The biggest thing that we did together in June, of course, was start this blog! Neither of us really knew how much we were going to enjoy writing together, or just how much we’d look forward to your comments and feedback. Laurie: “Jose Ramon Lerma came to lunch and we spent a lovely afternoon. I [...]

Amanda at Pandagon writes about the Rolling Stone article on the “new chastity,” which got us to thinking about people who take pride in denying their bodies. In fact, the distinct impression I got from this article is that the virginity crowd contextualizes sex in much the same way that anorexics and other people with [...]

Rich Dutcher, co-author of the Familiar Men introduction, drops in to provide his personal male perspective on the discussion: Dan’l, I too remember Charles Atlas, as the skinny unathletic kid being promised the ability to trounce bullies [much more important to me at 10 than impressing girls!] I suspect about half those ads were for [...]

“Beauty isn’t this static little thing; it really is a continuum. It is your birthright to be on that continuum. And there’s room for all of us.” This superb quotation is from our very own Carol Squires, who can be seen dancing on p. 55 of Women En Large. Carol’s quote is in a very [...]

My last entry generated a couple of thought-provoking responses. Dan’l, I think you’re right. Invulnerability was too strong a word. The issues we talk about are very complicated and it can be easy to overgeneralize. I agree that fat is not only a feminist issue; neither is aging, nor ability. Men over a certain size [...]

Ampersand of Alas, A Blog dropped by to comment on the snappy comeback post we made on Thursday. What strikes me is the internalized self-hatred which we deflect onto people like us. One one level, this story is about “people like us,” i.e., fat people criticizing other fat people. However, since this was an interaction [...]

I haven’t heard a smart-ass answer this good since Fat Lip Readers Theatre stopped performing several years ago. Thanks to Lynn Kendall for the pointer. –Debbie

In the comments to our last post, Stef asks, “And can people (of any age) relearn what they think is beautiful — change it or add to it? If so how can we encourage people to learn to find more realistic, more diverse images of people beautiful?” And Guy Thomas answers: “I certainly think my [...]

Badgerbag, who also blogged our initial entry here, writes about what makes someone photogenic or not, and about “sincerity mixed with the art of lying.” This made Laurie think about Diane Arbus, a well-known photographer who specialized in photographs of freaks and also of “ordinary” people. The deliberate intention with which Arbus humiliated her subjects [...]

We begin this blog as we have done our work for the last fifteen years: at war with our culture. In the last five years, the fact that our culture is at war with us has become less subtle and more unmistakable. The most insidious war is conducted with no visible weapons except the full [...]