Issa Waters, fat acceptance blogger and alterna-mom, is getting tired of your responses to her anti-diet posts – so much so that she felt the need to post a list of reasons why she isn’t approving your comments:
If your comment talks about how you would have died if you hadn’t lost weight or talks about how you avoided certain diseases or conditions by losing weight, I’m probably not letting your comment through.
And don’t bother with your personal story of weight loss, because she’s just not interested.
I know you’re super-excited about your feat, so much so that you have forgotten the definition of anecdote, but what you’re doing here is just mean. Do you think that somehow your words are going to be the magic advice that make it all make sense to us fat people?
Issa’s response to your “anecdotes” about how you lost weight is to tell you that “you’re boring. Boring as shit. I just don’t care what you eat and how you exercise. I know your story is fascinating to you, but it sounds exactly like everyone else’s story to me.” But it’s not that Issa is just being sensitive; she is looking out for the feelings of overweight readers who should not be subjected to such comments:
To my fat readers: I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard of exercise before. It has also crossed my mind that water is better for me than soda. Sensible eating! Lifestyle change! Finding activities I love! Whole foods! I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but we’ve all heard this stuff, right? I could let these comments through if you’re all dying to be educated, but I have a strong hunch that you’ve been plenty “educated” enough.
Yes, because the number one problem facing people today is over-education about nutrition and exercise. Look, I don’t care if she wants to share her opinion about the diet industry and tell people that they should ignore doctors who say they should lose weight. And again, we are all for size acceptance here on GOMI. But these bloggers putting up posts ranting about why they aren’t going to listen to you or post your comments is getting a little old. This is the sort of stuff that should just be added to your comment policy, not crafted into some aggressive-defensive diatribe about why reader opinions will not be allowed to see the light of day. We get it, it’s your blog and you will moderate to allow only the comments you want to see. No need to put up these posts, people.
What with parsley dildos, naked babies crawling over splinter ridden pallets and snippets of genius like this one I might just start following her blog.
She has one mightily inflated ego.
Can I just say that I’m soooo sick of the whole “diets don’t work” manifesto. If you don’t want to change the way you eat, fine. But to seemingly claim that no one, ever, has gained anything positive about changing their diet (and by this I don’t mean going on a DIET) for the better is just a load of crap.
Oh and since exercise doesn’t automatically make you lose weight, why do that either. GAH!!!! (Can you tell I’m a liiiiiittle bit frustrated? But honestly, these arguments seem to crop up all the time and they drive me nuts. *insert a squirrel gif here*)
I’m not even going to get into the debate about dieting or fat and fit or whatever. I think everyone SHOULD be happy with their size or allowed to make changes if they want. I’m just sick of bloggers posting these “why I am not going to publish your comments” manifestos. Just update your comment policy and be done with it.
I really hate when they poorly summarize comments that they don’t let readers see for themselves.
REALLY?! OK!
Love that!!!
“I know you’re super-excited about your feat, so much so that you have forgotten the definition of anecdote, but what you’re doing here is just mean. Do you think that somehow your words are going to be the magic advice that make it all make sense to us fat people?”
That is rich, coming from her. And so, so, so rude. I wouldn’t dream of speaking to my blog commenters that way when all they’re doing is sharing their life experiences, even if it was completely off the mark from what I intended the post to be about.
I want her to explain how sharing a story of personal experience is “mean”. I assume it’s “mean” because someone saying “actually I did lose weight by changing my lifestyle” makes someone feel bad if it didn’t work for them? I don’t know about you folks, but someone telling me I should put down the Franzia and easy mac doesn’t come off as “mean” to me, it’s advice I should probably heed. The fact that I choose not to doesn’t make me take it as some personal attack and respond with “you’re being mean!”
Exactly! And from the way the quote from Issa’s blog is worded, it sounds like people are just sharing generally, not even actually addressing anyone. So, what, it’s mean now to even type the word “diet” where a fat person can possibly read it? If I were one of her fat readers, I’d be super offended at her belief that I can’t think for myself.
You know what? me saying to me to stop drinking 1000 empty calories every night & cooking a delicious dinner every night? THAT’S FUCKING MEAN SO I IGNORE ME AND KEEP ON KEEPING ON. Fuck ME.
