Trike Talk - Ep 5 - Motorizing Your Recumbent Trike MADE EASY
The horrendous fatphobic (and acoustic riders are the "real victims") comments on this video are indicative of how far the cycling community has to go yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3DeRtvIRA #Trike #Recumbent #BikeTooter #Cycling #Ableism #Fatphobia @fedibikes
Hoy es el #DíaContraLaGordofobia y lo que muchas veces oímos como "preocupación por nuestra salud" no son sólo más que prejuicios y discriminación hacia los cuerpos no normativos porque no entramos en los cánones de belleza actuales.
1/2
The only thing I retain from the Oscars is that most actresses are not healthy-looking.
Just look at their shoulders, their arms... They're not "slim", they're underweight.
#fatphobia is so clearly the norm in the cinema industry and it's so obviously related to patriarchal domination over women's bodies, I can't believe we still tolerate it.
Just started The Gona Away World by Nick Harkaway
And then put it down less than 10% in. The humor didn't land well for me, and the #Fatphobia was annoying as shit.
#Karstmas day 3!
Yesterday was rappelling into caves, so now let's talk climbing! There are a couple of common climbing systems but the one used world wide is the Frog System, or "Frogging" (adj.). This is not necessarily "the best system" - after all that's subjective and depends on what you are doing in particular - but it is easily adaptable to many rigging styles, simple in concept, quick to learn, and requires fewer pieces of gear than most other systems which makes it the most affordable. Practically every caver knows how to Frog, even if they prefer something else.
As you may have guessed from the name, you kinda look like a frog when you climb this way. It is a sit-stand system. You put your feet in the footloops, raise the upper ascender which lifts your feet up to your bum (the "sit" part). Then you stand up in the footloops, which moves your croll up, and this captures your progress. Inchworm like this up the rope. Erm. Excuse me. FROG up the rope! :D
This works great in theory. But...try having a chest/breasts/belly...anything that would make you fall away from the rope, and it gets exponentially more difficult.
You see, this system was made by skinny tall athletic men. After all, that's mostly who was caving in the 1960's. It certainly is an optimal system easy to use with certain body types. If you don't fit into this category, it's more of a struggle.
Done right, the lift is mostly all in the legs which are much stronger than arms, your arms just hold the direction of motion for the most part (aka, keep you from falling away from the rope, and standing UP rather than kicking BACK - which backwards doesn't help to climb UP!).
Enter my own epiphany & invention of sorts back in 2012. I had to get my first harness *custom made*. Traditionally, caving harness were all made for Frogging and the doctrine was to make the croll very low, so you can get the longest stroke when you stand. However, if you make the rise of the harness taller, more of you is "in" the harness, and if you can get your 'center of balance' into that harness, you sit upright like the skinny folk without much trouble! PHYSICS!
I wrote an article about this for the National Speleological Society newsletter over a decade ago, and got a *LOT* of hate for it. I literally got hate mail saying I should just lose weight if I wanted to cave, so I could "do it right". Eesh!
Naw...what I did was I challenged the Norm as Made By Men ;)
If you'd like to watch a video about this I've made those! You can also see then how this Frog thing works. https://youtu.be/grvRSzhzAL8
(Boosts loved! Show everyone you don't have to be a skinny dude to enjoy the outdoors!)
Comments like, “You’d be so handsome if you lost weight,” masquerade as compliments but feel like daggers. They reinforce the idea that my worth is contingent on shrinking myself to fit someone else’s ideal.
https://buff.ly/3CUunnK
I'm sick of how existing as a fat person seemingly invites weight loss tips. One of my building staff said I looked pretty with my lipstick on, and a male tenant I'm friendly with witnessed this. Then him and I were on the elevator together and he said, "You know, you really are a pretty girl. I'm not saying you're overweight or anything, but if you want to lose weight, it's just a math and numbers thing." I was ignored when I said I know bc I've managed to lose over 50 lbs on my own. #Fatphobia
Fediverse, your fatphobia is showing - especially when you blame fat people for their physicians' mistakes/prejudices.
#fatphobia discussed on the Overthink podcast: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=JcC7ZO9HOhM
( #invidious link, it's like YouTube but without ads)
The episode features Dr. Kate Manne, philosopher focusing on moral and feminist philosophy. It discuses question of ethics, accessibility, justice and follows the thread that links fatphobia with racism, misogyny, classism.
I loved listening to this episode, I really recommend it. Especially if you feel fatphobia is a lesser political issue - it's not.
Afternoon ponderings today:
We CANNOT have legit conversations about the harm of fast fashion until we deal with fat-phobia in clothing.
(I'm not here for your spicy, puritanical and fatphobic takes, I block liberally and move on with my day).
