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.

Where We're At

It's 83 days to go until the Fattylympics. 83, as you will know, is an auspicious number, according to Wikipedia it is the natural number following 82 and preceding 84. Whoo! Hot stuff!

This is where we're at:

Lots of people have volunteered including a brilliant musician, who has offered to compose the Fattylympics Anthem; someone in Germany who is going to make some bunting; people who want to document the day; people who want stalls; someone who is making gorgeous posters; builders and makers of all stripes. We have an official Fattylympics Torch on the way, and medals made of doughnut hair forms, and wooden disks. Kay and I have been planning the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and we might just have enough events, more about them later. We have sublime Fattylympics mascots in the form of Egg'n'Spoon, custom Fattylympics sweatbands, and we've bought insurance too.

There's still room for more volunteers, why not offer your services?

The bad news is that we realised that the Fattylympics clashes with Pride, and probably some other things too. This is a shame. But we've decided to keep going because not everyone likes Pride, not everyone is gay, lesbian, bi or trans (true!), and maybe at least some people will prefer to be hanging out in a park in East London messing around with us.

In other news, a group of fat people in Los Angeles are going to organise their own mini sister-event in solidarity. The Fattylympics is an international affair! More about that when we have pics and video.

Finally, there's The Weigh In, a new fat-friendly social space that takes place in London once a month. Come along, no doubt there'll be some Fattylympics talk there later this week.

Over and out.

Propose a Fattylympics Event!

There will be four participatory competition events at the Fattylympics. One of these events is spoken for, but there are three remaining slots that need filling.

We are inviting proposals from people who want to create Fattylympics events for these three slots. We're looking for events that are:

• Hilarious
• Visually appealing, eye-popping
• Make you feel glad to be alive
• Congruent with Fattylympics themes of DIY, satire, making things together, community, imperfection
• Accessible to people with all kinds of bodies and abilities
• Not insulting to anyone, least of all fat people (parody is encouraged, but ask us and other people if you're worried about what is and what isn't insulting)

Please be aware that the Fattylympics values non-competitiveness. In devising your event please avoid creating winners at the expense of losers, consider events where everyone wins, and be imaginative in the ways that special awards for particular kinds of merit can be given.

What's in it for you?

• Amazing, fun-filled, beautiful times with incredible people
• A chance to create something really great at a unique and never-to-be-repeated event
• A lovely afternoon messing around in the park
• An opportunity to make something meaningful in the face of the You Know Whats

You will need to be able to attend the Fattylympics on 7 July 2012 in East London in order to set up and manage your event. There are three spaces available: a hard surface, a playing field behind the venue, and a grassy area out the front of the venue. These are public spaces, so please bear in mind that there can be no amplification beyond a megaphone and a whistle; that any mess you make must be easily tidied and won't get us into trouble with the park management. Please refrain from using the language, trademarks and symbols of the You Know Whats. Each event has been allocated 30 minutes, with ten minutes at the beginning to set-up.

You are welcome to promote your own stuff in the event, but you should not treat it as an advertisement. There will be general Fattylympics banners and decorations around the place, but if you need special equipment, you will have to make/acquire it yourself. There may be help available for transporting things to the venue. We cannot pay you but we have a very small amount of money to cover some costs. We will supply judges and stewards.

Proposing an event
ANYONE CAN PROPOSE AN EVENT! Group proposals are also welcome and encouraged. Your proposal should be no longer than two pages and should include:

• Your name
• Contact details
• An explanation of what you'd like to do and in what space you'd like to do it (hard surface, playing field, grassy area)
• Pictures, diagrams, links etc
• A list of things you'll need help with
• Potential costs
• A plan for encouraging people to participate

The proposal does not have to be perfect, just send in some ideas and we can work something out.

Please send this information to beefergrrl@hotmail.com

Deadline for proposals is Friday 30 March 2012

THANK YOU!

Other stuff we've done

Fattylympics is the latest in a series of related events. Here are links to them, and some minor explanations, to give you a bit more context.

We have produced these events in collectives and by ourselves. What motivates us is to make playful and accessible spaces in real life that engage with fat and queer sensibilities in various ways. Sometimes it's a bit more than that too. Generally, the things we do are not preachy or dry, we do our best to make things that are full of joy, where everyone is welcome. We like making things that are a bit offbeat too.

The Chubsters
This is a semi-fictitious fat queer girl gang, but you don't have to be fat, queer, a girl, or gang-ish to be a part of it. Since it started in 2003, The Chubsters has become a platform for all kinds of things, from film shows to stonemasonry, handicrafts to songs, jumping-ins and other kinds of weirdness. The website is dated, sorry, but there are now over 100 card-carrying badge wearing Chubsters.

Big Bums
Four of us produced a little zine in 2008 with a small grant from NOLOSE, based in the US, "a vibrant community of fat queers and our allies, with a shared commitment to feminist, anti-oppression ideology and action, seeking to end the oppression of fat people!"

The Fat of the Land
In 2009 a group of us organised a fat queer harvest festival in London. Yes, a harvest festival, possibly the dorkiest kind of event on the calendar. We had performances, Morris Dancers, competitions, games, things to eat and buy, and lots of people came to hang out for the afternoon.

Big Bum Jumble
Kay used money from The Fat of the Land to produce a fat jumble sale. The Big Bum Jumble was an amazing day of rummaging, trying things on, and sheer abundance. We produced an unforgettable fashion show too, and had a sympathetic write-up in The Daily Mail, of all places. The money we raised from the Big Bum Jumble is what's paying for the Fattylympics.

The Bad Art Collective
In 2011 Corinna Tomrley and Becky Sanchez hosted a Bad Art workshop at a wonderful feminist activist conference in York. The event was a lot of fun and, together with Francis Ray White, we decided to form the Bad Art Collective and do more of this sort of thing. Bad Art is all about having a go, bodging your way through, being inexpert, and having a laugh. It's great to make things together, epsecially when they come out looking weird and stoopid.

A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline
This is something that I did by myself in 2010-2011, but it involved a lot of other people. It's a community history project that takes a number of different forms, including a workshop, a timeline object, an archival object, paper and digital zines, an object to talk about, an artist's residency, and an academic paper.

We hope to produce more events in the future, but Fattylympics is our most ambitious endeavour to date. Please support us!