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[Sep. 14th, 2006|03:21 pm] |
I booked the plane tickets for the east coast trip last night! And made a car rental reservation as well. Jet Blue was having this brief 2-for-1 sale so, with the credit I already had, I got 2 round-trip tickets to NY for $158! Hot.
So I'll be gone from October 21st - December 9th. 7 weeks. We'll fly into New York and rent the car, probably get our bearings for a day or so and then take off for Toronto, Ontario and then ideally follow the better weather down the 2-state strip of the east coast. 18 states, plus toronto, ont in 7 weeks. It will be grueling, exhausting and amazing. It felt weird to actually buy the tickets. I think some part of me was feeling like this was some big farce until I actually slapped the visa down and set the wheel in motion. It's really happening. *gulp*
My friend also confirmed that she's going to go with me on the midwest portion of the trip. 2 months in a car. Eegads. Tentative dates are from Mid-March to Mid-May.
I'm not even thinking about the international stuff yet. I just can't. Too scary.
But - it's really happening! It really, truly is! |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 11th, 2006|04:11 pm] |
x-posted in part from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fatfeistyfemme
I am *totally* freaking out about the trip today. I realized that, realistically, if I'm going to make this east coast trek worth its salt, I'm going to need to hit 2 countries and 18 states in 6 weeks... Toronto, CA and the two state row down the east coast. That's going to be a whirlwind and I'll probably have to cut out a few states, or interview less people in each in order to make it happen. I really need to get on the ball in the next two weeks and nail down an itinerary. Thankfully, those 18 states are all crammed together on the east coast and from the northern-most tip of maine to the southern-most tip of florida, mapquest estimates it's a 25 hour drive. So it's feasible. 2 days in each state. Less if there's only a few so I can spend more time in the states where folks are concentrated.
I might have to ask folks to come to me at a central point, and might need to do some group discussions vs. individual interviews to make the most of my time. Hopefully folks will be down with that. Honestly, that would be really cool - to provide an opportunity for folks who might not already know each other to meet in this context. Maybe some friendships/community will spring from it. That would be really freakin' great.
I think I might have found someone to go with me on the midwest portion of the trip. A very good friend of mine. We've already been on a couple of road-trips together - both of which were grueling for different reasons - one emotional, one still emotional, but more tumultuous in terms of weather-impacted travel, getting rained in, power outages, high winds knocking down 3 story signs, ick ick ick. And we made it through just fine with minimum grumpiness. I'm hoping it will work out. She's doing some serious thinking about it to make sure she's not insane for agreeing to it. (good question - am I insane for doing it myself? heh.) |
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[Aug. 14th, 2006|05:25 pm] |
Hmm.
What I find interesting in this article is that no one talked about esteem.
The thing is, people are still talking about the fat like it's the be-all/end-all of this movement. But it's not. Not even close.
( more under the cut ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 9th, 2006|10:29 am] |
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/woman/story/0,,1813081,00.html
Is weight the new race?
Do we demonise the obese purely on health grounds or is it a gut reaction based on prejudice?
Rachel Cooke
Sunday July 9, 2006
The Observer
A woman walks to her local corner shop. She walks slowly, like a duck or a dodo, her legs apart. Her eyes are lowered, as if paying avid attention to the pavement beneath, and when she passes another human being, she is careful not to raise them. In a pale green shirt the size of a small curtain, and a long black skirt that is almost coffin-like in its rectangular bulkiness, she is not only clammy and uncomfortable; she is in fear of ridicule. Every time a white van passes, England flags flapping in the summer breeze, her heart hammers in her chest. She is, you see, a size 30. White-van man tends not to favour girls who are a size 30. If she is lucky, he will merely shout: 'Oi!' and laugh should she bother to turn her head. If she is unlucky, he will have a mate with him, and together they will make farmyard noises: an 'oink!' or, far worse, a 'moo!' Poor thing. She cannot wait to get home. If she could run, she would. But she is clean out of bread and milk. What else is she supposed to do?
( more of this slightly traumatizing but still interesting article. ) |
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[Aug. 8th, 2006|05:13 pm] |
Hi!
So if you want to be interviewed for the FGS Book project, even if you've emailed me privately, left a comment, called me, etc...
