The Rise of the BFab (Big Fat Ass Babe) Society

NY Post June 3rd, 2008
BUTT SERIOUSLY
TIME TO START LOVING YOUR CABOOSE!
By RAAKHEE MIRCHANDANI

Kim Kardashian needs no convincing - do you?
I wish I could have them all being a guy they all look GREAT.Who wouldn't!
posted by John Ganley
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June 3, 2008 --

JUICY doubles. Badonkadonk. Derrière.

Whatever you call it, chances are if you're a girl, you've spent plenty of time worrying about your rearview.

Turns out, you're not the only one.

PHOTOS: Bootylicious Celebs

Meet Laura Banks and Janette Barber, co-authors of "Embracing Your Big Fat Ass." While some people will tell you never to look back, these ladies - and their tremendous new tush tome - encourage it. They want you to take a long look back and love it.

The bootylicious babes - Barber says she's struggled with weight her whole life, and Banks says she was often rejected for movie and TV roles because of her ample assets - are all ass-appreciation, all the time.

"This is about accepting yourself the way you are. It doesn't mean you never want to go on a diet. Or that you never want to lose weight. It just means you don't beat yourself up for the way you are now," says Barber.

"This is about self-esteem. So go ahead and look at the number on the scale. But just don't call yourself a fat pig."

Barber weighed 114 at 7 years old, 200 pounds at 12, 250 at 14, and was her all-time heaviest - 275 pounds - in her early 20s. These days Barber is sitting pretty on her posterior at 5-foot-3 and 171.3 pounds - she lost nearly 100 pounds more than 20 years ago and has kept it off.

For her BFF and fellow BFAB (big fat-ass babe) Laura Banks, the caboose conundrum was an issue she felt she'd been sitting on for too long.

"You can have a button butt or a bubble butt, but you have to self-qualify. Or you know, if you knock over a freestanding display in a store. Identify it, accept it and get over it," she says.

"You're a BFAB if you think about your ass all the time."

Banks says she's learned to butt out of the self-loathing she was once consumed with. But like most women, she constantly thinks about dieting and ditching those last 10 pounds. The difference is, she doesn't cry herself to sleep over it. Or believe that the extra weight should get in the way of her life.

Plus, after dating men who dumped her because of a weight gain and having an anorexic mother, these days she's made her peace with the way she looks, complete with a little extra junk in her trunk.

"It's the fat-acceptance movement. Find your peeps you can talk about this with. Whatever comes next is next. We don't encourage staying home and eating bacon or staying home because you don't fit in to jeans you fit in six months ago," she says. "Women don't need our help to feel bad, they do that already.But just like skinny doesn't mean you're healthy, fat doesn't mean you're one burger away from a heart attack. Although, if that's the case, teeny tiny tuchus or giant honking hiney, it's not about your shape or size.

"The size of your butt doesn't matter in terms of health. It's all about a healthy lifestyle. But there is something about accepting your body as it is now and accepting the fact that your body is the way that it is," says Sunny Csea Gold, health articles editor at Glamour magazine.

Gold says butt implants are one of the fastest-growing plastic surgery procedures. And while she believes in ad campaigns like Dove's real women movement and curvy celebrities appearing in mainstream magazines, she stresses that it's not necessarily just the shape of a person's body that makes the best statement about their health.

"If the sort of pushing-the-envelope title gets people to buy a book and believe that acceptance and self-love method, I say why not," she says. "But the most important thing is fitness, no matter what size you are. And know that you can have the best body for you - but you can't have Angelina's best body."

Listen to Janette and I on the radio!
September 3, 2008 - No Responses
For those of you who may have missed our wonderful Empowerment Library segment with Janette Barber and Laura Banks last night, I strongly encourage you to listen at the archive link, at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/EmpowermentSanctuary/2008/09/02/Empowerment-Library-Embracing-Your

If you're a woman who doesn't fit the typical model size of 5'8" and 98 pounds, you're certainly not alone. In fact, the average woman is about a size 14. But many women turn to fashion magazines to look for their beauty role models. What if you could love your body exactly the way it is?

The B-FAB Society will help you to do just that. It's a group of women who've jumped on the movement of loving themselves. If you want to become a Beautiful Fat Ass Babe, you can join the B-FAB Society and get started on your journey.

In Embracing Your Big Fat Ass, you'll learn about why women need to accept themselves and you'll learn some simple ways to improve your self-esteem and self-confidence. But you can also find out you're not alone. Many women are excited to be part of the B-FAB Society, and you can join, too.

You'll find message boards for women just like you who are ready to stop torturing themselves and putting themselves down. You'll learn to be empowered about your big fat ass and you'll take comfort and strength as you chat with other women who are on the same journey with you.

Embracing Your Big Fat Ass is a great way to find humor in the plight of women in today's super skinny society. It's time to fight back and do it in style. You can even join B-FAB groups in your area who get together regularly to love their big fat asses.

While many people look at a big fat ass and see something unattractive, you may be surprised to find that many cultures throughout the world and history have revered women with a sizable derriere. You only need to take a trip to your local museum to discover that shapely women have been the beautiful subjects of some of the most famous artists.

Some of the most beautiful artworks by Renoir, Matisse, and Degas have been paintings of shapely women. And Ruben was smitten with larger women coining the phrase Rubenesque in reference to a plump woman. Having a big fat ass was once considered the best way to be. But fast forward a few hundred years and you have our society.

Instead of looking at plump women for beauty, our culture reveres skinny women with no ass. And it's all over television, films, and magazines. You can't go an entire day without hearing women talking about the diet they're on or the next one they're trying. In fact, some people spend all their time trying to make their ass smaller.

