fatshion february

February is a big month in fatshion and Tumblr land. It’s the start of Fatshion February. I believe this is the second year it has run and last year was a huge success. It’s exactly what it sounds like – showing off your fatshion in February. Last year I was too late to the tumblr bandwagon to participate but I watched and read posts afterwards with glee.

This year, I had planned to participate, but I didn’t feel I could. I love looking at the different outfits different people put together, but it was for exactly that reason why I felt like I couldn’t participate.

I don’t work in an office, so I can’t post corporate or business casual wear. I don’t wear a uniform, which I guess would ultimately be boring to post five days in the week (or six, or seven, depending on the work place). I’m caring for my younger sister at the moment, which mostly means a fair bit of down time at home. I barely leave the house except for her and to grocery shop. Unless I have something planned on the weekend, I’d pretty much never leave the house. And therefore, I’d never get dressed up. So, I don’t feel like any outfits I’d have to showcase would be “worth” it.

In the interests of honesty though, I know some people have been putting their everyday, not so fancy outfits on Tumblr and tagging them with Fatshion Februrary. One friend even put up an outfit photograph of her after exercising, sweat stains and all. I appreciated this.

Last year, it felt like every photograph I was seeing was so done, so completely put together that I didn’t feel there was room for me. Part of this was because of the vast majority of users being in other hemispheres than mine – it’s hard to look put together when you’re trying not to sweat your face off. I’m sure it’s also hard when you’re trying not to freeze your face off. How could I see a Bonds chesty without a bra and old, daggy Kmart shorts as fatshion? Wasn’t I just perpetuating the stereotype of the slovenly fatty? The woman who has “let herself go?”

So often, women (fat women in particular) aren’t allowed to show their flaws. Aren’t afforded the same leeway with bumming around the house wear as slimmer women are – we must look put together otherwise we’ll be seen as the sloppy fat chick. I had this attitude so deeply ingrained in me I didn’t even realise it. It’s still there.

I had to give myself a pep talk along the lines of “SNAP OUT OF IT.” I realised I was buying into the beauty and fashion ideal. I’ve always said I like honesty in photographs and I know so many aren’t. I’m completely guilty of it myself – I still mostly make sure I wear make up, I have a “photo face” and particular “poses” I know make me look “better” in a photograph. I don’t think it’s an entirely bad thing, nor even entirely dishonest, but it’s not completely honest either. With digital cameras and editing programs, we can curate our lives and our faces how we’d like to see them and show them. I know people who won’t let photographs of them appear on Facebook because they dislike how they look in them. I’m aiming to challenge that. I let every photo, even the “unflattering” ones be tagged and I’m occasionally posting up my ratty, everyday wear on Tumblr. I am interested in the idea of imperfection and flaws and I want to show them and see them.

(Image Credit)