So if you want to be interviewed, please please please fill it out. :) I have to funnel everyone through a quick demographic survey and my research assistant (look at me sounding all scholarly - if you only knew!) is going through all of the information to help compile a diverse list of candidates. So everyone kind of has to go through the same process, no matter how well I know you, if I'm sleeping on your couch, if I've made out with you or hope to in the future, or whatevahhh...
So - fill it out, y'all, and I'll send the survey your way so we can get started. WEEE!!!! |
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[Aug. 8th, 2006|02:56 pm] |
http://nypress.com/19/12/news&columns/nystory1.cfm
Heather Boyle & BigCuties.Com
FAT IS BEAUTIFUL—AND SO AM I!
Heather Boyle speaks up for big—real big—gals.
By Josh Max
The voice was high, sweet and girlish, the conversation animated and playful.
I had met Heather Boyle over the phone in 1995 after we’d chatted a few times via that new-fangled invention, the Internet. We agreed to get together soon after. She came to meet me on the Upper East Side where, freshly disengaged and between apartments, I was staying with some friends. When I opened the door, there stood a 5-foot-1-inch, black-haired beauty with skin like milk and a body as wide as the doorframe. Around 300 pounds at the time, she was like an extra-large soft cloud, a buttery oasis against the harshness of the world. A long-term relationship wasn’t to be, but we stayed in touch through the years even as she went off to California and England, and I went off to Bali.
She’s 32 years old now, 422 pounds, happily married and runs BigCuties.com from the house she recently bought with her husband John in Massachusetts. Sixteen women of assorted sizes, from plump to hypersize, including Heather, model for the site. Last year, she says, BigCuties.com grossed $200,000. Boyle has also become something of an advocate of fat acceptance—make that fat embracing. On March 28 she’s speaking at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU in an evening titled “Fat Porn: Tipping The Scale,” which promises “a frank discussion about fat porn and fat admirers.”
“It’s sexually exciting to me to be fat,” she says over the phone. “If I had a choice to be thin, I’d turn it down. I’m 422 pounds, and there’s nothing wrong with me. There are fat women I know who accept their bodies, but if they had a choice, they’d be thin. I’m not like that. I’m extremely rare.”
She started BigCuties.com five years ago with three models. “They have to be really cute. We’re not hard-core. We have women wearing too-tight jeans or eating cupcakes because it sexually stimulates the viewer, but it’s not explicit. It’s a place for men who see fat in a sensual way.”
Born and raised in Yonkers by her mother, Heather began to gain weight at around age 7. Her mother protested and took steps to get her to reduce. “She put me on every diet in the world,” Heather says. “I’d lose five and gain back 10; lose 10 and gain back 20. She actually said, ‘Heather, if you don’t lose weight, no one will ever love you.’ One day we had it out. I said, ‘You’ll either have a fat daughter, or you’ll have no daughter.’ That pretty much settled it.”
Heather believes society tries to guilt men out of liking big women.
“Fat admirers are mostly strong, intelligent men who say, ‘I can’t change it, and I’m going to enjoy it,’” she says. “The preference itself is a natural predilection. Why is black the coolest color car? Why are there fads, or different styles of clothing? Someone’s out there designating it. Butts are getting surgically enhanced now. Next week, it’ll be something different. If someone had a preference for small breasts or a certain race, most intelligent people would say, ‘Cool.’ But if a man says, ‘I like fatties,’ he’s a weirdo. I’m trying to educate people and let them know that fat isn’t as icky or strange as they might think.”
Regarding the health risks of extra weight, Heather responds, “It all comes down to the almighty dollar. Society has raised us to believe if you’re fat, you’re lazy and unhealthy. I’m healthier than my husband, who exercises. My weight doesn’t make me any less smart, and it doesn’t make me any less attractive.”
She has strong words for both the diet industry and the growing popularity of gastric bypass surgery.
“I’ll tell you something. I’ve been running Heavenly Bodies, a dance for big women and their admirers, for eight years. In those eight years I’ve seen 20 deaths from complications from weight loss surgery—20 people who I knew. In 20 years, we’re going to look back and say, ‘My God, what the hell were we thinking!’ It’s not like they’re getting heart replacements. They’re bypassing a natural function, digestion. So what’s the answer? I don’t know: Maybe accepting yourself, whatever your weight. I see young girls in public with their belly rolls hanging out, so progress is being made. You couldn’t do that when I was a kid.”
