Swan (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} queenostara) wrote,@ 2009-05-12 21:06:00 |
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Said better than I could say it
http://www.fatshionista.com/cms/index.p
Somebody somewhere sometime once said into the internet "you cannot hate someone for their own good" and it's so true. All that above is what drives me so bananas about the whole "but it's for your health!" argument. Because chivalrous as your trying to rescue all the fatties of the world from their unhealthiness is, one, it's been shown through countless studies that weight is NOT NECESSARILY A DETERMINING FACTOR OF HEALTH and two, a fatty's health, a skinny's health an in-betweenie's health is NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.
I remember hearing a thin woman gripe about how sometimes total strangers have the audacity to assume they can lecture her on not starving herself and complain that in our society it's more acceptable to confront a thin woman about her health than it is to confront a fat woman. I was completely frustrated with this statement because not only is it the absolute opposite of true, but I couldn't help but be dismayed that she couldn't make the connection to how rude she felt someone's comment on her health was and how rude it is to comment on ANYONE'S health based on size alone. Not to mention I felt this was a completely privileged statement that only someone who'd been thin all her life could make. Of course she would think it was more common for an underweight looking woman to be rudely lectured on health by strangers because it was what she experienced. It's akin to the frustration I experience when I hear someone white say racism doesn't still exist (though I make no attempt to even hint that body prejudice is at all the same as racial prejudice - trust me, I know I'm privileged in ways I'm not even aware of because I'm traditionally white looking and middle class etc.) or when I hear a male gripe about how he doesn't see sexism in the world anymore. To which my thought is always, "Of course you wouldn't. You don't see it expressed towards you." Someone once summarized it really well in saying something to the effect of "being privileged doesn't mean you're going to rub in other people's faces the many ways in which society caters more towards you. It means that people's who possess traits that are abhorred have to worry about things being made more difficult for them in ways you can't even think of."
Having thin privilege means you don't have to worry about your doctor overlooking health issues you may have and instead telling you to just lose weight. Having thin privilege means that people are less likely to assume you are a stupid, lazy, gluttonous, drain on society. Having thin privilege means you are less likely to be sized out of designer fashions and instead forced to buy either cheap clothing from stores like Target or Wal-mart or extremely pricey "Big & Tall" sizes. Having thin privilege means you are a heck of a lot less likely (if likely at all) to get glared at for having a bag of Doritos and a tub of ice cream in your shopping cart. It means you're a lot less likely to be ridiculed in public for your body. It means you're less likely to have trouble getting health coverage because of your weight. It means you're a lot less likely to get glared at and complained about on an airplane. It means you're a lot less likely to have family members decry your body. It means, in short, that you are socially conditioned to feel you don't owe it to anyone to apologize for the way your body is. So if you're thin and have been so all or most of your life and you don't think fat prejudice is a problem, I implore you to attempt to look outside the life you have always known and accept that things might be different for others. I implore you to look at the ways in which people make things harder for someone who is fat(ter). And of course if you're white and don't think racism exists, I implore you to open your thoughts a bit*. I implore you to examine your own thoughts on race. And if you're male and don't think sexism is still a problem I implore you to examine how the media treats the body of an intelligent, Harvard educated woman (such as Michelle Obama)as public property*. I implore you to examine your reaction to this post. Because if it was just a gut reaction "oh shut up you fat, ugly bitch" then I hate to break it to you, but you might be sexist which means, you guessed it, sexism is alive and well.
In short, just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just because discrimination doesn't happen to YOU doesn't mean it doesn't happen at ALL. And of course, logically, the fact that it happens to SOME and NOT all is what makes it discrimination.
*I make no attempt to speak for anyone of any race. I know that there are probably a million ways I don't understand the experiences of many black, latino or asian women (and men) I only use racism as an example of how someone's own privilege can blind them to the fact that they have it to begin with.
**I also make no attempt to speak for women as a whole, merely detailing my thoughts.
http://www.fatshionista.com/cms/index.p
Somebody somewhere sometime once said into the internet "you cannot hate someone for their own good" and it's so true. All that above is what drives me so bananas about the whole "but it's for your health!" argument. Because chivalrous as your trying to rescue all the fatties of the world from their unhealthiness is, one, it's been shown through countless studies that weight is NOT NECESSARILY A DETERMINING FACTOR OF HEALTH and two, a fatty's health, a skinny's health an in-betweenie's health is NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS.
I remember hearing a thin woman gripe about how sometimes total strangers have the audacity to assume they can lecture her on not starving herself and complain that in our society it's more acceptable to confront a thin woman about her health than it is to confront a fat woman. I was completely frustrated with this statement because not only is it the absolute opposite of true, but I couldn't help but be dismayed that she couldn't make the connection to how rude she felt someone's comment on her health was and how rude it is to comment on ANYONE'S health based on size alone. Not to mention I felt this was a completely privileged statement that only someone who'd been thin all her life could make. Of course she would think it was more common for an underweight looking woman to be rudely lectured on health by strangers because it was what she experienced. It's akin to the frustration I experience when I hear someone white say racism doesn't still exist (though I make no attempt to even hint that body prejudice is at all the same as racial prejudice - trust me, I know I'm privileged in ways I'm not even aware of because I'm traditionally white looking and middle class etc.) or when I hear a male gripe about how he doesn't see sexism in the world anymore. To which my thought is always, "Of course you wouldn't. You don't see it expressed towards you." Someone once summarized it really well in saying something to the effect of "being privileged doesn't mean you're going to rub in other people's faces the many ways in which society caters more towards you. It means that people's who possess traits that are abhorred have to worry about things being made more difficult for them in ways you can't even think of."
Having thin privilege means you don't have to worry about your doctor overlooking health issues you may have and instead telling you to just lose weight. Having thin privilege means that people are less likely to assume you are a stupid, lazy, gluttonous, drain on society. Having thin privilege means you are less likely to be sized out of designer fashions and instead forced to buy either cheap clothing from stores like Target or Wal-mart or extremely pricey "Big & Tall" sizes. Having thin privilege means you are a heck of a lot less likely (if likely at all) to get glared at for having a bag of Doritos and a tub of ice cream in your shopping cart. It means you're a lot less likely to be ridiculed in public for your body. It means you're less likely to have trouble getting health coverage because of your weight. It means you're a lot less likely to get glared at and complained about on an airplane. It means you're a lot less likely to have family members decry your body. It means, in short, that you are socially conditioned to feel you don't owe it to anyone to apologize for the way your body is. So if you're thin and have been so all or most of your life and you don't think fat prejudice is a problem, I implore you to attempt to look outside the life you have always known and accept that things might be different for others. I implore you to look at the ways in which people make things harder for someone who is fat(ter). And of course if you're white and don't think racism exists, I implore you to open your thoughts a bit*. I implore you to examine your own thoughts on race. And if you're male and don't think sexism is still a problem I implore you to examine how the media treats the body of an intelligent, Harvard educated woman (such as Michelle Obama)as public property*. I implore you to examine your reaction to this post. Because if it was just a gut reaction "oh shut up you fat, ugly bitch" then I hate to break it to you, but you might be sexist which means, you guessed it, sexism is alive and well.
In short, just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just because discrimination doesn't happen to YOU doesn't mean it doesn't happen at ALL. And of course, logically, the fact that it happens to SOME and NOT all is what makes it discrimination.
*I make no attempt to speak for anyone of any race. I know that there are probably a million ways I don't understand the experiences of many black, latino or asian women (and men) I only use racism as an example of how someone's own privilege can blind them to the fact that they have it to begin with.
**I also make no attempt to speak for women as a whole, merely detailing my thoughts.
