Golda Poretsky's Blog, page 7
July 31, 2013
O Brave New World, That Has Such Fatkinis In’t!
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn — Land Of Fatkinis
Yesterday, I went to the beach by myself in my fatkini.Despite the fact that I’ve been a truly body loving person for over five years, I had never done this before.
I had planned to go with a friend. I was all packed and ready to go, and then she texted me that she couldn’t make it. So I decided to hop on the Q train myself and take it all the way down to Brighton Beach.
Brighton Beach has a special place in my heart, because it was there that I first saw fat women in bikinis.
About 10 years ago I took a train to Brighton Beach on a whim just so I could walk along the boardwalk.
What I saw there just amazed me. I saw lots of bigger women in bikinis. Most of them seemed to be in their 40′s, 50′s and 60′s. They were unabashed in their comfort with themselves. I couldn’t imagine being so comfortable with myself. All I ever wore to the beach were tight miraclesuits that were hard to get on and even more difficult to take off.
A lot of those fatkini wearers were apple-shaped like me. For the most part, they weren’t fabulously curvaceous. Lots of them had big bellies (like me) too.
I’d been to Brighton Beach many times since then, both in my pre-fat-positive days and more recently, but always in a one-piece.
Until yesterday, I had worn a bikini just a few times in my whole life. My first one was when I was twelve — it had been my mom’s from the early 60′s. It was really cool, and I loved the freedom of not wearing a one piece. I always felt (an unspoken?) criticism that I shouldn’t be wearing it, but I somehow ignored it and wore it. Unfortunately, I soon grew out of the suit and my ability to ignore that criticism.
Me in my fatkini
Nearly 20 years later I was in Miami and a friend convinced me to go bikini shopping. I was somehow able to squeeze myself into an XL and wore it on the beach, which was honestly nerve wracking. I think I just wasn’t ready. I only wore it once more at the NAAFA convention in 2009. I hadn’t worn one in public again until yesterday.Wearing my bikini yesterday made me realize that it’s really not a big deal. I mean, it is a big deal in that we’re reclaiming the right to wear whatever we want, which is really important. But, I mean that wearing a bikini, in the scheme of things, is really just a choice. Once you make that choice and get yourself to the pool or the ocean or wherever, it’s time to (possibly literally) dive in.
It’s really thrilling to me that stores like ASOS, Modcloth, Simply Be, Always For Me and even freaking Lane Bryant are selling plus size bikinis. O brave new world, that has such fatkinis in’t!
Have you ever worn a fatkini? Do you plan to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
(Listen to this post here, or subscribe on itunes.)
O Brave New World, That Has Such Fatkinis In’t! originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on July 31, 2013.

July 22, 2013
Ever Call Yourself Lazy? Here’s Why You Should Stop
Picture this with me for a moment.
It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining. There’s a lovely breeze. You have nowhere to be. There’s nothing you really have to do. Your home is clean. You have the day off from work. If you have kids or people you take care of, they are all being taken care of by loving wonderful people. You have no clients or bosses to get back to. The day is totally and completely yours.
You decide to go to the beach. You pack sunscreen, lunch, a towel.
You get there and find a spot. You spend most of the day just lying there on the towel. You’re not swimming. You’re not walking along the beach. You’re just lying there, relaxing, doing essentially nothing.
Here’s another scenario:
You’ve had a really busy day at work. You’re exhausted. Your house is a mess. You have no energy to make dinner so you order in pizza. All you want to do in life is eat pizza and watch something relatively mindless on TV.
Question: In either of these scenarios, are you “being lazy”?
Laziness Or Just Relaxing?
You might be reading this and be thinking that only the first scenario is lazy (I have a whole day to myself and I just lie around doing nothing? I should be getting exercise or doing something worthwhile!). Or maybe you think the second scenario is more evidence of laziness (I would get my butt in gear and make dinner and/or not waste time watching TV!). Or maybe both seem really lazy to you.
I would argue that neither is lazy. Here’s why.
The word “lazy” is subjective and guilt-inducing.
