Wednesday, October 10, 2007 

Opinions rooted in racism, sexism, homophobia are commonly unacceptable to express in public or in polite company. Michael Richards shouted down a black heckler by yelling, “Shut up!” followed by “He’s a nigger!” and gave his already dormant career less of a chance of ever reviving. When Isiah Washington called a co-star on Grey’s Anatomy a “fag,” his contract was not renewed.

None of this would have happened to either actor if instead of racist or homophobic terminology they had said, “Shut up, fattie!” or “Fat ass!” It’s not an easy time to be fat in America. A fat person is seen as weak-willed, as suffering from an addiction to food, as unhealthy and deserving of ridicule. It goes without saying that people who are overweight are, indeed, people with a full range of emotions and feelings that are as easily hurt as a thin person’s.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone met Kira Nerusskaya, a documentary filmmaker, at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Her film The BBW World: Under the FAT! is in production and post-production. She is a self-described Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) and she hosts the website TheBBWWorld.com; she is also one of the leading voices that has recently emerged for fat acceptance. In researching her film she has traveled to Russia, London, Paris, Ireland and all over the United States to interview fat women about their obesity and their place in their respective societies.

Below is an interview with Nerusskaya about the health, issues, public reactions to and sexuality of a BBW.

David Shankbone: What is “BBW”?

DS: What is your website about?

DS: What is the movement?

DS: What exactly does the movement want?

DS: How much do you weigh?

DS: Do you have any desire to lose weight?

DS: Her recent performance was widely criticized because she was seen as out-of-shape.

DS: How are they different?

DS: What do you think the Britney Spears MTV performance and comments about her physique sent out as a message?

DS: What is beautiful about being fat?

DS: How do you respond to the argument that obesity is unhealthy?

DS: What do you say to people who say you’re a glutton? You’re addicted to food?

DS: A bagel with bacon and cheddar and ice cream.

DS: How do you keep your weight up then?

DS: It’s possible but…

DS: Sure.

DS: What sorts of things are said to you on the street?

DS: People will actually yell out to you, “Hey, fat ass!”

DS: How do you feel if people stare at you?

DS: I think people reading that would think that people are looking at you because they’re disgusted that you’re fat.

DS: But that’s not your experience? That’s not what you’re getting from it?

DS: Do you ever confront people?

DS: When you confront them what happens?

DS: Do they apologize?

DS: When you read stories about an obesity epidemic in the United States what is your reaction to that?

DS: What do you think should be done about the obesity epidemic?

DS: How would you respond to somebody who said, “You’re a hypocrite?” How could you have a problem with obesity…

DS: That you’re just there shoveling fries down your face.

DS: So your problem with the obesity epidemic and why it corresponds with what you’re saying is that there are large people who are just naturally large for a variety of reasons but the American lifestyle right now is creating obesity based upon reasons that are not particularly related to living slovenly?

DS: It’s the only thing that has been proven to be linked with weight gain that you can consume.

DS: Yes.

DS: A glass of orange juice every morning is said to put on about four pounds a year.

DS: Are there any heroes of the Fat Acceptance/BBW movement? Like Camryn Manheim? Who are some of the people out there that larger people — fat people — look to as people who’ve been ground breakers, if you will?

DS: Like a Mo’Nique?

DS: Is there a typical kind of person that is attracted to an overweight woman?

DS: Saviors?

DS: It’s not, ‘I’m going to help her be normal’ but ‘I want to have control over her and see a result of that’?

DS: But doesn’t objectify it…

DS: Is there something someone has asked you to do in bed that you find offensive?

DS: What’s your reaction?

DS: Is it accepted when men fetishize fat women or is that seen as a negative?

DS: When you get messages on your MySpace or when you receive e-mails at TheBBWWorld.com that say, “I just love those big titties,” or “I just want to be all over that big ass,” you know, how do you feel when you read things like that?

DS: Do you ask?

DS: Why do you feel the need to know why they come back?

DS: Do you think it’s good to sometimes question motivations and not just let things happen?

DS: Is it more challenging for a larger woman to orgasm?

DS: Why is that?

DS: What do fat people prefer to be called? In Spain if you’re fat you’re gordo or gorda. It’s not ‘pleasantly plump’. It’s not ‘carrying a few extra pounds’. We have so many euphemisms in this culture—

DS: —to get around saying that somebody is fat. Do you think that trying to come up with so many euphemisms in the end stigmatizes the actual natural state to be able to just say someone is fat much like someone — gay people went through this, too — oh, he’s “light in the loafers,” or, “he’s funny,” as opposed to being like, “He’s gay.”

DS: It’s not speaking a taboo, basically. To be fat is taboo and to say someone is fat…

DS: Are you against these euphemisms?

DS: People think it’s polite.

DS: What do fat people prefer to be called generally?

DS: Generally?

DS: Is there a terminology that is definitely taboo? That you hear and it’s not okay. Aside from the obvious, like you know, ‘fatty’ or something…

DS: Let me rephrase the question. For a person trying to be real but not wanting to be offensive, what advice would you give them when they’re trying to use a descriptor or trying to talk about a person who might be large?

DS: Yeah.

DS: What’s going on with your film?

DS: What is the idea behind the film?

DS: You’re in production now?