http://www.naafa.org/

This is the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.

Do any of you have a membership? Would you ever join? What do you think about this organization?


There is a conference in Los Angeles this Summer, July 9-13, 2008. Would you ever see yourself attending something like this?

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it bothers me that it is acceptable to make fun of and discriminate against fat people. Everyone deserves respect and acceptance.

On the other hand, how much can we stand up and cheer for something that kills? Fat is unhealthy. I can't celebrate my fatness.

I was a member in the early 90's in graduate school. I haven't kept up on their policies and politics, though when I left I was troubled by some of their most extreme positions. I think if the political organization were seperated from the dating/romance segment of organization I would be more comfortable with them. Not that there's anything wrong with either, I just think joined there is more conflict of interest. Claiming that fat does not endanger health could be seen as a hidden agenda in an organization for people who prefer fat partners.

I'm with BattleAx on this. It's not acceptable that fat has become the only discrimination people have no problem with. Fat isn't a healthy lifestyle though, and acceptance means we're not going to do anything about it, right?

The only caveat I have is that fit and slightly overweight can be more healthy than not fit and at a perfect weight (whatever that is).

I feel a lot like most of you here. I am torn.

I don't like size discrimination of ANY kind.

I also don't like an unhealthy lifestyle being called healthy, but I see a trend for them to attempt to incorporate more healthy lifestyle choices into their conferences and so on, which I support.

I agree that one can be fit and larger than average, when overall lifestyle is healthy.

Treating anybody with anything less than respect is totally unacceptable. However, I don't believe in advocating lifestyle choices that are inherently unhealthy.

Many people here won't agree with me, but I think this movement is about giving up. Years of trying to lose unsucessfully has pushed people to give up and to demand that society accept them the way they are without any consequences. But there are consequences to morbid obesity and that is simply a fact which cannot be ignored.

A few minutes on their website shows that they actively encourage people to not try to lose weight. Loads of statistics showing that people only gain the weight back so why try?

I firmly believe that all obese people can lose enough weight to be healthier than they are now. I'd like to see that point of view supported by the organization rather than the time they spend trying to discount the connections between obesity and diabetes and heart disease.

I agree, 100%.

Here's where I disagree to a point. When I first was introduced to NAAFA's "dieting causes weight gain" philosophy it made so much sense to me that I stopped dieting -- and I stopped gaining weight. During those several years that I refused to diet, I didn't gain (or lose) an ounce. It was incredibly liberating. Now, if I had learned that lesson at a size 16 and not a size 28 maybe I would still be a size 16. Maybe if I had not been put on a diet at age 5, I would be normal weight, or only a little curvy now. I don't know and I don't dwell, but I wonder.

When people argue against NAAFA's position against dieting, they generally leave out what NAAFA generally says next. Stop dieting ..... and start eating more... more vegetables, more fruit, less junk and start moving more, exercising and playing... using that wonderful (even fat) body you have.

No one before NAAFA ever told me I had a RIGHT to swim in a public place, and expect not to be harrassed. Or that I didn't have to protect people from the sight of my horrifically fat body. If I wanted to swim, or bicycle, or walk, or run, or roller skate, or get on a horse --- I had a right, even an obligation to myself to enjoy these things. That is the part of NAAFA that I credit with making me realize that no matter how fat a person was, they were still a person first and no one had a right to exclude them from the human race.

In that sense, I think NAAFA does far more good than harm. Because there are thousands of voices telling us that we MUST be thin or risk not only our health but our humanity, because if you're fat you don't count, you don't matter. And the fatter you are, the less you matter.

The thing is if a fat person follows the NAAFA advice and stops "trying" to lose weight, and instead eats for health and starts exercising, swimming, and bicycling, and horseback riding and all of the other activities NAAFA declares we should be proud to engage in. Well, there's a good chance quite a bit of weight will be lost.

I think what was revolutionary to me when first exposed to NAAFA was the idea that dieting should never be taken on at the expense of health. That may not seem like a revolutionary concept to anyone today, but growing up losing weight was stressed, and the how wasn't really much of a concern even to doctors. I hope that today doctors wouldn't give a 12 or 13 year old amphetemines, but at the time neither my mother nor I gave it a second thought. If a doctor recommended it, it must be safe, right?

As for NAAFA, I think they have a lot wrong, but they also have a lot right. And the stuff they hav right, no one else seems to be saying.

When we built our website many years ago, we were hit with many email complaints from NAAFA members that accused us of doing a disservice to fat people. We were encouraged to accept and love our bodies as they were and not try to change them. It was pure craziness.

Btw, most of the email we received were from husbands and boyfriends of fat women, and not the women. This greatly influenced my opinion of NAAFA and perhaps some of their motives. I haven't bothered to review their website or material since.

There are a lot of valid criticisms of NAAFA, but in some ways I have to say "who else is stepping up." In the 90's when I was a member, NAAFA was encouraging and sponsoring dance and exercise classes and community swims, horseback riding, white water rafting, and other very health-positive activities in a size-positive environment. That size-positive environment isn't always available anywhere else.

If NAAFA sponsored a size-friendly yoga class in my area, I would attend. Not because I believe in everything they support, but because they would be offering a service I find valuable, and unavailable anywhere else.

As an organization, not all members have the same beliefs and attitudes. Just as NAACP cannot pretend to speak for all african americans (that being said, I don't think the NAACP sponsors dating events, particularly of the I'm not black, but I want to date black chicks variety, which again is why I'd like to see the dating aspect struck from their agenda).

Still, organizations do not really have opinions. Any opinion expressed "officially" is going to at best express the majority opinion, and at worst, only the opinion of the governing board. To change an organization's "official" position, you must change the membership. If every fat person were a member, you would bet that the opinions expressed by the organization would change.

I agree---- I would attend more workout classes if they were sponsored by the organization b/c I would be with other people like me, trying to get healthier without being harassed about their weight.

However, yeah, I don't think an organization should be set up to allow for "chubby chasers" to have open access to people who are struggling with their weight.

I've always been overweight. However, there's a difference between be being obese now, and a size 18 back in highschool when I was active and FIT and playing varsity basketball on the starting lineup.

It's okay to be HEAVY... it's good that we can accept our bodies when we might not be the ideal shown to us in magazines. However, it is NOT okay to be so large that it is dangerous to our health!!!