“Lazy” is not an objective term. One person’s “dangerously lazy” is another person’s glorious relaxation.
When you believe that you’re lazy, you feel bad for relaxing. Your endless to-do list constantly looms on the horizon. You tell yourself that you shouldn’t be lying around, you should be productive! You compare yourself to people who you think are never lazy.
The guilt this produces is overwhelming.
One of my clients recently noticed that she eats more compulsively whenever she’s feeling guilty about watching TV. When she feels guilt for relaxing, she also feels guilty for eating, and simultaneously uses food to manage her feelings of guilt. (Those of you with disordered eating issues probably relate to this tangled web of feelings about food.)
When she lets herself relax and just enjoy her favorite shows, she eats with less guilt too.
I trust the choice to relax.
Relaxing is truly divine. In my studies of the divine feminine, I’ve begun to see a relationship between the denigration of relaxation and the denigration of pleasure.
When you relax you experience the pleasure of not having to work hard, think hard, etc.
Relaxing is not nothing. Relaxing allows your mind to unwind, allows your muscles to let go. It allows space for silly ideas and great ideas. It allows you to feel your feelings. It allows you notice what feels right and what doesn’t.
There’s a time to be productive and a time to relax. Choosing to relax is a powerful and valid choice.
Click to tweet: “Choosing to relax is a powerful and valid choice.”
Managing The “Fat & Lazy” Stereotype
It pains me to even talk about this, but I think we have to do so.
First, let’s acknowledge the truly weird societal assumption that fat people don’t exercise and eat junk food all day and thin people exercise regularly, eat well, and therefore should be congratulated for being thin.
I hate to put it in these terms, but there it is.
So, let’s all get on the same page here. There are fat and thin people who eat well and exercise, just as there are fat and thin people who don’t. And plenty of people of all shapes and sizes who are just living their lives and doing the best they can. Furthermore, there is no moral imperative to eat well or exercise (or tell people that they should or shouldn’t, for that matter).
But there is this stereotype that fat people are lazy. And you may be feeling the need to disprove the stereotype by being active and productive all the time.
All I can say is, you need not worry about what people who view you as a stereotype think about you or your body. First, because it’s just not your job. And second, because it probably won’t work anyway. People who stereotype others aren’t often interested in facts. Being a “good fatty” won’t change their minds.
Next Steps
If you often characterize the choice to relax as laziness, it’s time to stop.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to pay attention to your internal thought process. If you find yourself saying to yourself, “I’m so lazy” or some variant of it, stop yourself and use an affirmation like, “I honor my choice to relax,” “relaxing is good for me,” or “it is safe to relax.” Think this thought repeatedly as a way to overpower your inner critic’s insistence that you’re being lazy.
Taking a few deep breaths and thinking “It is safe to relax” can really do wonders.
So get comfy. And if you feel like it, comment below with your thoughts on relaxing.
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
(Listen to this post here, or subscribe on itunes.)
Ever Call Yourself Lazy? Here’s Why You Should Stop originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on July 22, 2013.

July 16, 2013
Add Yourself To The Rad Fatties Map!
Hi all,
This is seriously cool. Check out the Rad Fatties Map below!
(I can’t take credit for this at all. It was put together by Eliza Gershtein, with special technical help from Austin J. Austin and Zak Hubbard.)
Wanna get your rad fattie ass on this map? Just submit your info below and you’ll get added.
Loading…
Come back next week for some serious bloggage!
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.

Add Yourself To The Rad Fatties Map! originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on July 16, 2013.

July 10, 2013
Body Love on Bloglovin’
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Apparently, Google Reader is no more. But bloglovin is a thing. You can follow my blog on Blog Lovin by clicking here!
And yes, this is a very short post because I need to prove to Bloglovin that this is my blog with weird encoded things that you can’t see. :)
Body Love on Bloglovin’ originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on July 10, 2013.

July 8, 2013
This Is What Happens When A Fat Positive Power Panel Takes Over Huffpost Live!
