NAAFA Newsletter

Educating Students

Fat acceptance arrives at University of Colorado campus

Receiving the invitation was a pleasant surprise. CU is one of the largest colleges in the state and has a young, active student body that meshes well with the resident population of the city which hosts the campus. Boulder is just 36 miles north of Denver, the state capital. Originally a small college town and hippie community, Boulder has grown into a sophisticated city full of health-conscious young professionals with active lifestyles. Colorado NAAFA members are keenly aware of the emphasis placed on health and fitness, and outdoor sports here, so they gathered twice before the event to polish their presentation and prepare for a potentially defensive audience.

The talk began with Leslie Curtis, RMNAAFA Chair. She spoke about NAAFA and its mission and gave the audience of young, mostly female co-eds an eye-opening introduction to the types of discrimination faced by fat people. One of the stumbling blocks to fat acceptance for many people are concerns about negative effects of fat on health. To address this issue, the chapter webmaster, Joe Obrin, who has a wide breadth of knowledge in this area, spoke about the connection between health and weight. He began with the question, "Is being fat as unhealthy as you've been told?" and answered it by looking at three points: the probability of successful weight loss, the credibility of links between weight and health and the side effects of weight loss attempts. The overhead slides he created helped the audience follow the detailed information which prompted several questions.

The next speaker, JeanMarie Olivieri, RMNAAFA member and former Chair, tied the topic of fat acceptance to the body image theme that had been addressed on campus throughout the week. She discussed how body image is created and influenced by family, peers and the culture we live in, and used herself as an example. She proposed that fat acceptance is essentially a new paradigm of thought. In this new view, individuals are called to reject what they have been told by society is the truth, in favor of what they know to be their own individual truth.

Margaret Mary Short, RMNAAFA Vicechair, closed the presentation with an overview of all the tools available to help individuals learn about fat acceptance. Some of those tools are positive self-affirmations, size-acceptance Internet resources, and community support from other size-accepting fat people. Margaret did an excellent job of bringing together all the points that had been made about fat acceptance and correlating them to the more common goal of selfacceptance that people of all sizes face. To augment the discussion, a table in the room was set up with flyers about NAAFA, lists of resources and suggested reading, a sampling of books with a fat and self-acceptance theme, and a small display of fat artwork.

All of the presenters were pleased by the warm reception. The audience was fully engaged in the presentation, which lasted about an hour. The question and answer period following the discussion lasted for a full two hours. People came and went as schedules permitted but the audience ranged from 12 to 16 people. The organizers were so pleased with the success of the event, they invited RMNAAFA to come back to campus and speak in October for Body Image Awareness week. The most moving aspect of the experience were the young women who stayed until the end to thank the participants individually for coming to speak.

All of this occurred just two weeks after the chapter's second anniversary. In addition to supporting the activism initiatives of National with letter writing campaigns, and activities for No Diet Day, the Rocky Mountain Chapter thrives with one or two social activities each month, in addition to the regularly scheduled monthly business meeting. For more information about the Rocky Mountain Chapter of NAAFA, visit their extensive website at http://www.io.com/~joeobrin/rmnaafa.html.

Finding a Massage Practitioner

Massages can be a great thing. But you need to find the right professional

A good massage can be hard to find. Good communication, chemistry and technical considerations, like the comfort of the equipment, all play a role in the massage experience.

Know Yourself

Why do you want the massage? Some common reasons for massage are: medical conditions, pain, stress, and a need to be touched non-sexually.

You need to be very honest with yourself about how you feel regarding the gender of your therapist. Many people are more comfortable with the idea of having a female therapist than a male. If gender doesn't matter to you, great! If it does, then honor that need in yourself when looking for a practitioner.

By being conscious of your needs and likes you'll have an easier time finding a practitioner you'll be comfortable with. But how do you choose? By becoming an informed consumer.

Training and Accreditation

Some other things to know

Massage therapists are everywhere; check ads in your local paper or yellow pages, ask a friend, call the local massage school for referrals, or old fashioned word-of-mouth. Once you find a few to talk to, conduct some phone interviews.

Phone Interviews

Tell the therapist about your history with massage and any concerns you have about the work. Be up front about your size and any problems you have had in the past so that they can adjust their equipment accordingly. If the therapist knows in advance about your dimensions they can adjust table height and bolstering and face cradle to accommodate you. If your uncomfortable during the phone interview, thank her for the information and try someone else. When you find a therapist you click with, book a session.

