Attention: Plus-sized people and allies who want to change the status quo!
We are bombarded with messages about our bodies and our health every day. We’re told to diet, no matter what that might do to our bodies. We’re told to wear clothes that “look slimming” no matter what that might do to our self esteem. We’re told to wait to be thinner before we do what we want, no matter what that might do to our lives.
And yet, there are lots of us who are working to change the status quo. Whether we do it through activism, or fashion, or exposing diet industry politics, or just finding ways to live our lives outside the boundaries that we’re supposed to accept, we are part of something bigger than ourselves. It is a revolution in the truest sense.
So Golda of Body Love Wellness has assembled a group of twenty (!) amazing people who are at the forefront of this revolution for this free telesummit. We’ve got Dr. Linda Bacon talking about the science of Health At Every Size (R), we’ve got Paul Campos talking about diet politics, we’ve got Marilyn Wann talking activism, we’ve got IGIGI founder Yuliya Raquel talking fatshion and that’s really just the beginning.
When you register, you’ll get free live access to all of the interviews, and you’ll have the opportunity to get your questions answered by our panel.
If you know you want in, just click here to register. Or, scroll down to check out the schedule and read about our interviewees.
| SCHEDULE OF TELESUMMIT EVENTS(Each panel discussion will be conducted as a talk/interview with Golda Poretsky. Live listeners will be able to ask questions as well!) | |
| Tuesday, January 31st at 8PM EST/7PM CST/6PM MST/5PM PST/3PM HAST/1AM London/Noon Sydney | FAT ACTIVISM with Peggy Howell, Amanda Levitt & Marilyn Wann |
Peggy Howell 
Amanda Levitt 
Marilyn Wann |
Peggy A. Howell is a civil rights activist, Public Relations Director of NAAFA since 2005, partner in chunkEbusiness.com since 2001, recipient of one of the first two BBW Achievement Awards presented at the BBW Network’s Vegas Bash in 2008, documentarian, certified massage therapist and Reiki Master/Teacher. Peggy shares her home with her sister, Darliene, in Las Vegas where they are both very actively involved with the local size acceptance community. They were instrumental in seeing that a bill was introduced to add height and weight to the anti-discrimination laws of Nevada but said bill has not yet been passed into law. Howell works diligently with NAAFA to help put an end to discrimination against people of size.
Amanda Levitt is the writer at Communications of a Fat Waitress and the founder of Love Your Body Detroit a grassroots non-profit activism organization dedicated to bringing awareness of fat phobia and weight bias to the Metro Detroit area. She began blogging 6 years ago at the age of 20 after finding peace with her own body and wanting to speak up for those who feel silenced in their own. Over the past year and a half Love Your Body Detroit has organized on the street gorilla activism, a clothing swap, “BODYSLAM! Poetry Jam and Story Telling,” and a body positive scavenger hunt, all with the main goal of creating community and making activism fun. During the summer of 2011, the Love Your Body Network was created to connect activist and begin a larger movement.When she is not telling people to love their body she is crafting to raise money for LYBD (LYBDetroit.etsy.com) and herself (fworiginals.etsy.com) while hanging out with her two cats, Shadow and Olive Fettuccini the Fluffy Avenger. (Yes he is a supercat!) She is currently attending Wayne State University working towards degrees in Women’s Studies and Sociology, and hopes to continue on working toward a Ph.D where she wants to teach fat studies.
