A Size Inclusive Poem for You.

Our first ever Size Inclusive Tour is being co-hosted by Christina Winklemann - marketer, creative and Fat Fashion advocate. On the eve of our departure to South Italy, she selected one of her favorite poems to share with our travelers.

The first time I read this piece, I was on an airplane; a space notorious for making people exceedingly self-aware of their size. It's part of The Fat Zine Issue Three, a zine made by fat people for fat people + those that care. It's a collection of crowdsourced art, essays, poetry, interviews and photos. I chose it as my plane companion perhaps as a form of protest, or maybe as a way to help affirm my body size while trying to make myself as small as possible in 15A. Whatever the reason, this piece moved me and made me think about my own body journey. If you're curious where I am currently in July of 2022, I'm somewhere past self-identifying as FAT but not yet beyond the immediate hesitation you get when everyone starts stripping down to their swimsuits at the beach. (Why is this always so scary?!). I am a work in progress and that's something that I've chosen to love about myself and others. I think that's ultimately why I think this piece spoke to me. It understands the complex nuances of everyone's personal body journey and the harsh realities of the debilitating fear that comes with occupying a larger body. Reading this piece felt like being vulnerable with your best friend. Those precious moments we hold so dear where we can hold space for one another and just sit in the good and the bad. I hope you read it, sit with it however you want, relate to it, don't relate to it, but consume it, nonetheless.

-Christina Winkelmann

Me, in Italy.

not everything can be reclaimed

By Daniale Fertile

there are fat folks on the other side of my window, unbound

wearing clothes I wouldn’t dream of their lives aren’t in hiding

in protection in anticipation of a punchline there are fat folks out there some- 

where not armoring themselves against ridicule

eating seconds at family functions i want to know them

but i’m not sure if i want them to know me

know my jealousy and my repulsion know i haven’t freed myself haven’t shak-

en off the taunting

still preferring euphemisms like curvy or plus-sized instead of the word fat itself not

everything can be reclaimed for everyone

although better than before

i’m hesitant to get close to someone not loathing themself

i still hold my breath, suck in my stomach in pictures sometimes

still searching for the best angle to mask every stretch mark and roll

sin another name for waistline

i’ve had friends i’ve had lovers

i’ve never had a long-term relationship

i was born fat and survived being a fat kid

food stolen off my plate for my own good

every vegetable a a bargain every snack earned in sweat

i had a personal trainer before i even learned how to write in cursive

i never thought i’d’ be a fat adult there is grief in this realization growing up my

biggest bullies were the other fat folks in my household this too a mourning

there are things far worse than gluttony

the fear that keeps me captive makes me a threat and also a target

i am not living with an absence of self-love

i am living with an acute awareness of other people’s cruelty

even if sometimes they intent kindness

please stop telling me you adore my confidence i haven't got any

i am more brittle than i am brave 

i do not wish to inspire you, person smaller than me

all i want to do is learn how to soar in this body

without being scared i am icarus’s daughter

**

Hope you're having a good day!!!!

XOXO Christina