This announcement is unexpectedly apropos, given recent conversations around here. The mods (and members too) have been lately distressed by some of the more savage body hatred springing up in fatshionista, mostly in comments. So we've decided on a course of action.

Starting today, negative body commentary will result in a warning*, and persistent, repeated offenses will get you banned. Prior to this point, such a specific rule hasn't been necessary, since it's pretty obvious that in a fat-positive community, folks should expect not to have their bodies picked on. Basically it went without saying. Unfortunately, we're having to get explicit about it now.

And just to clarify on the fat-positive community thing: Hi! fatshionista is a politically-engaged, fat positive community! If you're participating here, you're doing so under the expectation that you understand what fat positivity means. You don't have to be the World's Greatest Fat Activist - in fact, you can be in any stage of body acceptance, even taking first steps, and you're welcome. However, the community maintainers believe that our language shapes our realities, and thus allowing negative body commentary (which has insidiously crept in to comments and even posts in the past several months) contributes to a broader culture of fat hatred.

We have no hard-and-fast definition of what counts as "negative body commentary", but we don't intend to be knee-jerk about it either; it's a case-by-case, I-know-it-when-I-see-it kind of situation at this point. And members are always allowed to be critical (of clothing, or of commentary) in a respectful manner. Just don't comment on perceived imperfections in people's actual fat bodies. If you think an outfit is simply unflattering, by all means say so in a constructive way.

Bad example: "If you didn't have that massive gunt and those tree-trunk thighs, your skinny jeans would look better."
Good example: "Maybe you could try some wide-leg trousers, they might be more flattering."

Before anyone trips out, let me assert that this is NOT a blanket prohibition on talking about Spanx or bras or gut-squishing jeans, et cetera. All these subjects are fine in context. It is just a requirement that you use your brain when commenting on other people's outfit posts. Furthermore, fatshionista still doesn't ascribe to the concept of "safe space" - folks are always encouraged to be thoughtfully critical of an opinion you express, or of an outfit you post. But negative comments about fat bodies won't be tolerated.

Like all of the posting guidelines and rules, we're really counting on members to alert us to situations in which this stuff is taking place. The community gets a lot of traffic and the mods don't read every comment - some of us don't even get to read every post - so I'm sure a fair amount of rule-breaking slips by us unnoticed and unaddressed. If you see a comment that seems to be crossing a line for you, email the mods using the handy-dandy Sunshine Puppy address ljmods@fatshionista.com, with a link to the questionable content. We don't promise that we will agree with your assessment, but we will certainly take a look.

Finally, we acknowledge that some folks simply will not like this rule. That's tough.

To sum up, for those who can't stomach my insufferable wordiness:

1. fatshionista is a politically-engaged, fat positive community.
2. Don't make negative comments about fat bodies.
3. If you continue to do #2 often, in spite of being warned, you may be banned.
4. fatshionista is a politically-engaged, fat positive community.

Thanks y'all.

*Obviously, especially egregious and/or trollish offenses can warrant an instant banning.

Hey everyone. A couple months ago, I made this post:

I am posting this as a Happy Cheerful Sunshine-y Rainbow Puppy reminder that deleting a post with comments will get you banned from this community.

If you have a post that is becoming a problem for you, email a mod. If you have comments that are becoming a problem for you, screen them (that's the little eyeball button), don't delete them, and email a mod. And, of course, always think before you post.

All the mods can be emailed at once using the Happy Cheerful Sunshine-y Rainbow Puppy email address ljmods @ fatshionista . com.

There's lots more Happy Cheerful Sunshine-y Rainbows in the community profile, which I heartily encourage all our members to read, in the most Snuggly Fluffy Kitteny way possible.

And hey, remarkably enough, it's all still true.

Don't delete posts: you can always change the settings so you no longer receive emailed replies. If things are getting under your skin, I recommend turning off the computer and going the fuck outside. The truth is, there's nothing happening in any thread in fatshionista that can't be put off for a few hours.

Also, read the profile. If it has too many words, confine your reading to the "How To Get Yourself Banned" section. Post deleters who claim that they did not KNOW it was a rule don't get amnesty.