Marilyn Wann has been a free-range fat rebel since the mid-90s, when she published the FAT!SO? ‘zine and then wrote the FAT!SO? book. She has performed with the Phat Fly Girls dancers, the Bod Squad cheerleaders, and the Padded Lilies synchronized swimmers. Wann is proud to have been part of the successful effort to add height and weight to San Francisco’s anti-discrimination law. She creates Yay! Scales (scales that give compliments instead of numbers) and just published the 2012 FAT!SO? Dayplanner. |
| Thursday, February 2nd at 7PM EST/6PM CST/5PM MST/4PM PST/2PM HAST/Midnight London/11AM Sydney (note time change) |
FAT HEALTH with Linda Bacon & Ragen Chastain
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Linda Bacon
Ragen Chastain
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Linda Bacon earned her doctorate in physiology, specializing in weight regulation, from the University of California, Davis. She also holds graduate degrees in psychology, specializing in eating disorders and body image, and kinesiology, specializing in exercise metabolism, and has professional experience as a professor, researcher, psychotherapist, exercise physiologist, and consultant. She is currently a nutrition professor in the Biology Department at City College of San Francisco and serves as an associate nutritionist at the University of California, Davis. Linda also has an active private consulting practice, advising health care professionals and institutions on strategies for implementing Health at Every Size. She is cited regularly in print, radio and television media. Considered to be a leading expert on weight regulation, Linda has published her ground-breaking research in top scientific journals. Her book, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, has received great acclaim and is in its second printing. She is also a popular and compelling public speaker. With a rare dual perspective combining academic expertise and clinical experience, Linda is adept at providing a link between scientific research and practical application. This enables her to bring authority and compassion to her writing, speaking and teaching. Additionally, she is a healthy, fit and dynamic role model for the ideas she presents. Her personal difficulties with weight regulation and experience in overcoming them provide important perspective and inspiration for her work.
Ragen Chastain is a fathlete, three-time National Champion dancer, choreographer, and trained researcher who writes and speaks about self-esteem, body image, and Health at Every Size. She is interviewed in the documentary America the Beautiful 2 – The Thin Commandments released by Warner Brothers. Her work has been published in forums including the Calgary Herald, Democratic Underground, Feminocracy, and Jezebel.com. Her writing has been translated into multiple languages and her blog has readers on six continents in places as diverse as France, Australia, Korea and Libya. She’s been heard on NPR and spoken to groups across the country from elementary school students to Universities including USC, The University of Texas at Austin and Michigan State to corporations including Apple’s Austin Campus and Google Headquarters at Mountainview. |
| Tuesday, February 7th at 8PM EST/7PM CST/6PM MST/5PM PST/3PM HAST/1AM London/Noon Sydney |
FATSHION with Marie Denee, Rachel Kacenjar, & Yuliya Raquel
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Marie Denee
Rachel Kacenjar
Yuliya Raquel |
Marie Denee is an established and respected voice in plus size fashion. The creative force behind, The Curvy Fashionista, Marie shares her expertise, wit, and keen sense of style with a vibrant and growing audience. The fashion industry is slowly recognizing a growing demographic—plus size women who want stylish clothes. With retailers designing garments that fit a larger segment of people, millions of fashion-starved women now have a bevy of options to choose from. But where should they begin? Enter Marie. Marie brings a fresh, friendly, and sensible voice showing women how to rock their curves while educating big brands on what plus size women really want. Marie works closely with brands, helping them understand what works with the plus size body and how to market to women with both curves and discerning taste. In addition to being a popular fashion blogger, Marie Denee is a freelance fashion stylist and is the Fashion and Style Editor of Plus Model Magazine, a trusted source for media, and regular speaker on fashion, blogging, and business. To learn more visit her website www.thecurvyfashionista.com.
