Let’s End “Fat Talk”

My issues concerning my body size and all its various flaws? They have haunted me for years and have been the cause of sooooo much wasted energy. I look back on the photos of me in my mid-twenties when I thought then that I was “fat” (a size 4-6). What was I thinking? Why-o-why did I spend a single second torturing myself with those thoughts. And torture I did.

Now, that my beautiful daughter is thirteen, I’m hoping that she, somehow, miraculously, bypasses these issues. I tell her my “wasted energy” story all the time; I tell her that she should never think that she should “look like that”, i.e. the omnipresent rail thin photoshopped nymphs; I tell her about healthy eating habits… Will she hear any of it? She is coming home with stories of schoolmates taking on anorexic behaviors. Do their parents know?

We all know what the problem is, when we are continually fed the image of the perfect woman with Barbie-like proportions, hair and complexion, it’s hard to feel like we are beautiful with our own bodies. Whether you are thirteen or thirty or fifty.

So, for all the women in your life, please take a look at this campaign to “End the Fat Talk”. What is Fat Talk? It’s all the statements made in everyday conversation that reinforce the thin ideal and contribute to women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies.

We’re changing the conversation to create a more positive body image for women everywhere! We believe that by eliminating Fat Talk, we can begin to change the way women think about their bodies.

Here is a video from the 2008 “End Fat Talk” Campaign which I find very powerful:

The official “Fat Talk Free Week” is not till October, but it’s NOT too early to start. Especially as bathing suit season approaches and we now become obsessed with our body image. Just last evening on a girls’ night out, with this story fresh on my mind, I had to correct myself and my friend about a half dozen times as we were ourselves indulging in this harmful Fat Talk. And we ain’t 13 no more. Just to show how this poisonous behavior endures…

PLEASE sign the promise to eliminate Fat Talk from conversations and pass it on to all the beautiful women in your life, whatever their size!

And P.S., here are some extra stats to help us ring the alarm.