Over the past few years I have been searching for the perfect boots that I feel match my personality and style. This has left me empty handed as the majority of the boots which I fall in love with do not fit my calves, or at the time I find them are not in my budget.

But I have a plan...

Anytime I find a pair of boots that I love, I'm emailing the parent company to tell them how amazing their boots are, and explaining the growing market and business opportunity for them to expand their sales. Case in point, I am absolutly obsessed with Blowfish Shoes, I have owned several of their flats and love their boots. Like the Humvee, which is sitting in a box to be returned on my dining room table. I am seriously considering trying to have them altered, but fear they will be ruined.

After trying them on and finding that they didn't fit I went on Blowfish's website and sent them a message, below was their reply,

Thank you for reaching out to us online we are happy to have you as a fan! Sorry that the boots have not been working for you but yours is not the first request I've had for wider calf widths. We appreciate your taking the time to let us know what you need from us and I have passed along your comment to our design team. When they keep hearing the same request they generally start trying to accommodate!

This made me think that we need a mass email campaign to get them to design their boots to fit everyone! It would make me very happy...please?

http://www.blowfishshoe.com/

Over the last few months I have watched as a new restaurant/bar was being built in one of the local malls near my home, all while hoping that I would be able to secure a job at the location. The business being built is Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill, and the problem that I found when I went in this morning to apply to work at this location was the uniform that was offered for their female employees was the slutty version of a hooters’ uniform.

The first reaction I had was about how uncomfortable I would feel to wear the daisy duke shorts and skimpy tank top that was offered, not even thinking that the cowboy boots that was the uniforms required footwear would be near to impossible to fit my calves. When asking if there was an option to wear jeans instead of the small shorts, the answer was what I feared, ‘Absolutely not.’

This brings a real issue to mind. Sure they have an atmosphere that they are trying to create but at what cost? To refuse to accommodate good employees due to their size or comfort level being challenged is wrong. Aside from the fact that I truly believe that businesses that create uniforms with this kind of look is for one purpose, to keep someone that wouldn’t look or fit into it out of it.

While I was there, after filling out the application and turning it in, I requested to see what the guys had to wear. I hoped that they would just have to wear a cowboy hat and jeans in hopes of keeping up with the objectification that they seem to have going, but of course the guys get to wear the normal uniform of jeans and a t-shirt.

This isn’t the first time I have found my size limiting me on where I can work and what jobs employers feel I am acceptable to perform. My last long term employer kept me as a floor server even though everyone else I opened the restaurant with moved up to be bartenders or left because they were insane. They consistently told me that they couldn’t afford to lose me on the floor but the truth was that I didn’t fit what they wanted the look behind the bar to be.

Another job, where their bartender uniforms were dirty school girl outfits, laid me off this summer along with anyone else who was slightly overweight citing they were overstaffed while training new people.

Working in an industry where looks means just as much as skill can leave you feeling as though you are missing something. But without people speaking up about how businesses use subtle ways to make sure people look the part by discriminating against those who don’t, I really don’t think much will change.

Now I normally wouldn't worry about little things like a mannequin, that I was searching for to use with my etsy store, but after much thought about how to shoot some of my crochet items I realized it was necessary. What I didn't think about was how small the mannequins are, proportionally this thing is tiny, my crochet vanity wraps seem to fall off the back.

In other news now that I actually have a light box (tutorial to make one here) and a mannequin to use, I'm hoping my store will stop its major failing and someone will actually buy something.

(This is a few days late as I am in my finals bubble.)

Lincoln University near Philadelphia has dropped its requirement for students with a BMI of over 30 to complete a ‘Fitness for Life’ class in order to graduate. Although I am personally happy that this has been dropped I still do not like how they still plan on singling out certain students, who they feel should complete the course, after a wellness class that is offered freshman year.

This is still something that I believe they should offer to everyone, not just those few students who look as though they might have health problems. It’s still discriminatory even if they do not force them to take the class.

Seriously, how hard is it to offer the course to all students? Instead of picking and choosing who ‘needs’ it.

