And, frankly, after witnessing time and time again the way people with privilege – even those who consider themselves “allies” – react to these concepts when applied to other kinds of bigotry, I don't think the FA movement is going to be any different. We're not all in this together, and frankly, I don't want us to be all the time.

We are not one great hive-mind, because true acceptance and respect for all would require different manners of thought-change about different people from different people. It's one thing to not be able to fit into a Jeans West piece of clothing because they're such disgustingly small sizes, it's another thing entirely to not be able to put the tray table down when you fly because, let's be honest, fat people are the thorn in the side of all airlines. It's one thing to be a size 16 White teenage girl verging on an eating disorder because you're from Kenmore and you need to Keep Up Appearences of everything that goes along with the White culture that permeates the middle class who make up suburbs like that, anothing thing entirely to be an obese Indigenous Australian woman from Nhulunbuy who can barely afford canned products – let alone fresh fruit and veges – and who is demonised everytime she tries to access whatever meagre healthcare she can. One of the key cornerstones of FA in every piece of legitimate literature I've read – and one of the most ignored and glossed-over aspects – is the issue of race in the demonisation of fat and obesity, and Australia is no different from the rest of the world.

There are degrees of privilege, and while there's no such thing as the Oppression Olympics, FA is falling into the same Feminist trap over and over again of sacrificing (and sometimes outright damaging) voices from people who aren't White and Middle Class for the sake of their own prettifying validation or whatever. The notion of the “Real Woman” is the most damaging for us all but I've seen very few FA sites/blogs who really go out of their way to smash through the discourses and constructs of White Femininity that make up that concept, especially the bigger name ones. And it's not just a racial issue, it's a gender and sexuality one as well. I was just focusing on race here as an example.

So I guess this is a long way of saying I'll believe “We're all in this together”, when I start seeing that we are.

And then you get to the other side, where all fashion models are deemed “anorexic” or “too skinny.” I'm sure these girls get tired of it.

I also agree that if we're going to accept ourselves, we have to accept EVERYONE. I remember a post over at Fatshionista quite awhile back about a reality show featuring a 500 pound woman (who is beautiful and joyful, I think, and that's mostly how she seemed to be portrayed in the show, but it did revolved around weight loss I believe.) And there were a lot of people, even in a fat acceptance community, that were like “well I'm into accepting yourself but that's just WRONG.” I think if we're going to be truly positive with each other we have to give EVERYONE regardless of how tiny/large they are, the right to feel good about themselves.