I’d agree that it’s mean if they were lecturing her on an unrelated post (“I went to the park!” “YOU’RE FAT STOP EATING COOKIES”), but I don’t think it’s mean to respond to a post about bodies and diets with things that you have experienced in the field of bodies and diets.
It’s like you can hear the voices in my head.
I find this kind of line of thought funny from someone who has a four part birth story posted on their blog. Is that mean to all the people who are unable to have children? I guess naval gazing is okay for her, but not for everyone else.
She must really hate Michelle Obama.
http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/michelle-obama-newsweek.gif
Since I joined this site my gifs folder has fucking exploded
Two pink haired ladies on the front page has be thinking that the unicorns have arrived.
“I promised myself years ago never to “exercise” again, because doing so is always an act of hatred against myself.”
What is this I can’t even
That’s a crazy comment. It’s almost like if she justifies it enough, it makes it OK.
Why do people think that the blog world desperately needs their wingnut opinions?
Clearly I should make people I don’t like come running with me. Two birds, one stone.
Look, I hate exercise as much as the next ham, but I get on the treadmill for like 20 minutes or whatever and watch an episode of Futurama, because I know that it makes me feel better, in the long run.
Also, because I don’t want this to happen.
Exactly. No, I don’t feeling overwhelmingly fucking excited to go waste an hour of my life at the gym every day but guess what? It’s the only way i’m able to stay healthy and happy. Hello, endorphins. Perhaps she wouldn’t be so opinionated and crazy if she was able to enjoy some of those.
Zap Brannigan’s body inspires me.
“Come over here and feel my velour bedspread.”
I can’t either. I don’t particularly care for mindless cardio – unless SVU is on, then I will bust my butt and sweat to Elliot Stabler – but it’s not torture. Find something that you do enjoy and do it. Go for a hike. Swim in a lake.
Right. I used to hate working out because to me, that meant spending an hour on an elliptical. You just have to find something that works for you.
Or, you know, you could keep thinking that breaking a sweat is ABUSE.
I fucking hate exercising…until I do it, and then I feel like a badass. Even if all I did was jog for like nine minutes. By the end of those nine minutes I’m like “YEAH THAT’S RIGHT. I’M BATMAN. I AM GONNA MUSCLE UP AND DEFEND GOTHAM, BITCHES.”
…”Batman Begins” is on TV right now and making me want to become a ninja. Don’t judge.
I LOVE this comment, high five. I feel the same exact way. I feel like a total ninja assassin afterwards and its awesome. I feel physically sick if I eat and eat and don’t exercise.
Our species has spent DECADES on couches, shoving our faces in front of the TV to stave off boredom. Who came up with this idea that our bodies were designed to move?! Stop the abuse!
Dogs, you are brilliant.
Amazing.
“I promised myself years ago never to “exercise” again, because doing so is always an act of hatred against myself.”
Really. Bitch, please.
EDITED BY PARTYPANTS:
Sorry but this image
http://www.theluxuryspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dog_unicorn.gif
Was found to be the thing causing the “omg malware” issue. Special thanks to my ad service for helping me locate the issue, as we assumed it was an ad causing the problem.
Whoops, that was for Ta Da, who was sharing my wonder at all the pink hair on the front page.
Love you SugarBombs! That is just what I needed.
Wow, I’d post an apology gif for breaking GOMI, but that would probably be inappropriate under the circumstances.
Sorry for causing you more work, PP. You’re the best!
I think weight and body image are really complicated topics and a lot of people have some heavy stuff they need to unpack. If you don’t want to hear any other perspectives, I don’t know why you have a blog. Maybe she should just write her blogs in MS Word and not publish them if she doesn’t want to know what people think.
This is us:
This means so much to me, you have no idea!
Spot on.
*curtsy*
http://www.issathoughts.gov.www/issathoughts
haha, after I posted, I was like, “Hey…isn’t that an episode of the Office?”
perfect.
I’m with Conan up there. I’ll add — Or at least be honest with your readers and say “Hey, this is my blog and I only accept positive, complimentary comments. Those are my rules. That’s how I roll.”
Maybe “roll” is the wrong word choice, but, you know.