The following are some points to make your session more successful:

The most important thing to remember is this is YOUR massage. You are paying good money for it and your comfort is paramount. Be conscious of what your needs are, communicate those needs effectively and most importantly, enjoy yourself!

My Odyssey with Honda

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Makes a Final Ruling

Almost five years before NHTSA's response, Mara Nesbitt-Aldrich was on her honeymoon, riding in a borrowed car. There was a crash. Blood and glass were everywhere. Mara broke the windshield with her forehead. Her new husband walked away with hardly a scratch. Mara was riding unbelted because her seat belt was too short. She has permanent brain damage.

Four months after Mara's crash, I am standing in a Honda dealership, on the phone with Honda's National Customer Service department as they tell me you can get a seat belt extender anywhere (well, except from Honda), even at Wal-Mart.

The truth is that there are no aftermarket seat belt extenders, even at Wal-Mart. A letter to American Honda's president took a month to bounce from Honda's Product Regulatory Department to one Honda attorney, and then a second Honda attorney, to their Consumer Affairs Manager, to a Team Environment Leader for Honda's Consumer Affairs Division, and finally to his supervisor, who ended our last conversation with words I will never forget. "There is nothing you can do to get Honda to change their policy. Nothing."

I hung up the phone and weighed my options. I had at least two: I could sue Honda, or I could push for a Honda boycott.

Suing Honda

The Boycott

I needed a plan.

I needed something that wouldn't be expensive, and that I could do in my spare time at night and on the weekend, preferably using tools I already had. I needed an edge, something that would put me on even ground with Honda. So I proceeded to pick up the biggest hammer I could find--I used the Internet.

My friends Frannie and Melissa took pictures with me and a couple of Hondas, and within a few hours after getting the photos developed, I had created my first website. The title? "Honda Says NO to Seat Belt Extenders"

Within a few weeks our picture was on the front page of our local newspaper, along with very positive coverage of my story.

I began writing letters, hundreds of them, to the mayor, the governor, Congressmen and women, even Bill Clinton and Al Gore. I wrote the whole Honda Board of Directors, both here and in Japan, I wrote every safety organization I could find. I even wrote Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore.

I spent every spare minute on the Internet, searching for an answer. In their one letter to me, Honda told me that "As required by federal standards, Honda's seat belts are designed to fit 95% of all U.S. adults in any seating position."

That wasn't exactly true. I consulted the Code of Federal Regulation and found out that what the regulation actually said is that automakers are only required to manufacture seat belts that fit people up to the 95th percentile U.S. adult male, who they defined as weighing 215 lbs. This regulation is based on height/weight data from 1962, and was written at a time when we did not know the value of seat belts.

I had found the problem and the reason for Honda's refusal to manufacture seat belt extenders. They were following the letter of the law.

One of the elected officials I wrote was Senator John Breaux. He told me that any citizen could petition the NHTSA, asking that a regulation be changed or amended.

In April of 2000, I filed a petition with NHTSA, asking that the existing federal regulation governing the manufacture of seat belts, which only required automakers to manufacture seat belts that fit people up to 215 lbs., be changed. I asked that the new regulation require automakers to make seat belts available for sale, and also make longer seat belts an option at the time of purchase. NHTSA created a docket for public comment on my petition, DMS-NHTSA-2000-7580.

I went out on a limb and asked you to write NHTSA 215 letters, one for each pound of the current regulation. Today there are almost 800 entries in NHTSA's public docket, and hundreds of additional letters have been sent to Honda and elected officials.

And Honda said there was NOTHING I could do.

Four and a half years ago, when I first started this campaign, you could type the phrase "seat belt extenders" in a search engine on the internet and get no meaningful results. Today you get pages of links to newspaper and magazine articles and to websites, including mine, which has had almost 300,000 visitors. You, the fat community, have embraced this cause. Seat belt extenders have also found their place in popular culture. There has been a great deal of positive media coverage including USA Today, the front page of the New York Times, and a three-page article in People Magazine. More recently it's been discussed in Time Magazine and on the Today Show. There has also been positive coverage in Automotive Digest, the Midwest City Sun, Australian Women's Forum Magazine, KKNG Radio, 3 On Your Side in Phoenix, AZ, the New Zealand Herald, Car Talk, Honda Beat, The Sun, Automotive Resources International, Berliner Morgenpost in Germany, KOMO 4 News, KCPQ in Seattle, Radiance Magazine, Healthy Weight Journal, oooO Baby BABY, Dimensions Magazine, BBW Magazine, and Sondra Solovay's book Tipping the Scales of Justice. Reporters from Germany, France, Australia, and Czechoslovakia have interviewed me. Mara Nesbitt Aldrich has been invited twice to speak about this issue at the International Three Flags Safety Belt Campaign. They were so moved by our dilemma that 85 police officers, sheriff deputies and state troopers signed a petition to the NHTSA, asking that automakers be required to provide a means for larger passengers to fasten their seat belts. Jade Starrett has been interviewed on television in Seattle, Lora Holeman has been interviewed several times in Oklahoma, and Lynda Finn has been interviewed in New Zealand.

