Fat is Beautiful
Crystal Hartman
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/artist/crystal_hartman
crystal_hartman@hotmail.com
Fat is Beautiful is one of those zines that made me punch my fist into air and say, “Yes!” I try not to let myself riled up about these things, but if I hear ‘it’s all calories in, calories out’ one more time… If was all just calories, then conditions like PCOS couldn’t possibly have ‘makes it harder to lose weight’ as a symptom.
Anyway, not the place for a soapbox, Nyx…
Fat is Beautiful is not a blind foray into ‘love and love alike’ (though they have their space, too). Crystal comes in firm, strong, and – even better, supported by facts and statistics.
Mmm. Statistics.
This zine is full of pieces that address the oft-touted health arguments against weight, facts about weight, calories, etc, and even the politics of facts.
It was fascinating to me to have my own preconceptions challenged not by lecturing but by showing alternate causes to the effects that we are all but beaten over the head with. For example, fat people (yep, I am doing as encouraged and using the ‘f’ word) have more health problems. However, no one mentions how much is blindly blamed on weight rather than being investigated/prevented/treated.
A recent study found that far women are a third less likely to get breast exams, gynecologic exams, or Pap smears.
Something to think about. (Again, I recall my own experiences of non-treatment – even by a female doctor.)
As much as this zine could have come off as a complete rant and nothing else, it’s actually educational and well-based in multiple resources that are listed in the back. (And, if you’ve been reading here for a while, you know how much I love it when a zine encourages me to further investigations outside the zine itself.)
The Fat Liberation Manifesto is beautiful.
My one nitpick with this zine is that some of the text has been cut off the edges of the pages to the extent that it did cause some pauses in reading to sort out exactly
Even so, this is a great zine to remind yourself that you’re not alone and/or educate yourself about not listening to everything the mainstream media tells you about weight…