Back that Azz Up

[April 30th, 2003] Some people need to think before they shoot their mouths off--myself included.

In Washington, D.C., Sen. Rick Santorum is under fire for equating homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery. In Portland, Marty Davis, the editor of Oregon's largest queer publication, Just Out, is feeling heat, too. Not for saying something as stupid as Santorum, but for far more subversive comments that could end up being just as damaging. And while the senator might lose his position of power, Davis won't. She owns Just Out.

In a March 7 editorial, Davis sent shivers down the backs of fat dykes everywhere by saying that they need to lose weight, as she herself had done. In a column a year ago, Davis remarked that the laissez-faire attitude the lezzie community has toward weight needs to be broken and that she'd step forward as an example. To school the schleppy legion of heavyweights, Davis wrote, "Look at yourself. Look at what you're eating. If you're fat, you can't eat that stuff anymore." She went on to encourage a fat vegan to eat a steak.

Now, I like Marty. She's got balls and she tends to say what's on her mind. She's a lot like Stacy Bias. Bias, the mastermind behind the popular TechnoDyke.com, is putting the final touches on "Fat Girl Speaks," a celebration of women of size. Saturday's event will include a fashion show, music, workshops and a kissing booth--but don't expect to see Davis there.

Her decision to opt out of FGS might have a lot to do with Bias' March 21 letter to the editor published in Just Out, which called Davis' comments irresponsible and said they disregard the ideas that "fitness and fatness are not always mutually exclusive."

At 5-feet, 10-inches and 350 pounds, Bias should know. She says she started FGS due to the barrage of images of perfect bodies and the fact the media doesn't give happy people of size a voice.

"It took me 28 years to be happy with myself," she says. "That doesn't mean I don't have health or fitness goals. But health is my aim, not weight loss." Bias describes Davis' remarks in terms of the ignorance some people have toward homosexuality. "It's like telling a lesbian she just hasn't found the right man," Bias says.

I had to ask Davis to respond.

"Many, if not most people, are overweight for the same reason that I am," says the 54-year-old, who is halfway to her target weight. "It's the consequences of choices made. You can continue with these choices or you can make new ones. I've chosen the latter. Make choices or make excuses. It's up to you." Refusing to be labeled fat-phobic, Davis says, "I view it as a health issue--period."

Bias, on the other hand, wishes Davis would recognize that the world isn't so black-and-white. "Not everybody is going to follow the same socially acceptable path to fitness that is crammed down our throats every day," she says. "What Marty needs to learn is that the most progressive, radical, feminist act that any woman could do in this world is to love themselves and their bodies just the way they are. As long as you're OK with yourself, nothing else matters. That's the perfect platform for change."

I guess it's true what they say: Size really does matter.