The company that makes ozempic doesn't seem to have considered that they are going to be facing a class action from people who suddenly got pregnant as as result of the medication who didn't want to be, people who got pregnant and then miscarried, and the children who were born with "abnormalities" (whatever that means) as a result of their parent taking ozempic while pregnant.
You'd think that the pharmaceutical industry would have learnt their lesson about this from past class actions.
#PoliCartoon: The Absent Fatso #FatAcceptance #Fatphobia There's a link to a blogpost and a transcript in replies.
Existing in public as a fat person sucks. Tired of people making shitty comments and noises at me when I'm just out minding my own business. Long trauma history, an eating disorder, and chronic pain have made me this way. I'm trying to lose weight, I've lost 46 lbs. I don't get how people feel it's okay to treat me like shit because of my weight. I hate that it's socially acceptable to ridicule me, but if I were to ridicule them for something about their looks, I would be the asshole. #Fatphobia
In the last hour I have started and stopped reading two books because of fatphobia.
In the first one, within the first chapter the daughters of the main character were watching – and liking – the show ‘The biggest loser’ and there had already been some remarks about a friend who was getting bigger.
In the second book it took a bit longer, but there were some remarks about someone’s big belly and then it literally said ‘they were old and too fat’ about two other (minor) characters.
And you know what, I do not tolerate this anymore. I could try to ignore it and continue reading, but I do not want to.
I will not give my time to authors (and other people) who treat my kind of body as a joke or something disgusting. They do not deserve my attention, even if they are a ‘bestselling’ author.
Please fix your fatphobia before you start writing or creating stuff 
Awhile back I went to a specialist for unexplained & painful lower leg swelling. His diagnosis?
“Maybe your legs are just getting fat.”
Horrified…I asked how many people gain weight ONLY in their calves. He shrugged me off. A 
on knowing your body & advocating for care
This doctor did NO tests before deciding it was weight gain. Wouldn’t discuss it with me further & wouldn’t permit me a second opinion. I went home completely dejected and also worried because I KNEW something was wrong.
For the next few days I elevated my legs as much as possible and tried to gently massage them to see if it helped. They just kept getting bigger. Eventually they started weeping (fluid was seeping out of my skin) and my ankles were dislocating from the pressure.
So I went to the ER. I was actually nervous about going because I could only imagine what that doctor had put in my chart. Thankfully I had a doctor who took the swelling very seriously and ordered a wide range of tests (and immediately put me on bed rest to protect my ankles)
Turns out it was a combination of third spacing from my MCAS (when the fluid doesn’t stay in the vascular system & leaks out into the tissues - can be a big issue if you have POTS as well) and low albumin. Dangerously low albumin.
Needless to say I was suffering from malnutrition due to my extensive GI issues and that was causing the swelling. It most definitely wasn’t weight gain. I was underweight with the exception of my legs.
I never knew that low albumin could cause painful swelling like that - nor did I even think that I was suffering from malnutrition. But with both POTS & MCAS it makes sense.
Our digestive systems are controlled by the autonomic nervous system (the system malfunctioning when you have POTS) so it’s not uncommon to experience vomiting, diarrhea & other gastric complaints.
MCAS only compounds the issue by limiting the foods you can tolerate and also causing vomiting and diarrhea. The two conditions make getting adequate nutrition a challenge - especially if you’re on the severe end of the spectrum
I’m very grateful to the doctor who figured it out and helped me get homecare so I could get proper nutrition & stay off my feet while the swelling was at its worst. But it took a LOT of courage to go to the ER after being so rudely dismissed.
This is a lesson in the importance of knowing your own body & having an advocate with you whenever possible. I KNEW something serious was wrong but I had no one with me to challenge the first dismissive doctor. And he was completely unwilling to listen to me.
Don’t ever feel like you can’t get a second opinion or go to a different hospital if you feel you aren’t being taken seriously. And don’t ever apologize for advocating for your health. If you don’t have someone who can go with you - try & phone or video a friend.
Lastly can we please start listening more to patients? We know our bodies best and when you dismiss us it causes not only physical damage - but emotional damage too. You make it harder for us to seek care in the future.
Patients shouldn’t be dismissed without any tests being run. Had I not gone to the ER I could have ended up with life threatening cardiac issues from the electrolyte & fluid imbalance. A simple lab test would have confirmed the diagnosis had the first doctor cared to do them.
This experience was also an excellent reminder of the far reaching effects of dysautonomia & MCAS. It’s important to be as educated as possible in these conditions & the strange downstream complications they can cause.
And remember dismissal & gaslighting is often far worse for marginalized individuals. There’s a LOT of bias in medicine. If you’re someone in a position of privilege please call it out when you see it - and offer to be an ally to those who need support. Allies save lives
#woke 
