Title (as given to the record by the creator):  Resources
Date(s) of creation:  October, 1994
Creator / author / publisher:  FaT GiRL
Physical description:  Three zine pages with typed text and drawings
Reference #:  FG1-054-056-Resources
Links: [ PDF ]

RESOURCES

ORGANIZATIONS

A Bay Area Fat Action Group is form­ing soon! Call Mara for details: 415- XXX-XXXX

Fat is a Lesbian Issue is a New York-­based, fat-positive, anti-diet discussion group that helps queer women learn to accept their bodies at any size. They meet monthly to talk about food, cloth­ing, healthcare, sex, exercise, self-esteem and other issues that impact fat lesbians and bi women. They meet on the 2nd Sunday of every month at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, 208 W. 13th St., in Manhattan. For more info. call Susan at XXX-XXX-XXXX or Gail and Shira at XXX-XXX-XXXX. 

Fat Lip Readers Theater is a women’s performance collective that has been cre­ating and performing work from a fat liberation perspective for more than a decade. To get on the mailing list, sub­mit work, or inquire about membership, contact: Fat Lip Readers Theater, PO Box 29963, Oakland, CA 94604. 

FLAB, the Fat Lesbian Action Brigade, is a New York-based activist group that fights for the visibility of fat lesbians within the queer community, the fat-acceptance movement and the world at large; works to discredit and destroy the multi-billion dollar weight­loss industTy that threatens our survival; and celebrates the beauty and sexiness of fat women. See Fat is a Lesbian Issue (above) for meeting times and contact info. 

LFAN, the Lesbian Fat Activists Network, is an affinity group for size-­friendly lesbians of all sizes. To join and receive their monthly newsletter, send $20 ($5-$10 low income) to: Helen Weber, XXXXX, Seattle, WA 98112. 

For all you computer nerds who cruise the internet, there’s a big-folks email Iist. You can subscribe by sending mail to big-folks-request@abstractsoft.com. There are also several different alt.news­groups for fat folks. Mostly posters are het males, of course, and so it primarily focuses on men’s appreciation of fat females. But it’s an eye-opener. You get some pretty interesting discussions and tips on movies and porn stars. Also, some fat men write in. lt’s a strange trip. They are: alt.sex.fat, alt.support.big-folks, alt.personals.big-folks, and alt.sex.fetish.fat. Also, Fat Girl is consid­ering going online. Does anyone have a WWW site where we could put a home page? Let us know. 

The Fat Women’s Group is based in London. Write to them at: Wesley House, Wild Court, London WC2B 5AU. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A Fat Women’s Gathering is happen­ing Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Oakland, CA. The women-only weekend will include speakers from the legendary Fat Underground, a stellar cast of national fat activists, performance by Fat Lip Readers Theater, Elana Dykewomon, Sylvia Kohan, Midlife Crisis, and Wry Crips (a disabled women’s theater), belly dancing, pool parties, workshops, a huge women’s dance, vendors, and much more. For information call (510) XXX-XXXX, or email 00053 483 98 @mcimail.com

Womyn at Large is seeking contribu­tions for an anthology exploring fat oppression and the experiences of fat lesbians and bisexual women. Send your stories, poetry, essays, cartoons, rants, b&w drawings in any form, with a bio. As always, DON’T send your originals. Deadline for submission is October 15 1994. Womyn at Large, XXXXX, Toronto, Ontario M5R 3B9  CANADA. 

Writings Wanted for Anthology by Fat Lesbians! Fat lesbians send in your writing about the many aspects of fat lesbian life. Contributions which reflect on ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds, age, disability, education, or spiritual/ religious belief are strongly encouraged. Additional topics to consider include: clothes, fat dyke fashion (or lack of it), jobs/work, lesbian community partici­pation, growing up, coming out, exer­cise, physical activity, health, physical limitations, body shape and size, love and relationships, celibacy, sex, political accomplishments, music festivals, nar­row public spaces, art and creativity, humor, mythology, fat dykes in hersto­ry, food, cooking, gardening, dancing … Preference will be given to non-fiction and personal reflective writings. Photos and drawings also welcome. This anthology will also include an extensive resource directory, so send resource info. Deadline: Nov. 1, 1994. Please include a short bio with your contribution. Send to: Mev Miller, XXXXX Minneapolis, MN 55403. 

MEDIA FEAST

We want media (books. music. movies. art. etc.) that portrays the truth of the diversity of our fat experiences. Fuck the old stereotypes! We want inspiring role models! We want to know what fat girls are really doing the world over. Send us your media blurbs already written, or send us the info and we’ll write about it. Whatever the case. we want to know what you’re reading/seeing/hear­ing that speaks to fat dykes. Tell us so we can pass the word along! 

PRINT

Fat News is the newsletter of the Fat Women’s Group in London. The one we got included a cute little pin with a fly­ing fat woman on it. If you’re nice, they might send you a pin too. Send ’em $5 for a subscription. The Fat Women’s Group, Wesley House, Wild Court, London WC2B SAU, UK. 