Yeah, this is what I came here to say. So her blog is about fat acceptance, but only towards those who want to stay fat. No other perspectives allowed. Fun.
“Fatness isn’t even a risk factor for heart disease. Fat people do not die sooner.”
Is she for reals?
Obesity is a risk factor for developing high BP and diabetes, both of which can lead to heart disease.
“Obese teens, like heavy smokers, were at double the risk of dying early” — http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/health/04obesity.html
Don’t come to her blog of personal stories and leave your personal story because then you are just a mean thinny who cruelly subjects herself to the evils of exercise.
But those studies don’t back her argument so she isn’t going to even acknowledge that evidence.
That reminds me of this insane “friend” I had once who used to argue with me about things and cherry-pick her sources, like from “aspartameconspiracy.com” or some shit like that.
I love Aspartame Conspiracy — they rocked the shit out of Bonnaroo last year.
That was double dutch to me so I googled Bonnaroo:
Not heard of a lot of the other bands, but Laura Marling, OMGRadiohead and Ben Folds Five (going to see them over here in October) – looks fun!
Ooooh, oooh, here’s another one about how exercise is a, well, exercise in self-hatred!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/07/lack-of-exercise-kills-roughly-as-many-as-smoking-study-says.html
Furthermore, they are mean.
I think this is a goofy thing to get upset about. I mean, it’s her blog, and she has something new to say about her comment policy that she hasn’t said before. Seems reasonable to announce her policy via a new post. It’s certainly a different sort of comment policy that many people won’t be familiar with. Maybe she’ll add it to her “about” page later. Lots of people normally don’t check out “about” pages unless they’re new to a site, anyway.
But I guess if you are going to be hypercritical of popular bloggers, this is pretty harmless and non-hateful, so whatever.
So you think it’s perfectly ok to tell people who take the time out to comment on your money making blog that they can basically go fuck themselves because you don’t want to hear it unless it agrees with you? You think that’s professional? Because you’ve ragged on GOMI claiming nobody wants comments here that don’t agree with GOMI’s opinion. So I’m left to assume it’s perfectly ok for everyone who isn’t GOMI to be an asshole.
It seems like no matter what is said here you are going to defend the person or action mentioned, strictly because you dislike GOMI. Which is fine, you do you girl. I’m just having trouble figuring out why doing so makes you so superior to any of us.
Whatever. Welcome back.
Maybe I misunderstood your post. I actually do think bloggers should leave their comments open and take the good with the bad, so if that was what you were saying I guess I do agree with you (though not enough to start a website making fun of people who don’t, but whatever).
I thought you were mainly saying she shouldn’t make a separate post about this but simply put it on her about page, and I do think that’s a silly thing to complain about.
Not that you need to notice but I actually have said I thought your no delete comment policy and occasional polite and encouraging comments to people who disagreed with you here (someone recently about Kaylee and health care and privilege I think) was classy, so I don’t think I disagree just to be disagreeable. (fwiw if I even vaguely agree with criticism you post I’m not going to comment to that effect generally because part of my problem with this site it that it’s a pile on and creates a sort of mob, and you don’t really need another person in that mob saying all these bloggers suck.)
You know what’s weird? I’ve never seen onlyconnect and Taylor in the same place…
Oh, duh, totally missed this until now. Yeah, I think I didn’t write this post correctly (meaning, making it clear what I meant) because honestly I was in a hurry to get outside. My point was supposed to be that I think these rants about what you choose not to listen to are obnoxious and off putting. As far as starting a website to rant about the rants, well, if everyone was doing that GOMI wouldn’t be full of (what I consider) awesome people here participating.
Re: “Not that you need to notice”, I looked back, did find your comment, and thank you. I missed that so it didn’t factor in to my previous remarks about your GOMI comments. That’s my fault, I don’t always read every comment.
Again, welcome back from vacation.
I can’t tell all these fat fucsia haired lunatics apart
Yes.
That made me snort! Neither can I, and quite frankly I find them both exhausting.
PS. So she doesn’t want to diet or exercise, fine, whatever, but for the love of ham, do something about those eyebrows!
We need an Eyebrow Acceptance movement. I refuse to purposefully hurt myself so that YOU’RE comfortable with MY eyebrows!