To sum up, again:
Deleting a post with comments will get you banned.
Screen any comments that you find personally-attacking or trolling, and email the mods so we can check them out.
Think before you post.

There may be exceptions to this rule, somewhere in the ether, but we've not run across one yet.

Thanks everyone.

Traffic in this community has taken a bit of a jump recently, which is fabulous. At the same time, however, the individual schedules of your mods have also gotten busier. Thus, in an effort toward processing the numerous posts in the queue in a fashion both speedier and more efficient, we've expanded the existing mod junta and brought two spanking new moderators aboard: stitchtowhere and paigenotpage. These are our first new mods in over a year, so we're very excited about it and hope y'all are too.

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And now, the usual Friday spam:

Members who participate in the sales posts are invited to comment to the permanent sales-feedback post with their recent buying/selling experiences, positive and negative, to let other members know which sellers have shown themselves to be trustworthy, and which may be unreliable. To make finding a certain user easier, please include their LJ username in the comment's subject line.

Obviously, flaming and/or personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Past feedback-related posts can be read here.

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And while we're at it, just a couple of friendly reminders:

fatshionista has moderated posting - the guidelines are here. If your post is rejected, it is nothing against you personally, a mod has simply decided it did not meet the established criteria.

Coupon and promo codes are listed in the comments to this post. We recommend you use LJ's Message Center to track all comments to this post if you are interested in coupon codes. More info is available via the above link.

Sales posts are only approved on Fridays. More information is available here.

All of the above is also listed on the community info page. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so.

Also, feel free to check out the slowly-evolving website and help out by submitting some shop reviews, if you're so inclined.

Thanks fatshionistas!

I am posting this as a Happy Cheerful Sunshine-y Rainbow Puppy reminder that deleting a post with comments will get you banned from this community.

If you have a post that is becoming a problem for you, email a mod. If you have comments that are becoming a problem for you, screen them (that's the little eyeball button), don't delete them, and email a mod. And, of course, always think before you post.

All the mods can be emailed at once using the Happy Cheerful Sunshine-y Rainbow Puppy email address ljmods @ fatshionista . com.

There's lots more Happy Cheerful Sunshine-y Rainbows in the community profile, which I heartily encourage all our members to read, in the most Snuggly Fluffy Kitteny way possible.

Thanks y'all.

I'm not much one for the dramatic reveal, so here's the straightforward approach: Fatshionista.com has officially launched.

The two main sections currently live on the site are the GroupBlog* - featuring posts by many excellent fatshionista regulars - and the Online Shop Reviews, which is pretty much what it sounds like - user reviews of online plus-size retailers. Head on over at your leisure and submit some reviews; the more reviews we get, the better this resource will be. You can submit more than one review over time, so if this week you love LaneBryant.com, but next week they spurn ya, you can return and add your updated opinions. If you know of any great online stores that are missing from the Reviews section, please email the site (or comment below) and let me know. (We are in particular need of non-US websites to flesh out the International category.)

The companion piece to the Online Shop Reviews section will be a section for Brick & Mortar Stores, organized by region - ideally, this will be an immediate help to anyone headed to a certain city and looking for shopping recommendations. I expect to have this section up and accepting reviews in the coming weeks.

The website is still evolving, so look for changes and additions as time passes. I have my own long-term wishlist of things I'd eventually like to bring to fatshionista.com - but if you have ideas, throw them out, I'd love to hear them. (For those who are interested: the website as it currently exists is composed entirely of open source software, and should you register, none of your personal information will ever be sold to or shared with any person or company for any reason ever.)

For the record, fatshionista will not be going anywhere, nor will its stewardship be changing anytime soon.

Thanks, fatshionistas, for making this place what it is.

* I am still looking for a few more groupbloggers - if you are a person of color, or non-female or non-femme-identified, and would like to blog about fat politics and intersectional issues, drop me an email (lesley at fatshionista.com) with a bit about about what and why you'd like to contribute.

Given the smart and thoughtful arguments many have made in favor of including 12s in the sales post sizes in the comments to yesterday's post, we've agreed to knock the cutoff back to L/12 in women's sizes, and L/34 in men's sizes. These are US sizes, so international items should be in sizes analogous to these (apologies to non-US folks for the US-centricity, but it's what we're familiar with).

