by Timnah Steinman
This week I forgot it was International No-Diet Day.
This week I spoke to a room of forty 6th graders. I told them about my experiences being born and raised round and fat and being told from my earliest memories that I did not fit, that I needed to be fixed, that I was not ok. I told them about how trying to diet with and for my parents and the doctors messed with my body and my spirit, because (as all the science seems to show) one consequence of dieting is triggering deep biological drives to gain and keep weight on. Diet culture (Mill Valley, 1970s and 80s) left me detached, uncertain of my right to live on this planet, unable to live in my body.
I told them about being in my twenties and deciding that I wanted to live. Live now, because this whole "waiting to live" thing wasn't working out. And I renounced diets, and I got back in a swimming pool, made friends who were busy being fat and living right now.
I told them about how a group of us made a fat synchronized swimming team, wore bikinis and flowered caps and performed our routines for all kinds of folks. I talked about how at every single performance at least one woman would come up to me, always smaller than me, and always while I was still dripping from the pool, grinning in my bikini and red nails, and tell me that they hadn't been in a bathing suit in months or years or decades and because of us, because of my choice to vamp it up in the pool in a citrus bikini to show tunes, they were going to do it. They were going to enjoy themselves, instead of waiting.
I wore my 'De the fat whale saves the whales' shirt and told them about how De was bullied and how she turned it around and raised over $10,000 in subverting her bully's attack.
I got thank you letters from dozens of 12-year-olds thanking me for being open with them about my experience, thanking me for telling them that the word fat is not an insult, that the shape and size of my body is not a put down, and that it was a describing word. Child after child told me that no one had ever really talked about fat bodies and fat activism before, and they were so glad I had been able to talk with them in a way that was open, that was easy, that let them feel like they got to speak as well, and even use the "F" word themselves.
Later in the week I mentioned to one of my classes of seventh graders that I'm quite strong because I'm fat. When they were confused, I named that if they lift weights they build muscle. I lifted my big fat arms into the air and said, "look! I'm lifting weights!" One boy was so inspired he arranged today for me to arm wrestle the math teacher, who is very strong. We grappled at a table, students grouped all around, some snapping pictures, and we pushed and laughed and... it was a draw. And somewhere, a thirteen-year-old is posting a picture of this red-faced, living and straining fat teacher, without even knowing they're celebrating International No Diet Day.
A Bay Area native, Timnah has been a classroom teacher since 1995, teaching adolescents, one class at a time, about size acceptance and fat civil rights, along with the rest of the curriculum. Timnah has also worked as an actor, director, and performing artist, including a lot of direct rad fatty action and experience in The Padded Lilies, The Bod Squad, The F Word, NOLOSE, and Fat Lip Readers Theatre.
This week I forgot it was International No-Diet Day.
This week I spoke to a room of forty 6th graders. I told them about my experiences being born and raised round and fat and being told from my earliest memories that I did not fit, that I needed to be fixed, that I was not ok. I told them about how trying to diet with and for my parents and the doctors messed with my body and my spirit, because (as all the science seems to show) one consequence of dieting is triggering deep biological drives to gain and keep weight on. Diet culture (Mill Valley, 1970s and 80s) left me detached, uncertain of my right to live on this planet, unable to live in my body.
I told them about being in my twenties and deciding that I wanted to live. Live now, because this whole "waiting to live" thing wasn't working out. And I renounced diets, and I got back in a swimming pool, made friends who were busy being fat and living right now.
I told them about how a group of us made a fat synchronized swimming team, wore bikinis and flowered caps and performed our routines for all kinds of folks. I talked about how at every single performance at least one woman would come up to me, always smaller than me, and always while I was still dripping from the pool, grinning in my bikini and red nails, and tell me that they hadn't been in a bathing suit in months or years or decades and because of us, because of my choice to vamp it up in the pool in a citrus bikini to show tunes, they were going to do it. They were going to enjoy themselves, instead of waiting.
I wore my 'De the fat whale saves the whales' shirt and told them about how De was bullied and how she turned it around and raised over $10,000 in subverting her bully's attack.
I got thank you letters from dozens of 12-year-olds thanking me for being open with them about my experience, thanking me for telling them that the word fat is not an insult, that the shape and size of my body is not a put down, and that it was a describing word. Child after child told me that no one had ever really talked about fat bodies and fat activism before, and they were so glad I had been able to talk with them in a way that was open, that was easy, that let them feel like they got to speak as well, and even use the "F" word themselves.
Later in the week I mentioned to one of my classes of seventh graders that I'm quite strong because I'm fat. When they were confused, I named that if they lift weights they build muscle. I lifted my big fat arms into the air and said, "look! I'm lifting weights!" One boy was so inspired he arranged today for me to arm wrestle the math teacher, who is very strong. We grappled at a table, students grouped all around, some snapping pictures, and we pushed and laughed and... it was a draw. And somewhere, a thirteen-year-old is posting a picture of this red-faced, living and straining fat teacher, without even knowing they're celebrating International No Diet Day.
A Bay Area native, Timnah has been a classroom teacher since 1995, teaching adolescents, one class at a time, about size acceptance and fat civil rights, along with the rest of the curriculum. Timnah has also worked as an actor, director, and performing artist, including a lot of direct rad fatty action and experience in The Padded Lilies, The Bod Squad, The F Word, NOLOSE, and Fat Lip Readers Theatre.
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