Reading List: The varied lives of famous fats, eating what you want, and a problematic fictional musical act.

Collected links and reading from the past few days. Most of this already appeared on my Twitter feed, but given the rapid and transient nature of that medium, I’m also sharing them here.

Hey, look, it’s the trailer for Kirstie Alley’s forthcoming reality “docuseries” (or, as I like to call them, “crap”) on A&E.

I plan on recapping this series, and I am cautiously optimistic about it at this point — not merely because I have to be in order to gear myself up for the task, but because a) Kirstie Alley is capable of being funny and b) the passive acknowledgment at the end of this trailer that there are fat women out there who don’t hate being fat… it’s just that Kirstie does.

Moving on: you may have heard something in the past couple of days about a certain film director getting busted for attempting to sit on an airplane while being fat. This has been covered pretty extensively by almost every bleeding FA blog in the universe, but if you read nothing else about the Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines saga, you must read this concise and conclusive article from Kate Harding over at Salon. Kate says it all.

Elsewhere: Gabourey Sidibe talks to Access Hollywood about the lack of diversity on Vanity Fair’s “Young Hollywood” cover, and about media representation in general. Sidibe comments: “…I mean, I come from a world where I’m not on covers and I’m not in magazines at all.” (I’m also wondering if she’s bored yet with explaining where her “miraculous” self-esteem comes from.)

There are several other videos of Gabby chatting with Access Hollywood at the 2010 Oscars Luncheon, in case you need more of her awesomeness in your day: check them out here.

Next up: Michelle over at The Fat Nutritionist kindly explains what she means when she says “eat whatever you want”, and why worries of death by snack-cake are probably overblown. Ultimately, it’s about individual freedom and trusting people to make their own decisions. Possibly I should send Michelle’s contact info to Carnie Wilson; Michelle would likely present Carnie with more than a binder.

Finally: there are some extremely thought-provoking conversations happening around the imminent release of a side project by two out-of-the-mainstream musical artists — I refer to Evelyn Evelyn, two fictional conjoined-twins performers being portrayed by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley. The tale began innocently enough, but has taken some odd turns in the past couple of days. In her blog, Tiara the Merch Girl takes a balanced view of the situation, acknowledging both its problems and possibilities. FWD takes on the task of explaining what “disabled” means in a practical sense, and also includes a handy link roundup at the bottom of the post, so you can do some reading and come to your own conclusions.

(Related: Look for an upcoming post from me on the use—and overuse—of the “trigger” concept, and how the word is losing its original meaning as a result.)

Feel like sharing anything else? Let fly in comments. Self-promotion is encouraged.

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