You’re So Vain…

…you probably think this blog post is about you.

 

 

Don’t you?

And the Winner Is…

by sylvia

So who was the big winner of our Amazon Gift Card Contest, you ask?

It was CTJen!  Visit her over at http://knittinginterrupted.com/.

She correctly guessed that the #3 search term people used to find our blog was She-Hulk!  Yep, She-Hulk.  I’ll self promote and link to the original post I wrote about She-Hulk here.

Congratulations, CTJen, and thank you all for participating!

We Have Our Winner!!!!

By Bianca

 

More details in the morning. Thanks for playing guys!

Acceptance is a Hard Pill to Swallow

by sylvia

So today was a day. I can’t say it was good, but I also can’t say it was great.

See, I have this nasty habit of checking my email – all of my email – first thing in the morning. That means the Zaftig account, my work account, and my personal account. And all before I even get out of bed. It’s a bad habit, mostly because it can set the tone for the rest of the day.

So today, in my personal account, I found that someone had tagged me in three different photos in Facebook, in an album titled “Time Warp.” This person is someone I haven’t seen since I was 7 (she would have been 3).

As I may have mentioned before, I didn’t become a fat kid until I was 9 years old. I talked about it here. So I had a good idea that these pictures this old friend had tagged me in would be the pre-fat cute years.

I guess I wasn’t prepared for what would happen to me when I saw those pictures. Yes, I was cute. Yes, it was from the pre-fat years. I was “normal” looking.

It pained me to see those. Like that was the last time I was ever “normal” looking, and not the grotesque person I see myself as now, or saw for so many years.

My first reaction was a rhetorical “what the hell happened to me?” and I started to cry.

Was I crying for vanity reasons? Was I crying because I thought I was past this? Was I crying because sometimes I really really HATE what I see in the mirror? Was I crying because of all the years that people treated me badly because of the way I looked, and not just because I was fat, but because I was “off-looking”? Was I crying because I was hormonal?

The short answer is yes – all of the above.

This acceptance thing is hard. Right now I am so grossed out by myself. Not just because of the fat, but because of the hair, the face, the nose, the ugly feet, the grotesque hands.

The problem is, there have been many times in my life where I have felt this way, and I know that it does go away. All of us have our ups and downs and I take medicine to keep the downs in my life from taking over me and making me lose control of my emotions.

But when it does happen, it is such a deep, deep spiral down that it makes it hard to function, to even want to function.

And I know that everything I am describing sounds like depression, which I have no doubt it is, to some degree. I’ve had these feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing since I was a young kid.

It almost seems like it coincides with when I “became” a fat kid.

So, did I become depressed because I got fat and had social problems resulting? Or did my depression (read:brain chemistry) make me fat?

It’s such a chicken-egg question, but the fact that I’ve never been super skinny, I can’t say for certain that if I was at my “ideal weight” I would not be depressed, especially since of what I would have to do to get there.

But I don’t think I’m depressed. I just think my brain chemistry is fucked up.

So how do I control these feelings of worthlessness about how I look when I get this down on myself?

Do I exercise? Do I eat? Do I go shopping?

Nope. I guess I blog about it.

The Second Clue

By Bianca

Previously on The Zaftig Chicks;

Bianca and Sylvia decided to hold another give away, hoping no one would notice that all they actually do is make videos of their tits, and post pointless links.

So far no one has gotten the correct answer, and we are really itching to get back to posting titty pics, so hopefully this next clue will help us get a winner.

Sylvia is green with envy.

As before, please post your guesses on the original thread. Good luck!!!

Do “Fat Girls Float”?

by sylvia

Ivan from Fat in NYC contacted us recently to ask us if we would help him promote something he was passionate about.  Since Ivan’s cool in our book, we were more than happy to oblige, especially since this something was a documentary about fat women by a fat woman.  Below is Ivan’s “call to action.”  If you are interested in promoting this as well on your own blog, please get in touch with Ivan, and he’ll get you all the details!

FAT GIRLS FLOAT is the provocative, engaging and moving new documentary from 300 pound filmmaker Kira Nerusskaya, who shares her message of perseverance and heart with the world.The film showcases intimate interviews with fat women from around the world who discuss size discrimination, political activism, fat and size acceptance, and their experiences as fat women under attack in a thin-centric world. Please be a part of making this film by pledging HERE. Any donation in any amount is appreciated. We only have until December 13th to raise the rest of the funds we need for this next step of post production, so please help us spread the word about this amazing project by tweeting, reposting this paragraph in your blog every Wednesday or on your site and telling your friends. Donate Now.  Join us this Sunday, 11/15/09 at 7:00p.m. EST for a “meet the film maker” conference call and Fat Acceptance discussion. Check out the Fat Acceptance Salon for more details at http://www.meetup.com/SizeAcceptanceSalon/calendar/11829542/

The First Clue

By Bianca

If you didn’t know, because you are one of those uncool people who don’t read our blog everyday, The Zaftig Chicks are having another contest.

No one has even come close to the correct answer yet, so here is your first clue.

The search term was mentioned twice, in posts written by Sylvia, about two months apart.

I am closing comments here. Please post your guesses on the original contest post. Good luck!

