The Shape of a Mother

Not quite fat specific, but related to body image issues in our society, the new site, The Shape of a Mother is a very promissing site. The site sets out to diffuse post-partum body hatred by showing what the bodies of mothers actually look like. Readers submit their photos and essays, and the whole projects is very inspiring and well worth a look. While the body hatred in some submissions is discouraging, its a step in a process. Popular culture just does not show us this side of motherhood, because it deems it bad and negative. This lack of inclusion just fuels that feeling, though. A site like this works to desensitize to us to this. It makes it real. That serves a very useful purpose, and its no surprise that a lot of fat activism does this as well. If there are any fat mothers out there, I'd strongly urge you to take part in the project yourselves. Its a simple but extremely powerful form of activism.