This group is for fat people and their friends

 Subject: alt.support.big-folks Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Supersedes: <3c7mr6$cdr@casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu>

Date: 8 Jan 1995 18:26:40 GMT

Expires: February 8, 1995

Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked

.Questions (and their answers) for alt.support.big-folks.

.This group is devoted to issues of size acceptance and

.ways for fat people to live well.  This posting should be

.read by anyone who wishes to post to the

.alt.support.big-folks newsgroup.

Archive-name: fat-acceptance-faq/general

Posting-Frequency: monthly to *.answers, bi-weekly to alt.support.big-folks

Version: 1.6

        Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for alt.support.big-folks

This document contains information relevant to the newsgroup

alt.support.big-folks.  There are four other related FAQs:

  big-folks-faq/size-acceptance

        information about size-acceptance

  big-folks-faq/resources

        world-wide information about general resources

        for fat people, including books, magazines and organizations

  big-folks-faq/clothing/uk-europe

.information about clothing for large people in the U.K. 

.and Europe

  big-folks-faq/clothing/us-canada

        information about clothing for large people in the U.S.

        and Canada

There is some overlap in the topics covered by the FAQs.  If you don't

find what you're looking for here, try the other FAQs.

If you have information you think should be here (either in response

to an existing question or in response to a new question), send it to

the maintainers.  If you think another question should be addressed

here, and you do not have the information for it, post the question to

a.s.b-f and drop a note to the maintainers suggesting that it be in

the FAQ.  Also, please let us know if any of this material is

incorrect or out-of-date.

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Changes from Last Version

* Updated status of CFV on soc.support.fat-acceptance.

* Moved information on mailing lists and IRC to the resources FAQ.

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Contents

SECTION A:  FAQ about alt.support.big-folks

A1).What is a.s.b-f for?

A2).How did a.s.b-f start?

A3).What are the acronyms?

A4).What are some related newsgroups?

SECTION B: Information about this FAQ

B1).Posting information

B2).Availability of the FAQ

B3).Contributors

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SECTION A: FAQ about alt.support.big-folks

A1).What is a.s.b-f for?

This group is for fat people and their friends.  It provides a

supportive space to talk about issues affecting fat people; it is

explicitly in favor of size acceptance and living well as a fat person.

The group addresses political issues (such as how fat people are

discriminated against) as well as daily life issues (such as where to

find nice clothes and how to handle rude remarks).

a.s.b-f is not a good place for the discussion of dieting or surgery

for the purposes of weight loss or weight gain.  As fat people, we

deal all the time with the assumption that we should be dieting.  We

hope that a.s.b-f can be one place that is free of this pressure.

That said, we often discuss diet and exercise, with the idea that all

people (fat and thin) benefit from eating better and becoming fitter.

We dispute the idea that one must be thin to be fit.  We disupte the

idea that the "right" food and exercise choices will necessarily lead

to being thin.

We try to avoid generalizations and stereotyping of fat people.  For

the most part, the fact that a person is fat does not provide much

information about that person's happiness, activity level, eating

habits, and relationship with food.

Some people here are happy to be fat.  Some people here are not happy

to be fat.  People at any stage of size acceptance -- even if they're

trying to lose or gain weight -- are welcome in this group.

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A2).How did a.s.b-f start?

This group arose out of a little spat in alt.support.diet.  There were

a few people reading a.s.d primarily out of an interest in nutrition,

rather than out of an interest in dieting for weight loss.

Occasionally, these people would respond to self-loathing posts by

talking about size acceptance.  Sometimes topics relevant to big folks

would be brought up on a.s.d -- like where to find clothing and how to

survive small airplane seats.  In order to get this stuff out of a.s.d,

where it was generally not very welcome, Anne Mitchell (a poster in

favor of dieting for weight-loss) created alt.support.big-folks.  Which

explains, in part, the somewhat obscure name.  

There was a brief suggestion, in early '94, that all the alt.support

groups might move over to misc.support.  (Then we'd be in the big

seven, and have wider distribution and so forth.)  At that time, the

consensus on a.s.b-f was to change the group's name to

misc.support.fat-acceptance.  It was felt that this name would be less

confusing and more descriptive.  For reasons unknown, the move to misc

fizzled.  So we're still here.