/also really lazy, kind of want to get them laser hair removal on my eyebrows so they are forever beautiful
“I have a dream between my eyebrows and I won’t stop until I accomplish it.”
Keep tweezing and the pain will go away. All the nerves in my eyebrows are long dead, I don’t feel a thing anymore.
I’m not talking an uber brow – a’la Mighty Girl, who always looks shocked, just some maintenence – some cleaning up. Try threading- relatively painless, fast, & cheap – like me, in college.
Oh man, they waxed my brows a BIT MUCH last month and now I’m like fuck it, they need to grow completely out and I’ll start over. The shit is like if Jean Harlow had a baby with Snookie. What’s worse is apparently I’m the only one who thinks so, so I keep wondering if I’m being anal about them.
Oh, spoiler alert, threadjack.
I’m so sorry. I really need to stop but I just can’t.
Two eyebrow waxings ago, the wax was too hot and I had a burn for a week. I was miserable and in pain. And then the latest waxer got me under giant magnifying glass and told me I needed to wax my upper lip.
Ruined me. I think that’s why I look in the mirror and go “okay, yeah, this is fine, I’ll just wear big sunglasses forever.”
PP, try threading! come to queens, you’ll have some beautifully precise brows for four bucks and way less pain.
PP, you know what’s worse than a bad brow incident?…
Well, as a Christmas gift I got a session of laser treatment to zap away my sun/age spots on my face, and whilst doing so my dermatologist SLIPPED and lasered a half dollar size circle INTO MY HAIRLINE. Yup, a lovely hair-removal session of my ACTUAL HEAD HAIR did I get. I have dark brown hair on pale skin, so my hairline was all effed up with a very noticeable perfectly round bald spot, which I had prepaid a nice chunk of money for.
So anyways, I frantically went home to google whether or not it would ever grow back, and some poor GUY in Florida had frantically posted on a board that his derm slipped and freaking ZAPPED OFF HIS EYEBROW. And everyone was responding with, “Hey oh, you can just redraw it in with an eyebrow pencil,” and the guy was like, “I’m a fucking MAN!”
HOLY. CRAP.
I am happy to say that five months later my bald spot has finally filled in, although so far it looks like at least 1/3 of the hair may be gonzo for good. I am not complaining though, as I’m just happy it’s not noticeable anymore.
@ LaDeeDa – I’m so sorry, but I’m laughing so hard there are tears rolling down my cheeks. I KNOW it’s not funny and I’ve always been an inappropriate laugh-er. And the more inappropriate my laughing the less I can control it – as in hide my face in my hands because at least it could kind of look like I was sobbing. What killed me was the visual in my head of the man with one bushy brow and one penciled brow. In all seriousness though, I’m glad a lot of your hair grew back.
@LaDeeDa – OMG, I am crying laughing, too. I am glad most of your hair will grow back, but holy shit, that’s horrible! Did you flip shit? Get your money back? What happened?!
Most of my LOLing is because (like Greg’s Wife) I am picturing that poor man with one bushy eyebrow & one penciled eyebrow. Ahhhh! Terrible!
I know, in retrospect it IS actually pretty funny, and I’m glad I can laugh now. If you knew me, you’d know that this is a VERY typical LaDeeDa experience … I”m always getting into situations like this, which provide many good guffaws for my friends and family.
I did flip my shit, big time, though not on the doctor or anything like that, I just died internally. I don’t even remember the drive home that day… I was so horribly stunned. I did take pics, (also good fodder for friends) because I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. I looked into hair transplants and everything. Thank freaking God Baby Jesus it has filled in again. Oh, uh, and I also joined a message board for bald men who have had laser surgery on their scalps intentionally (to get rid of the shadow) to get their take on my predicament. Yup, I am now down with the ins and outs of the bald men of our country, and can tell you anything you need to know about head-shaving, male hair loss, and whatnot.
As for that poor man in Florida, all I can picture is some guy like Nathan Lane from the bird cage (although he would have been okay with the brow pencil!) or maybe Cam from Modern Family. That poor poor guy!!!
“I looked into hair transplants and everything”
*dead*
For what it’s worth, that is the story of my life too.
Now stop, I have mascara on now and it’s stinging my eyes.