That said, I also want to strongly encourage buyers to ask for measurements if you're buying an item made by an unknown manufacturer. Don't assume all 3Xs will fit the same; they don't.

Also, we're adding a request to the sales post rules that users refrain from reposting the same items multiple weeks in a row. This is being done at the suggestion of several members, and thus we're encouraging and relying on said members to speak up to these sellers (in a polite and non-flaming manner, please) when they see this sort of redundant posting happen. However, the mods will not be rejecting posts on this basis, as we have no simple way of keeping track of who's posted what and when.

ETA: I want to clarify that just because your post gets rejected from the queue does not mean you Never Ever Get To Post Again. If it's rejected, we'll tell you why, and what needs to be edited for it to be approved. Not a big deal.

The sales post rules as they stand now follow below.

Sales posts and auction announcements:
1. These posts are only approved on Fridays.
2. Members are allowed ONE sales post per Friday.
3. The ENTIRE sales or promotional post must appear behind a single lj-cut. Information about how to create an lj-cut can be found here.
4. Clothing for sale should be for items fitting a US women's size L/12 AND UP or a US men's size L/34 AND UP only (international sizes should be comparable to these). Also, sales posts should be for wearable items exclusively (i.e., clothing, shoes, and accessories, including jewelry and purses, etc.).
5. The titles of sales posts should read as follows: SALES POST: (Description of sales post, with a size range indicated). This will enable people who want to skip sales posts or find them more easily to do so more rapidly.
6. It is also encouraged that members mention whether the items are coming from a smoking household, or one with pets, though this is not required. Furthermore, members are asked to not simply repost the same items week after week after week endlessly if they fail to sell.

Posts that do not follow the above rules are subject to rejection from the queue.

Thanks y'all.

The sales post rules have a new addition - as of this Friday, sales posts should ONLY contain items fitting a size XL/US14 and up (non-US items should be comparable sizes). Posts containing items smaller than these sizes will be rejected from the queue with instructions to edit the inappropriate items out. If you have an item that's marked a L or whatever but would actually fit an XL+, just note that in your post. Furthermore, sales posts should only contain wearable items: clothes, shoes, accessories, and so forth.

We've made these decisions in response to member feedback, and as an attempt at keeping sales posts on topic.

This is a clarification of community expectations.

We have lots of members. Some members are avowed fat activists. Some are totally not. Some are someplace inbetween.

If you wander over to a user’s personal journal and see something that worries you, or that you would like clarification on, the appropriate place to have that conversation is in their personal journal. If you check out a user’s profile and see they are also a member of communities you find offensive, again, you might consider talking to them about that in their personal LJ, if you feel compelled to have that conversation. "Outing" people in this community as belonging to other communities that you may find offensive or troubling – or crossposting their personal journal entries in unrelated fatshionista posts - is unnecessary and inappropriate. IF a member is posting things in this community that are problematic or not in keeping with community expectations, then members are welcome (and encouraged) to confront them on it. As an alternative, if you are uncomfortable approaching said member yourself, we encourage you to contact a mod for assistance in that specific situation.

We will not, however, police membership based on what is in a person’s personal profile, or what communities they belong to, or what they say in their own LJ. The only exception to this is for members who engage in the theft - via downloading or hotlinking - of member images from fatshionista, which always results in an immediate ban and notification of the affected parties. Membership has always been and continues to be open. All are welcome until they prove themselves unable to participate according to the community guidelines.

If you have concerns about a member or their intentions based exclusively on their personal LJ – contact a mod. All of our emails are on the community profile. You can reach any of us via our username@livejournal.com addresses. We will investigate and take action based on what we find. We are contacted fairly regularly about these sorts of concerns, and the vast majority of times that it happens, it never even makes it to the community, which is how things should be.

Obviously, known trolls are exempt from the above benefit of the doubt, and are banned immediately.

This is just a small announcement to let everyone know that the following has been added to the community info page, under the Nutritional Facts section. The mods recently came to realize that we had no clearly-stated policy on this, so here it is.

