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.