Me getting ready for huffpo live
This morning I had the extreme pleasure of being on a panel with Dr. Deb Burgard, Virgie Tovar and Marilyn Wann!What fun to be on a “TV” show with a fat positive panel and one “doctor” (an urban planning PhD) who wasn’t feeling our profat stance. We totally outnumbered him and kept asserting facts whenever he got on the “obesegenic blah blah” train.
Us fat ladies just wouldn’t let him mansplain speak and tell us why our fat was killing us because we don’t walk enough. Or something.
You can check out the full video here:
Let me know what you think below!
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
This Is What Happens When A Fat Positive Power Panel Takes Over Huffpost Live! originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on July 8, 2013.

July 1, 2013
Sometimes Self Care Is About Saying No
Welcome to the most stripped down Body Love Wellness blog post ever.
I have a case of “the bubons” right now. It’s a sinus/throat/bronchitis/body flu/questioning your will to live sort of thing. All I want to do is lie in bed and watch Rifftrax, which I will go back to doing shortly.
But my fever-addled brain thought: “There’s gold in them thar sick hills!” And thus, I’m blogging at you, but in a very limited way.
As we’ve talked about before, self care is often about doing things to treat yourself. Taking a walk, reading a book, getting a pedicure. Essentially, taking time to cherish you and your body.
But self care can also be about saying a big ole fat “No” when you need to. So I thought I’d share with you some of the things that I’m saying “no” to today:
I’m saying no to:
1) Extraneous Emails — Only clients and editors are hearing from me today.
2) Client Appointments — I’ve moved all of my appointments for today. I have almost no voice so it’s pretty pointless anyway.
3) Recording My Podcast — Sorry podcast listeners!
4) My Laundry — I just really need to do laundry, but I have enough to get by.
5) Work-related Social Media — Only fun social media today.
6) Cooking – Diner chicken soup is amazing.
7) Spending More Than 20 Minutes On This Post — I know, you can tell.
Click to tweet: “Sometimes self care is about saying no.”
I’m also saying “yes” to:
1) Resting – Yay.
2) Help – I don’t know what I’d do without my bf’s cough drop runs.
3) My Body — I feel worse at my computer, so I’m trying to honor that.
4) Tea – Endless, endless tea.
5) Watching Random Period Pieces & Rifftrax — Need I say more?
Comment below and let me know what you say “no” to out of self care!
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
Sometimes Self Care Is About Saying No originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on July 1, 2013.

June 25, 2013
My Top 5 INSTANT Body Image Boosters
Generally speaking, improving your body image takes work and time. It takes a process of changing the way you think about your body, worrying less about other people’s judgments, and much more.
However, there are some really simple things that can make a big, instantaneous difference in your body image.
My clients often say things like, “I want to like my body even if my clothes are tight/ I don’t like my outfit/ I’m wearing no makeup” etc. And I agree that that should be a goal.
But sometimes little things like clothing or makeup can make a big difference. And sometimes, the accumulation of feeling a little better from these things can help in the bigger goals of loving your body no matter what.
My Top 5 Instant Body Image Boosters
These may sound kind of silly, but trust me on this. . .
Wear Bright Lipstick — This is one of those tips that will sound really silly until you try it. In the last few weeks, I’ve been really enjoying wearing bright lipstick, particularly this color.
Why It Works: Wearing bright lipstick is a signal to yourself and others that you want to be seen, that you’re not hiding. Whenever I wear it, random people say “hi” to me. Sometimes they even ask me about my lipstick and we end up in fun little conversations. Whenever I put it on, I just feel good.
Wear Your Favorite Clothes (No Saving Clothes!) — I often have to remind myself about this. I used to have a tendency to save clothes, particularly dresses, for special occasions. In the past, I would save them so long that I no longer felt excited about them. So unless you have a particular, special event coming up soon, do not save any clothes. Wear your favorite clothes today, this weekend, etc. Dresses that you expect to wear to a party, unless formal, can usually be made acceptable for work with a blazer or sweater.
