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The International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) is a United States based NGO aimed at advancing Fat Acceptance, directed by Allen Steadham. Unlike NAAFA however, the organisation has an international slant, and has several overseas chapters, though the bulk of its operations remain within the US at present.

The Organisation today

Current Leading Figures

The current people are prominent in the association at present:

  • Allen Steadham - ISAA Director
  • Russell Williams - Vice President
  • Grace Harvey - Secretary and Editor of the associations on-line publication, Without Measure

Chapters

The ISAA has chapters in the following locations.

Chapters within the US:

Chapters outside the US:

Also, ISAA has an alliance with Allegro Fortissimo of France, and Fatima Parker, who runs the UK chapter, also tries to maintain an ISAA presence in the Arabic speaking world.

ISAA strongly encourages members and prospective members to set up chapters in their own area.

Policies and Mission

ISAA is dedicated to size acceptance and bringing and end to what it feels i unfair discrimination against large people. The first paragraph of its Mission Statement (available in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian) reads:

The mission of the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) is to promote Size Acceptance and fight size discrimination throughout the world by means of advocacy and visible, lawful actions.

ISAA has adopted a position of opposition to WLS (weight loss surgery) as dangerous and un-necessary, and conducted a campaign against it in 2001. This is shared in common with most other size/fat acceptance organisations, though campaigns have met with relatively limited success.

ISAA also opposed the definition by the US government of obesity as a disease, though it was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing this. Other policies and positions include:

  • Opposition to feederism and similar weight gain fetishes
  • Encouraging fitness and low impact exercise (swimming, walking etc.)
  • Encouraging self respect and self esteem
  • Encouraging healthy body image

Publications

ISAA doesn't have the mass scale of some more mainstream NGO's, and as such does not maintain a great deal of printed publications. much of the organisation is centred on on-line campaigns and information, and media interviews. The main publication that the association runs in the on-line magazine "Without Measure".

This is maintained and edited by Grace Moredock, ISAA's Secretary. A new addition is usually published around twice a year, though it is not regular. Early on the publication was offered for download via PDF format, though since 2001 has been published actually on-line in HTML. The length of the publications varies dramatically from less than 10 pages to more than 30. It is available free of charge to all.

The publication has a strong youth section and content branded "BBTeenz". ISAA does reach out to youth and young adults more than any of the other main size acceptance groups.

ISAA also keeps an archive of printable flyers and leaflets on its website for members to print and distribute, and encourages people to link to its site.

Some local chapters also keep their own website, either independent or as a subsection of the main ISAA site.

Membership

It is not mentioned how many ISAA members that there are, but it is generally accepted that its membership and resources are smaller than that of NAAFA. Card carrying membership currently costs USD20 per year, plus USD10 to the local chapter, if joined. The ISAA community forum of the main site currently lists just 6 members, although this is most likely less than the total membership.

History

ISAA was founded on July 1st, 1997 by Allen Steadham, the current director, in Austin, Texas. The first issue of Without Measure came out in August, and set out the ISAA's mission and position regarding WLS and media and medical worlds treatment of fat people. From its early days it has been a predominantly web based organisation, and has always relied heavily on the internet to expand, organise and campaign.

Despite being of relatively small size, ISAA has managed to pull media attention, being mentioned by Yomiuri, CNN, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times. However two prides of place are for around the time ISAA was founded in June 1997, when Steaham wrote to then American president Clinton, receiving a personal letter in response (now scanned onto the ISAA website) and an in depth radio interview by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of the UK in February 2006 with ISAA UK head, Fatima Parker.

External links

Non-governmental organizations | Obesity

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "International Size Acceptance Association".

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