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Title (as given to the record by the creator): Fat Girl Letters
Date(s) of creation: Issue 5: April 1996
Creator / author / publisher:  FaT GiRL
Physical description:  3 zine pages with 3 columns of text and a couple small drawings.
Reference #: FG5-002-004-Letters
Links:  [ PDF ]

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Fat Girl Letters

In Remembrance 

Dear FatGirls, 

You are so ass kickingly wonderful! Enclosed is a $25 check to be used to send your message to somebody who needs it! Sorry it’s not more. 

I have to tell you that the money comes from my mother’s estate. She died this June of complications from an intestinal bypass. She had been suffering for 19 years with one health problem after another from her surgery. She knew before she went in that the surgery would be detrimental to her health. She did it anyway and suffered for 19 years because of it. Your work is so important. As far as I’m concerned you are saving lives. And FatGirl has definitely saved my sanity more than once. 

I know you will use the $25 well. You are creative, courageous babes. Thanks for kicking butt! 

Love Ya, You Vixens You, 
Marva H 

FaT GiRL appreciates your generous gift. Let none of us forget the women who have lost their lives in an effort to lose weight. 

From Maui

Barbara, 

Hi! This is Sara all the way in Maui. I am writing to you because my girlfriend and I LOVE Fat Girl. Especially here where we are very starved for such good reading. I think Fat Girl is a terrific zine- smart, sexy, funny, and real and many other things. I think the work you all are doing is so important and I really appreciate it… 

Maui is such a different world and I don’t know how much longer we will be here. I’ve thought about and looked for any distribution places for Fat Girl here but, unfortunately, haven’t found anyplace I think would work. I’m open to ideas if you have any and would be glad to help. Things are pretty straight laced here and much of the queer community is very closeted and scared. But anyways, I hope you’re well. 

Take care, 
Sara 

From Maryland

Great Web site! As a MFW  (Militant Fat Woman) myself, I was overjoyed to see Fat Girl while poking around the Web. Imagine my delight that it is a Lesbian mag. 

Unfortunately, I live in the culturally backward state of Maryland where only 2 shops nearby carry it. I will try to get to Lammas books soon. I am telling all my friends about Fat Girl (on the Web and off) and as soon as I get a copy, I will be flashing it everywhere. If I can get some of the back copies, I will lay them out at Darkover Con in November. Darkover (if you aren’t familiar with it) is popularly known as Dykeover because of the large number of fans of the Free Amazons from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s world of Darkover series. Of course, like femme­fans everywhere, most of us are Big and Beautiful. Anyway, read the books, you’ll get the picture! Speaking of pictures, the comics are wonderful too! If you want add another fun magazine to your list of resources, RADIANCE (also based in CA) is Gay­friendly and has interesting articles and poetry. Check them out. 

Thanks, 
Megan 

Big thanks to Sara, Megan, and every­one else who is working to get FaT GiRL into stores everywhere! 

From Connecticut

Dear Fat Girl Collective, 

I recently moved from SF to Connecticut to go to graduate school. Talk about culture shock. I’ve been going a little nuts. Out of 110 people in my class only two of us are out. I’d almost forgotten (or maybe blocked out?) what it was like to be surrounded by straight people all the time. And my roommate talks about losing weight more than anyone I’ve lived with in years (although thankfully still less than the average American woman). 

Did you know the NY Times ran a story last week about some study that recently found that the increase in bulimia and anorexia could be directly attributed to the rise in dieting? I’m sure you are all as shocked as I was by that startling revelation. NOT! 

My wonderful skinny girlfriend sent me a copy of your wonderful fat zine and I read it cover to cover. You provided a much needed reality check. I especially loved the interview with Dorothy Allison, the comics, and the photos of XXXXXXX (you go girl!). 

It is so great to see pictures of other fat women happy, sexy, and just being themselves. 