She’s also trying to deflate the freak factor in fat admiration.
“One of the reasons I was excited to be asked to speak is because it’s at a university and not a tabloid talk show. I’ve been on at least a dozen talk shows and documentaries in different countries. It always turns into some kind of circus,” Heather says. “Time magazine asked me ‘Why teach about porn in the classroom where parents are spending tens of thousands of dollars to educate their kids?’ What I do shouldn’t be called porn. The only reason people call it porn is because the models are fat. If you showed thin women eating cupcakes in their underwear, no one would bat an eye. Better people learn about things that are different from what they know in an environment where things can be discussed.”
And the ultimate goal? “When it’s OK for me to be on the cover of Cosmo in a bikini, then we’re cool.” |
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[Aug. 4th, 2006|02:45 pm] |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3429903.stm
Mauritania's 'wife-fattening' farm
By Pascale Harter
BBC, Mauritania
Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".
A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children - Mauritania is one of the few African countries where, on average, girls receive more food than boys.
Now only around one in 10 girls are treated this way. The treatment has its roots in fat being seen as a sign of wealth - if a girl was thin she was considered poor, and would not be respected.
But in rural Mauritania you still see the rotund women that the country is famous for. They walk slowly, dainty hands on the end of dimpled arms, pinching multicoloured swathes of fabric together to keep the biting sand from their faces.
"I make them eat lots of dates, lots and lots of couscous and other fattening food," Fatematou, a voluminous woman in her sixties who runs a kind of "fat farm" in the northern desert town of Atar, told BBC World Service's The World Today programme.
Although she had no clients when I met her, she said she was soon expecting to take charge of some seven-year-olds.
"I make them eat and eat and eat. And then drink lots and lots of water," she explained.
"I make them do this all morning. Then they have a rest. In the afternoon we start again. We do this three times a day - the morning, the afternoon and the evening."
Punishment
She said the girls could end up weighing between 60 to 100 kilograms, "with lots of layers of fat."
Fatematou said that it was rare for a girl to refuse to eat, and that if they did, she was helped by the child's parents.
"They punish the girls and in the end the girls eat," she said.
"If a girl refuses we start nicely, saying 'come on, come on' sweetly, until she agrees to eat."
Fatematou admitted that sometimes the girls cried at the treatment.
"Of course they cry - they scream," she said.
"We grab them and we force them to eat. If they cry a lot we leave them sometimes for a day or two and then we come back to start again.
"They get used to it in the end."
She argued that in the end the girls were grateful.
"When they are small they don't understand, but when they grow up they are fat and beautiful," she said.
"They are proud and show off their good size to make men dribble. Don't you think that's good?"
Change
However, the view that a fat girl is more desirable is now becoming seen as old-fashioned.
A study by the Mauritanian ministry of health has found that force-feeding is dying out. Now only 11% of young girls are force fed.
"That's not how people think now," Leila - a woman in the ancient desert town of Chinguetti, who herself was fattened as a child - told The World Today.
"Traditionally a fat wife was a symbol of wealth. Now we've got another vision, another criteria for beauty.
"Young people in Mauritania today, we're not interested in being fat as a symbol of beauty. Today to be beautiful is to be natural, just to eat normally."
Some men are also much less keen on having a fat wife - a reflection of changes in Mauritanian society.
"We're fed up of fat women here," said 19-year-old shop owner Yusuf.
"Always fat women! Now we want thin women.
"In Mauritania if a woman really wants to get married I think she should stay thin. If she gets fat it's not good.
"Some girls have asked me whether they should get fat or stay thin. I tell them if you want to find a man, a European or a Mauritanian, stay thin, it's better for you. But some blokes still like them fat."
And while there still men who like their women big, Fatematou is on hand to fatten them up with her years of experience.
I asked her if she ever felt cruel, beating and force feeding children?
"No! It's not cruel to make girls fat!" she said.
"Me, I've seen 10-year old girls give birth. I tell you, 10 years old!
"Once they are fat and beautiful they can serve their men well, once they are fat they can be married." |
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[Aug. 2nd, 2006|11:35 am] |
So I got my MacBook Pro yesterday. *drool*
I have named her "The Precious."
