Pear and blue cheese salad

Last night my dinner was this salad on its own. Except I didn't have any baby spinach to go with it. Tonight Adam wanted to bbq some steak so I when I went to the shops to acquire said steak I grabbed some spinach, pears and cheese and made it again. Because it is yummy.  (I had steak and corn on the cob and jacket baked potato with sour cream too.)

Pear and blue cheese salad

2 big handfuls of baby spinach
1 or 2 crisp pears cut into bite sized pieces
crumbled blue cheese (last night I used King Island Lighthouse Blue Brie, tonight it was King Island Roaring Forties)
a couple of handfuls of whatever nuts you have around - we had macadamias, almonds and cashews
drizzle with caramelised balsamic vinegar (or ordinary balsamic vinegar)

EAT!

On being fat and visible

This is something I've been meaning to do for a while, it's kind of my little bit of Fat Activism and the reasons for doing it have been written about by a bunch of other people much more eloquently than I'm up to doing at present (or ever probably).

The short version* is that I'm fat, I'm ok with that and I'm going to share pictures of myself because it helps to drive home the message that fat people are, well, people. People like me. People who are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity and not vilified, objectified and othered as we so often are by discourse in the public sphere and even sometimes by casual conversation amongst our friends.

And we also quite like having awesome clothes to wear, but DAMN are they hard to come by.

So, instead of always being the one behind the camera

I'm going to try and remember to hand it over to someone else more often

and then I can post more of this

sort

of thing

along with the occasional "look, I'm wearing something other than jeans and a t-shirt!" Outfit of the Day type posts.

Enough with the old photos, here's a couple of new ones. First up, just in case anyone missed the other places I've shared this:

New hat!

We went to Strand Hatters on the weekend because Adam wanted a new Akubra and of course, when one is standing around in a hat shop waiting for someone else to make a decision, one tries on hats. Once I'd put it on there was no way I was going home without it. It's the Akubra Jazz and I luffs it.

And secondly, today's outfit of the day.

Top and skirt - Autograph

Boots - can't remember where I bought them but they're Giovanna ones

Tights - We Love Colors

*The long version is a whole bunch of links to other people writing about fat acceptance, no reinventing the wheel for me today.

There are so many wonderful writers (and just all round fabulous people) out there in the fatosphere and I was lucky enough to meet a number of them a couple of weekends ago when I went along to the Art Exhibition and Spoken Word event ‘Bodies Abound’ that was held in conjunction with the Fat Studies conference at Macquarie University (which I didn't go to but really wish I had). There are plans afoot for another conference next year and there'll be no keeping me away from that!

For your reading pleasure:

Definatalie - "Ridiculous outfit, serious topic"

"I blog about my outfits (real and ridiculous) because I’m passionate about the visibility of fat bodies. I don’t care if people don’t like what I wear and I don’t care about trends – I blog because fat people are dehumanised and made invisible and if I’ve got a platform and an audience, I’m going to take advantage of it to normalise my body and bodies like mine."

The Rotund - "Low Fences; Why, Yes, FA IS Difficult"

"Y’all, I really do love Twitter. I love the immediacy of it, sure, but I also love the way the 140-character limit kind of forces you to be concise. You know I’m not really super at being concise but I try! And I managed, in my melatonin-assisted state last night (I take melatonin to help manage my low-grade insomnia), to say a couple of things that I think bear repeating.

Self-hatred cannot continue to be the status quo.

and

The response to “I hate my body” should never be “Have you considered weight loss?”

Split Milk - Talking about diet talk

"It’s offensive to talk to me about losing five kilos to be in a ‘healthy weight range’ when I would ‘need’ to lose forty. It’s offensive to talk about how gross your fat is, how ‘bad’ you are for eating, how desperately you want to keep from gaining too much weight in pregnancy, when you are standing right beside a fat person. You may not mean to disparage my body in pointing out the ‘flaws’ in your own, but you do. So don’t."

Spilt Milk - Acceptance is not "giving up"

"My body, today, is good enough to go to the gym or wear a new dress or dance or have sex or play on the floor with my kid or to run up the stairs at work, even if I jiggle and even if I sweat and get out of breath. (Thin people sweat and get out of breath, too, although it’s apparently only disgusting or humorous when fat people do.) My body, today, is worth taking care of and will still be next week or next year, whether I lose weight or not."

Fat Heffalump - Australian Fat Studies Conference: My Paper

"Collateral Damage in the War On Obesity
A perspective on how the “War on Obesity” affects someone who is obese, and whether any of those effects are of any use to the obese person."

The Discourse - Fat Stigma: We know it exists, but what do we do about it?

"It’s a no brainer that fat discrimination exists. There have now been a whole bunch of studies done, predominantly in the USA and Australia, about the prevalence of fat hate (sometimes called weight bias), people’s experiences of it, and how it impacts on their lives."

Fat Dialogue Blog - Control Top Underpants at 'Bodies Abound'

"I wrote the piece I've included below for 'Bodies Abound' about my fat body taking on a pair of control top underpants. I didn't write it as a humourous piece, but people laughed, and I got into the absurd poignancy the piece does pick out, and really enjoyed giving the reading.

Well....at least I hope the laughter was supportive!"

Tom on autonomy

Tom: Dad can we watch Underworld while we eat dinner?

Adam: Umm, I'm not sure...

Me: I already said no!

Adam: Well, that's a no then Tom.

Tom: Daaaad. You know, you shouldn't always let Mum control what you're doing.