Keep up the good work! 
Alice 

From North Carolina

I just got my first three issues yesterday in the mail and all I gotta say is W O W !!!! Just about blew my socks off. I was heartily comforted to know & realize that other folks out there are just like me. I know, I know, percentages indicate that there HAVE to be other large dykes out there, but I’ve not connected with many here in my­ new ‘home town’ of Charlotte, NC  (I moved here from St. Paul, MN two years ago). And even when I was in Minnesota I was fairly ‘closeted’ sexually. Politically I was out in the front lines, even have had my picture in the Washington Post wearing my dyke hard hat & overalls, but even at 48 I’m still a virgin. Of course, you might say, you lived in Minnesota – where 80% of the time it’s too cold to do anything!! But honey, they ain’t got flannel shirts for nothin’!! I drool over dykes in flannels. My own collection is sparse (only 4), but haven’t had much luck until lately finding sizes that fit me. I’m certainly going to patronize some of the stores you listed in the first issue. 

Anyhow, am loving the work you’re doing. Hang in there & keep up the energy. Am sending you shivers of hi-potency stuff. I’ve already read the first issue from cover to cover, and am devouring the 2nd issue. I’m trying to make the third issue last yet another day, before it too has become dog-eared & memorized. Love it, love it, love it. 

May she who watches over us bless y’all, and send back to you three fold, what you have gifted me with. 

-Mary Rose

From Minneapolis

Love, love, love your zine! It is great to know that there are more people out there sharing my beliefs in fat politics and some of the articles have been giving my girlfriend and me some very special quality time. Thank you again and I can’t wait for your next issue. 

-Happy girl from Minneapolis

From Florida

I received the back issues (#1-3) of FaT GiRL! I haven’t put them down all weekend. Great zine! You wimmin have done an outstanding job. I can’t wait to get #4. 

Way cool to see pics of you and others who are involved in the zine. Although since being on the net, I’m used to never having an idea of what folx look like, it was great to see faces. A fellow fat dyke member lives in my town, and she is going to take some pies of me soon. I’ll definitely have to submit one to FaT GiRL. However, I can’t say it will be of my face … <eg>. 

Oh, if you see her, tell ”Val” (the “gender­bending, 36 year-old Cuban dyke) that she has an admirer in Florida .. yea, me. I’d love to hear and see more of her. Is she by any chance on the fatdykes list? 

Keep up the great work. I’m about to go visit the FaT GiRLS homepage to see what’s new. I’ve been so fucking busy, I can’t remember last time I got on the web. 

Love and rockets … 
Stephanie 

New Terrain 

Dear Fat Girl, 

Enclosed please find a check for $35 for the first three back issues and a subscription for this year. I can’t wait to get the back issues, having read about them in the letters to the editor! 

I got your zine actually by accident. I was ordering some toys from Good Vibrations and asked if they knew any magazines that had fat women in them. They said the only one they knew of was Fat Girl and that they sold it. I said put one in. I was looking for something to look at with my husband that portrayed fat women as sexy. I was surprised to see that it was a zine for fat dykes and the women who love them. But I wasn’t disappointed. I didn’t share it with my husband very much- I showed him some of the pictures. I especially liked the pie scene. But I have read it and enjoyed it cover to cover several times. And to think I always thought I was totally straight! I’m definitely not totally straight! I think you all are terrific and beautiful and I admire you and I like you and I love and care about you and support your work and your lifestyles. 

I’m sorry I don’t know all the lingo and the right way to say things. It’s amazing that I’m 31 years old and, having always been very sexual, have never really considered being anything but straight. I am married and love my husband. But I get so turned on by looking at your zine and reading your stories and thinking about being with Fat Girls. I think we grow up thinking in a certain way and many of us don’t question it until we’re much older. I know that I am now attracted to a much different kind of man than I was in my teens and twenties. And I know that at one time I would have been upset to think of myself being attracted to women. But I noticed about a year ago that when I was masturbating in the shower, I was often thinking of one of my girlfriends. I didn’t really indulge myself in fantasies of women until I read your zine. Now it is a part of me I won’t ever deny again. I don’t know when 

I will ever act on my growing fantasies. I wish I knew of a place near me where Fat Girls hung out so that I could just spend some time with them and see where I really am with all of this. I do want to stay married, but I also value my connection to Fat Girls. I guess that makes me bisexual if only in my mind and not in practice- although if ever the right opportunity came up, it would be in practice, too. 

