Health at Every Size

a group of fat women's legs wearing fishnet tights.

Lady Monster photographed at China Basin beach in San Francisco was titled Queen of the Fire Tassels by burlesque sensation, Satan's Angel.

The Padded Lilies are a Bay Area group of fat women who perform synchronized swimming. They have attracted more national attention than any other San Francisco based fat performance group. Their shows are consistent crowd pleasers. They teach body-acceptance and fat-empowerment. They believe that everyone can exercise regardless of size.

Candye Kane. Underground sensation Candye Kane is a legendary diva, large and lovely porn star, pin up model and fat activist. She is also an award winning blues singer. Her CDs include Whole Lotta Love, Swango and Knockout.

Yay Scale on Castro Street on International No Diet Day.

Backstage at a performance of “All that Flab.” Matilda St. John, Artistic Director of West Coast Phat Fly Girls.

On International No Diet Day, Wann with her “Yay Scale” in the Haight District, asks pedestrians if they’d like a free compliment. A young woman, excited to try the scale for the first time, shrieks as she sees her compliment.

A couple dances at Fat Summer Weekend in San Jose.

Wann meets newcomers during the 9th annual Brides of March event. The meeting place was Ginger’s Trois, a legendary gay bar in San Francisco.

Wann in her pink wedding dress during the 9th Annual Brides of March event. She is joined by hundreds of “brides” as they parade through San Francisco’s Union Square in protest of the commercialization of weddings.

Rae Bergamino runs Heavy Rotation – a fat friendly dance event for “size rebels, fatties, and chubsters” – at El Rio in San Francisco every second Friday of the month.

The West Coast Phat Fly Girls practice for their Fosse-inspired musical review “All That Flab.” The group hopes to bring larger dancers out of the margins of the dance world by commissioning works that utilize their unique strengths, and by producing events that explicitly feature larger dancers.

Backstage at a performance of “All that Flab.” Matilda St. John, Artistic Director of West Coast Phat Fly Girls, gets ready before going on-stage.

Jukie Sunshine performs “Bumble Bee Blues” at All that Flab in San Francisco in Spring 2007.

Health at Every Size

Countless men and women are fighting an unending, toxic war against their own bodies. They strive to meet an arbitrary expectation of size and weight in a culture that portrays thinness as the epitome of health and beauty. I’ve been following the growing movement of women who are proving that health and beauty can transcend weight. Health at Every Size is a long-term project that examines how women view themselves. The project offers a different perspective on weight – an issue that much of the media marginalizes and ignores. This series of images helps raise awareness of an alternative lifestyle that isn’t well understood: being fat, happy, and healthy! You’re invited to meet some of the Bay Area activists at the center of the new civil rights movement known as Health at Every Size. These are women who encourage others to love their bodies in a battle against fat discrimination.