Why It Works: When you wear clothes that you’re excited about wearing, you feel good and energized. You’re telling yourself that you’re worthy of your favorite clothes, that the most mundane day calls for a celebration of you and your body. (Note: If you wear a uniform or have very specific constraints on what you can wear to work, wear your favorite panties or bras. It’s a little more discreet, but you still get the benefit of knowing you’re wearing sexy stuff!)
Wear Only Clothes That Fit Comfortably — I acknowledge that this one can be tough, especially if you’ve been going through changes in your weight. But it’s really important to wear clothes that fit, or at least modify them as best as you can so that they fit better. If you can’t buy a new wardrobe, a combination of belts and tailoring can help make loose clothes fit better, whereas things like tanktops can be used under shirts or dresses that can no longer be buttoned. At the same time, if you have a few outfits that fit, it’s better to mix and match among those few things than to go even one day in pants that feel too tight. (By the way, if you have some money for new clothes, Torrid is having major sales right now.)
Why It Works: Wearing clothes that fit allows you to feel more comfortable in your skin. Tight clothes in particular can be a reminder of weight gain (which can be upsetting if you’re new to or still working on being fat positive). Uncomfortable clothes are just distracting. When you feel good in your clothes, it’s another reminder that you take yourself and your comfort seriously, which will actually boost your body image.
Find A Concealer That You Like And Wear It — A good concealer can do wondrous things. As I said above, I definitely want you to love your face, warts, pimples and all, but sometimes covering those things up just a bit can do wonders. Personally, I use this stuff (which wonderful makeup artist Lisa Johnson told me about). If I’m really running late, this concealer plus some bright lipstick (see above!) is enough to make feel really cute.
Why It Works: Concealer allows you stop fixating on the redness, bumps, pimples etc. on your face. It’s really that simple. When you feel like those things are more covered, you relax and feel better about being seen.
Wear Fragrance/ Essential Oil — Fragrance can have a huge effect on your mood. Just dabbing on a little perfume or using good smelling products or essential oils can really affect your day and your self perception.
Why It Works: Taking a few seconds to apply a fragrance is yet another signal to yourself that you matter. Throughout the day, you get little reminders of it every time you smell that scent again.
It’s Not Frivolous, It’s Divine
I used to think that most of the things I listed above were frivolous or unimportant. But they’re not. Every time you do something special for yourself like wear fragrance or clothes you like or bright lipstick, you tell yourself that you matter. It’s a reminder that your comfort and attractiveness and vibrancy matter. That not only affects your day and your self-perception, but it can affect the way that others see you too.
When you do these things, you are adorning your goddessly self. That is important.
Click to tweet: Check out these top 5 instant body image boosters from @bodylovewellnes!
Improving your body image is definitely about loving all of yourself, including perceived imperfections. But there is nothing wrong with wearing clothes or makeup or anything else that helps you feel good along the way. You can love your imperfections and your fabulous, non-made up face and still have fun and give yourself a boost with some of these tips.
An Extra Fun Little Tip
Recently, I joined Birchbox. For $10 a month, I get a box of fun little makeup and hair product samples every month. I’ve been really enjoying playing around with what I get, and it’s perfect for me because I love trying new stuff. It’s really a fun way to play around with your appearance, so click here to check it out!
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
(Listen to this post here, or subscribe on itunes.)
My Top 5 INSTANT Body Image Boosters originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on June 25, 2013.

June 17, 2013
Hate Your Body? Take *More* Pics!
My friends may have regretted letting me play their “reindeer games.”
I used to really avoid being in photos.Until relatively recently, that was pretty easy to do. Before every cell phone had a built in camera, before selfies and instagram (follow me!), you could really get away with avoiding photos. Only photography nerds (like me) used to carry around cameras, and it was mostly for capturing the raw beauty of a dead pigeon on Avenue A.
Sometimes the fact that everything gets photographed or video-ed really bugs me. (I can’t be the only one who’s been at a concert and wanted to say to the tall dude in front of me, “Hey, how about putting your camera down and just watching the show right now?”)