What IS the deal with the hot pink hair? Is this a thing now? Is everyone trying to relive something thanks to that Kurt Cobain SASSY cover being posted everywhere?
I have no idea so will blame Gala Darling.
Everything is her fault.
I’m not sure she is even reading the articles she’s linking to in her blog. Some of them actually support the concept that exercise and dieting lead to weight loss. Or am I just crazy??
“Exercisers with greater increases in pedometer-measured steps per day had greater decreases in weight, BMI, body fat, and intra-abdominal fat (all p trend < 0.05 in both men and women). "
AND
" Conclusion: Exercise plays an equivalent role to CR in terms of energy balance; however, it can also improve aerobic fitness, which has other important cardiovascular and metabolic implications. "
Whatever, she's going to make whatever arguments she can to support her ideas and that's fine, but she should really read the articles she's linking to and understand what their results imply before saying they support her infinite wisdom.
Do crash diets work? Not long term. Do lifestyle changes work for people long term? Yes.
It is not rocket science. But if she wants to be fat and stay fat, that is her prerogative. No one is arguing that point. She just has to justify it with all of her "credible evidence". Whatever. Lame. Just say you wanna be fat and be done with it.
This gif almost erases the image of naked Issa out of my brain. Almost.
Steve! <3
Steve rocks a turtleneck something awesome.
I’m being a terrible mother and GOMI-ing while my son stares at the computer screen (don’t tell the AAP. I will accept the punishment of insta-ADHD)…he just got so tripped out by that crazy star thing. He started talking to it and kept trying to grab it.
I’m kind of tempted to comment, “You know…you really aren’t all that fat.” Just to see what happens.
Please do.
OK. I just tried. I wasn’t going to until I read her screed “Parenting Isn’t Hard.” I have three kids, two of whom are twins, all of whom have “special needs.” She’s got ONE. ONE BABY. FUCK HER.
Snort. I love that she wrote about how people have no license to ever lose their patience with their kids….while her kid was 7 months old. Yeah, lady, it’s really, really easy to maintain total control and the perfect googly voice with your kid when he’s an infant. Let’s check back on how perfectly you manage that one when he’s old enough to understand the consequences of his actions, to push your buttons on purpose, etc.
lisawhip – my hat is off to you. I have one kid and he can be a handful. Twins + another + special needs is a tough row to hoe for sure.
I mean…it’s not THAT bad. But it is HARD. And sometimes I have to (*gasp*) YELL (which apparently = abuse), not necessarily to discipline them, just to get their damned attention. If there’s anything I have learned from my kids, it’s not to observe some stranger having a bad moment and extrapolate…I need to avoid this chick like the plague because she makes my brain hurt.
Oh, I didn’t mean to suggest that your situation was bad, just understandably hard at times.
I cannot agree more about kids teaching you how to resist the urge to see someone having a bad moment and extrapolate. Having a kid has brought me much more in tune with the idea that there are many, many moments in my life that I would not want someone to use to make broad judgments about me without knowing more context (not that I fly off the handle all the time or anything, but that there’s often more going on than one can see in a small moment of observation). Good, humbling stuff.
Reading the comments on that Parenting Isn’t Hard post is both brain-injuring and hilarious. Her thoughts on little kids beating up their siblings is so, so snort-worthy. I cannot wait for that kid to get a little older and start turning every single object he picks up into a gun. With sound effects.
Haha. I have twins too, they are 5 i also have a nine year old. And a 13 year old. Patience is a dear commodity you gotta buy trade and steal that shit from where ever you can get it…but just like any other commodity there aint no shame if it getts lost or stolen every once in a while, you just take a deep breath chalk it up to shit happens and move on
I like this and may steal it.
….and I guess my comment was a no-no.
Hey lisawhip, I feel a kindred spirit in you! I too have 3 kids – two of whom are twins and all of whom also have ‘needs’. Thankfully, the ‘needs’ allow our family to function in two worlds; The normal world where some people’s biggest problems are their kid got an A and not an A+ on their landscape drawing, and the world where some people’s biggest landmarks are their kids are old enough to finally get a prosthetic eye. I have a really, really bizarre sense of humor. Oh to be a fly-on-the-wall when she has to pack-up and leave somewhere because her kid isn’t behaving. Let’s see her patience-keeping skills then.