Equality is Embodied, Oppression is Violence

It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that Feminism, or the general fight for equality is a totally embodied fight. The oppression of women and all oppressed people is largely an attack on their bodies and an attempt to control those bodies. I could get all Foucaulty with this but I wont, because it is simple really.

When you help to prop up standards of appearance and bodily existence you create a narrow (literally) mould by which we measure people. The more you fit within this mould, the more you are treated as a human being worthy of rights and respect. If you don’t fit the mould, your body is more likely to be subjected to violence. For example, we all pretty much agree that women’s bodies have been more scrutinized and therefore controlled (e.g. abortion and contraceptive rights, forced marriage, FGM, etc) than men’s bodies. I think its safe to say that this sense of a right to control women’s bodies and not just consider their rights basic human rights is because we have historically considered women less human and individual and more like public property. They are our mothers and daughters and in order to protect them we must control their bodies FOR THEIR OWN GOOD. Most of you will be familiar with this misogynistic and sexist rhetoric disguised as morality. It results in the mistreatment of women’s bodies to a really horrific level. This is what all sexist culture and rhetoric does: it is complicit in violence towards women and belittles the seriousness of violence towards them. The problem is when people who understand why THAT is wrong, do not understand why it is similarly wrong to seek to control people’s bodies in other ways. I’m talking about fat people. Being obese actually is far less of an issue to others than STDs and teenage pregnancy, for example. In BOTH cases if we assume that restricting and shaming is helpful here’s how it goes:

We tell teenagers that they are disgusting for wanting to have sex and should not have sex= teenagers get more STDs and get pregnant more often because they don’t know how to protect themselves and feel ashamed of asking.

We tell fat people they are disgustingly unhealthy and need to stop eating so much and get off the sofa= fat people feel victimized and bullied, end up hating their bodies and therefore treat their bodies like shit by eating a pile of crap and never getting off the sofa. OR they get an eating disorder and develop serious health problems related to that.

NEW SOLUTION

We tell teenagers its their choice whether they have sex or not, we tell them how to not get STDs or get pregnant, we respect their bodily autonomy=less teenagers get up pregnant or contract STDs.

We stop going on about people being fat and start appreciating all bodies (including fat bodies) for their beauty, abilities, and the human being they carry around = people are more likely to treat their bodies with kindness and respect, eat food that is beneficial to their health, get out of the house more, exercise, and therefore actually have better health. They may still be fat and not lose any weight, they may gain weight, but they will be healthier than they were.

But this is a bit simplistic, no? Since when is personal health something you can demand from someone else? Just like any other bodily choice (tattoos, sexual activity, clothing) this is something that people don’t really have a right to be concerned about. When you show ‘concern’ for obese people and urge them to lose weight, what you are really doing is finding a reason to demand weight loss from them because you DON’T WANT TO SEE FAT PEOPLE. I said it. You don’t like looking at fat people because for a million reasons it makes you uneasy. You REALLY don’t like looking at fat people who aren’t hiding their fatness. That’s really scary. It’s like a closet racist who feels uneasy when Obama’s on TV, like, its ok if you see a black guy on the bus but when you see one who has got the NERVE to be president that just irks you so much more.

But let’s get back to bodies. Racism and Colonialism is a clear example to illustrate it. So when people started theorising using a SCIENCE that non whites were inferior, their bodies became fair game. They were enslaved, raped, lynched, THEIR BODIES WERE TOTALLY VIOLATED AND DEHUMANISED. And right now its that same phenomenon reformulated with this crazy capitalism whereby we ALLOW bodies of those oppressed, non-white and non-western people to be exploited, abused, killed, raped. It’s everywhere, Mexicans in the USA, untouchables in India. We don’t hear news reports on the faceless people killed by drone strikes in Pakistan or bombs in Iraq, but every single person killed in the twin towers was painstaking identified and their families compensated financially (of course this terrorist attack was CERTAINLY a tragedy but I ask that all unjust killing be treated with the same reverence). It seems odd to compare this to fatphobia but they are born from the SAME SYSTEM.  A million other oppressions could be named and discussed in relation to these but I think you’ve got the picture now!

We need to stop supporting some bits of this system of bodily exploitation, control, and degradation while purporting to fight other parts. If you fat-shame people and then say you are a feminist, THINK HARDER.