I am deeply and unequivocally Smitten.
I got my cute little lavalier (sp?) microphones, and the M-Audio recorder, as well. All I need is a couple of additional flash cards, and probably a better technology backpack to keep all my equipment safe, and all of my large purchases for this project will be completed. Thank. Gawd.
Something fairly amazing happened last night. I met with my friend V, who is a videographer -- and a good one at that -- because, on a whim, I called her last week and said "Umm, you should go to the east coast with me and film this thing." and she said "Uhh, that'd be great. But no." - And then she called me back and said "Y'know, actually, that would be kind of cool. Lets talk." and then last night she said "This scares the crap out of me. I love it. Lets go."
So! The documentary aspect of this thing is not only going to happen, but it's going to be done WELL. It might not cover the whole journey - but it will at least capture the east coast portion, 6 weeks. And she might be able to meet me on the midwest portions, and possibly come along on an international leg or two if I can get some grant money.
My QRA is researching grants for writers. I'ma email her now to ask her to research grants for the filmmaking aspect as well. It would be nice to have some help with the funding.
Forward Ho! ;) |
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[Jul. 29th, 2006|07:37 pm] |
Had breakfast with my Qualitative Research Assistant (hereafter referred to as my QRA) this morning and got the ball rolling in earnest. She's organized. She had a...*gasp*...BINDER. With PAPER in it. Also, a MAP. (VISUAL AIDES, PEOPLE!) We get along probably a little too well, which is good and bad. Good because, who doesn't want to get along with someone they're working with? Bad because a quick business breakfast went from 10am to 1:30pm 'cuz we didn't stop yapping. It's good though, the brainstorming is really clarifying things for me.
So, she's inputting everyone who has responded so far into surveymonkey.com so we can send out the general demographic survey in the next few days, which will help gather the necessary information to help ensure that, of the folks in this particular round of calls, we choose the most diversity we can. From there, we plan my itinerary. And in the meantime, writing the actual interview questions. Eek. That part is scary. If I write the wrong questions, then I don't get the stories I need to hear to make the book effective. But I bet you that it will be just fine -- I'll start doing some pilot interviews around portland, test my interview manner, see if I can learn how to make people comfortable/relaxed, and really get the ball rolling in earnest.
What is rapidly becoming clear to me is that the video portion of this project ain't gonna happen if I have to do it myself. So I'm trying to figure out if I know anyone I can take with me that A) I can stand to be with as much as will be necessary over the course of these trips b) knows or at least can learn quickly how to operate a video camera c) has the time off and salary needs I can afford.
It's interesting to think about this - I mean, I really want company on some level. I think it would be really good for me to do this alone. But at the same time, it's a HUGE project, and there are so many pieces to wrangle, and having an assistant would be really REALLY helpful. Especially on the midwest portion where I'll have to rent cars and drive backroads and try not to kill anyone or vice-versa. I get lost in Portland and I've lived here for 14 years! I'm directionally disabled. I've come to accept this.
So - anyone got a few months off?
I'm trying to talk my QRA into going. We decided we'd need and RV, and her nickname would be Schatzie, and I'd be Big Mama, and she'd be in a cowgirl skirt and 6-shooters, and I'd be all joan-crawforded out in maribou and sunglasses that go from mid-forehead to mid-cheek. Mmmhmm. That's how I see it, don't you? |
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[Jul. 20th, 2006|11:49 pm] |
The first large purchases for the trip hav been made. My new MacBook Pro (15" - I was gonna go for the 17 - but, hey - less to carry is less to carry. Plus they didn't have the case in orange. I'm shallow like that.)
My pretty will be here within 10 days. Wee!
And next we have my M-Audio Microtrack Recorder:
which records to compact flash and uploads easily to the computer. What I imagine I'll do is upload the audio each night, burn 2 copies to CD and mail them separately back to Portland so, if one gets lost or damaged, the other is sure to arrive. It will get too expensive to store the interviews on the flash cards, I believe. But maybe someone else will have better ideas about how to safely store that data in duplicate so I have backups.
Next, finding good, compatible microphones.
In other news, I am considering pushing the start date back a month. I procrastinated a lot out of fear, and now I have too much to do in 6 weeks to be able to accomplish it well and sanely. Plus, it's sweltering on the east coast in September, and I might do well to wait a month so that I can have some level of comfort in terms of weather. I think I might just go to NOLOSE and come home and then head out in mid-October...Something to think about.