Our culture often leads us to feelings of despair and self-loathing. But the truth is, some of us have big fat asses and they're beautiful! In Embracing Your Big Fat Ass you'll learn more about how culture influences our feelings about our bodies. You'll also learn how you can work to fight the culture and love your ass the way it is - Laura Banks and Janette Barber have made sure of that.

I have a B.F.A. in Fine Art and I can say that I have studied many a fine fat ass in art school, but none as fine and divine as this. When did we forget to worship this fleshy, often hidden portion of ourselves?

Embracing Your Big Fat Ass is coming out just in time to make some waves and break some wind - and to scare the media with the word "ass".

What is wrong with the word ass? Why is some of the radio and TV stations we are talking to have such a hard time of it? I thought this was the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of the petty and the home of the hypocrite. It appears our book is not only about women acepting their body type, but it's also about the issue of censorship in America. What's the deal, we can watch crime shows at night like CSI, where killers turn human flesh into lampshades, and people are swapping wives in the burbs, but you can't say ass on daytime TV???? Would middle America wish to re-dress this statue? Apparently, I hope to piss off alot of people with this book, I want to shake people up.

I use to cuss onstage doing stand-up. So what? I don't walk around cussing in day to day life, and our book isn't riddled with foul language, but it seems Janette and I are about to embark on a press junket loaded with little media cops and frantic, religious activists. Oh, well.

And what about David Cook winning American Idol? Nothing. I just love him. He has nothing to do with the rest of this stuff I'm writing. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still thrilled he won. Yeah for a Kansas City boy, my home town. Now we have the Rock Chalk Jayhawks and David Cook all in one year. Now me. Cool.

For some people, the idea of loving their big fat ass just isn't realistic. It may not seem possible to love something you've spent your whole life trying to cover up and get rid of. But the truth is, you, too, can embrace your big fat ass. It's possible to love your body even with the knowledge that it doesn't fit the standard of the culture we live in.

Think of your ass as your child. When your child misbehaves, you don't love him any less. Your ass can be the same. Just because it's not doing exactly what you want doesn't mean you can't love it. Banks and Barber will take you step by step through the process of learning to love your big fat ass.

Not only can you learn to love yourself, you can learn to join with others to create a movement of women who are sick and tired of slimming down. You can be a Big Fat Ass Babe and love yourself exactly the way you are.

It may seem like a foreign concept to throw away the cultural ideal of thinness. But in Embracing Your Big Fat Ass you'll learn to love your ass and learn how to embrace it in all parts of your life - including shopping, working, and even in the bedroom.

Your big fat ass may not seem like an asset right now, but you'll find out that it can be fabulous. You'll learn exactly how you can learn to love it as you read through this hilarious and honest look at body image in today's world.

Ninety percent of North American woman wear a bra, but more than likely they are wearing the wrong kind. Okay, we give up. There will not be one more run to the local underwear store to buy yet another bra from hell. It was hard for us to quit. After all these years shopping there was just so darn easy. Maybe it had to do with not wanting to grow up or not wanting to confess our actual ages or adult bra size. Do we somehow feel younger walking around in undergarments designed for Hannah Montana?

But that's just us. Maybe you're reading this and you're actually a cute, perky teenager.

That's okay, we love you anyway. Or, maybe you're a size six. We confess; we are not. We're more like the average woman in the U.S. (Laura is a size 14 and Janette is, depending on the outfit a size medium, large, extra large, 0X, 16, 18 or 20.) You cannot be a B-FAB - Beautiful Fat Ass Babe - and tell us you enjoy the inhuman metal under-wire bras made by Satan himself that only work on Gisele Bundchen and other skinny ass model babes. (We'd have to remove our ribs to be that thin - and of course also our thighs, hips and double chins but we don't feel we need to be that specific.) The bra can
be something other than a bust enhancer. It can be worn for comfort. Luckily, with a little research, we've discovered the top ten white hot tips on how to actually breathe while wearing a bra. Here we go:
Wear bras that have no underwire or side panels and wear them as little as possible. We do NOT need them for health purposes.

Check out any high-end clothing stores (Nieman Marcus, Bergdorf's, even Saks Fifth Ave.). Buy a bra that's over $50.00, it'll be one of the best investments you'll ever make for yourself.

Get measured by a professional bra fitter person. For the last thirty years, Laura thought she was a 38B. She's a 40C! (Janette called her wonder-jugs but Laura didn't really appreciate that. Janette has apologized.) No wonder Laura was always grouchy while clothed. Statistically, most women are uncomfortable in their hellish harnesses but have
grown so accustomed to it, that they can't even imagine it being another way - i.e. comfortable.

Join the Big Fat Ass Babe Society where you can meet with other B-FABs and share bra tips while getting drunk on Mai Tais.

Get a custom made bra if your breasts are uneven.

Instead of a bra, wear a t-shirt or camisole that is slightly small. This will give you support just in case the handy man needs a glass of water. (T-shirts can hold you in a bit with much more comfort.)

Always bend over when you are putting on a bra and remember to tuck in those chunky puppies. Shake it around a bit until you fill out the entire cup. Make sure the straps are the right length. (Note: If your finding that you are bruising your knees with your bazongas, those straps are TOO LONG.)

Pick up a product called Shoulder Ease or Strap-Mate to help with the pressure on the shoulders.

Check out Lane Bryant and Torrid.

Beware of back fat. Always check in the mirror to see if you have a second set of breasts on your back. People will think you are an alien. Rip off that bra and go buy a flack jacket.