch and complain about how bad things are without
a hint or a clue as to what to do about it.
I know that Bigger & Better is not going to
solve the problems of "fat-phobia" over-night.
I have come to the realization that because of
how slow-moving the size acceptance movement is
I could be "old and gray" by the time such laws
are ammended or added or changed.

While I talk in a somewhat negative sense about where
the life of the bbw is going into the next century,
I have to remind everyone how difficult the civil
rights movement had it during all those years of
fighting for the rights of every man created equal.
If that line about being created equal was never put
into the constitution, who knows how long it would have
taken the "founding fathers" to figure out how wrong
the practice of slavery was. There is little comparison
but the subject of size acceptance is a serious one.

I really do hope that as we enter a new age of enlightenment
we are still able to look back and realize the mistakes of
the past. It is not going to be easy to establish
size acceptance as a "house-hold word", but I am always
hoping that more and more people will find out about the
existance of such a movement before they are
talked into doing something radical like surgery or
dangerous like perscription drugs or shots.

Checking back on another article I wrote in this very
newsletter, I think I've found a pattern!
I think that the end of the year and the end
of the century has brought on a new sense of urgency
within me to create change in the perception of size.
With each new commercial for "liposuction",
breast enhancement, hormone injection,
or weight loss surgery I begin to realize
just how many people are spending vast
amounts of money on such proceedures.
It's like a never ending cycle where
more people spend money on such nonsence
and then more money is spend on advertising
to lure even more people in to do the same thing.

I know that no matter how dangerous or uncomfortable
these things are to do, if people think that there
is a chance to change appearance for the better,
people will flock to it. As a "f.a." I see this
as a real tragedy because it is usually the very
things that a woman changes about herself that
I find attractive in the "original version".
Hopefully with all the studies that are done
to prove how "bad" fat is, there will be just
a few studies to come out that show how bad
doing these things to the human body are.
Until these things are proven "clinically",
people will continue to have them done, and
people will continue to get hurt. I can
only hope that my attempts to bring about
education in size acceptance will do some
good towards bringing attention to how bad
those radical means are.

I am willing to bet that even if there is a
"cure" found for obesity, there will still
be a precious few people who would rather
stay who they are and be even more unique and
different when everyone else "shrinks down".
While the invention of such a cure would
shatter and dismantle what we now know as
the "size acceptance movement", there would
still be some people who would chose to stay
just the way they are instead of changing just
because "they can". In much the same way that
people make choices to change their appearance,
in body piercing or tattoo's or even unnatural
hair color. people may choose to "stay fat" too.

When I say that such an invention would
shatter the size acceptance movement as
we know it, I mean that it would be the
people we would suspect the least who would
choose to abandon their "fatness" first.
Just like our friend Carly Wilson decided
to have weight loss surgery a year after she
was involved with the "million pound march"
in Los Angeles, people who speak the loudest
about acceptance might be the first ones in line
to get that "magical cure for obesity".

When I say that people will choose to look
different, I mean that there are people running
around all over right now that make changes to
their appearance that are not popular or accepted.
It would be that mentality that might spawn the
interest in some to make their size the one thing
about them that makes them unique, that makes them stand
out. Odds are those are the kind of people that
already demand respect just the way they are,
that would have never heard of size acceptance
simply because they never had any use for it.
Having the confidence and the balls to stand
up for the way they are no matter what they look
like would be enough, and those people would
sneer at the feeble attempt that exists to promote
"fat acceptance".

I'll keep my eye out for the fat women in
science fiction programs (not that I would be
watching any these days), and I'm willing to
bet that they will continue to appear there
just as those programs will continue to flourish
now that we are upon a new "millenium".
I'll keep on writing about size acceptance
and hope that somebody out there will really
begin to listen, but some day hopefully my
words will almost be lost upon a sea of size
acceptance propaganda and publicity.

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