I've hired one Qualitative Research Assistant -- she has a journalism background, which is great. I hired another today who seems slightly more academic, but it turns out her schedule doesn't seem all that compatible -- So, I might have to continue the interviews. But, the ball is in motion.
I've got over 200 respondents already. Now comes the process where I start collecting more detailed information from those who've already responded, narrow those down to make sure I'm not overwhelmed but I'm also making a real attempt at diversity from this sampling, and then determining where I'm lacking and doing some targeted outreach to find more folks to talk to. Then, writing the interview questions, and doing pilot interviews in Portland.
Eeee! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 23rd, 2006|08:54 am] |
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FatGirl Speaks [ click to view: Full Page | Close-Up ] Stacy Bias, the founding designer of DykeTees.Com, the Web guru behind TechnoDyke.Com, the tireless tester of Pussy Pucker Pots lip balms and the voice of FatGirl Speaks, the nation's largest fat activist event, has been a queer activist for six years and a fat activist for three. "I became an activist in the areas I need the most help and support in," Bias says. "If I need it, probably others do, too. We are taught from the earliest age to be dissatisfied with our bodies. Baby fat, right? And this is enforced and reinforced every single day by the media, by pharmaceutical companies who sponsor medical studies, whose skewed results are then sensationalized by the media, which in turn gives the diet industry ... the perfect platform from which to torment the public into self-loathing. The 'war on obesity' is very lucrative. Self-loathing is very lucrative." As Cupcake, her monthly dance party for fat women and their allies in Portland, Ore., sashays past its four month anniversary, Bias is already working on her next project. She is planning a book, tentatively titled FatGirl Speaks, which tackles the issues of body image. "The goal of the book is ... to look at the ways that people perceive themselves. To speak the truths we feel are so shameful -- the dirty secrets that we think are unique to us, but which truly are the most common experiences for all of us. Because the only platform for positive change emotionally is security in the knowledge that we deserve it." If you are interested in being interviewed for Bias' book, drop her a note at stacy (at) fatpdx (dot) com.
(unfortunately they didn't credit Kina Williams for the photography - so I'ma do it here.) |
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[Jun. 19th, 2006|04:31 pm] |
Oh, and -
So far, I have contacts all over the USA, and also in:
Niger, Africa (peace corps lj friend with an invite to host me if I visit there)
Israel (might travel there with friends in December)
Italy (a friend will be there for 3 months in the fall and has invited me to join her at some point.
Berlin (another friend is flying there in the fall and has invited me to tag along.)
Korea (friends teaching english and have invited to host me)
UK - several
Australia
Ireland
and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few places.
I'm really hoping to take advantage of as many of the "travel-withs" as possible to help ease my fear while I learn how to travel alone internationally. This is the part that scares me the most. Traveling alone internationally as a Fat American. I know that my travel inside the United States will bolster me to some degree - but it's still a very scary unkown at this point, and can easily overwhelm me if I allow myself to delve too deeply in it.
royalrose has kindly offered to help me research newspapers and small independent publications on the east coast, especially those focusing on diversity. I'll be adding her to the acknowlegments page as soon as I can remember how to spell her last name. ;) I'm hoping to either place small (inexpensive) classified ads and/or send press releases and hope for small mentions to help garner interest in interviews outside of reliance upon the Internet and the class-based issues that presents.
I still need help finding professional quality voice-recording equipment. Ideally I'd like 1 analog and 1 digital recording device so that I have dual-records of each interview in case one device fails or one of the tapes/data gets damaged/lost somehow. If anyone is willing to take on researching this, please Contact Me.
I'm going to work on a To-Do list for myself tonight, and ideally do the "tackle one thing per day" method of working my way through it without giving myself an ulcer.