This is not meant to call out any individual member(s); there are LOTS of folks whose posts have been rejected for this reason over the past couple of months.

"fatshionista is not a place for the discussion of dieting or weight loss. There are many other Livejournal communities where these topics can be freely shared in a supportive environment. This is not meant to pass judgment on any individual members for their choices, as we support the right of folks to make their own decisions, but that sort of conversation is explicitly contrary to the mandates of this community, the central pillar of which is size acceptance. Therefore, we consider these subjects extremely off-topic and downright counterproductive, even when they appear in an otherwise appropriate post. Value-free mentions of sizing changes are fine (“My favorite jeans don’t fit anymore, I need new ones in an 18, any suggestions?”) whereas self-congratulatory expressions of weight loss are not (“I’ve lost fifty pounds and now I can wear skirts and everyone keeps giving me compliments and it’s awesome!”). This is not because weight loss is inherently bad or wrong (nor does simply losing weight mean a member is less of a “true” Fatshionista) but because this kind of talk can be extremely triggering for those with histories of eating disorders and body hatred, and allowing it to continue unchecked would create a less size-positive environment."

Also, a memo from the General Reminder department:

fatshionista has moderated posting - the guidelines are here. If your post is rejected, it is nothing against you personally, a mod has simply decided it did not meet the criteria.

Coupon and promo codes are listed in the comments to this post. We recommend you use LJ's Message Center to track all comments to this post if you are interested in coupon codes. More info is available via the above link.

Sales posts are only approved on Fridays. More information is available here.

All of the above is also listed on the community info page. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so.

Thanks fatshionistas! Carry on.

While I'm being moderatory, I thought I'd post a few friendly reminders for new members.

fatshionista has moderated posting - the guidelines are here. If your post is rejected, it is nothing against you personally, a mod has simply decided it did not meet the criteria.

Coupon and promo codes are listed in the comments to this post. We recommend you use LJ's Message Center to track all comments to this post if you are interested in coupon codes. More info is available via the above link.

Sales posts are only approved on Fridays. More information is available here.

All of the above is also listed on the community info page. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so.

Thanks fatshionistas!

The community info page says:

4. There is no purity test for membership. One does not have to be a certain size or of a certain political persuasion to post or comment here.

I feel compelled to wax philosophical on this idea for a moment.

As we've all discussed thoroughly in the past, different folks have different experiences of fatness. As such, your mods are not comfortable drawing a universal line dividing the fat from the not-fat. We take things on a case by case basis, and try to believe the best of people and their intentions until proved otherwise. Recent discussions have covered the myriad ways in which our experiences of fatness differ, as influenced by our family backgrounds, ethnic/racial identities, socioeconomic status, geographical location, and so forth - the list goes on. As a result, not everyone agrees on what is fat. And that's fine! We don't have to agree.

However, given these differences, the mods request that members refrain from telling other members they are not fat - not fat enough to post, or not fat in general. Aside from sometimes making folks who dwell on the smaller end of the plus-size spectrum feel uncomfortable and unwelcome, there is a much more primary reason why we prefer people avoid this sort of talk.

Simply put, telling a person they are "not fat" also tends to support the concept that fat is somehow bad. Even when this implication is not intentional, it's there. fatshionista should be, if nothing else, a place where people can come and proclaim their fatness loud and proud, as a positive experience, and not be made to feel badly about it. Where people all along the fatness continuum can fiercely own their fat. Telling a person they are not fat diminishes this effort. For a lot of us, it can trigger back to days in which hearing "you're not fat" was the best we could hope for, because "you're not fat" often also means "you're not ugly" or "you're not undesireable".

Please understand, I am not singling out any member in particular, as lots of us have done this, nor am I trying to make anyone feel guilty or dumb for having made similar comments in the past. I am simply trying to clarify why we don't like the whole "you're not fat" thing, because I don't think we've done so before. This post is meant with the best of friendly intentions.

As always, respectful discussion is welcomed.

2007 PCA/ACA Fat Studies Area Panels


Several times, due to travel snafus and cancellations, presenters were shuffled around. The three panel days are already getting blurry to me, so if I’ve forgotten someone or have listed them incorrectly, please forgive me.