Rachel Kacenjarstarted Sweetooth Couture in 2009 after she received several requests for fancy, modern plus sized frocks from her vintage customers at Cupcake & Cuddlebunny. After spending 3 years reconstructing and altering vintage to fit plus sized bodies, she took the leap into pattern making and production and Sweetooth Couture was born. Sweetooth is a line of bold party dresses, skirts, coats, and other avant guard clothing staples that are bright, couture-leaning, and sometimes outlandish. A mostly self-taught designer, Rachel learned how to sew from her Grandma, and comes from a lineage of plus-sized women who have altered their own clothing for decades. Rachel has an art therapy degree from New School University and is the Deputy Director of Buzz & Growl, a sewing workspace and fashion incubator in Cleveland, Ohio. Rachel is also Re/Dress online shopgirl. Award-winning American designer label IGIGI by Yuliya Raquel, www.igigi.com, has been the go-to name for full-figured fashionistas sizes 12-32 for over a decade. Yuliya’s brainchild and passion, IGIGI, named after a voluptuous ancient goddess embodying vitality, charm, and intelligence was founded in San Francisco, CA with a mission to transform the world’s view of beauty! Dedicated to celebrate the powerful and unapologetic women of today with contemporary designs that speak femininity, sensuality and high-fashion glamour, IGIGI by Yuliya Raquel has become synonymous with unique, stylish designs with great fit and quality that help full-figured women express their beauty. Yuliya’s emphasis on variety, exclusivity, and quality keeps collections prevalent and production close to home. All collections are designed in-house and produced locally through independent San Francisco Bay Area contractors.IGIGI by Yuliya Raquel has been featured in major fashion and lifestyle magazines, and Yuliya’s red-carpet ready designs are the preferred choice for many plus-size celebrities. About.com honored Yuliya with Critics’ Choice Best Plus Designer Award in March, 2011 following IGIGI’s Best Plus Fashion Retailer of the Year award in June, 2010. IGIGI by Yuliya Raquel made Internet Retailer’s Top Hot 100 list consequently in 2010 and 2011. |
| Thursday, February 9th at 8PM EST/7PM CST/6PM MST/5PM PST/3PM HAST/1AM London/Noon Sydney |
FAT SEX with Hanne Blank & Virgie Tovar
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Hanne Blank 
Virgie Tovar
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Hanne Blank spends her time thinking, learning, writing, and speaking at the crossroads of bodies, self, and culture. Joyfully spanning the town/gown divide as well as the mind/body split, her books include the histories Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (Beacon Press, 2012) and Virgin: The Untouched History (Bloomsbury, 2007), the cult classic sex and body-acceptance book Big Big Love: A Sex and Relationships Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them)(Celestial Arts, 2011), and numerous others. Hanne’s work has been featured in periodicals ranging from Penthouse to Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, and in anthologies ranging from Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking The Rules to Fucking Daphne: Mostly True Stories and Fictions to Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. A former Scholar of the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women at Towson University, Hanne has taught in various capacities on campuses including Brandeis and Tufts. She is also a popular speaker and guest lecturer, with appearances ranging from Harvard University to the inaugural Femme Conference and on topics from the history of the hymen to sex tips for people of all sizes.
Virgie Tovar is the author of the upcoming fat positive anthology Hot &Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, 2012). She holds an MA in Human Sexuality and was voted Best Sex Writer by the Bay Area Guardian in 2008. The host of The Virgie Show (CBS Radio) from 2007-2008, she has since become a featured contributor for Good Vibrations Magazine and the National Sexuality Resource Center. When she’s not teaching sexuality seminars or shimmying as her burlesque alter ego, Dulce de Lecherous, she is juggling phone sex clients and creating content for her video blog: Virgie Tovar’s Guide to Fat Girl Living. Virgie has been featured on Playboy Radio and Women’s Entertainment Television. She lives in San Francisco. You can find her online at virgietovar.weebly.com. |
| Thursday,February 16th at 8PM EST/7PM CST/6PM MST/5PM PST/3PM HAST/1AM London/Noon Sydney |
FAT BLOGGING & SOCIAL MEDIA with Marianne Kirby, Margitte Leah Kristjansson & Brian Stuart
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Marianne Kirby 
Margitte Leah Kristjansson 
Brian Stuart |
Marianne Kirby is a fat activist, author, and maker, living in the land of year-round produce. Author of the popular fat acceptance blog The Rotund (http://www.therotund.com) and coauthor of Lessons From the Fat-O-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body, Marianne also writes about the body (and nail polish) at Xojane (xojane.com).
Margitte Leah Kristjansson is a fat activist, blogger, filmmaker, and communication PhD student at UCSD, whose work is situated within the field of fat studies. She blogs about all things fat at margitteleah.com and riotsnotdiets.com. Information about her film is available at fatbodyinvisible.com.
