“This Is What They Look Like With Their Clothes Off”

Miz Substantia Jones sent me the link to a new size positive photo project that I intend to keep an eye on: The Adipositivity Project. A series of close photos of fat women, the Project aims to affirm their beauty through “a visual display of fat physicality.” What this means, basically, is you get to see some fifty (at this count) photos of parts of women: in one of my personal favorites, we’re given the belly and upper thighs of a fat model in red panties and fishnets, reposing on some seriously red sheets – very sexy.

I’ve gotta admit, it took me a minute to see what the project’s creators were up to. As an FA, I’m a big fan of fat womanly faces: they’re a part of my visual ideal, and I always try to include at least one good description of my fat heroines’ faces in my stories. And while I can understand the need for anonymity on the Internet (believe me, I can), I have to admit to some frustration whenever I come across a photo which makes a point of cropping off or – worse yet – fuzzing out its model’s face. Too often, the effect of this strategy is to negate their individuality and humanity.

But the Project has a different motive beyond masking the identity of its models for its visual approach: it’s to “to coax observers into imagining they're looking at the fat women in their own lives, ideally then accepting them as having aesthetic appeal which, for better or worse, often translates into more complete forms of acceptance.” Okay, I can accept that. Looking at a varied collection of these shots does indeed get you to appreciate parts of a fat woman’s anatomy in a fresh way. Why not check it out?