Additionally, I’m the least academically-minded person you could ever stumble across, so if I’ve misrepresented something here or if I seem to be plucking only a few details out of a pile of important messages, my apologies!


( Brace yourself and feel free to scroll past my ramblings on awesome thinky-thinkiness to get to the hothothot tub pictures! )

Oh look, it's the hotly anticipated sales post announcement.

The mods have been informally talking about ways to deal with sales posts for a few weeks now. We have considered the idea of a separate sales community ad nauseam, but the mods remain fairly evenly split on whether that would be the best option. So, we're going to try out a compromise that will keep the sales posts in this community, but hopefully make them less of a daily annoyance to those who would rather avoid them.

As of today, we are instituting a new policy regarding sales posts. Basically, Fridays are sales-post-days from this point forward. Sales posts will only be approved on Fridays. We've chosen Friday because it tends to be a lower-traffic weekday, and because some folks only have internet access at work and might feel left out if we chose a weekend day (which are the lowest-traffic of all). Yeah, I know this will choke your friendslist on Fridays, for those of you who keep fatshionista on there - I suggest the liberal use of filters, that's how I manage.

To sum up: any sales post submitted to the queue not on a Friday will be rejected.

I understand that this is probably less drastic than a lot of you wanted, and I wholeheartedly appreciate that. But this is where we're at for now.

Some of you may have noticed that lately the posting traffic in fatshionista has become nigh-overwhelming. The mods have noticed it as well. While we are thrilled that the community is so active and vigorous, we would also like to implement some new guidelines for post approval in the hopes of cutting down the more redundant and occasionally content-free posts. We understand that often certain posts get buried or missed in the flood (for example, the Joy Nash “Fat Rant” video was submitted to the queue at least nine times that I personally saw), and we are hoping that by raising posting standards we will cut down on the number of daily posts while simultaneously improving the quality of the posts that do go up.

Lest anyone get their feelings hurt, please understand that none of the examples cited below are meant to pick on any individual posters. They’re just examples.

1) Posts must be on-topic. We have been fairly flexible in the past in terms of drifty posts, but no longer. Your post should be relevant to fatness, fat fashion (this includes posts about hair/makeup, shoes and accessories), and/or fat politics. If your post does not involve at least one of the above, it will be rejected. Obviously, this is a subjective determination and will depend upon the opinion of the mod who happens to approve or reject your post.

2) Posts must have content. This, again, is highly subjective, but in the interest of driving up the quality of the posts here, we’re giving it a shot. For example: We are totally thrilled when new people join, but as we get numerous new people every day, and feature a membership of 1,530 as of this post, introductory posts that simply say "hey I just found this community!" and feature no other pertinent content are not relevant. For another example: Posts that state simply “I bought a shirt!” with no other information. Tell us about the shirt. Where did you buy it? How does it fit? Do you have a picture? Obviously, this is a more flexible requirement and will depend on the post in question. Basically what we’re asking is that folks try to make their posts informative and interesting.

3) Posts should strive to be size positive. While we recognize that many of our members are at very different places along the spectrum of body acceptance, fatshionista is a community that endeavors to celebrate our bodies as they are. Anti-fat talk and pro-weightloss talk are not acceptable here. Instead, we strive to create an environment where our fat bodies are positive assets, and where words like "fat" and its many derivatives are not invested with negativity. Obviously, this is again a subjective concept. Fact is, fatshionista is meant to function as a help in unpacking the years of fat- and body-hatred that many of us have suffered, so settling into body-hating language and habits in an uncritical way is counterproductive to community goals. We understand that there is no fat lexicon everyone can consult to be on the same page, nor do we expect perfect agreement, as such an expectation would be unreasonable and unrealistic. We do expect that our members will at least try to be size positive on a consistent basis.

4) For general questions, please check the community tags first. It seems like we get multiple cases of “Where do I buy a bra?” or “How do these tights fit?” every week, when these questions have been answered really thoroughly in the past. We appreciate that they’re worthwhile questions, but they do get redundant after awhile. The mods put forth a significant effort in the truly boring task of tagging entries for easy reference; we invite members to benefit from our drudgery. If you make a very general post that has already been covered extensively in the past, chances are we will reject it while directing you to the prior conversations via the tags.

