Look!

Thanks A for the Fattylympics bunting.

Our Guest of Honour Speaks!

Erkan Mustafa, actor and dude of East London, is the Fattylympics' esteemed Guest of Honour. Erkan, who starred as iconic fat kid Roland on TV's Grange Hill, will be cutting the ribbon and participating in the inaugural event, Rolling With Roland. Right on! Here's a little interview with the big guy.

How come you're supporting the Fattylympics?

I am supporting the Fattylympics because as a fat person I feel that this is the only Olympics that wants me to be a part of things. We know that sports people spend years in training to be the best at what they do. It has taken me years to be this fat and I want to celebrate it with like-minded people.

A big part of the way that the Olympics is playing out in East London is in hectoring kids to be more sporty. I think this is a bit of a nightmare for kids who aren't sporty, including the fat ones. What do you think?

I feel that too much is put on children to be sporty, a lot of kids hate sports and it really is hard for fat children to be accepted in sports. It would be nice if children would be allowed to be who they are, not what people want them to be. Growing up in East London, if you were not playing football or cricket it was seen that there was something wrong with you. I played my own sport, donut eating, which I excelled in. Maybe I should put this forward as an event for 2020 games.

It was pretty incredible having a character like Roland on TV every week, seeing some of my experience as a young fat person reflected in him. I think your work as Roland gave me a lot of confidence as a fatty out there, doing things in the world. Thanks for that. I imagine you hear this kind of thing from time to time, how does it affect you?

Over the years many people have came up to me a thank me for playing Roland as they feel he was the only character that they could relate to when they were growing up. Roland started off a shy lonely fat child who was bullied for being different, nothing has changed over the years since I was on TV children still are bullied for being different. As the years went on Roland was liked for just being him. He even excelled in playing basketball, which I loved. I feel that there is not a similar character on TV today that fat children can relate to.

What are your tips for surviving being an extremely famous child actor?

I have been asked many times how I survive being a famous child. I always reply "I haven't" then walk off.

We've heard that you're partial to a bit of carrot cake, how true is that?

There is a rumor going round that I love carrot cake, well the truth of the matter is that I just can't get enough of them just that I can't make it so I beg borrow and steal them as much as I can.

Yay! Catch Erkan on 7 July and, if you're a person of a certain age, don't forget to thank him for his excellent portrayal of Roland. Bonus points if you can bring him a carrot cake (banana bread also acceptable).

Egg'n'Spoons

You just can't be sad when you see a picture like this. Catch more Egg'n'Spoons on the day - woo hoo!

Meet the Fattylympians: The Fat Geography Massive

Here's Bethan and Rachel, who have really got into the spirit of things!

Who are you?
We are The Fat Geography Massive, also known as Rachel and Bethan.

What does the Fattylympics mean to you?
A celebration of fabulous fat bodies that move, think, speak, love, have fun. An opportunity to collectively make fat bodies present in public space. A chance to disrupt the policing of bodies and the elitism which surrounds the you know whats and sport more generally. And the chance to have fun.

What's the best thing you can do with your body?
Bethan: Give someone a hug
Rachel: Touch another body and give life to another body

Who would you most like to invite to the Fattylympics, and why?
Some of the obesogenic-bunch; geographers whose research ignores fat bodies and does not consider them to be fleshy, moving, thinking, feeling bodies with rights.

Egg or Spoon?
Bethan: Spoon because it is a nicer word to say. Spooooooonnnn
Rachel: Egg because I loved boiled eggs

What else would you like to say?
Were gym knickers the most hated item in your school uniform? Do you wonder to this day why schools think it's a good idea to make girls run around in special uncomfortable, sweaty underwear? If so, then this event is for you. We are organising a stall at the Fattylympics where you can customise gym knickers! If you still have yours bring them along, or dip into our gym knicker bag and grab a pair. Subsequent wearing is optional.

Are you a Fattylympian? Wanna be featured here? Get in touch: beefergrrl@hotmail.com

The Fattylympics Torches

Behold! Fattylympics Torches!

They come courtesy of the accomplished, talented, generous, sublime artist Catharyne Ward. They could not be any more beautiful or have more resonance. Here's what she says:

"I have in essence a pair of hand-held standards with the bases made from caste glass: a woman's hand holding a vessel or torch, painted inside with enamels. The pierced brass erect baton, sitting in its cushion of 'cream' was made from a material sourced to replicate the Olympic torch. The injected foam taking on its own rampant life to squeeze and project its way through the multitude of holes.

