'Fatshion' bloggers find beauty in all sizes

By Kat Kinsman, CNN

..."Fat" is a loaded word, often wielded as a weapon, but Kinzel hopes to lessen its power to wound.

"Learning to use the word 'fat' as a basic descriptor, stripping it of its negative baggage, was a huge part of my self-acceptance process," she says. "Some women never get comfortable with it, and I understand that -- for some, it's been used as a weapon for too long for anything positive to be salvaged.

"But I love the word 'fat' precisely because my candid and positive use of it often shocks people...it means everyone who hears the word 'fat' from me is having to take a moment to think about what I mean by it, and to resist the knee-jerk assumption that I must mean something bad."

With that in mind, she created a blog, Fatshionista, in 2007. Though many of the original postings are now archived at her "body politics, social justice activism and pop-cultural criticism" blog, Two Whole Cakes, her writing shares a body-positive message for women she feels are not represented as beautiful and desirable in mainstream media. Growing up, she says, "I didn't have many famous examples of positive fat-lady representation. I mean, there was Roseanne. I loved Roseanne, but not because she was beautiful -- I loved her because she was smart and tough and didn't take crap from anyone."

Fat girls representing themselves as confident, smart and resourceful is key, Kinzel says...

'Fatshion' bloggers find beauty in all sizes - CNN.com