If your post is rejected, please rest assured that it is not meant as a personal slight against you. We expect that these changes will be unpopular with some, but we’re implementing them for the purposes of improving the community quality overall. We also expect that some folks may deem these very subjective decisions unfair, but we ask you all to have faith in your mods’ ability to make good choices.

There will also be a forthcoming announcement on a change in sales-post policy, possibly tomorrow.

Thanks again for making this community the great resource it is.

Regarding recent cross-community drama:

fatshionista is not here for people to enact their fucked-up vendettas against other Livejournal communities.

I totally understand and support people's right to be angry and/or hurt by snark and general meanness. I totally understand and support people's feeling that their emotional safety has been threatened. I encourage people to discuss and process these feelings in an appropriate venue.

That said, it is NOT ACCEPTABLE to crosspost things here from other communities exclusively for the purpose of creating drama and stirring the pot. I personally am completely enraged by this ridiculousness, as it is both intentionally hurtful to our members and WAY out of line with community guidelines and intention. My primary interest here lies in maintaining the integrity of this community, and that integrity is being threatened by the continuing intercommunity dramas.

Thus, settings for fatshionista have been temporarily changed to moderated posting. This means any new post must be approved by a moderator before it goes live. I hate this, and it breaks my heart to do it, but I feel it is a necessary step for the time being. We will endeavor to approve posts quickly such that the general flow of the community is not interrupted.

Community membership remains open and unmoderated, as it has always been.

Good morning, fatshionistas!

After a lot of thought and deliberation, there has been a policy change. We'd like to direct your attention to the community info page.

1. Right there, right at the top, in bright red, it states that we have a new way of handling discount code posts and sales announcement posts. This DOES NOT include regular, cleaning-out-the-closet posts. It DOES include "Hey, Torrid is having a 50% off sale!"

Please go to THIS POST to share coupon and discount codes. Please go to this post to look for that information.

Postings about sales and discount codes will no longer be allowed as regular posts in the community. Such posts will be linked to the coupon post (as it is linked on the main community info page) and immediately (in which immediately means as soon as a mod sees it) deleted. We will comment with the link so that the original poster knows why their post was deleted and also where the appropriate place is to post their information.

We know some people are concerned that they will miss out on codes because they do not read the community from the main page. It is possible to be notified every time someone posts a comment via the Livejournal Message Center. Track the coupon post and you will never miss a single post.

We would also like to share with you why we are doing this. Right now fatshionista has over a thousand members. That is huge and we are totally excited. As the community continues to grow, we want to continue to provide resources for fat fashion and fat politics. However, at our current volume, a lot of things are getting lost and people's friends pages are being overwhelmed by fatshionista posts. It is getting harder to find posts of interest and, if you're interested in sale codes, to scroll back and find ones that have been posted. This solution will go a long way toward solving both of these issues.

We are confident in making this policy change because we have high expectations of our community members. We understand that having the posts appear on your friends list is, for a lot of people, the easiest way to do things. However, we also believe that people are responsible for their own community experience. We have provided alternatives so that no one should miss out on this kind of information -- we expect our interested community members to be proactive enough to take advantage of those alternatives so that they can access the information they want.

2. If you scroll further down the community info page you will also see that we have a zero tolerance policy for improperly coded sales posts. Rather than completely eliminate sales posts from the community, we are taking a hard line here. If your post does not follow the community guidelines then it WILL be deleted. You WILL have the opportunity to repost, correctly, your sales information but we will not allow sales posts that do not follow the guidelines to stay on the community page.

This is true even if your post has comments to it already. We will try to get to posts before that happens but, in the event that something gets through, please be aware: We WILL delete sales posts that already have comments if the sales post does not follow the guidelines.

And, yes, absolutely, the coding for lj-cuts can be tricky, particularly if you are using the Rich Text Editor. That's why we're allowing people to repost their sales after they have been deleted. We understand how frustrating it can be, but we are also trying to keep sales posts as unobtrusive as possible.