The larger, standard-bearing piece, is made from brass plates. These I use a lot in my work, mostly with Eric Wright (he got this one soldered). Using this material over the pierced brass represented something that had a history: this was from some old boot-fair or other; it had probably hung in a pub's public bar previously; it had seen some acts of lunacy; and it's got people depicted eating, drinking and misbehaving. So it's about community, it's about what we've lost in the East End. It's got a big ol' head of foam thats like from a massive keg of beer or a huge plume of smoke - your choice! It's handle is a cast metal piece in a Roman Empire style, that came off my mighty two-bar electric fire which I worshipped religiously 20 years back. It was evidently waiting this long for its perfect entrance into public life."

Meet the Fattylympian: Isha

Say hi to Isha!

Who are you?
My name is Isha (pronounced eye-sha), and dabble in a few creative things: writing, photography, making bags and blogging.

What does the Fattylympics mean to you?
It'll be my first time coming to this event, and look forward to meeting some amazing people who actually look like me! I'm looking forward to making like-minded friends in an environment where I won't be made to feel like an outcast. It's a level of acceptance that us plus size folks rarely get.

What's the best thing you can do with your body?
Compliment it with clothes that make you happy. If that means wearing a pencil skirt, then wear it, regardless of the amount of looks you may get for squeezing your hips into it! I personally LOVE wearing pencil skirts. Also, try things that take you out of your comfort zone- colour and pattens can be incredibly flattering- if you never try, you'll never know.

Who would you most like to invite to the Fattylympics, and why?
This is going to sound incredibly soppy, but I'd like to invite anyone who wakes up everyday and avoids looking in the mirror because of how they look (Charlotte: this might be the point to start singing the Fattylympics Anthem!). I want them to know that they are not alone and that there is a growing community that is there to give loving support and encouragement. I want anyone who attends to feel proud of their bodies, proud of their curves/flab/stretch-marks/non-commercial beauty, and realise that true beauty comes from loving yourself and realising that those that don't accept you, don't matter (I know it's a constant struggle).

Egg or Spoon? 
Egg surely?!An egg's hips don't lie ;p

What else would you like to say?
Er, shameless plug, but I have a blog : / I've only just started it actually, so it's baby steps thus far, but you can also see a small selection of the jewellery and bags that me and my partner in crime make: creativetypefashion.blogspot.co.uk

Are you a Fattylympian? Wanna be featured here? Get in touch: beefergrrl@hotmail.com

Fattylympics on Facebook

There is now a Facebook Event page for the Fattylympics. Sign up, Fattylympians.

Fattylympics after party!

Details have just been announced for Unskinny Bop's Prom, which also happens on 7 July, just after the Fattylympics, and will be a fantastic after party for anyone with energy to burn after rolling, twirling, spitting and the like.

Fattylympians can snag super-cheap £5 tickets on the night or in advance but you will need to give a magic password to Tim at the door (which is not 'fattylympics' ha ha) and you can only get the password if you come to the Fattylympics.

Erkan Mustafa aka Roland Browning of TV's Grange Hill will open the Fattylympics

The Fattylympics is extremely happy to announce that our esteemed guest of honour, responsible for opening the event, will be Erkan Mustafa.

Erkan is a long-time resident of East London and will be known to many as the actor who portrayed the most iconic fat kid in the history of British TV: Roland Browning from Grange Hill.

Younger Fattylympians might want to bone up on the world of Roland, a character who is put upon, but ultimately grows in confidence and badassery – whilst remaining fat. That would never happen today.

Here he is on his first day at school:



We welcome Erkan and thank him for his work. Erkan will be cutting the ribbon and hosting the first Fattylympics event: Rolling with Roland. He has generously offered his services for free, but tells us that he does like a carrot cake (and banana bread too). If you would like to show your gratitude in the form of baked goods for Erkan, please get in touch.

Find out more about Erkan's portrayal of Roland in this Grange Hill Gold interview.

Reflecting on the Fattylympics Anthem

I'm so excited by the Anthem, I wrote a little post for Obesity Timebomb where I think about it a bit more.

Meet the Fattylympian: Verity

Verity volunteered to write the Fattylympics Anthem and she did a fantastic job. Take a look and have a listen. Here's a bit more about her and about it...