Why am I doing this again? ;) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 19th, 2006|04:14 pm] |
Hi -
Just added an Acknowlegments page on the new site. If you're not on there and you should be, PLEASE don't take offense. I'm in a severe state of overwhelm. Please just gently nudge me and I'll add you there with love and humility. ;) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 15th, 2006|10:26 am] |
Ok - so if you have a friend, co-worker, family member, church pastor, grocery clerk, hair stylist, librarian, butcher, accupuncturist, massage therapist, florist, baker, sex-toy salesman or tupperware lady that you feel might be interested in being interviewed for the book - please have them contact me. I got a new 1-800 number specifically for this purpose yesterday. :)
So you can have them:
Call me: 1(800)860-8037
Email me: thebook (at) stacybias (dawt) net
Fill out the contact form: http://www.stacybias.net |
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[Jun. 14th, 2006|09:34 am] |
"LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): According to conventional measures of success, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is a successful man. His movie *The Sixth Sense* is one of the top 25 money-makers in history, and three of his other films have grossed more than $200 million apiece worldwide. And yet he places a supreme value on reverie. "My life is about finding time to dream," he has said. I urge you to make that your motto, Leo. The progress of your most practical ambitions later in 2006 will depend on whether or not you spend the next few weeks tapping into information that's available through fantasies, meditations, dreams, and other altered states.
Perfect much? Personally, I'm going for the "other altered states." ;)
Didn't x-post this yesterday, but I launched a new site - kind of an online business card - so folks who might hear about the project and be curious about who this fat girl is that wants to talk to them about something so personal have a place to go to find out I'm really not all that scary. Right? ;) http://www.stacybias.net
So, in other news, if you want to be interviewed for the new project and you've not yet sent me an email (lj-comments don't count.) ;) - please please please pretty please fill out this contact form on the new site.
I'm trying to compile all interview candidates into one inbox in folders separated by state and country so that I can start this out in an organized fashion. ;)
x-posting to http://technodyke.livejournal.com for a tad bit longer until folks have this lj friended. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|08:36 am] |
There are a couple of things I didn't say yesterday when I launched the no-longer "Secret Project."
So - a few updates:
THANK YOU for all of your comments/support/suggestions. I'll take time this week to go back through and respond to you all individually, so please don't think I'm ignoring you. :) Just saving my response until I can give you the response you deserve.
Do you want to be interviewed? Then I want to interview you. I'm looking to make this as diverse as possible, so please don't rule yourself out if you feel you have something to say. I'm not just looking for amazing stories. It's OK if you don't really know what you would say - if nothing specific comes to mind. And I am not looking to define what a fat woman is. These terms are all self-defined to me. If you feel like you're having the 'fat experience', then I want to talk to you. I don't care what size your pants are. And no, I'm not looking to define what a woman is either. This book will be as inclusive as is possible with the resources and knowledge I have at my disposal.
I'm also not looking ONLY for women who feel empowered around their bodies. The voices of the folks who are the most afraid to speak are the ones that need to be heard the loudest. You can contact me privately. I'm going to be setting up a 1-800 number, and you can email me privately at stacy at fatpdx dawt org. The interviews will be recorded (audio) but your name and identifying details will never be in the book or made public. If, for some reason, I decide to publish the book in a non-fiction format rather than fictionalized monologues, I will contact you and ask permission to use your story unchanged, as well as your name. That will NEVER happen without your permission. You can trust in that.
While I hope to do a large percentage of these interviews in person, I know this isn't entirely realistic. If you feel, specifically, like you will be able to be more comfortable and open in a phone situation vs. an in-person interview, PLEASE let me know. Email would be my last choice, but if you feel you are better in writing, I would be happy to send you an interview questionnaire or, my preference, set up a time to chat with you online.
Also: Please, please, please spread the word about this. Talk to your friends, post a link in your journal, on your website, in your community center, in your activist groups. I will be making flyers and a webpage that will explain what's going on, and if you want to pass flyers out in your town, please let me know. If you have a local newspaper that is free to the public and easily accessible for folks from all class backgrounds, and you would be willing to facilitate placing a classified ad requesting interviewees, that would be incredibly helpful.
Also: Since folks have asked, if you want to donate financially to this endeavor, you can either send a paypal payment to info@pussypuckerpots.com (with a memo that says it's for the book.) or you can mail a check to
Stacy Bias
PO BOX 13782
Portland, OR 97213-0782
and please, please, please include your real name *and* your lj name, your return address and a memo that explains what it's for so I can thank you :)
Also: Any journalist types out there -- I need to get some equipment for audio recording and I need advice on the best setup. I'm thinking a standard recorder and a digital recorder, both running at once so I have backups of each interview - and I'll need good microphones. I don't want to have to spend ridiculous sums of money, but if I can't hear the recording post-interview, I may as well not have done it at all, so this is the most important piece of this project equipment-wise. Suggestions?
