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There's a minor blow-up going on in the Fem-o-sphere today. It all started when Jezabel made the moderate claim that the BMI is bullshit. And it is, actually-- Multiple scientists and authors have pointed out its flaws, commented on how they changed who is considered obese in the 90s without much reason, and shown how the media, doctors, and common people, toss around these medical terms as though they are an unquestionably opaque measurement of who is healthy and who is not.1 But frankly, it's not even a great measurement of who is FAT, let alone evidence unto itself that ALL fats are unhealthy and ALL skinnies or inbetweenies are so, so great. I brought it into one of the classes I was teaching, and this skinny but muscular athlete determined that he was obese, according to this miracle scale.
Jezabel's post was a response to a NY Times piece wherein this last point is reinforced by a 'short and fat' (his words) doctor who said that, crazily enough, "if you're active, you get a lot of health benefits even if it doesn't make you skinny."
A guest blogger at Feministe then told us to put down the donuts and quit whining. After all, she's never experienced discrimination from her doctors, and therefore, no one in the world has experienced shitty health care, just because they are fat, to the point that they are afraid to go to doctors, had a very delayed diagnosis, or have been damaged permanently from lack of treatment.
Although the post is enraging, fat hating, ignorant of a HUUUUGE (pun intended!) body of literature easily accessible online and in bookstores2, and erasing of the experiences of all women who have been shamed for their bodies (yes, body politics is an issue, and it intersects with gender, race, class, and disability!!), Alas! A Blog's Maia looks at the positive side: 95% of the commenters on this vile post were pointing out why the post was ignorant and offensive. She pointed out that four years prior, the commentors were shy, few, and rather moderate.
One might call it a Fat (scale) Tipping Point. With all of the bloggers furiously (or not actually so furious, but at the very least, critically) typing away into their spaces, creating followings, sharing the wise words of their sisters and brothers of size (or of not so much size as understanding), and deconstructing elements of our culture that we are taught not to notice and to swallow whole, more and more people come to realize bullshit when they see it. They see it, they point it out, they don't feel the need to apologize as much in feminist spaces for caring about fat. Because fat is about the body, and feminism as an ideology should be capable of dealing with the real of body politics, whether it be how we respond to thin bodies, fat bodies, fit or unfit bodies, brown bodies or otherwise colored bodies, disabled bodies, as well as trans and cis bodies and all in between. Feminism should be capable of handling the diversity of our movement, otherwise it becomes fairly obsolete, as those who fight for any one of these issues will also include gender. One assumes that we can deal with some complexity, since this is really the moment of intersection. Feminism branched from gender to queer, race, and more recently disability, and these connections are where the remaining fruit hangs on our knowledge tree.
Or where the donuts hang, maybe. Because donuts taste a lot fucking better than dried up old bullshit.
1. Some books:
Paul Campos in The Obesity Myth
Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby
Fat!So? by Marilyn Wann
Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata
Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon
Hungry by Chrystal Renn
The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothbloom
2. Short list of bloggers who touch on fat/body politics: Fatshionista, The Rotund, Shapely Prose, Queer Fat Femme, Junk Food Science, Racialicious, The Fat Nutritionist, This Ain't Livin', and of course, Feminists with Disabilities.
Jezabel's post was a response to a NY Times piece wherein this last point is reinforced by a 'short and fat' (his words) doctor who said that, crazily enough, "if you're active, you get a lot of health benefits even if it doesn't make you skinny."
A guest blogger at Feministe then told us to put down the donuts and quit whining. After all, she's never experienced discrimination from her doctors, and therefore, no one in the world has experienced shitty health care, just because they are fat, to the point that they are afraid to go to doctors, had a very delayed diagnosis, or have been damaged permanently from lack of treatment.
Although the post is enraging, fat hating, ignorant of a HUUUUGE (pun intended!) body of literature easily accessible online and in bookstores2, and erasing of the experiences of all women who have been shamed for their bodies (yes, body politics is an issue, and it intersects with gender, race, class, and disability!!), Alas! A Blog's Maia looks at the positive side: 95% of the commenters on this vile post were pointing out why the post was ignorant and offensive. She pointed out that four years prior, the commentors were shy, few, and rather moderate.
One might call it a Fat (scale) Tipping Point. With all of the bloggers furiously (or not actually so furious, but at the very least, critically) typing away into their spaces, creating followings, sharing the wise words of their sisters and brothers of size (or of not so much size as understanding), and deconstructing elements of our culture that we are taught not to notice and to swallow whole, more and more people come to realize bullshit when they see it. They see it, they point it out, they don't feel the need to apologize as much in feminist spaces for caring about fat. Because fat is about the body, and feminism as an ideology should be capable of dealing with the real of body politics, whether it be how we respond to thin bodies, fat bodies, fit or unfit bodies, brown bodies or otherwise colored bodies, disabled bodies, as well as trans and cis bodies and all in between. Feminism should be capable of handling the diversity of our movement, otherwise it becomes fairly obsolete, as those who fight for any one of these issues will also include gender. One assumes that we can deal with some complexity, since this is really the moment of intersection. Feminism branched from gender to queer, race, and more recently disability, and these connections are where the remaining fruit hangs on our knowledge tree.
Or where the donuts hang, maybe. Because donuts taste a lot fucking better than dried up old bullshit.
1. Some books:
Paul Campos in The Obesity Myth
Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby
Fat!So? by Marilyn Wann
Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata
Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon
Hungry by Chrystal Renn
The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothbloom
2. Short list of bloggers who touch on fat/body politics: Fatshionista, The Rotund, Shapely Prose, Queer Fat Femme, Junk Food Science, Racialicious, The Fat Nutritionist, This Ain't Livin', and of course, Feminists with Disabilities.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-03 01:21 am (UTC)From:Yes, I have been delighted to discover the fatosphere over the last 3-4 years - it's a wonderful, wonderful place, and was a really important way for me to start understanding intersectionality.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-03 09:36 pm (UTC)From:The fatosphere has a lot of good deep thinking that has helped me begin to unravel a bunch of issues. It doesn't hurt that it's nice to be just a tad more comfortable in your skin. :/