- There is nothing that enrages me more than fat models.
- I don't like the celebration of morbid obesity.
- You're okay in the skin that you're in.
- This dress is everything.
- Just don't sit there, getting fatter.
Do something about it.
- I am fat.
- The fact that I have rolls on my belly
doesn't make me any less of a human being.
(tense rhythmic music)
- [Producer] I am offended by the word fat.
3, 2, 1, go.
- The reason I am here is because I feel like
in the past fat has been such like,
a, like, derogatory term, and, like,
we've been so, like, ridiculed for the way we look,
it's almost like I wanna take that word back
and make it a positive thing.
Like, "oh, someone called me fat, ugh".
So negative and be like, yes I am.
You know what I mean?
Just like change the way we think of it.
- A lot of words that should offend me don't.
I think it's because I'm just kind of like, I don't even
need the word to know your intention.
- Exactly.
So I know your intention and if you're using it to,
like, hurt me, I don't care what word you use, I care
that you want it to hurt me.
I just don't look at like a word like that as being, like,
- You don't wanna give it power.
- No, I don't want to give it weight.
- Yes.
(laughter)
- [Producer] Being plus size is a choice.
3, 2, 1, go.
- I'm only standing on this one.
And not strongly disagree because
some people do, like, try to be plus size.
Like there's, like, lots of people
in the gay community that are called, like,
eaters and feeders,
so people do try to be bigger, but I mean
I don't think it's necessarily a choice.
So that's the only reason why I'm not strongly disagreeing.
- That makes sense.
- You're the woman ahead.
Yes. Yes.
I feel that.
I feel that
- I lost 60 pounds in six months.
Everyone was so happy for me.
I hated myself.
I hated the way I looked.
I hated why I did, why I exercise and things like that.
And so I made the conscious decision of,
my parents are not gonna be supportive,
or maybe they won't like it.
My community, the Korean community is gonna be really
disappointed that there's a fat Korean
walking around the world.
But it was a choice for me to say, well I don't wanna
work out eight hours a day, every day
and hate what I look like to be skinnier,
so I'm gonna let myself eat more
than a quarter cup of white rice today.
- I disagree because I believe,
in society, especially in America,
we have this idea that,
"Oh yeah, all fat people ate themselves that way.
That they just sit at home and they're lazy and they don't
do anything and they ate themselves that way".
But they don't take into account people who have a disease.
They don't take into account people who work out,
and their body is just built that way.
So there are all of these other factors that the average
person who's judging people don't take into account
and they just look at someone and they say, "oh,
you're fat and you're not doing anything about it."
- But I also want to throw out there, like, it is
possible that people have eaten themselves to that point.
But then you look at like, why did that happen?
Like there's trauma, there's rough coping mechanisms,
there's so many different things that can lead
to somebody resorting to that
and then eating themselves into this situation,
'cause I know that's what happened to me.
I didn't choose it, but it happened.
- [Producer] I have been criticized for my size.
3, 2, 1, go.
- Come on, everyone. (laughter)
- When I first went back to Korea, which is like,
the country of my parents and like, it was amazing for me
and I was like, wow, I look like everyone else, right?
Like this is my home country, this is
supposed to be my place.
It's not my place 'cause I'm fat.
And so walking down the street, people are like
"Do you know how easy it is for you to get
liposuction here? They won't even scar 'cause they can
do it pretty for an Asian person" or whatever.
- Oh my god.
- I had family said, you know what, we'll fix your ears
we'll fix your nose, we'll fix your eyes,
your lips, and all your fat.
And that is just, it's mind boggling
to me that you would even think to offer that
or think that I dislike my body.
And I think that's also the thing.
The critique comes from this idea
of "You must hate how you look, so let me help you".
- I think everyone
in this entire room has been criticized for their body.
Like, it doesn't really matter what size you are
you could be the skinniest girl in the world, and
you're gonna be called, like, a fat bitch.
Like, if you think that this is like exempt from you
because we're bigger or we have different body types.
Like no, we've all been shamed for our bodies.
- People feel that they have the right to come up to you
and impose their views onto you about your personal body.
The fact that I have rolls on my belly
and big thighs doesn't make me any less of a human being.
My body is not for you.
I didn't ask you. That's it.
- [Producer] I want to lose weight.
3, 2, 1, go.
- That's hard. Okay.
- The reason, like, I hesitated so much is
because I will love the way I look no matter what,
at the same time, like, if I, like,
was to keep dancing and keep going to the gym
and all this and then I just like, happened to lose weight
like I'd also be like, cool.