If your post is being deleted, we will leave a comment letting you know why. You will be able to repost your sales post, as long as it is following the community guidelines.

If you aren't sure your code is working, we highly suggest setting up the entry as a private one in your personal journal -- you can test your code that way without it posting to the general page and then you can change the security when you know it's right. The extra step might be a small hassle, but it will save time in the long run.

***

Please understand, fatshionista is NOT a sales community and has never been designed for that to be the main focus. We're all glad to have access to great clothes -- whether it is because of sales posts or discount codes. But we also don't want to lose the actual focus of this community.

This policy is, of course, subject to change after a trial period. If you think you have a solution that would work, please feel free to contact one of the mods. We are always interested in your feedback.

Hi fatshionistas! I have just recently returned from a long week's vacation, and damned if y'all didn't make it nearly impossible to catch up on community posts - the pigtails posts were particularly cute, if a little numerous. That said, reading things over at my leisure, I had a few administrative-type things I wanted to talk about.

fatshionista is represented by over a thousand different voices, many of them often critical, and critical of very different things. We get people who feel like they're not being allowed to be candidly or abruptly critical of a person's outfit or appearance, and we have people complaining that other folks are TOO critical of political issues. And then we get folks on all sides mightily resisting suggestions that, damn, if we could all just agree that we ALL try to make our criticism constructive and respectful, we'd solve a bunch of our problems right there. Of course, what "counts" as a personal attack is wholly subjective, as one person might feel "attacked" by a comment that reads as perfectly innocuous to another. Some of us are more sensitive than others; we are best served by keeping this unknown quantity in mind when engaging folks in the tougher conversations that take place here. As fatties we get criticized every day; with intentions both good and ill; to our faces and behind our backs; even when we are unaware of it; by strangers, by friends, by family, by thin folks and fat folks alike. It happens. The difference here is whether the criticism comes from a place of support (in other words, if it is constructive and respectful) or from a place of cruelty and/or insecurity, meant not to help but to injure.

fatshionista is not safe space. We've never purported to be safe space. Safe space, in my experience, generally requires an environment so regimented and so controlled that honest conversation is rendered virtually impossible. While the moderators make every effort to prevent folks from making abusive or trolling comments and posts, we can't promise that somebody won't say something to you or to someone else that you find offensive. How you respond to that is your decision. If you choose to bite your tongue and say nothing, that's your choice. If you choose to speak up and in so doing find that you are in the minority, that's likewise your choice. If you are called out for unknowingly saying something that offended someone else, you can choose how you respond to that as well. Everyone who engages is expected to take responsibility for their words. Some folks will agree, some will disagree; however, no one is going to "protect" you. The world is a big, diverse place, and we would all do better living in it if we worked toward living with our diversities instead of trying to force agreement or silence on those with experiences or perspectives different from our own.

It's true that some of the discussions in fatshionista get pretty intense. That's how I like it; I daresay that's how most of the community maintainers like it. We're not here to make folks agree, or to brainwash anyone; we're here to encourage and facilitate discussion, and to provide a fat-positive environment - one that actively includes and supports all self-identifying fatties and allies, particularly people of color, queer folks, trans folks, disabled people, and other marginalized voices - in which people can deal with the multitude of questions surrounding fat politics and fat fashion.

For many of us - I would hope for most of us, though that may be naïve - fatshionista is not merely an LJ community, one stop on a long line of communities and blogs that we read every day. For many of us, fatshionista is a lifestyle, a purpose, a political movement, an identity. For many of us, fatshionista is living, breathing activism, transformative space, revolutionary. Many of us do indeedy Take It Seriously, and to apologize for that would be, in my opinion, ridiculous and weak.

No, we do not all get the same exact experiences or understandings from our interactions here, nor do we expect that. No, we do not all agree on everything, or even on most things, and I for one am grateful for that. Folks don't need to agree; we just need to engage in difficult conversations with open minds, with grace, and with respect.

