You just can't escape the fat hate.

So I joined Pinterest a few days ago and I have really been enjoying it. For those of you who haven't heard of it yet Pinterest is a social networking site that works by pinning images onto "boards" which is basically just a group of similar pins that share the same topic or idea. Once you have "pinned" something to a board it attaches a picture or video along with a little comment or description of the thing you pinned and if you click on it it will bring you back to that page. Some of the main categories are home, recipes, crafts, fashion, and so forth. It is a quick visual way to group things that you see while surfing the internet and being that I am a very visual person it works well for me. I also like being able to follow my friends and family who are also on Pinterest and see things that they post. I have found that my second oldest sister and I actually have a bit in common in regards to what we like and that is a neat thing to know.

Anyway I have really been enjoying it but last night I got quite frustrated with a common theme that was popping up as I was browsing other people pins. That theme was fat hate, thinspiration, body snarking,  or diet propaganda and all that jazz. Now I am not surprised at all to see it there, what did surprise and hurt me the most is who I saw it from. Seeing those pins from people I love and care about, and whom I am close to, hurt a lot and made me wonder if that is how they also see me. Seeing or hearing how awful fat is, how badly they want to get rid of it, and how much they despise or fear it,  from close friends or relatives in my life made me start wondering about our relationship. If they feel that way about fat how can they separate that from me when I AM a fat woman. It really made me think and examine some of my relationships.

Now while that was a sad thing to see and ponder I have to say it was also nice to see fat/size positive pins from people, pins about HAES and speaking up against the fat hate. We need more of that to keep popping up and I truly believe that the more people see and become familiar with the fat positive message the easier it will become to help show what we are all about. I think that every little post, pin, or other kind with a fat/size acceptance kind of message helps to plants seeds in people that will get them to find out more or be more open to hearing about it in the future. So while it is true you really can't escape all those negative messages unless you sequestered yourself into a padded room, I think we can all fight back against those messages by sprinkling positive ones where-ever we can.

Do any of you have pinterest accounts? What do you think about it? What kinds of things, or methods could we do to spread a positive message about size and fat? I would love to begin to pin as much FA/HAES and body positivity messages as I can so if you know of something that would make a great thing to pin along those lines please leave a link here.They may seem like little drops in the sea of fate hate we face, but I think they can make a difference.