Question: "Do you think that body image and size are serious concerns that feminism should address? How much do your personal size and your feelings about it impact your viewpoint on the issue of body image and beauty ideals?

You may not think of your own body and your size as a conscious choice, but what about women who do choose particular bodies - who choose to pursue anorexia or bulimia as a lifestyle (or, conversely, who choose "healthy" or "sedentary" lifestyles)? There are a wide variety of women on the net advocating for different approaches to handling body ideals - from fat acceptance sites to diet sales to anorexic support communites (which in many cases, support the choice of eating disorders). Must these women's choices be defended? Or should pro-anorexia resources be a concern to feminists?"

i definitely think fat is a feminist issue. i think body image is a feminist issue. i think the fact that every time most women put something in their mouths they are immediately calculating how that will make them un/attractive to The Gaze is a feminist issue. the fact that so many girls diet as early as the age of 5 is a sign that fat should be everyone's issue.

someone once surveyed a group of fifth graders. those children decided almost unanimously that they'd rather be friends with a person with one arm than with a fat person. the movie Shallow Hal was recently released starring the "beautiful" (to those who like women who look like skeletons) Gwen Paltrow. why was the clamor and excitement in this movie focused on the "grotesque" fat women when the men in this movie where decidely not handsome, not thin, not even very likable. why do even the most unattractive men get to demand (and be rewarded for perpetuating) fat-repulsion?

another question: where are the average fat women in mass media? we see these hairy/balding overweight middle aged men in everything from NYPD Blue to MTV to the Dr. Pepper commercials, yet I see no female counterpart unless it is in an effort to ridicule or repulse. there's a fat woman who advertises pads, but she's pretty. there's camryn, but she's pretty. where's the average fat woman?

these are feminist issues. they are feminist issues because they are women's issues. the fact that women spend 95% of their lives trying to contort their bodies into skeletons is a feminist issue.

i don't have an issue with thin versus fat. i don't care how you want your body to be. but every time a woman expresses her fear of being "too fat" i want to vomit. every time i see a 12 year old girl explain how she can't drink milk cause it makes you fat, i want to rip the jugular of western society. we're slaves. slaves to The Gaze and we do it to ourselves just as often as it is done to us.

this is a feminist issue. it is a human issue.

i don't care how you want your body but let's talk about your reasons. do you starve yourself because it feels good? does withholding food make your life better? are you controlled, dictated, determined, by the amount of nourishment you allow yourself? do you emulate fashion plate skeletons because your constant failure sends your self-esteem soaring?

be fat. be skinny. the issue here is not whether you are or aren't. feminism shouldn't be concerned with the fat woman versus the skinny woman. the issue is that we regulate ourselves to appease some over-inflated image of a fat woman as a repulsive woman versus a skinny woman as an ideal woman. that's what's killing us.

self regulation. self mutilation. self starvation. we are doing it to ourselves. slowly killing ourselves from within by denying ourselves the basic right to nourishment. how is this not a feminist issue?

i don't think this is an issue of choice versus social decision. i don't think it's a matter of personal goals. this is a phobia perpetrated against us to divide us both from society and from ourselves. maria de trujillo once wrote of abortion from the third world feminists' perspective. she explained that abortion in the third world "kills the guerilla in the womb," essentially wiping out resistance. well, we're killing our guerillas in the belly and not enough of us are resisting.

be fat. be skinny. perpetuate all the hatred you want. but, i ask you this: when your daughter starts bending and breaking and hating herself in your image, will it make you proud? when the women of this world are weak and starving and malnourished and divided and conquered, will you boast of your role in our vanquish? that is a feminist issue.