Well, I just wanted to say that I think you Girls and your zine are terrific! I’ll probably submit some stories, articles, and pictures soon. This is an exciting exploration for me. If you print my letter, please don’t use my whole name- I’ll have all your future issues and I don’t want my husband to see a letter like this from me- he’d freak. I wouldn’t care if I didn’t have a little daughter to consider. Like so many people, my sexual fantasies and desires and secret friendships will remain hidden from my spouse. 

I hope that I am welcome in your group. I noticed that there is some friction on the part of some people between who is a dyke and who is a bisexual and levels of belonging. I think we should all support each other. I may not know much about the problems and pains and lifestyles and joys of dykes, but I want to know and I do care and I don’t judge and I’d like to belong just by virtue of the fact that I’m interested and want to learn and explore, and that I am an ally whether or not we are the same. 

With love, 
[name withheld on request] 

Bi/Dyke Discussion 

Dear Fat Vixens, 

First of all, I want to thank you for reviewing my zine, Pasty, in issue #4. I appreciate your support more than I can say! Unfortunately, however, you misquoted me in your review. In the passage you quoted you substituted the word “chick” for my word “chic,” resulting in a confusing word salad. It’s not a super big deal, but I just wanted to let you know .. .in case you want to print a clarification. 

Secondly, speaking of clarifications, I want to thank Wendy for responding to my previous letter to Fat Girl, in which I wrote that I preferred to be called a bisexual girl rather than a dyke. Wendy, in my letter, I never meant to imply that dyke was in any way an inferior (or superior) term, or that chicks who have sex with both men and women should all simi­larly prefer the term ”bi” to “dyke.” I was speaking for myself, not for bi girls at large! I prefer “bi”, you may prefer “dyke”, someone else may prefer some­thing else, but according to the religious right, we’re all just a bunch of fucking perverts anyway, right? You can call yourself whatever you want, and you’ll still be my beautiful, queer, fat sister. Labels schmabels. 

Finally, I want to thank the Fat Girl Collective once again for publishing one of the most erotic, playful, and cour/out-rageous magazines I’ve ever had the pleasure of perusing. I should be in the Bay Area again in the middle of December, and I’d be thrilled to model for you, if you need another sexy fat chick to do nasty things in front of your cameras. If you don’t need another model, I will just have to content myself with being one of your most avid fans! 

Thank you, Fat Girls, for everything. 

Big fat kisses and a sly caress or two, 
Sarah-K 

Sorry about the word salad, SK. Thanks for clarifying. 

Dear FaT GiRL, 

Thank you for submit­ting FaT GiRL for inclusion in my 1996 Alternative Lifestyles Directory. Your participation is gratefully appreciated. 

As a “fat girl” myself, I found your magazine to be funny, warm, erotic as hell and something I’ve waited my whole life for! It is simply incredible. I most definitely will give it my highest rating and an awesome review. In fact, I plan to review it for another one of my publications, HAIR TO STAY, the world’s only magazine for lovers of natural, hairy women. I couldn’t help but notice your logo (by Fish) has a woman with hairy underarms. More power to us fat, hairy women! … 

I truly appreciate your participation and dedication to your zine. The best thing about Fat Girl is that when read­ing it, for the first time in my life, I felt normal. 

Hirsutely, 
Pam W 
WINTER PUBLISHING, INC. 

What’s in a Name? 

Dear Editor, 

We have received quite a few requests for our catalog from people who heard about our company through your reviews on the web. We decided to do a little surfing on our own and we were able to quickly find your site. 

Thank you for the nice words about our company … Your description of our company is pretty much on target. You may want to note that we now can sup­ply bras up to an “I” cup. Also, perhaps you might find a suitable alternative for the adjective “kinky” because it may give people the wrong connotation of what our mission is- namely, providing women with the very best selection of women’s intimate apparel… 

-Sincerely,
Joan Herman
Foundations Buyer
Lady Grace Stores, (800) 922-0504

Bursting with Joy! 

Hey there FaT GiRL!!! 

I just wanted to let you know that I am very glad to have found you on the WWW! I knew you were around and after a bit of searching I found you! Seeing all that fat positiveness just makes me want to burst with happi­ness!!!! 

Thanks for putting out such great stuff!

-Jennifer
Portland, Oregon 

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