Please introduce yourself

My name's Verity Susman. I play in Electrelane and I've got a solo project now: http://www.facebook.com/veritysusman

Why did you volunteer to write the Fattylympics Anthem?

I wanted to have a go at writing an anthem for an important event, and of all the events happening in London this summer, the Fattylympics seems the most important.

Could you talk a bit about the process of writing it?

At first I thought about anthems and hymns I really like, then got a bit depressed thinking I can never write anything like that, but it was useful in terms of thinking about the structure of these type of songs.

After Charlotte sent me the lyrics I kept them going round in my head and when I started singing a suitable melody to myself I recorded it on dictophone. I went back to it later and worked out a chord structure to go with it.

The recording is the demo I sent to Charlotte - it's just using the keyboard I had to hand at the time (and a keyboard guitar sound - keytar! - because my real guitar got broken on a recent trip). It's just a demo because the hope was that people would learn it and sing it at the Fattylympics, which is the main thing.

I realised later on that there are lots of references to dreaming in the lyrics, what is your dream for the Fattylympics Anthem?

For 20,000 people to sing it standing in a field...or even 20 would do.

What else would you like to say?

I'm gutted I can't be there on the day - can someone make a film of the Fattylympics? (Charlotte's answer: yes!)

The Fattylympics Anthem!

If you're going to have a Fattylympics, and if you're going to have an Opening Ceremony, you need an anthem to go with it. Fattylympians, we have not let you down. It gives me enormous pleasure to share the official Fattylympics Anthem.

Please have a listen to it, familiarise yourselves with the words and the tune. Sing it loud and proud, or hum it quietly (substitute 'fudge' for the swearword if you need to). We will be singing the Anthem on the day, hopefully with you.

Listen to the Fattylympics Anthem, played and sung by Verity in super hi-fi (.wav 25mb) or slightly more lo-fi (.mp3 3.3mb)

The Fattylympics Anthem 2012
Words by Charlotte Cooper, music by Verity Susman

When you're looking in the mirror and you don't like what you see
Try to dream of social justice
Try to dream of being free

Trapped in the shadow of a corporate beast
You don't have to fuck people over to survive

You can try a different way
Maybe today we'll learn a new way to be alive

(shouting)
Let's try to dream it together
Let's dream it together today

It won't be perfect because things never are
But when times are hard we'll remember messing around in the park

Doo doo doo doo doo doo...

Verity and I have released the Fattylympics Anthem under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence. This means that, as long as you credit us and your work is non-commercial, you are free to share this song and remix it as long as you share your remixes.

Fattylympics Anthem chords in F Major (.txt, 10k)
Fattylympics Anthem chords in Eb Major (in case you want to sing it in a lower register) (.txt, 10k)


The Fattylympics Anthem by Charlotte Cooper and Verity Susman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at fattylympics.blogspot.co.uk.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://fattylympics.blogspot.co.uk/.

Fatty Unbound at the Fattylympics

The Fattylympics is really happy to announce that Kirsty Lou of the wonderful Fatty Unbound blog will be hosting a stall at the Fattylympics, selling her beautiful hand-made clothing.

There are still some stalls available, drop us a line if you want one. Here's some more information about stalls.

Fattylympics Events: Twirling

This is what we'll be doing on the day.

Twirling
Proposed by Cheap and Porky

Cheap and Porky will perform a choreographed ribbon gymnastic routine to a piece of music lasting three minutes and four seconds for the delight of the Fattylympics attendees.

After this, the pair will open the floor to some freestyle ribbon action for all to enjoy.

Cheap and Porky will provide ribbons for those inspired to join in. Should you wish to start practicing throwing your own shapes, the freestyle music will be 'Loving You’s a Dirty Job’ performed by Bonnie Tyler and Todd Rundgren, weighing in at a hefty seven minutes, forty-sex seconds.

Fattylympics Events: Spitting on the BMI

This is what we'll be doing on the day

Spitting on the BMI
Proposed by Charlotte

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a sum that enables you to sort of work out how much space someone's body takes up in the world, but it tells you nothing about people's health behaviours. It reduces the wild complexity of how people experience and live in their bodies to a number. Only a few numbers are good numbers. The BMI chart originated in the insurance industry and is now a standard tool in health and weight loss industries for berating people of all sizes.

