mollybennett

I'm a , fat femme with ties to the fat-activist community and a small, boudoir photography business aimed at plus-size clients. I struggle with balancing my fat-activism with my own health at every size journey. I am tired of the "good for you" responses from the skinny people who diet as a hobby, and yet I still find myself wanting to hear "good for you" from people who share the same social justice values that I have around anti-shame, body-image activism.

I believe confidence is beautiful. Confidence doesn't come with a number on a scale; it comes with feeling empowered on your journey. It comes with support from your community. It comes with the affirmation that you have the RIGHT to choose what feels good for you and your body.

Navigating the "get healthy" landscape is difficult for those of us who do not hold weight-loss itself as a final destination or adequate measure of success. At the same time, some of the really helpful tools that fit into our jammed lifestyles DO focus on weight loss as a measurement. It's a flawed system, for sure, and I'm braving it anyway because I need something to keep me motivated to make good choices for my body. I need some accountability because this shit is HARD, especially when dealing with the uphill battle of misconceptions about my motivations. I need to be able to turn to my fellow HAES activists when the well-intentioned-but-clueless gym rats try to "support" me by saying, "you can do it!" when I'm on the elliptical. I need my HAES community so that we can figure out how to come up with non-weight-related milestones and markers and strategies to measure our success. I need your help, y'all!

I would really like to connect with more people who believe in a "health at every size" (HAES) philosophy. I know there's more than just me out here wanting this kind of support. The system we have might not be perfect, so let's make the system work for US!

More info on HAES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size