I'll just love myself no matter what,
is pretty much what I'm saying.
- Oh, bye. - No! So I-
- See ya.
- I wanna be here, because this is,
like, the work that I do and I feel like doing this
is gonna like, make- it's like being here,
someone's gonna say something to me and be like, oh, like,
like "You aren't for body positivity,
you aren't for fat activism, you aren't for liberation",
but like this, that has nothing to do
with anybody else besides me. I think like if I,
if I say- if I this, and I'm not saying,
I'm not being honest myself with saying like, you know what,
sometimes I do think about losing weight.
Because I do and like, and like everyone does.
- Because there's privileges when you're smaller.
- Mm-hmm.
- So it's like, it's natural to think I want to be smaller
because there's so many more options for me if I'm smaller
but I don't want to lose weight.
- [Producer] Skinny people get more privileges.
3, 2, 1, go.
- Oh, wait.
I'm like, the wrong way.
- For me, um, since I am a dancer,
it is the most annoying thing, like,
I go to auditions, and I'm the only, like,
plus size person there.
And literally if you go to a, a concert and see an artist
you will like never see someone that looks
like me dancing back up for, like, Chris Brown.
All they care about is, you know, "Oh, sex sells".
And you know, "Plus size isn't sexy".
Which it is, obviously,
but they don't, they can't get that, you know
out of their heads that skinny is like,
the, like, top tier of, like, life.
- So what kept you, though, from on the strongly agree?
- I- I don't really know.
I just felt like it was like,
it's like a big choice.
- The world is created with smaller bodies in mind.
Like everything we experience when you sit
in a folding chair, when you go on an airplane,
when you go to the movie theater.
And the unfortunate truth is our population is
not that small. So just, like, organically speaking
smaller people have bigger privileges
because the world's designed, like, for them
- I had to quit a whole career because of my size.
Like I got my first degree in musical theater performance.
I was ready to go to Broadway,
and then through college I gained 65 pounds.
And not only did I watch my professors lose interest in me,
but I watch casting people lose interest in me.
And that's how I ended up in education,
because I want to teach that that's not okay.
You can play any role because that's what's baffling to me
is that we are in an age where
in theater we can suspend our disbelief
that like animals can talk and things like that
but we can't accept that
a plus sized person could have somebody fall
in love with them unless it's "Hairspray".
Like that's the only story we get and that's infuriating.
- [Producer] I love my body.
3, 2, 1, go.
- I love my body,
but it took a lot of time to get there.
When I graduated college and I was in, like,
the biggest place that I've ever been, I was
in a depression that I can't even, like,
begin to explain about it.
And then when I went off to grad school
I was like, something has to change. New city, new me.
- Mm.
- And so I got up every morning and I looked in the mirror
and I was like, what can I like about myself today?
And I learned how to just love every little part of me
because it is mine. It belongs to me.
And if I don't love it, who is going to?
- Mm.
- So what keeps you there?
- That it took so much time to get there.
- And being plus size, I don't love it,
I don't hate it, it's here for me
and it's got me this far.
It's sabotaged me in a lot of ways and that's-
that's its own journey.
I just think for like a lot of like younger folks,
like when I was your age or younger,
people said either hate your body or love your body.
I wasn't either way and I was in the middle.
And so you feel so stuck, and so you feel so alone.
And it's this idea of it's okay if you don't love your body.
It's okay if you're not obsessed with it.
Just be kind to yourself and that's, that's good enough.
If you can be kind to your best friend
you can be kind to yourself.
And so that's, that is why I am here.
- Every morning I'll wake up and I will, like,
get out of bed, and I'll look in the mirror
and I'll literally just like, I'll like,
I'll like, rub, like my chest, like rub my stomach.
I'll like shake my ass and like touch my thighs,
to like, like, I want to shower myself with love every day.
And that's, like, really important to me,
to give myself the time to be like, oh,
I appreciate my body for what it does for me.
Like do I want to change? Sometimes, sure,
will it, maybe it will, maybe it won't.
But like at the end of the day, like,
I will love it regardless,
because it is like a home for me and my soul.
(all cheering)
- Sweaty group hug.
- Run a group twerk!
- Oh, we're gonna twerk out?
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so if you guys wanna receive a mystery gift box from us
in the next week, uh, let us know
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- Send it to this PO box,
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We read through everything that you send us.
- Everything. - So thank you,
And we hope to hear from you guys soon.
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- Bye.