Dennis Miller rants about seat belt extenders in his stand up comedy routine. And Starr Jones, while playing an attorney in an episode of Strong Medicine on Lifetime TV, was seen dictating to her assistant about "suing the car maker, the dealership, and even the salesman who sold her client a car with seat belts that were too short." She quotes information from my website almost word for word.

In February 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted my petition. This means that NHTSA agreed the issues I raised in my petition warrant further discussion.

Honda told me there was nothing I could do. Nothing.

Remember that phone call I made to American Honda customer service, the phone call that kicked off this whole campaign? The one where they told me they didn't have seat belt extenders? Recently I made another call.

The voice at the other end of the phone said, "Honda Canada Customer Service." "Hi," I said. "I'm having a problem with the seat belts in my 1999 Honda Odyssey. They're too short. Do you have extenders?"

Yes, she said, we do have seat belt extenders for the 1999 Odyssey. (Unfortunately these Canadian extenders aren't available for Hondas in America or any Honda Odyssey with seat belt pretensioners.)

Over three years ago I filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, asking that the federal regulation governing the manufacture of seat belts be changed so that people of all sizes could fasten their seat belts. NHTSA granted my petition in 2001 and began a study of the issues I raised in my petition.

In NHTSA's final ruling, dated January 13, 2003 and titled NHTSA 02-13954, it took eleven pages to summarize their research. The results, as you'll read for yourself, contain both good and bad.

In my petition, I stated that if a person could physically fit in a vehicle, the person should be able to fasten his or her seatbelt. A simple idea, right? NHTSA's response is that they cannot establish minimum performance requirements for seat belts based on such an imprecise guideline. They said that to develop objective and reasonable guidelines, NHTSA would have to know or estimate the dimensions of the largest vehicle user. NHTSA believes that the most critical measurement is seated hip circumference. The estimated seated hip circumference of the 99th percentile adult person (male or female) is 59 inches. They say that close to 2 million people in the United States are larger than the 99th percentile.

NHTSA surveyed General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and Honda and found that these automakers each provide an extra 18-20 inches of belt length for the driver and right front passenger in 2003 vehicles. NHTSA calculated that 87.5% of vehicle make/models available today offer consumers either seat belt extenders or longer belts as an option.

"Given that many vehicles have belts long enough to fit almost all users and that optional longer belts or seat belt extenders are available for 87.5% of the fleet, the agency believes that a requirement to increase the belt length in all vehicles is unnecessary."

NHTSA says that their decision to terminate this rulemaking does not foreclose opportunities for larger persons to use seat belts that fit. "Both vehicles and vehicle occupants are found in a variety of shapes and sizes. A given vehicle may not be able to accommodate all persons. For reasons other than girth, a vehicle may be unsuitable for some users... Vehicle buyers should take care to be sure that the vehicle they choose is suitable for their needs, including having belts that fit." To read NHTSA's complete response, visit my website at http://www.ifisher.com.

I am disappointed that NHTSA did not change the federal regulation to require automakers to provide a means for passengers of all sizes to be able to fasten their seat belt in any vehicle they ride in. However, what they did do is to take my petition seriously, and as a result of that, I believe pressure has been put on automakers to voluntarily increase the length of their seat belts or make seat belt extenders available. NHTSA has also, for the first time, complied a list of autos and the length of their seat belts, and they are making that information available on their website.

How has Honda responded to all this? While I haven't heard anything official from them, they have addressed the issue of seat belt length in at least one of their newer vehicles. Recently I test drove a Honda Element with my younger sister. Not only was there more room behind the steering wheel, but I was able to fasten the seat belts with many inches to spare. And almost every day I receive emails from people who need seat belts, or who have learned about extenders and how to get because of my website. I've gotten heartfelt letters from people whose lives have been saved because they saw my website and got an extender. I've gotten reports from people who now have extenders from Subaru, VW, Daewoo, Infiniti, and Saturn that simply weren't available five years ago.