Another Beautiful Belly!

Here’s a beautiful belly from Liz C.

Enjoy!

Another Zaftig Chicks Contest – Enter if You Dare!

By Bianca

It’s that time again! Sylvia and I have decided to capitalize on our new-found popularity after privilegegate thank all of our lovely readers by having another Amazon gift card giveaway. Aren’t you super excited!!!11!!1!

Ok fine, it’s not like winning the lottery, but it’s something free, so kiss my fat ass if you don’t like it.

This time we are going to do things differently. Instead of simply leaving a comment telling us how awesome we are, the winner will be the first person to correctly answer a super duper hard question.

WordPress gives us the ability to see what search terms people have used to find our blog. We are actually way overdue for a post about the crazy things people type into google to find The Zaftig Chicks. Obviously things like zaftig booty and Sylvia sucks are super common (especially Sylvia sucks).

The contest is this. The first person who correctly guesses what the #3 search term used to find our blog is, wins the gift card. We’re picking #3 because #1 and #2 are zaftig chicks and zaftig, and that’s way too easy.

I think this may be a little tricky. That’s why we are going to give out a clue everyday, starting on the second day of the contest. You can enter as many times as you want. The first person to get it right wins.

Now I don’t have to tell you that this is not about winning some stupid gift card (although you are more than welcome to buy me something pretty for my birthday). It’s about proving that you are way better than everyone else, by being the first to get the answer right.

Your guesses just need to go in the comments to this post.

Ready? Set. Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Body Acceptance Through Belly Dancing – Guest Post!

Today’s guest post for Just Move Monday comes from Amy.  Enjoy!

Sometimes I can’t really believe that I have been bellydancing for five years. If you had come to me even three years ago and told me that I would regularly appear in public wearing only a skirt, a bra and lots of sequins, I would never have believed you. Add in the fact that I’d be shaking my hips at complete strangers, and I think I might have tried to have you committed.

Like most little girls, I took dancing lessons. I took ballet, modern and tap dancing, and although I was very enthusiastic, I was not very good. My ballet and tap dancing teachers were wonderful, and never once did either of them even mention weight. But all the popular girls did modern dancing, and so I convinced my mother to let me try. That was a huge mistake. My modern dancing teacher was straight out of hell, and made no bones about the fact that me and a couple of other girls in the class were simply too fat (at age 11) to be dancers. I hated her classes, and eventually gave up a few months later. I didn’t dance again for about 10 years.

I first was introduced to bellydancing at a friend’s birthday party. One of her friends had been dancing for a while, and decided to dance for her birthday, in lieu of a gift. I was transfixed. Although she was beautiful, this girl was not thin, and yet she could move her hips and stomach in ways that I had never thought possible. I had to find out how she did it! And so a few weeks later I managed to pluck up the courage to go to my first bellydancing class.

I am very lucky to dance with such a wonderful studio. From the start, my teacher made it clear that the essence of bellydance is about embracing one’s body and womanhood, and awakening the goddess within. Self criticism and competitiveness are not allowed! Although she is a fairly thin woman, she also struggled with poor self-image in the past and has made it part of her life’s mission to help women love and appreciate their bodies.

So over the course of the next year, I gradually learned to awaken my never before used stomach muscles. I don’t think most women realise how many different groups of stomach muscles we have, and how little these are used in normal life, or even at the gym. Isolating these groups of muscles and learning to control them individually is the key to producing sharp, precise hip movements, as well as slow and sensual belly rolls and undulations. Bellydancing is an amazing workout… its a combination of cardio, strength, endurance and stretching. Its also fun! To me, there is nothing more boring than exercise for the sake of exercise. But dancing doesn’t even feel like a workout (although my sore muscles the next day would tend to disagree) – it just feels like an hour of great fun, spent with good friends.

I’d been dancing less than a year when I took part in the first student showcase. It was terrifying! There were going to be at least 1000 people watching my flabby white stomach shake itself around the stage! And yet, at the same time, it was exciting, and liberating. Seeing women of all ages, sizes, body shapes and skin colours dancing together was amazing, and it was especially heartening to see how little self-consciousness and body insecurity there was. I took the plunge and did my first solo dance just over two years ago, and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me. I’d never thought that I would be a solo dancer with the ability to wow the crowd, and yet… I did! 

Fast forward a couple of years, and here I am. I am not a professional dancer (I already have one impossible job!), but I dance regularly as part of a group and as a soloist at charity events, bellydance festivals and studio parties. Finding bellydancing was the single most important event in my journey towards self acceptance. I still sometimes have days when I feel not that happy about my body, but at those times I like to think back on the compliments and applause that i have received over the years. Just recently, a woman came up to me at a festival and told me how nice it was to see a voluptuous bellydancer with a real belly, and how inspiring I was to her!

So, for any of you who are thinking of starting bellydancing…  try it!! You don’t have to perform – I love performing, but it isn’t for everyone. But, I would recommend bellydancing to even the shyest person, for these reasons: it is a fantastic, fun workout, it teaches grace and poise, and it teaches you to love and respect your body for all of the amazing things it can do.

Dancing at a holistic lifestyle fair

Dancing at a friend's gothic themed birthday party

Tribal style, for a studio party