fat and feminism, again.

[keryx]

It's ironic how I never tire of getting into this discussion with people. Fat people who aren't feminists. Feminists who don't recognize fat acceptance as an issue. Both of them not getting the difference between THIN and HEALTHY. I can't shut up about it.

Case in point #1: on the Don't Tell Me What Size I Must Be list yesterday, someone goes all off on how Slim Fast is making her life great and she needs to lose 100 pounds. And I fired back a really nice note that really diplomatically said - if you're going to talk diet on a fat acceptance list, the very least you can do is WARN ME before I read that shit. Because I don't care what you do, but I don't want to read it.

Case in point #2: the fat activist vs. weight watchers post on feminist_rage (any of you who don't already read f-r ought to at least read that post). Man, people start talking about this and I cannot shut up. I don't think any American woman has a true grasp on how healthy or unhealthy she is, because we've been sold this message that thin is now not only in, but a guarantee against early death. And we've bought it so well. So, hell yeah, fat is a feminist issue. It's one hairy ugly component of the beauty myth. Maybe not The Central Feminist Issue, but certainly one we ought to care about.

Comments

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

I think what really got me about that thread was the implication that it is never okay to want to change your body. I do want to change my body. I talk to my therapist about whether it's fat phobic... I walked in there this week and straight up said, I am fat-phobic, and I want to make sure it is not making me behave in an unhealthy manner.

At this point I've honestly got a problem with how I view other people, and I need to figure out if it is also a problem with how I view myself. I am solving this by trying to do things that I feel will make me more healthy, and assuming that no matter how my body looks, if I feel more healthy, I will be okay mentally as well as physically.

There are people in my life I look at and say, "that person is unhealthy". They are fat and they are thin. I like to think I have kind of a handle on it. But that doesn't mean that while my rational mind is saying "that woman looks as though she is starving herself" my instincts, wherever they came from, are not also saying "I wish I looked like that."

Anyways I'm not asking for a rah-rah pick me up speech... I am just trying to get across that while fat is a feminist issue and I've always been clear about how our society seems to hate on fat people, I can also understand the people who are saying, I don't want to be castigated for trying to change my body. I hope this makes a vague modicum of sense.

[libskrat]

Not having read the discussion, but having had issues of my own lately...

It isn't just "thin" and "healthy" that are at issue here. The third word is "good." I saw a screaming front-page newspaper headline recently (you know the ones, 96-point all-caps bold) about obesity that ran "WE'RE NOT LIVING RIGHT."

And I was just kinda like, whoa. Living right? Living right to me means supporting my family, paying what I owe, being a good friend and a useful employee and a contributing member of the various communities I'm in. What I eat -- sorry, that doesn't even rate. Where what I eat comes from, that rates, because it feeds into issues of agribusiness and local production and like that.

But I'm not "living right" because I'm fat? I'm automatically barred from being a good person because I'm fat? What a narrow, damaging, horrible way to think.

[firecat]

I'm glad you don't tire of it, because I certainly do, even though I agree with you 100%.

And reading the posts in question, as well as comments here, I see that it's not just "fat" that is used to keep American women down, it's also "unhealthy." In fact I think health-judging is starting to become even more of a problem than appearance-judging (although they're related), because so many otherwise perspicacious feminists have swallowed the notion that it's appropriate to judge other people on their health or lack thereof.

And also - "But I'm not being antifeminist. I'm losing weight for ME." Um, I would believe that if more than 1 percent of women ever said "I'm gaining weight for ME." But since they're almost all "losing weight for ME," I have a hard time believing they aren't being influenced by societal weight hysteria.

[fooltheworld.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the link to that thread. I've been mulling this topic myself and now I have more to think about. I hope you don't mind that I added you. I got interested in reading you after reading all of the brouhaha over my friend veggiemama's icon.

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