My favorite days in school were when you’d walk into the classroom and see a TV already rolled in to the front of the room. You knew you wouldn’t have to answer questions for the day, only sink in and learn from a tape. Most history classes have shown interview style documentaries about war and languages classes show movies based off of books you should have read. One of the best ways we learn is through listening to other people’s accounts and experiences. I’ve truly become addicted to social documentaries, and have become passionate about feminism through them. Watching one of Bitchtopia’s original contributors, Lindsey Averill, begin the Fattitude project was like watching the TV stand being rolled in to the front of the classroom.
Fattitude, a feature-length documentary about fat prejudice within pop culture, has finally finished the filming stage, and I could not be more excited. On June 15th, Fattitude announced its Summer campaign, “Fattitude’s Big Fat Summer of Love,” as an effort to raise funds to finalize editing for this groundbreaking film, which would educate people on how fat bodies are represented in media. During this Summer campaign, Fattitude will release 48 clips of never-before-seen footage, which include will the voices of Ricki Lake, Chastity Garner, Lindy West, and Andrew Walen.
At this time, fundraising is one of the last steps to solidify Fattitude as a positive, educational resource on how to carry a conversation about fat bodies. For every $1,000 raised, Fattitude will issue a giveaway to a randomly selected fan from their mailing list. Fattitude interviewees and supporters have donated prizes, such as Skype book clubs with authors, personal messages from famous people, or signed copies of DVDs.
“Fattitude’s ultimate goal is to change the national conversation about body image so that it
focuses not only on issues of self-acceptance, but also on legitimate questions of systemic
cultural prejudice,” said Lindsey Averill, Producer of Fattitude. “We hope to gain mainstream
distribution and shake the very foundation upon which fat hatred is built.”
This production could make a huge difference to the way that media and pop culture have been rolling out. We’ve seen body positivity at the forefront of advertising, and plus size bodies are beginning to become more visible in a positive light. With this documentary, more fat voices will be heard. More importantly, the voices featured will be all across the spectrum on race, size, and gender. Size Acceptance has a very long way to go, and this project is going to open the doors and push the dialogue about self-love to a much larger audience.
In order to complete production, Fattitude needs to raise $100,000. This will go towards video editing, color correction, graphics, and musical score. Fattitude is fiscally sponsored by the Independent Film Project and accepts tax-deductible contributions electronically at http://fiscal.ifp.org/project.cfm/754/Fattitude/. To get involved, visit Fattitude’s website or social media pages: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Lindsey Averill explains, “I am trying to get them to see that bodies are individual, some are fat, some are thin, some are healthy, some are unhealthy, some are short, some are tall, some are gay, black, white, brown, hetero, trans – it doesn’t matter. All bodies deserve kindness and respect.” This film will not only solidify why we latch on to anthems like, “All About That Bass,” but also explain what songs and trends like these can do to both support and hurt body positive spaces.
