wendy shanker

[keryx]

She's way cute, I'll give her that, but...

Is Wendy Shanker a fat positive icon, or an anti-fat apologist?

I never can decide. What do y'all think?

[The icon is off-topic, but I was just thinking yesterday that my younger cat never gets much internets play.]

Comments

[joelandrewtyson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know, but she's super hot.

Yep, leave it to me to add something important to the debate.

[fooltheworld.livejournal.com]

Well, based on that interview alone she seems pretty fat-positive to me. Was there anything bothersome for you in it? Or is it other things she's said? I know who she is but I haven't read a lot of her stuff.

[chubbycore.livejournal.com]

Is it racist if I say she's a little bit on the pale side?

[originalenid.livejournal.com]

she used to be on that oxygen show, the one about women's point of view on the media... i liked her then.

the interview did seem surprisingly logical, but from what i've heard about fat girls' guide to life, it sounds totally appologist. i'll have to do more reaserch though. like maybe reading part of it. hehe.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

In that interview, her whole thing with "you have to be EXTRA fit to be fat" annoyed me, but otherwise not that much. Her actual book is filled with things that imply a woman's goal should always be prettiness and such.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

This is why I like you. Raising the level of the debate. I mean, I was only going to call her "cute".

[raanve]

Quote from the linked interview:
They don’t see themselves as skinny chicks...so we must have sympathy for them, too (not a ton, but just a little bit, ladies).

As a self-acknowledge "skinny chick" -- wait, we don't? I think that (and maybe I'm speaking from some kind of "skinny privelege" or something, so feel free to give me the smack-down) body image issues affect just about every woman in this culture, and that no woman ever really escapes the effects of negative body image. Which is why I believe not just in being somehow "fat positive", but in being "body positive" -- being happy in your own skin.

This topic, while I feel pretty strongly about it, often makes me uncomfortable because I sometimes don't feel "entitled" (or whatever) to join in. As someone who's really small, I don't get the negative treatment that larger ladies are often subjected to, but I have caught myself worrying about my size/weight (both "am I too skinny" and the reverse), and I have had people say really rude things to me without even thinking. (I've actually had people ask me, point blank and with a smile, "Are you bulimic?")

I'm rambling... but... is it really about sympathy? Do "skinny chicks" really not see themselves as "skinny chicks"? Shouldn't we all, as women, be supportive of other women and of women of all sizes being able to have a positive body image?

She is cute, though, you got that right.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Reading a chapter in the bookstore made me want to kill people. I'll just warn you. Don't read it while armed.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

She seems very pro-capitalist, "let's all go shopping!" but then, it is a Torrid interview...

[raanve]

Oh, and also, she says:
Two things — one is that there is legitimacy to the "fit and fat" concept, and that it’s important to treat your body well at any size. I think if you are considered "overweight," you have an even greater responsibility to eat well, exercise, sleep, etc. Not to prove anything to anyone but yourself...but why not?

These two statments seem contradictory to me -- and the second one seems apologist. "Overweight" by whose and what standard? Why would someone else's perception of one woman as being "overweight" saddle that woman with "an even greater responsibility" to do... anything? And what are you really proving to yourself? Maybe I'm just fundamentally misundertanding her point here.

[originalenid.livejournal.com]

uuuh-oh. i'll be sure to try and read it at home... with pillows taped to my hands so i don't break the computer screen.

i know that i told the manager of my torrid that i and all my other torrid shopping friends would rather see them selling Fat!So? than that other thing.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

That's part of my concern with her; I think she reinforces this idea that "we're all just 'big girls' inside", cause all women have such terrible self esteem and terrible self esteem always means thinking being you're fat.

She may in fact be fat positive, but maybe it's just that she doesn't feel all that... woman-positive, maybe? I dunno. She irks me.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

The article seemed pretty light, but as you've said elsewhere the 'we have to be extra fit' comment totally seemed like a 'don't rock the boat'..I hear a lot of 'we have to look normal/have normal jobs' from the pagan community..that sort of 'mainstreaming' plea makes my blood boil.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I think Not to prove anything to anyone but yourself...but should be finished "the truth is, you really hate yourself, don't you? Well, DON'T YOU?? You must, cause you're a GIRL!"

I don't believe you're misunderstanding that point, or if you are, you're misunderstanding it the way I am. No one should have an obligation to "prove" they're healthy/okay/morally pure/whatever; it's definitely not body-positive to say things like that.

[raanve]

Yeah, I mean, I'll admit that my self-esteem isn't the greatest, but I certainly don't think of myself as a big girl, and I think it's ludicrous when I hear girls around me talk about how "fat" they are. (This campus has serious body image/eating disorder issues. It's really creepy and bizarre.) Not that being a "big girl" is a bad thing, but some people are and some people aren't, you know? I'm a real proponent of women being able to feel good about themselves, whatever size they are, and I also think that your body is going to naturally want to be whatever size is best for that particular body. (That doesn't make much sense, but I can't get the words to order themselves properly. :P)

I think that you might be right that she's fat positive but perhaps not woman-positive. And I'm still a little mystified about her call for sympathy for skinny chicks... sympathy why? Because we're skinny, or because even though we're skinny we can still somehow never measure up to whatever ridiculous standard has been set before us? (Too skinny, not skinny enough, breasts not big enough, booty not bootylicious enough, whatever.)

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

seemed innocuous, except this:

I think if you are considered "overweight," you have an even greater responsibility to eat well, exercise, sleep, etc. Not to prove anything to anyone but yourself…but why not?

uh, sorry. everyone has the same respobsibility which is arguably small. why not? i enjoy eating whatever the hell i want, thanks.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

OMFG. that whole "responsibility" thing - to whom? does that line actually work on anyone?

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

well, i am just a crazy socialist who is trying to get everyone else to pay for my horrible obeseness disease. i clearly have no sense of responsiblity. *flares hands*

[keryx.livejournal.com]

that's right. if you had any moral fiber, you'd go out and buy some bootstraps and lose some damn weight. or something. i get so confused with all the COMPLETELY INSANE MESSAGES sometimes.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I think, from other things she's written, that she's trying to say something vague about the beauty myth. But she always blames it on women, like it's all internal, and it's almost always like "fat" is the universal condemnation of women.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it - it's the whole "we have to prove to others that we're normal enough" thing. It doesn't make any sense in any context to me.

[chubbycore.livejournal.com]

My insurance won't pay for my gym membership, but will pay for me to get a rubber band around my stomach.

Yeah!!!!

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

none at all.

I think it is the quiet voice that we have in our head that wants everyone to like us.

Or maybe that's just me.

It's hard to realize that.. you know what: not everyone is going to like me...and sometimes it'll be based on my looks, my weight, my gender, my loud-mouthedness... but I can't change any of that and still be liked...because then it wouldn't be authentic.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

I try to put it in perspective: most people on the planet wouldn't like me, just because of my unmarried irreligious loudmouthiness. Not worth fretting over.

[rackletang.livejournal.com]

She's very cute.