In September '94, Wendy Betts (web@armory.com) began work on an RFD

for moving alt.support.big-folks to soc.support.fat-acceptance.  (The

soc.support hierarchy was established since the last round of

discussions.)  A Call For Votes went out on November 14, and the group

passed 163:49.  soc.support.fat-acceptance will be newgroup'ed on

December 22.

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A3).What do the acronyms mean?

BBW..Big Beautiful Woman

BBM..Big Beautiful Man

bear..a man who is cuddly, furry, stocky, and/or bearded;

..most often used by and about gay men

FA..Fat Admirer, person who prefers a fat sexual/romantic

..partner

NAAFA..National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance

mid-size.refers to people who are in the mid-range.

..For women, this means they wear U.S. dress size

..16W-26W.  

super-size .refers to people who are very large.

..For women, this means they wear U.S. dress size 28W

..and up.  This division between mid-size and super-size

..for women seems to arise from the face that most

..retail clothing sizes for women stop at U.S. 26W.

 

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A4) .What are some related newsgroups?

alt.sex.fat is a group for people who want to discuss issues involved

in sex with fat people.  It was formed in early '94 so that a.s.b-f

could stay more or less G (or PG) rated.

alt.sex.fetish.fa is a group for fat admirers.  This group is mostly

dead.  (The word "fetish" in the title rubs many FAs the wrong way,

does nothing to promote a positive image of FAs, and implies a

separation between sex and romance that doesn't exist for many FAs.)

alt.sex.fat has taken over most of the traffic.

alt.support.diet is a group for people who want support and discussion

of dieting and other weight loss methods.  Regular posters tend not to

be very fat.  This is a good place to take weight loss questions and

discussions.

alt.support.obesity is a group for people who are 100 pounds (or more)

overweight and who want support and discussion of dieting and other

weight loss methods appropriate for very fat people.  The group is

moderated by Mark Mitchum (markm@unm.edu).  This is another good

place to take weight loss questions and discussions.

alt.personals.big-folks and alt.personals.fat are groups for personal

ads by big folks or looking for big folks.  These groups were formed

in July '94 to get personal ads out of a.s.b-f, to provide an easy way

for fat people and fat admirers to get in touch with one another, and

so that fat people would not have to wade through personal ads that

specify that only slender people should respond.

alt.support.tall and alt.sigma2.height are groups for people who want

support and discussion of issues relevant to tall people (who are big,

but not in the way used on this group).

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SECTION B: Information about this FAQ

B1).Posting information

This document is posted monthly to news.answers and alt.answers and

posted bi-weekly to alt.support.big-folks.  Sasha Wood

(Sasha.Wood@cs.cmu.edu) maintains this FAQ.

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B2).Availability of the FAQ

All FAQs posted to news.answers are archived at rtfm.mit.edu and its

mirror sites.  You can get any of these FAQs from rtfm.mit.edu via

anonymous FTP or via the mail archive server.  (To get information

about the mail server, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the

body of the message containing the word "help", without the quotes.)

FAQs posted to news.answers are also available on the Web from:

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html

This particular FAQ is archived at rtfm.mit.edu and its mirror sites

under the filenames:

/pub/usenet/news.answers/big-folks-faq/general

/pub/usenet/alt.answers/big-folks-faq/general

/pub/usenet/alt.support.big-folks/alt.support.big-folks_Frequently_Asked_Questions_(FAQ)

It is available on the Web at:

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/big-folks-faq/general/faq.html

The file alt.support.big-folks_Frequently_Asked_Questions_(FAQ)

contains the last post to alt.support.big-folks which has the same

subject line as this FAQ.  In general, this is the most recent copy of

the FAQ.  Occasionally, however, it is a random post that has the same

subject line as this FAQ.  If this is the case, please look in one of

the other files.

The files named general and the file available via the WWW, contain

the last version of the FAQ posted to news.answers.  Since this FAQ is

posted to alt.support.big-folks more often than it is posted to

news.answers, sometimes the version available via these links is not

the most recent one.

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B3).Contributors

These are the people who contribute significant chunks to the FAQ.

Sasha Wood..<Sasha.Wood@cs.cmu.edu>

Miriam Nadel..<nadel@attatash.aero.org>

Also, lots and lots of other people (too many to credit) contributed

information that appears herein, some via email and some on a.s.b-f.

Thanks to them all.

Suggestions for additions/improvements are always welcome.