Brian Stuart has been blogging about fat acceptance and other issues at Red No. 3, red3.blogspot.com, since 2003. His notable online activism projects include the creation of a series of “Fat Hate Bingo” cards, the “Maggie After Dieting” series which include visual responses to a fat-shaming children’s book, and creation of the Twitter hashtag #ThingsFatPeopleAreTold for which he was interviewed for CBS News in Boston and Philadelphia. When not upsetting and/or annoying people online, he works in arts administration and lives with his wife in Greater Boston. He was once called “dangerous” by an anonymous internet commenter and considers this the highest complement he has ever received. |
| Tuesday, February 21st at 8PM EST/7PM CST/6PM MST/5PM PST/3PM HAST/1AM London/Noon Sydney |
FAT FITNESS with Jeanette DePatie & Anna Guest-Jelley
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Jeanette DePatie 
Anna Guest-Jelley |
Jeanette DePatie holds certifications from the YMCA and American Fitness Association of America for Aerobics Instruction and Personal Training. She has taught many aerobics classes at various fitness levels throughout the country. Ms. DePatie has also completed several distance races including a half-marathon, sprint triathlon and a full marathon. Ms. DePatie has served as a spokeswoman for NAAFA (The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) and currently serves as a spokeswoman for The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) in her position as Co-chair of Media and Communications. She has been interviewed many times on television, radio and in print by many important organizations including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Extra.
Anna Guest-Jelley is the Founder of Curvy Yoga (www.curvyyoga.com), where she writes and teaches about yoga and embodiment as the foundations of a live well-lived (and body well-loved). She is also the co-teacher of 30 Days of Curvy Yoga (http://www.marianne-elliott.com/30daysofyoga/curvy-yoga/), an online course on crafting a home yoga practice for your unique body and needs. |
| Thursday, February 23rd at 3PM EST/2PM CST/1PM MST/Noon PST/9AM HAST/8PM London/7 AM Sydney (note time change) |
FAT/QUEER INTERSECTIONS with Bevin Branlandingham, Charlotte Cooper, & Jessica Luxery
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Bevin Branlandingham 
Charlotte Cooper 
Jessica Luxery |
Bevin Branlandingham is “an ultra-rad warrior for self-acceptance.” [Autostraddle.com] She is the Host and Producer of FemmeCast: The Queer Fat Femme Podcast Guide to Life and author of the popular blog QueerFatFemme.com. She is an emcee, writer, drag, burlesque and comedy performer and “Plus Size Party Girl” according to Time Out New York. She hosts and produces the monthly performance and dance party Rebel Cupcake and quarterly performance art salon Cupcake Cabaret. She was a Shop Girl at the iconic fashion destination Re/Dress NYC for the entire three years it was open. She has most recently served as Co-Head Madam of Femme Family, the New York Chapter of the Femme Mafia, on the steering committee for the Fat and Queer conference and the media committee for the Femme Conference. In 2008 Bevin received a Commendation from the Mayor of Jersey City for her work with the LGBT community. She was a 2011 top entrepreneur in GO Magazine. Her writing has been published in numerous periodicals, including most recently Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femmeand she has performed throughout North America. Her mission is to make the world a safe place for people to love themselves, regardless of their differences. Her website (including blog, calendar of events and workshops) is found at QueerFatFemme.Com.
