| More thoughts on FA |
[May. 22nd, 2009|12:25 am] |
I've had a few people ask me why I've been so adamant and almost militant about my Fat Acceptance postings and comments on Facebook. Aside from the cliches of the unenlightened ("BUT ZOMFG TEH FATZ IZ DEADLY!!11one"), a lot of people seem to be genuinely curious about WHAT FA entails and why I gear it towards women in particular. Because I enjoy lists, here goes.
<b>1) Women are held to a higher standard of physical beauty than men.</b> Don't believe me? Quickly, name three male actors who don't fit the "traditional" standard of physical attractiveness. Got it? Now name three female actors who don't, not including those whose careers are based off this supposed lack of attractiveness (i.e. Nikki Blonsky). It's harder, isn't it? And let's not forget the always-popular Susan Boyle from "Britain's Got Talent." Her success is BASED UPON the fact that she breaks through these barriers of attractiveness. Just look at the faces of the people in the audience before she sings... they EXPECT her to fail, they WANT her to fail. However, their tunes change when she shows her vocal chops. If she were a Britney lookalike, the expectation for failure would not have been there, plain and simple. There is a cultural assumption that talent and success is reserved for the physically attractive.
<b>2) Thin = attractive in the American cultural lexicon.</b> Every time a female celebrity gains weight, you can just hear the tabloids orgasming from the headlines they can derive (this will happen occasionally to men, it's just not as common). Even when a celebrity looks BETTER with meat on her bones (Carrie Underwood, anyone?), the assumption from the mass media still claims that ANY weight gain is bad. The headlines on People magazine make it seem as though said celebrity burned off half her body, Twoface-style, in a deliberate effort to be unattractive. Jessica Simpson recently fell under this public scrutiny for gaining something resembling 10 lbs. Upon further research (great job there, journalists of the world), it was discovered that to keep her Daisy Duke body, she had to do more than an hour of exercise every day, six days a week, AND keep a highly restricted diet. In other words, she kept in shape but LET HER BODY DO WHAT IT NATURALLY DOES, and was thrown under the bus for it. By the way, the diet industry is a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY. Given that DIETS DON'T WORK (95-98% of dieters lossing over 75 lbs. regain it within 5 years...this is a solid fact, you can google it), is it any wonder? Women all over the world pay for body shame.
<b>3) Mass Media is all media.</b> More people voted for American Idol this year than in the presidential election, even when you control for multiple voting. Fucking think about that.
<b>4) Women's bodies are not our own.</b> This is the hardest concept for most people to grasp. How can our bodies not be our own? Think about the big-breasted girl in high school who was subjected to verbal assaults because she DARED to have big breasts. Think about the transwomen in New York City who have beer bottles thrown at them for dressing as they choose. Think about the fat woman who is subject to stares from those around her in the grocery store checkout because she has food in her cart, regardless of its health content. Think about the 16-year-old girl denied an abortion, not on religious grounds, but on the grounds that she, despite BEING PHYSICALLY PREGNANT cannot "make her own decisions." Women's bodies are subject to public scrutiny everywhere, all the time. We are supposed to fit into a mold of femininity straight out of the 1950's (demure, quiet, small waist, big breasts-- but not too big, hourglass figure, perfect hair, perfect skin, etc. etc.), and when we break this mold, we're "bitches," "sluts," "tramps," "whores," and the ever-popular "dykes," and "cunts."
<b>5) Men have it shitty, too.</b> Although not always held to the same physical standard, men are held to a standard of hypermasculinity. I can't begin to comprehend the subtle intricacies of the masculine-feminine battle that happens within the male sphere (and I'm not being sarcastic), bit I do understand that it occurs. There is a rejection of all that is feminine in this hypermasculine culture, which is where the homophobia present in many adolescent male cliques comes from. Anything other than straight-up heterosexuality (lulz pun) means a deviation from this norm, and is therefore "bad" and/or "wrong."
<b>6) When everyone loses at society, we have to re-evaluate our values.</b> There is no reason for the fat-hatred and other-hatred that is so omnipresent in American culture. I know I say this a lot, but there are fucking wars going on, genocides and mass murders and disease and technological revolutions. Until we stop focusing on outward appearances, shit ain't gettin' done.
My sincerest love to all of you. I'm sorry if some of these points don't make sense or mesh with my "thesis." I'm rill tired. These are more talking points to get you thinking about how you evaluate yourselves/others and whether you are a victim to our culture. As always, YOU ARE ALL PERFECT THE WAY GOD/ALLAH/BUDDHA/VISHNU/XENU MADE YOU!
Peace, Love, and Persephone's Belly,
Sarah |
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