Full Story

HI! Twitter has a new feature in beta where you can create lists of different people who use twitter and are interested in certain topics. I would like to create a huge list of FA advocates and people who are interested in body image. Please follow me, my twitter account it on the right, and I will add you to the list!

The direct link for the list as it now stands is, http://www.twitter.com/@FatWaitressInc/fatacceptance-bodyimage

You can also subscribe to the list and view the posts as they happen!

After looking extensively for some fat acceptance quotes that I can feature on the top of my blog, I have come up empty handed. If you happen to have any quotes that are body image, FA or even feminism related please let me know!

Over the past week a photo of a fat man on a plane was released on the internet by someone who is a flight attendant employed by American Airlines. The overwhelming concern that this photo has brought along with it are the safety issues that someone of size might cause a plane, but why is it up to one person to make sure they are safe to fly and not on airlines to make sure they offer all of their customers the same service?

There are many people to believe that this has been photoshopped, as it appears that the man is sitting on the armrest although it actually looks as though the armrest is going to his body. I don’t think this is as disturbing as the way this man is being dehumanized by a systematic campaign of headless faceless photos of fat people where they are ripped of their human characteristics.

Fat or thin we are all people with families, lives, personalities and feelings. We all deserve to be treated as such, instead of an object to be used however society deems fit.

Also, why are we not talking about the unprofessionalism that this American Airline flight attendant has shown? By not only taking the photo in the first place, but by making it public to be ridiculed and a subject of harassment? Instead an investigation is being done of the so-called safety issues that could have been caused.

Something seems a little out of whack.
If you feel that you would like to contact American Airlines and speak out about the unacceptable behavior of their flight attendant you can do so with this contact information,
American Airlines Customer Relations
P.O. Box 619612 MD 2400
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9612

Or fill out their email complaint form,

Email Form

I have already sent mine and I’ll post it if I get a reply.

I cannot wait until this week is over so that I can get back to crafting. I feel as though I am ready to crawl up the walls with all of the ideas I have but with school wrapping up this week I haven't had the time to make anything. On Saturday I built a light box to take photos of my products for my etsy store, since I have been having trouble taking photos that I truly enjoy.

I have been quite sad by the failing of my etsy store the past year, I haven't had any sales which makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong. Hopefully I can get some more designs out and that might help me out.

I might even have some FA related products up soon.

A new documentary that is in the works needs help! Donate to help this film finish production and get released to the world! Currently, they have already reached their goal but that does not mean you shouldn't donate more.

"FAT GIRLS FLOAT is an independent documentary in which a 300lb. filmmaker Kira Nerusskaya (me!) takes the audience on a journey through international fat subculture, giving fat women from four counties an opportunity to have their say. Despite many glares, glances, and gloating from media, family members, medical communities and the public-at-large; fat women from four countries (England, France, Russia, and the United States) tell their tales of sorrow and success, wow and woe; discussing size discrimination, political activism (fat and size acceptance), and social networking communities."

Donate here!

Fat Girls Float Blog

This past week Lincoln University in Pennsylvania has been in the news for its passing of a required fitness course for all students who have a bmi of 30 or above.

There have been many different takes on this issue; the one at the front is the motivation behind why an almost all black university would begin to weight its students has led many to believe that it has been pressured to do this with all of the stereotypes surrounding the African American community and their health.

I think its more than that, first and foremost why is this not a required course for all students? Personally, I think that most people in that age group are not educated on their health and how to be healthy. A class that focuses on educating all of their students on how to live a healthy lifestyle is important but only limiting this to a certain group is just plain and simple prejudice. Second, it should be established that weight itself is not an indicator of good health by any means. Lifestyle should be looked at not weight.

For a university to make a rule that discriminates against a certain portion of their population based on this idea is completely wrong and without facts.

I would also ask who is teaching the classes, and what their own educational background is. This seems far too much like the required gym classes that I had to suffer through in grade school. There a 12-minute mile meant you were completely healthy.