So, in summary:
1) Fat Woman = self-defined.
2) Please help me spread this news.
3) Please help me find equipment.
and please, by all means, tell me what you would like to see out of a book like this. What kind of stories do you want to hear? What kind of a feeling do you want to walk away with? What kind of stories do you want your friends, family, co-workers, etc - to hear? Talk to me. :) |
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[Jun. 12th, 2006|04:16 pm] |
Ok y'all - The time has come to unveil my "Secret Project."
I've been thinking about it, and I'm dragging my heels, procrastinating, etc... and I need to make it more real for myself. The article comes out in Curve on July 1st, so it's nearly time to make it public in general. So I'm going to go ahead and post it here.
So - the project is a book. Starting August 31st, I'm leaving Portland for what, ideally, will be a disjointed but ultimately 6-month long trek across the USA and some parts international (as many as I can afford, financially and energetically), during which time I will be interviewing 150+ women of size with the ultimate goal of fictionalizing the least and most-common threads into a series of monologues for stage performance. The working title of the book is "FatGirl Speaks."
I'll be flying to New York in August, and then taking the train around the East Coast. I'll return to Oregon in early October and, when I can afford the next leg, will fly back towards the East Coast and take the train zig-zag across the USA until I return to Oregon. I'll be filming my entire journey (in road-diary style), as well as recording audio of all of the interviews. When I return to Oregon, I'll take a short break, and then I will begin the international leg of my travel over in Europe. I'd also like to go to Samoa and Africa (the only two places I'm currently aware of where fat, on the whole, is both acceptable and desirable), Australia, India, Italy, Germany, Russia ideally Asia.
My goal is to map the experience of fat in a way that is human, has a face, a heart, a mind, a body and a voice. My goal is to listen and repeat - the good and the bad, the hard and the joyful and everything in between - in a way that may ultimately bring compassion to folks who don't understand, but more importantly, will allow the folks who are hearing their own words echoed back to them across the pages or from the stage, fall in love with themselves and each other just a little more.
This is a project unlike any other I've undertaken and I'm, frankly, terrified - so I'm just hoping to open dialogue with as many folks as possible who have done work similarly (even if it's not at all similar work) and glean as much good advice as possible before I begin this endeavor.
Also - I need to find interview subjects, and I want to make this as diverse as possible in terms of race, class, age, ability, orientation, etc. etc. etc. This means that I cannot and will not rely solely upon the internet to find interview subjects, as access to the internet is a class issue. So I very badly need help with spreading the word about these interviews. I don't have a set itinerary yet, even for the East Coast leg. I will be working to do this over the next few weeks, to provide information about the cities I'll be in, and the dates I'll be there.
I've started a livejournal specific to this endeavor here:
http://viaggi_sentasi.livejournal.com (this means travel_hear in Italian.)
Please feel free to friend this journal for updates and reports before and during my adventure!
Things I need:
1) financial support
2) a publisher and agent
3) places to stay
4) interview subjects
5) international travel partners (as international travel is scary to me and it would be fun to have travel partners to help bolster my confidence)
6) support and advice in general
Thanks for your support, y'all! I'm really excited and I hope that this turns out to be something worthwhile. I'm nervous about several different parts of this. First, a basic fear of my writing skills, and concern that I won't be able to pull off writing something that's publish-worthy. Second, a healthy anxiety about making sure that my focus and intentions are clear and honorable, and that I'll "get it" -- meaning, that, with the help of the amazing folks I'll be interviewing, that together we'll come up with something that is moving, positive and empowering - something that tells the truth, but doesn't swing to angst and self-loathing. It is inevitable that some of the stories in the book will be painful, to both tell and to hear, but ultimately I would like to present a book that is positive and celebratory and, most importantly, honest. Third - I'm simply scared about the travel. I've not done any traveling alone, and starting out with such an intensive journey without much of a 'prep course' is going to be intense. But I'm sure I'll come out on the other side a changed person, and for the better. Plus, I'll get to meet so many of you and share really intimate conversations with so many amazing people. It's going to be an incredible experience. |
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