In the Fattylympics event 'Spitting on the BMI' everyone will be encouraged to spit on a lovely big 'scientific' copy of the BMI chart.

We acknowledge that spitting is not very nice, and we will make sure that the spitting takes place in an area where it will not upset other people in the park. We will be looking for people who spit with style and gusto. At the end of the event, handlers in rubber gloves will carefully place the spitty BMI chart in a bin bag and dispose of it. Spitters and onlookers will be encouraged to think of the spitty BMI chart every time they are coerced onto a set of scales, or subjected to inescapable diet talk.

Fattylympics Events: Rolling with Roland

This is what we will be doing on the day

Rolling with Roland
Proposed by Kay

Our guest of honour, Erkan Mustafa, also known as the actor who portrayed iconic TV fat kid Roland Browning, will get the event underway.

In Rolling with Roland, participants will make their way up the gently landscaped roof of Grassroots and roll downwards. We will check the ground beforehand for poo and litter, and it will be removed and the ground neutralised and made nice. There may or may not be different rounds for extravagant rolling, slow rolling, backwards rolling and freestyle rolling.

That's it.

This is where we'll be rolling

Fattylympics Events: Spin-Off

Following fierce competition, we are delighted to announce the events that got through the proposal round for the Fattylympics. Yes folks, this is what we'll be doing on the day.

Spin Off
Proposed by Simon

This event concerns the rotation of the body by any available means (feet, wheels etc), to provoke a measurable range of dizzy states and an awareness of their effects.

Participants will wear specially-constructed Spinning Hats and will spin to the beat of a metronome in three rounds, getting faster each time. Much cheering and yells of "Faster! Faster!" are encouraged.

Upon completion of the spin a Dizz-o-Meter will be produced, upon which participants will measure the depth of their dizziness.

A quiet place to sit down, and a bucket in case of 'upsets' will be provided for participants.

Meet the Fattylympian: Lauren

Here's Lauren in the super-fab Vol.Up.2 mag
by Velvet d'Amour

Who are you?
I am Lauren, a 28 year old unemployed bum from Essex.

What does the Fattylympics mean to you?
It means fun, community and a place where I can feel safe and comfortable from ridicule - a welcome respite in this Olympian, 200,000 Drs against obesity, Biggest Loser culture I find myself in.

What's the best thing you can do with your body?
I've never been someone who can do party tricks, I'm not double-jointed anywhere which has always made me quite sad. But I suppose as a living, breathing thing, that my body can keep me alive and allow me to go out into the world is a great thing.

Who would you most like to invite to the Fattylympics, and why?
My initial response was someone notoriously fat hating, like Jamie Oliver, or Dr Christian - but why should they be invited to an event that they will only sneer at? I would like to invite all the wonderful fatties who would feel better about themselves and life by attending Fattylympics.

Egg or Spoon?
Spoon! I don't like eggs, unless they're a) chocolate or b) in chocolate cake

What else would you like to say?
I have a blog that talks about fatty fashion, Pocket Rocket (www.pocketrocketfashion.com). It's frivolous but fun (I hope!) and really just that I'm so excited for the event, I can't wait!

Are you a Fattylympian? Wanna be featured here? Get in touch: beefergrrl@hotmail.com

Warm-up with some Chub-Robics!

The Fattylympics will get underway on Saturday 7 July with stalls, performances and general hanging-out. Keep your eyes peeled for this:

Chub-Robics!

Join Vivacious von Vixen (pictured, left) in a vitalising warm-up for the Fattylympics opening ceremony!

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Vivacious will lead an exercise routine like no other to get you pumped and limber for the day’s delights.

Stretch that satirical smirk and push your funny bone to the limit with moves carefully designed to flaunt the flab, laud your lard and applaud the ample-bodied.

Vivacious will provide just the exuberant encouragement you need and have you shedding your inhibitions and building body-positivity from the very first session. Including a range of accessible moves to accommodate all abilities, this pork-out will have even the sveltest of spectators shakin' and groovin'. Whether well-upholstered or blessed with the most petite of paunches, these moves will flatter any figure and praise physiques of all proportions.

Guaranteed to expand your sense of humour by at least two dress sizes.*

Join us around midday on 7 July to start working your wobble and realise your portly potential!

*Hyperbolic claims only verified when taken in combination with a pinch of salt.