On a more specific note, I don't like the idea of having a cut-and-dried Thou Shalt Not Talk About Weight Loss rule. I don't like cut-and-dried captial-R Rules, period. However, posts and comments about dieting and weight loss really aren't appropriate to this particular community; there are lots and lots of other communities on LJ that are specifically designed to serve that purpose, and most of our membership here probably isn't going to be very receptive to these topics anyway. This space is meant to be fat-positive, which generally precludes weight-loss talk or commendations to that effect, as such topics can be unpleasant and triggering for folks dealing with a lifetime of diet trauma and/or disordered eating. Thus, we'd really prefer such comments be avoided. Fact is, this community isn't here just to offer hugs (although those of you who enjoy that sort of thing are totally encouraged to indulge); ultimately it's here to inspire thought, to be challenging, to help folks reassess internalized fat hatred and hopefully to bring them to a better, healthier, more fat-lovin' place.

If you're opposed to that sort of earnest and thoughtful and critical exchange, then yeah, this probably isn't the place for you.

As always, I welcome comments and/or emails from members regarding any of the above - always_in_drag@livejournal.com.

Hi folks! This is just a friendly mod reminder of the community rules for sales posts, as posted on the info page. Not trying to pick on anybody in particular here. Posts not following these rules are subject to deletion without warning. Thanks.

Rules for Sales/Promotional Posts:

1) The ENTIRE sales or promotional post should appear behind an lj-cut. Information about how to create an lj-cut can be found here. When we say the ENTIRE post, we mean that there should be no errant text at the top or bottom of the post. This policy is NOT limited to posts with images, but ALL sales- or promotion-related posts, including but not limited to direct sales, auction announcements, and surveys and announcements from commercial sites and interests.

2) The titles of sales posts must read as follows: SALES POST: (Description of sales post, preferably with a size range indicated). This will enable people who want to skip sales posts or find them more easily to do so more rapidly.

3) EACH FATSHIONISTA MEMBER IS ALLOWED ONLY ONE SALES POST PER WEEK. A week is defined in this case not as a calendar week, but to mean that each member can only make one sales post within a seven-day period.

4) It is fair game for moderators to immediately delete any posts that do not follow the previous three rules.

We're pleased to announce the anointing of two new fatshionista moderators.

bias_cut and onceupon have both kindly agreed to take on mod duties. Their contributions to the community have been consistently outstanding and we're tickled to have them on board.

Also: while I'm at it, I'd like to put up another reminder of the ongoing Fatshionista logo contest!

Thanks, y'all. Carry on.

Howdy folks - this here is just a cheery reminder of the Fatshionista logo contest which began last week!

The details:

Please send your high-resolution logo images with the name "Fatshionista" somewhere on the design to amanda@fatshionista.com by February 15, 2007. The moderators will cull the entries and ask the community to help decide on the new Fatshionista logo. The winner will get to see hir work on the very first Fatshionista teeshirts and badges, which will be sold to fund the administration and development of fatshionista.com.

Yes, individuals may send multiple logos for entry into the contest.

Absolutely get in touch with me at lesley@fatshionista.com, or amarama at amanda@fatshionista.com, for more info or if you have questions.

Fatshionistas,

Yesterday when I made the fatshionista.com announcement, some questions came up about the Official Fatshionista Logo Contest.

Again, please send your high-resolution logo images with the name "Fatshionista" somewhere on the design to amanda@fatshionista.com by February 15, 2007. The moderators will cull the entries and ask the community to help decide on the new Fatshionista logo. The winner will get to see her work on the very first Fatshionista teeshirts and badges, which will be sold to fund the administration and development of fatshionista.com.

Yes, individuals may send multiple logos for entry into the contest.

You're always welcome to get in touch with me at amanda@fatshionista.com, leave a comment for me, or ask theoryofgravity for more info as further questions come up.

This is such an amazingly smart and talented group, evidenced by the many generous offers of professional help we received upon making the fatshionista.com announcement. We can't wait to see what you logo designers come up with!

xo
Ama

Dear Fatshionistas,

The last time I checked, Fatshionista’s membership has climbed to 1037 registered members. Wow! That’s more people than live in the town I grew up in--seriously. We want to use the 1000 member milestone and the New Year to make a few announcements about the pend