In light of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, there seems to be a question, at least in my mind, on how Elastic Waist can support healthy body image while still pursuing a fit lifestyle while still saying that people shouldn't be shamed because they are overweight and also somehow dealing with this whole question of eating disorders and binge eating and then having the audacity to make a bacon joke.

Well, it's a good question, anyway, and the simple answer is "Because we can." Because I know that in any one day, I might wish I were four sizes smaller after trying to find a pair of jeans and have looked into Krav Maga because, hell, I would like to be able to kick someone's ass if I need to. I might look up low-fat recipes on Tastespotting and figure out ways to exist entirely on a vegetarian diet and then have a really decadent chocolate cupcake with thick ganache frosting for dessert and refuse to feel guilty about it.

Because I realize that I'm schizophrenic when it comes to my relationship with my body and I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine or even expect that other people have those wavering emotions too. It's like a tightrope act, some days, and I suspect that if any woman is entirely honest with herself, even the poster child for body acceptance or healthy self-image probably has some wavering moments. It's like when you're a kid and your parents excused their own cigarette smoking by laying that "Do as I say, not as I do" bullshit on you.

You must check out this fascinating article on how eating disorders fit into the fat acceptance movement (or don't fit in).

It's hard to remember that, as La Wade reiterates, trying to figure out why people are getting fat is not the same thing as a war on fat people. Likewise, the possibility that being fat (or being skinny) is sometimes caused by disordered eating is not counterintuitive to the movement for size acceptance and it would be incorrect to assume that on a Venn diagram, the circle for Fat People would be completely inside the circle for People With Eating Disorders. There's a pretty good assumption that, just like the rest of the population, there are fat people who are left-handed, gay, like back door action and vote Green Party, and there are fat people who also have eating disorders. Hey, I'm one of them! I know!

I've personally seen several size acceptance blogs attacked when the blogger mentions that they are dieting. "But how can you betray the cause!?" the comments ask, as though this were the '50s and we're defending ourselves against allegations of Communism. Why must everything be mutually exclusive? Quite honestly, there are a lot of us and this whole subject makes me really angry. I'll stand here and happily tell people where to shove it if they claim that I don't support Health At Any Size just because I happen to feel that the fat I am right now isn't the fat that is right for me. But damned if I'm going to let anyone attack these ferociously strong, vibrant and gorgeous women who make up the blogosphere when they have a moment of weakness or reveal that they aren't always Wonder Women one hundred percent of the time. Sorry. Not on my watch, buddy.