In the fatosphere - roughly, the fat activism sphere - there is a rising cry at the common and tasteless media practice of showing fat people with their heads cut off, so that all the viewer sees is an anonymous belly, and better yet, some food in their hands. In Minnesota, TV stations are especially fond of doing this during the state fair.

There are a few bloggers out there who have been inspired to blog because they were among those people. The tendency to depersonalize people because they’re fat is common, and much of it starts and is continued with these media practices. While some producers may argue that it’s to prevent a lawsuit, the argument doesn’t hold water; there have been plenty of first amendment and ninth amendment cases that have established that if you go out in public, you’re just going to have to face the possibility of ending up on someone’s recording equipment.

I have to wonder how the picture and media response would change if those heads were included? If fat people weren’t shown stuffing their faces, or simply showed that they were people and not just large bellies and muffin tops trolling along the sidewalks, I think that a lot of assumptions about what it is to be fat would change.

This is exactly the experiment on COFRA (Coalition of Fat Rights Activists) who have established a Youtube channel - just to show their faces and speak their minds.