And yet, I also see it as an interesting opportunity to reclaim your self image. If you sort of go with it, you can actually use things like selfies as a tool to improve your body image.
How To Improve Your Body Image With Photos
Action Step #1: Take Some Really Bad Photos Of Yourself On Purpose — Whip out your phone or camera, and take a ton of pics of yourself. I’m talking in the hundreds. Take them from weird angles. Make funny faces. You can do this with a friend too. You may even want to do this a couple of times over the course of a week or a month. Do not skip this step!
What This Does: When you take “bad” photos of yourself, you get used to your own image. You start to realize that “good” or “bad” pics are all about angles, lighting, expression and not really about you. (Remember, even when models are shot for print ads, hundreds of images are taken, then one is chosen and airbrushed to death.) When you do this process, you get less upset when someone else takes a less than flattering photo of you. You’ll be less triggered when you catch yourself reflected in a storefront. You may even have fun with your image for the first time.
Action Step #2: Take Some Selfies And Post Them — Now, try to take some “good” photos. Think about your “bad” photo experiment and avoid taking pictures from those weird angles. Give yourself time to play around with lighting, angles, makeup, etc. And then, post those pics! If you don’t want them to be public, use privacy settings so that only certain friends can see them. You’ll probably get a lot more positive comments than you expect.
What This Does: This does two things. First, it allows you to control your public image. You get to put out the world images of yourself that make you feel good. Second, you get positive feedback from friends who will cheer you on and, at the very least, “like” your image.
Click To Tweet This:
“Photos are about memories and experiences, not just how you look or what you weigh.”
Action Step #3: Join A Body-Positive, Photo-Sharing Community — There are so many great tumblrs of regular folks showing off fatshion, generally being body positive, outfits of the day (ootd’s), and just pics of themselves being fat and exciting. (And don’t forget about Fatshionable Apples!)
What This Does: Looking at tumblrs like this normalizes bodies that you don’t normally see in everyday media. It’s a wonderful counterbalance to the very thin images you see every day. And you get a wonderful sense of community by looking at and responding to posters’ images. You may find it empowering to submit your own images too.
Don’t Forget This Mindset Shift
Photos are about memories and experiences, not just how you look or what you weigh. When you look at your photos, don’t just scrutinize your face and body. Think about what you were doing, who you were with, what was going on in the moment.
When you’re more willing to join in pictures, not only do you get an opportunity to preserve a memory, but your friends and loved ones get that too. They want you in their pictures. You’re part of that memory. Let yourself jump in and say a big, cheesy, “Cheese!”
FYI: The Summer Of Body Love Starts TODAY! This is your last chance to get in on it from the beginning. Go here to check it out
→ http://everydayfeminism.com/summer-of-body-love/
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
(Listen to this post here, or subscribe on itunes.)
Hate Your Body? Take *More* Pics! originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on June 17, 2013.

June 10, 2013
Introducing . . . Fatshionable Apples!
Hi everyone!
I hope you’ll take a moment to check out and follow my new tumblr “Fatshionable Apples.”
I started this tumblr because (a) I love clothes, (b) sometimes finding clothes and figuring out what to wear is especially hard for us “apple shaped” types and (c) I noticed that whenever I posted pictures of myself in various outfits on my Body Love Wellness facebook page, people really seemed to like it.
But I definitely do not want this blog to be all about me or pictures of me. That’s why I want you to send in your pics and tell me about your favorite outfits.
I love fatshion for fatshion’s sake, but I also love creating a space where other apple shaped fat folks can get inspiration for fat visibility. It isn’t always easy to be fat and visible, and I want to make it a little easier. I want folks to see this tumblr and think, “If this person can wear this awesome outfit and do this or that, so can I!”
With love,
Golda
Introducing . . . Fatshionable Apples! originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on June 10, 2013.

June 5, 2013
My Letter To President Sexton Of NYU Regarding Geoffrey Miller’s Antifat Tweet
As you’ve probably heard by now, Professor Geoffrey Miller tweeted this a few days ago: “Dear obese PhD applicants: If you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.”
He quickly retracted this statement, but the damage was already done.
