One of the things about blogging is that it is all about keywords/buzzwords. The more popular a word is the more likely Google is to give a blog attention and the more likely it will become viral. In other words, other bloggers will pick up and start using the word. The latest word is one I have been seeing more and more. Just like the terms “BBW” and “BHM” for Full Figure Plus its not a word I will use.
In case your wondering the word is “fatosphere.” A play on blogsphere this latest word is the sum of reporting things in the world of plus size or more specific size acceptance blogs. While I have no problem with the word fat I do have a problem being segregated from the normal blog community by a cute buzzword.
I have been a niche blogger even before it became fashionable to say I was. It is still difficult to go to blog communities and find anything related to “plus size” or “plus size fashion.” For me fatosphere buries blogs like mine and others in another layer making it hard for anyone other that hardcore fans to find and enjoy. On the other hand I guess if it becomes popular enough that everyone will use it including me to generate traffic for thier blogs and websites.
On the surface fatosphere is not a word that I will be using beyond this post about it. I will keep an eye on it though. With me being both a blogger and a junior internet marketer I will make the best use of terms that fit the readers of this blog. I wonder what others think about this buzzword and does anyone know how it got started?
I don’t know how it got started, but I would imagine it’s because a lot of the fat acceptance bloggers are using the word “fat” instead of plus-size or large or big, or whatever euphemism MSM deems more polite to call us. Personally, I prefer being called fat, it’s not a pejorative word, it’s a factual description of my body type. I’m not plus-sized (plus what size?), I’m not overweight (over what weight?), and I’m not morbidly obese (that implies that fat is a disease……WRONG!!).
To my way of thinking, fatosphere is the part of the blogosphere that relates specifically to fat acceptance, which encompasses fashion as well as physical/mental health, body acceptance, and anything else related to being fat in a thin-centric world. Fatosphere is where I want to be, it’s where I get the support I need when the fat-bashing news/people/doctors start to get to me. I’m all for calling a spade a spade, and euphemisms don’t do much good when dealing with reality. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t have a problem with Catherine’s years ago when they were known as Catherine’s Stout Shoppe (I never thought stout was a bad word, or a derogatory word. I thought stout meant sturdy and strong and healthy, even when I was in my 20′s and thought I needed to be thin to be beautiful).
Personally, I find ‘plus size’, ‘thick’ and ‘full figured’ to be more demeaning and annoying than ‘fatosphere’. But each to their own.
While I agree with calling a spade a spade for me thick, bbw, and fatosphere bring thoughts of porn to my mind before anything else but like you said to each their own.
i agree i dont like when someone says im thick i wouldather be called a full figured women
I don’t really care for “fatosphere” but I will accept — and even welcome — it if it means I’ll be able to find non-porn size-positive sites by Googling a single word. Years and years ago before blogs there were webrings that helped connect similarly themed websites. I miss that type of resource.
Marcia,
I miss webrings as well there was a lot of good information to be found that way.