Charlotte Cooper is based in London and have been involved with fat activism for the last twenty years or so in various countries. Highlights include being on the cover of FaT GiRL, presenting her films at festivals around the world, keynoting NOLOSE and inaugural Fat Studies events in the UK and Australia, hiring a troupe of lady Morris Dancers to perform at a queer-fat harvest festival, and surviving and thriving where she was not expected to. Her background is in punk, DIY and zine culture, and gutter journalism. She is the sole author of two books: Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size, which draws on disability theory and the disability rights movement to make sense of fat activism; and a lurid, award-winning novel, Cherry. She is widely published. Charlotte is currently a Government of Ireland PhD scholar at the University of Limerick, courtesy of the Irish Social Sciences Platform. Her research is primarily about fat activism and draws on queer theory, radical lesbian feminism, postmodernism and postcolonial stuff. She blogs about fat at www.obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com and maintain a partial archive of my work at www.charlottecooper.net. Jessica Luxery is a high-femme fatty who bleeds glitter and kittens in lace bonnets. She was born on a bed of frosting, with a can of hairspray and a jug of blush, to a young (but legal!) Elizabeth Taylor and your Lord and Savior: Freddy Mercury. Her blouses are too low, her hair too high, but her heart is in the just right place. Her tumblr (tangledupinlace.tumblr.com) and twitter (twitter.com/tangledupinlace) provide endless entertainment, advice, and support for anyone on a journey to self acceptance. |
| Tuesday, February 28th at 8PM EST/7PM CST/6PM MST/5PM PST/3PM HAST/1AM London/Noon Sydney |
FAT POLITICS & HISTORY with Paul Campos & Amy Erdman Farrell
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Paul Campos 
Amy Farrell |
Paul Campos is a nationally recognized expert in the war on fat. He’s a law professor, author and journalist currently on the faculty of the University of Colorado in Boulder. His books include Against the Law (with Pierre Schlag and Steven D. Smith, 1996), a collection of essays regarding legal thought in contemporary America; Jurismania (1998), a scathing critique of the American legal system; and The Diet Myth (2005) (previously published as The Obesity Mythin 2004), an expose of the hysteria surrounding weight and health in the Western world today.
Amy Farrell is the author of FAT SHAME: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture. She is the Curley Chair of Liberal Arts and Professor of American Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on the history of fat stigma in the United States and the ways that this stigma still shapes and clouds our thinking about fatness today. |
All of the participants will be interviewed by Golda Poretsky |
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Golda Poretsky |
After spending nearly her entire life dieting, Golda Poretsky decided in 2007 to stop dieting and start listening to her body. In 2008, she founded Body Love Wellness, a wellness company that provides individual and group counseling from a Health At Every Size(R) perspective. Using her background in nutrition and holistic health, she now counsels women and men on how to get off the dieting roller coaster, give their bodies what they really crave, and love their bodies and themselves. Golda’s book on healing from dieting, Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal is available in paperback and kindle editions.Golda is also a featured weekly columnist on the web sites More of Me to Love and Persephone Magazine, has written articles for Jezebel.com and Daily Venus Diva, and has a popular podcast on body acceptance and intuitive eating as well. Golda’s counseling programs and activism work have been featured on CBS’s The Early Show, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s LX New York, Psychology Today and Time Out New York, among others. |
Just enter your info here to register for free and receive the call-in info instantly! And we have two great options in case you can’t make it to every live call. Choose the option that’s best for you.
| FREE BASIC ACCESS | ALL ACCESS PASS (SLIDING SCALE) |
Free Basic Access Includes:
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All Access Pass Includes:
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| Yes, Golda, please sign me up for FREE Basic Access Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit. Send me the details at my email address below.
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Yes, Golda, please sign me up for an All Access Pass to the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit.Send me the details at my email address below.
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Please note, upon registration, you will also receive a complimentary subscription to the Body Love Wellness Newsletter and certain of the interviewee’s newsletters. We will not share, rent or sell your information to any other organization, and you may unsubscribe at any time.
You do not want to miss this Telesummit. Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll take away:
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Learn what to do when confronted with negativity about your weight. |
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Find out how you can live your best life without the highs and lows of weight loss efforts. |
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Connect with other people who are committed to being body positive. |
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Get fashion tips from people who know and love exactly the body you have. |
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Body positive exercise advice for all fitness levels, body types and abilities. |
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Get historical and political perspectives on anti-fat efforts. |
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Learn how queer activism can inform fat activism. |
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Sex-positive and fat-positive advice for the awesome sex life you deserve. |
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Hear the body love journeys of your favorite bloggers. |
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Learn how to create fat-positive community locally. |
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And so much more! |
Click here to register now! We can’t wait to see you there!