"During the late seventeenth century, body type was used as a marker for racial categorization. Scientific racism led to the attribution of other signifiers, besides skin color, to justify the horrendous treatment of the enslaved. Body size became way to dehumanize and demonize Black people. The robust figures of Black women’s became associated with immorality, laziness, and lack of self-control— painting a stark contrast with the 'rationality' and 'refinement' of Europeans. Thinness became associated with whiteness and intellectual and moral superiority."
From "These 7 Black Influencers and Bloggers Are Challenging Fatphobia" (Ebony).
AND: "Despite the fact that intersectionality lies in the very groundwork of our community, the conversation around size inclusivity often remains white-focused. Efforts to uplift more marginalized voices within the plus-size space — particularly of Black women, who originated the body positive movement — have often neglected an important experience: that of the Asian American Pacific Islander community" — from "The Unique Experience of Navigating Fatphobia Within the AAPI Community" (Nylon).
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2 comments:
Michelle writes:
Dear Ann,
The Ebony article seems to be missing a lot of iconographical context. Art in the 17th c. certainly included a lot of chubby white women. The "elegant" silhouettes of the 18th-19th c. owed a great deal to dress designs that deliberately overemphasized some features (butts in particular) to contrast with waists, which by that point were indeed corseted into tininess. The just plain skinny look didn't actually hit until the 1920s IIRC, helped along considerably by smoking.
I'd add that opera, which the Ebony writer might concede to be an example of European high art, was from its inception, and still is, full of fat white women. Were they too supposed to be images of immorality and laziness and lack of self-control?
The Nylon article, meanwhile, uses the quite-new "AAPI" moniker, presumably for the "PI" part. We can accordingly ignore all those super-skinny Chinese and Japanese and Korean women and concentrate on, say, Samoans and Tongans and native Hawai'ians, who are on average very large.
And where are the men in all this? Do they not matter at all?
Ozymandias writes:
“During the late seventeenth century, body type was used as a marker for racial categorization. . . . Body size became way to dehumanize and demonize Black people. The robust figures of Black women’s [sic] became associated with immorality, laziness, and lack of self-control.”
Hence, R. