Feministing.com, a feminist blog, offers me some distraction from the rigidity of graduate reading languages. This past week, I commented on Ole'Lefty's blog about the concept of taking up space. TSB added to the conversation discussing the everyday annoyance of sitting next to men that take up space without considering the people they are next to, on planes or in other public spaces. I contend that American women are coming from a society that disallows them to take up space without repercussion. Women tend more to sit with legs crossed, shoulders slouched, and to speak quietly, only after others have spoken. This is a very polar view, I admit, but I am trying to point something out that seems so commonplace.
So, what takes up more space than being loud, aggressive, or standing up straight? Being a "fat chick" does, especially when the women in question are unapologetic. Feministing.com offers a discussion about this topic here. There are many a bumper sticker and tee shirt touting the line "No Fat Chicks," which makes one wonder what is so threatening about them? Could it be that women who are not easily, literally marginalized because of their size pose more of a threat than small, vulnerable looking women? Is it because they take up more space? Are they less feminine? What allows for verbal and, in many cases, physical and sexual violence to happen to these women with little uproar from society?
Another case of women, taking up space, and not getting praised for doing so.
This is a sign upon entering a nudist beach that I found on a post about fitness here.
You make an interesting connection between fatness and taking up space. Perhaps we permit fatness of men but censure fatness in women in part because men are allowed such space, but women are deemed not entitled to it. I see our cultural hatred of fatness in women being heavily centered on a patriarchal control over women's bodies. We have to ask - who are we thinning down for? The expectation is that women will be thin in order to achieve a heterosexual relationship - the ultimate prize. I strongly doubt that a woman posted that nudist beach sign...women's bodies are expected to be for the male gaze at all times. Women internalize this hatred and police other women's bodies as well... Nomy Lamm wrote "It's a Big Fat Revolution" over a decade ago, but I'm not sure we're getting any closer to it.
ReplyDeleteI did not even begin to touch on my ideas about current television sitcoms with the fat husband/hot wife dynamic, wherein the man screws up a lot to the chagrin of wife (who is highly educated but also shown doing a ton of housework). The idea that it's alright for men to age or put on weight, and that those might even be seen as desirable attributes, but women who age all-butt disappear from social view, and those who are overweight are labeled as somehow deviant. Also, if we want to look at the construction of illness in terms of obesity, the "fat chicks" can also be constructed as sick. There must be something wrong with them, like diabetes, and through this framework we do NOT see any women who are healthy, happy or even 'normal' who are overweight.
ReplyDeleteYou both raise excellent points about the stigma of obesity, and how it particularly problematic for women, who are more subject to the negative cultural perceptions of obesity than men. It is also troubling that this prejudice has not only become culturally acceptable, but it is legally permissible. It’s really upsetting that the law does not legally prohibit people from discriminating against the obese, though some advocacy groups are working on securing this protection. If you have time, I’m attaching a link to an article I stumbled across a while back that shows how this stigma often (and legally) functions to discourage or prevent the obese from becoming happy and successful members of society.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/health/16essa.html
Speaking of doofy husbands - http://current.com/shows/infomania/90569059_sarah-haskins-in-target-women-doofy-husbands.htm, ever seen this jewel of a show, Target Women by Sarah Haskins.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the things Kate Harding has to say about fatness. This is just one of her many posts http://kateharding.net/2007/11/27/the-fantasy-of-being-thin/
She has one essay in the book "Yes Means Yes" about how she never imagined herself as sexual because she was fat, and how commenters on her blog and elsewhere tell her how lucky she was to be sexually assaulted because that is the only sexual attention she will ever get. I thought it was a pretty powerful essay.
I had a prof. who did a week on "weighty matters" and totally changed my perception regarding the whole "obesity scare" that America is so in to.