What does the future hold for the seat belt campaign? My website will continue to be a resource to people looking for larger seat belts. For the latest updates and to see how you can help, visit http://www.ifisher.com.

Shrink Wrapped

My Encounter with Dr. Phil

There was one aspect of Dr. Phil's worldview, however, that disturbed us - his philosophy about weight. Seemingly, he believed that being plus size was a psychological flaw and that, through choice and a dose of behavior modification, thinness could be achieved. I attributed Dr. Phil's view of weight to the influence of his mentor, Oprah Winfrey. After all, her decades-long struggle with her own weight has played out on a very public stage. In our hearts, Maryanne and I believed that, if only Dr. Phil had correct information, he would change his philosophy and encourage women to live their lives and celebrate their beauty at any size. And, of course, we were convinced that we were the women who could change his mind. We spent more hours than we'd care to admit contemplating (okay, fantasizing) how we'd go about presenting our point of view.

Lo and behold, one day producers from the show called Maryanne at her office (she's the executive administrator of NAAFA, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) and invited her to appear on Dr. Phil to discuss discrimination against people of size. Good friend that she is, Maryanne insisted that they also invite me. We recognized that this was our opportunity to change Dr. Phil's mind about weight (and therefore influence the millions of people who watch his show), yet we were both hesitant. Maryanne has never been particularly comfortable in the media spotlight, and, having done literally thousands of media interviews during the 1990s as NAAFA's spokesperson, I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of coming out of my self-imposed media retirement. Nonetheless, against our better judgment, Tweedledee and Tweedledum decided to go for it.

Shortly thereafter, the whole thing - as Dr. Phil would say - drove off into the ditch. The producers had the cockamamie idea that they needed footage of people making fun of our size. Though the Dr. Phil show tapes in L.A., they sent us to Las Vegas, where there are permissive laws about hidden cameras. Despite our insistence that folks in Vegas have seen everything, and so would be nonplussed about two supersize women traipsing down the Strip, the producers were convinced they could get what they needed. Well, they eventually did, but they had to actually pay one man to make a rude comment and convince the poor, horrified camera contractor to expedite the shoot and say something mean to us.

After the Las Vegas debacle, it was on to Los Angeles, where things went from bad to worse. They tried another hidden camera maneuver, setting us up in a restaurant where two other guests (who hated fat people) were dining, in hopes that those guests would make rude comments about us. It didn't happen.

Then came taping day, and the rose-colored glasses through which we'd seen Dr. Phil shattered. It quickly became clear that his worldview is internally inconsistent. Removing one's social mask and leading an authentic life is the pinnacle of Dr. Phil's psychological construct. Yet, Maryanne and I received no brownie points for having successful careers, raising our children responsibly and overcoming the obstacles thrown at us by society because of our weight. Instead, Dr. Phil labeled us "militants" and challenged us at every turn about why we don't feel our weight is "change worthy." He wasn't interested in having a discussion about social stigma and weight with two experts; indeed, viewers weren't informed of our last names, much less of our credentials in the field. Instead of being considered advocates and giving a voice to those women who can't speak for themselves, we were accused of seeing ourselves as victims. Most disappointing of all, it quickly became apparent to us that Dr. Phil claimed expertise in an area where his knowledge is woefully inadequate. Yet, his experience as a litigation consultant allowed him to misdirect the discussion and dance circles around us. Of course, now that we know he is planning to publish a weight loss book later this year, we understand that his vested economic interest in promoting weight loss precluded any chance we had to influence his perspective on weight.

In the weeks that followed, Maryanne and I relived each excruciating moment a thousand times. We were angry, but we also felt deep mourning for the man who'd fallen from the pedestal upon which we'd placed him. And the coda to the story gave us a much-needed laugh - tinged with hysteria. A few weeks after the first show aired (we had taped two shows), the producer called, excitedly reporting that ours was their highest-rated show, and inviting us back for a show called, "Debate Dr. Phil." We declined, though I suggested that, if Dr. Phil really wanted to have a debate, I'd be happy to do so on a level playing field - where I'd be allowed my credentials - like Larry King Live or Donohue.

In the meanwhile, I'd suggest that Dr. Phil put away the smoke and mirrors and spend more time trying to uncover his authentic self.

Fat Snippets

Editor's Notes

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