fat culture

[keryx]

Today deeleigh wrote this excellent post about fat culture, which you should go and read. I mean, if you have any interest in fat culture.

I think, often, that the only thing I'm doing to create culture is preaching to y'all converted types. But we're all creating fat culture, feminist culture, queer culture, simply by existing in the bodies and lives we have. If you're apologetic about your size or your life, you're creating that as a culture for others (yourself, too). If you're daring and unlimited or open about your own questions, whatever - that which you do and think and share, all part of the culture you create. 

You cannot not contribute to the culture. You are the culture.

That, of course, isn't exactly what deeleigh meant. I believe it's important to remember, though. Culture isn't only what we create mindfully. 

I do other things mindfully, though, which are also contributing. As frustrating as I find it to have people come up to me with that "oh wow, if you can do it, so can I" attitude that non-fat people tend to come up to me with [Fat folk tend more towards the "wow, I could go do X myself, couldn't I?" attitude, which I totally love - it's like my body in motion is an agent for whatever change they want for themselves.], our dance work creates a different, more diverse idea of physical beauty than the mainstream norm. We're people of different shapes, and we're so effing beautiful it's not even funny. Just ask our cute drummers. The unique characters of our many-sized asses are all gorgeous precisely as they are, and there's a whole segment of the city of Richmond that sees bellydance as empowering and fat women in lots of skirts as astounding because they saw us.

I suppose that we could be doing almost anything in the same way and be creating a new, different idea of beautiful still. Creating culture - creating fat culture, or feminist culture - is as simple as that. And as difficult (it's not like our work is easy - hell, even stepping on stage isn't exactly easy).

Comments

[deeleigh.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about mindfulness being weird in this context. I totally agree. But, there are so many barriers to get past in trying to do something that reflects positively on large bodies (including our own), that there almost has to be an element of mindfulness about it. At the very least, there's the fear of being laughed at or dismissed entirely for trying.

You've gotten past it beautifully, though! It's so hard to put yourself out there, I think, but there seem to be rewards, too. I guess that a lot of risks come with potential rewards.