Prof. Miller is a University of New Mexico professor who is a visiting professor at NYU.
As an NYU alum two times over (B.A. history, with honors, summa cum laude 1999, JD 2002), I was really unhappy with NYU’s response. So I decided to write to the President of NYU, John Sexton, who actually taught a tiny group of freshman back in 1995 that included yours truly. Here’s what I wrote:
Dear John:
I hope you are well. I’m also hoping that you remember me. I was in your freshman honors seminar on the First Amendment’s religion clauses back in the Fall of 1995. I graduated from NYU with honors, summa cum laude, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa I also attended NYU Law, graduating in 2002.
I’m writing to you as an NYU CAS and NYU Law alum, a lawyer, a health coach who works with fat people, and a fat person myself.
Based upon Geoffrey Miller’s tweet, I’m very concerned about NYU’s decision to keep him on staff. His tweet, stating that fat people have “no willpower” and therefore should not even apply to be PhD candidates indicates that he supports and likely engages in appearance-based discrimination.
Discrimination based on weight is a serious problem. Studies indicate that 1 in 3 children experience weight bias from a teacher. Larger people are less likely to be accepted into college. Like any other kind of discrimination, discrimination against fat people is insidious and prevents larger people from achieving in academia and elsewhere. As a result, many states and municipalities have added “height and weight” and/or “appearance” as a protected class. It is now illegal to discriminate on the basis of height/weight and/or appearance in the state of Michigan and in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Washington, DC, Madison, WI, Urbana, IL and Binghamton, NY. Civil rights groups like NAAFA are working to get more laws like these on the books.
Dr. Miller’s continued employment could create liability for NYU on a number of bases. The ADA as amended protects people who are disabled by weight or are perceived to be disabled by weight. Perceiving fat students to be disabled, as Dr. Miller essentially suggests, would bring fat students under the umbrella of the ADA. Obesity is also more common in protected groups (e.g. women, certain minority groups, people over 55) so that discrimination on the basis of weight has a disproportionate impact on these groups. This type of discrimination may also violate consumer protection laws, because students purchasing the same education will get unequal benefits based solely on their appearance.
Click to tweet: @NYUniversity stop supporting #bigotry. Fire Dr. Miller. #discrimination
On a personal note, I can tell you from my own experience that I had a great amount of willpower in college. I was on a very strict diet while a senior at NYU. I lost weight, was hungry and uncomfortable all the time, and still finished my senior honors thesis. Most of the fat people I’ve encountered in my life have been through similar experiences. We power-through and achieve despite being stigmatized and despite starving ourselves “for our own good.”
Fatness is so maligned in our culture that bigotry toward fat people often goes unnoticed at best and supported at worst. It may sound cliche, but if you substitute “obese PhD candidates” with “female PhD candidates” or “gay PhD candidates” the bigotry would be much clearer. Similarly, publicly stating that a group of people are not fit to receive PhD’s based on their size should not be tolerated.
John, I have a great deal of respect for you, and your seminar was probably my favorite class of my academic career. I know you to be an eminently reasonable person who understands the dangerous nature of stigmatization and bigotry. That is why I am asking you to reconsider NYU’s decision to keep Dr. Miller on staff. It pains me to think that the school that I know and love would stand behind a professor who would find me ineligible to pursue a PhD just based on my appearance.
I would be happy to discuss this with you further at your convenience. I can also put you in touch with an attorney who represents fat people in discrimination suits.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Golda
Special shoutout to Sondra Solovay, Esq., weight discrimination specialist and co-editor of The Fat Studies Reader (printed, ironically, by NYU Press), for her help with this letter.
I found UNM’s response to Prof. Miller’s tweet to be more heartening. I’m glad that they’re at least investigating his claim that this is all part of an experiment.
Get great body love tips and more when you subscribe:
Name:
Email:
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.
My Letter To President Sexton Of NYU Regarding Geoffrey Miller’s Antifat Tweet originally appeared on Body Love Wellness (http://www.bodylovewellness.com) on June 5, 2013.
