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When I worked at Lane Bryant (a plus size mall clothing store if you aren't familiar) in the late 1990s, we started carrying workout wear. It didn't sell well at first - a lot of customers shied away from it. We figured it was because gyms hate fat people. Plus gym class trauma.
But after a little while - and once it went on sale - people snapped it up. The largest sizes went first. And then we continued to get small shipments so we at least had a couple options in the store most of the time. LB sizing in the 90s stopped at a 28 though.
Even though it was kind of major to have activewear at LB, it still left out anyone outside the LB size range. Why is this a big deal? It's a big deal because going to the gym does often requires specialized clothing and if you don't have that clothing...you are shit out of luck.
"Going to the gym" is pretty low tech in terms of clothing - people can often make it work even if they don't have access. But lots of other activities aren't so flexible: you need ski gear to even try skiing, for example. Like, it's a genuine issue of safety.
Every article I've ever read about getting into hiking talks about the clothes you should wear when you hike - none of which come in my size. Don't wear jeans! Don't wear leggings! That's the two types of pants available to me, so if I didn't wear them, I just wouldn't go hiking.
Hell, I've seen fat people at yoga classes in a wide variety of clothes not actually suitable for yoga - even when the activewear exists, it's expensive as hell for a lot of folks, especially when you may just be trying something out for the first time.
And because fat people are often underpaid compared to their thin counterparts...I'm sure you can follow this thread.
There are a lot of high barriers to a great deal of movement and outdoorsy things for fat people that only get higher and harder to overcome as you get larger. But what cultural messaging says is that fat people are lazy and don't want to exercise.
The world punishes fat bodies and other bodies that don't conform in a lot of ways - and then cultural messaging blames those bodies.
The next time you are doing a thing you enjoy - take a second and consider whether someone fatter than you would even be able to try it, if the facility and equipment and needed gear is even available or if fat people are excluded at the very base assumption.
Think about this for all sorts of bodies that don't conform to the mainstream ideal.
Physical activity is great for a lot of people - I know many people in all kinds of bodies who enjoy a lot of different activities. But for anyone who doesn't fit into the mainstream ideal, just participating is itself a major undertaking - and there is a mental cost as well.
Because, yeah, you ARE likely to be the only fat person in a space and there's a host of things that come with that - it's like you've completed a major quest just to be able to do the thing and then you have to immediately do another one.
So what do we do? I mean, as fat people I think we keep doing our best - and I think we also keep thinking about and agitating for bodies of all kinds that are facing similar or often more intense barriers due to fat hate and ableism and the rest.
I want thin people to do this as well. I want thin people to look around and realize how many spaces there are designed in ways both subtle and obvious to exclude fat bodies and other nonconforming bodies. We'd probably join you there but, uh, yeah.
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Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen
ยท
Jan 25, 2022
excellent thread