Great, now I'm going to need one of these

Errrrrmmmm. Good luck with that?

the only problem i have with this sort of thinking is that it allows people to perpetuate the idea that being fat is not only okay, but that it is BEAUTIFUL. biologically speaking, being fat is not okay. it isn't something to necessarily feel ashamed about, but it is definitely something people shouldn't be proud of.

yes, there needs to be a change in our current standards of beauty, BUT we shouldn't reflect our attitudes and our idealizations based on where our weight is headed. just because half our country is overweight doesn't mean we should start feeling proud about it.

that aside, the photography really is quite stunning.

I agree. Its not healthy but lets not stare, ok?

Ew.

Reminds me of my old life drawing classes. There's light and shade in them thar folds.

Beauty is entirely in the eye of the beholder.

To some people, these are gross slobs.

To others, they are incredibly sexy.

And there is nothing wrong with either point of view.

It IS OK to feel beautiful even if you are this fat (or even more). There is a huge difference between recognizing the health implications and feeling beautiful to yourself and others.

i think that was well said, moe.

i think people should definitely love themselves and feel physically beautiful. i just feel like there is this whole plus sized movement that is condoning the idea of obesity not only as an acceptable, but a beautiful thing. and while i think you should embrace yourself and feel beautiful, i do not necessarily believe that you should stop at, "i'm beautiful the way i am." if you truly love yourself, your family, and your friends, you would work on maintaining your health. so i don't know. i sort of grey line the difference in my head, maybe?

this whole thing is obviously a reaction against what the media portrays as the "ideal beauty," but i think it is taking it much further than that and into an unsafe realm where it is perfectly awesome to be 5 sizes over your natural body type. there is NO DOUBT that we need to focus our ideals on a more realistic, average size and figure. however, the reason we need to do so is because it isn't healthy to try to mold yourself into the current ideal: 5 sizes UNDER your natural body type. so really, the obesity thing is just taking it to the other extreme. and that isn't right either.

am i even making sense? i'm trying really hard, because i feel pretty passionately about this topic. as an art student, the perception of beauty is something that i think about on a regular basis. it is just hard to formulate how i feel about it.

Beauty, as in attraction, is biological in origin. It's our way of selecting suitable mates.
Being highly obese is terribly unhealthy and are not traits one wants to see in your children. It can also get to a point for women where they are no longer to become pregnant.
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but they're still wrong.

Frankly, this movement, seemingly nice, can be quite harmful. Especially in developed countries (*cough*america*cough*), obesity is the number one killer. We don't need people to feel that being fat is okay, it's not. It's killing them.
We spend so much money preaching the dangers of smoking and yet now we want obesity to be beautiful?

Now, I'm not pushing for bone-thin people. I think many have gone too far and are frankly are too skinny. And many people, especially girls, who are perfectly fine are being pressured into being unnaturally skinny. But that is a separate issue.
There is a big difference between healthy and unhealthy.

I don't know if you're expressing how you feel well enough, but you perfectly expressed how I feel.

It feels wrong to like these pictures, and it feels wrong to dislike them, too. It's a bit like the beautiful Chernobyl exclusion zone photographs.

Her name is Substantia? How's that for destiny?

I don't even know what to say to something like this...

You've got to be living under a rock to think that most people who are overweight think it's okay.
No matter how this "movement" does, the vast majority of fat people are living with not a lot of self esteem and a whole lot of self consciousness. If this woman's one little corner of the internet makes some of those woman finally believe it when someone tells them they're beautiful, then more power to her. Sometimes a little confidence is all a person needs to make some healthy changes.

i did not ever say that most people who are overweight think that it is okay. i think you misunderstood, and i apologize for that since it was probably due to my scattered thinking. to reiterate in a more concise manner, i just believe that people shouldn't STOP at, "i love my body the way it is." and that is what i think that is ultimately what is going to come out of this movement. confidence is important, and maybe it could be a catalyst for change for some people. sadly, i just don't believe that is the case. from a personal standpoint, if i am confident in doing something and i accept it for what it is, i have absolutely no reason to change. i do not believe myself to be some freak of nature for that. feel free to tell me if you feel that i am.

I totally wasn't aiming it at you (unfortunately you can't point on the 'net, lol). I was responding to this:

Sorry, I probably should have quoted it earlier to avoid confusion.

Don't need to. It's intended to be jerkish in nature.

I never made any statement about how most people felt.
What I was referring to is the acceptance of obesity. Feeling fine being unhealthy might give you self-esteem, but that heart attack will still hit you.
Building self-esteem by claiming unhealthiness is beautiful is a terrible way to go about things.
To give an extreme example, let's just tell alcoholics that seeing them drunk and wasted is beautiful and perfectly fine, so that they don't feel bad about their alcoholism.

Just to clarify, I'm not commenting on someone's value as a person. There is far more to a person than their body and I would choose a kind fat person over a fit douche bag any day.

I havent quite figured out how to quote just part of a persons comment but I did want to respond to what ArchAngel said about feeling "confident in doing something and i accept it for what it is, i have absolutely no reason to change". For many years this was true for me. I am not a skinny woman. I always had the mentality that if someone didnt like the way I looked then they didnt have to look. This led me to have the "so what if im fat" attitude. Now that I have two Very Active children I find it hard to keep up with them. My "Confidence" came back and bit me in the @ss.