Fat!So? #1 (San Francisco, CA) is a brand new zine by Marilyn Wann “for people who don’t apologize for their size.” Issue #1 includes photos of healthy, normal, human fat cells, an interview and tons of artwork by Debora lyall (of Romeo Void fame), short arti­cles, poems and personal accounts, tales of Roseanne sightings, and my personal favorite: Venus of Willendorf cut-out paper dolls. One issue is $3.50; a 4-issue subscription is $12. Fat!So? PO Box 423464., San Francisco, CA 94142. 

Girlfrenzy #4 (UK). This is an excellent zine “by women for people,” and this is their Fat Liberation Issue. There’s a cute Fat Girl drummer on the cover, some fat lib comics, a rant about fat issues by Charlotte Cooper, Fat Girl graphics by Lee Kennedy., m1d a fat-positive song on the back cover called “Supermodel = Superficial” by Anjali Bhatia. To get yours, send $5 cash to Erica, Girlfrenzy, XXXXX, East Sussex, BN3 3DQ, UK. 

I Am So Fucking Beautiful is a zine by Nomy Lamm, a fat girl from Olympia, Washingon. We haven’t seen it, but there was a blurb about her in Ms. magazine. Write to: Nomy Lamm., XXXXX, Olympia, WA 98501. 

Journeys to Self-Acceptance: fat women speak (edited by Carol Wiley; Crossing Press). This 136-page book includes 24 personal stories by fat women., documenting each woman’s process toward self-acceptance. Most of the contributors are both straight and white, but there seems to be a bit of class diversity. It’s $9.95. Check your book­store, or call Crossing Press at 1-800-777-1048.

LFAN has a monthly newsletter that lists events of interest to fat dykes, has announcements, a list of fat dyke email pen pals, and a new column for fat bisexual women called “Bi and Large.” Send $20 ($5 – $10 low income) to: Helen Weber, XXXXX, Seattle, WA 98112. 

Quim, Issue 5 (London, UK). Quim is a cutting-edge, slick but not-too-slick, amazing, totally packed dyke sex maga­zine. Issue 5 includes several pieces about fatness/body image. Among them: “Do dykes really care what we’re sup­posed to look like?”-an article by Beccy Trowler; various quotes about body image issues; hot photo of fat-dyke model BJ by Della Grace; and a review of Naomi Woolf’s book, “The Beauty Myth.” Quim does a fantastic job of tackling issues that many people shy away from. Issue 5 is especially fantastic; it’s more than a magazine, it’s an his­toric testimonial. Buy a copy for your local lesbian archives. Buy a copy to jill off to. Just buy one. Try your local queer bookstore first; failing that, send $12 *cash only* to Quim, BM 2182, London WC1 3XX, UK.

Shadow on a Tightrope (Aunt Lute Press, Iowa City, TA). This is an amazing compilation of writings by fat women about being fat women. It is, to my knowledge, the first book ever published about fat liberation by, for and about women. Many (if not most) of the women published in it are dykes. It is angry, honest, painful, validating, radi­cal and truly liberating. Each time I re-read it I grow closer to my own freedom. Every fat dyke should own a copy of this book. And if you’re tired of educating your non-fat friends, let this book do the work for you. 

Sisters of Size is a Lesbian fat activist newsletter from Seattle. Send $5 – $10 for a subscription to Robin, XXXXX, Seattle, WA 98114. 

Size Esteem: Empowerment for peo­ple of size. I haven’t seen this zine, but this is what FactSheet Five said: Largesse is a radical fat feminist resource network. Each of their occasional bulletins addresses a different topic relating to size diversity and femi­nism. Issue #4 contains a herstory of fat feminism from 1969 to 1993. An SASE will get you info. Subs: 20. Write to: Karen Stimson, XXXXX, New Haven, CT 06534. 

Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes (by Laurie Toby Edison and Debbie Notkin) features over 40 fine-art photos of fat women, with writing about fat oppression and fat liberation. We haven’t seen it yet, but our inside sources promise that it’s excellent. Available beginning in September. Call Books in Focus at 1-800-463-6245. 

MOVIES

Hairspray. I love this movie. It stars Rickie Lake as Tracy Turnblad, a fat teenage girl growing up in Baltimore in the ’60s, during the wake of racial inte­gration. Tracy loves to dance, and audi­tions to be on the local TV dance show. She dances up a storm, everyone loves her (except for her non-fat stuck-up Barbie-esque competitor), and she turns Baltimore upside down. This movie doesn’t skirt the issue of Tracy’s fatness at all. In one scene at the dinner table, Tracy’s mother (played by Divine), who is also fat, tries to give her an appetite suppressant, and Tracy replies with something like, “I’m a growing girl; I need food!”. She is proud of her fat, and not ashamed of either her body or her sexuality. 

Sugar Baby. Story of a fat woman who works at a funeral parlor preparing dead bodies. On her way to work she gets the hots for the subway driver. So, she decides to take an extended leave from work, during which she emerges from her solitude, stalks the subway driver, and seduces him while his wife is away at a funeral. Though it’s clear that she is pained and lonely, she is portrayed as intelligent, sexy and confident. Starring Marianne Sagebrecht, Fat Girl extraordinaire, who also stars in Baghdad Cafe.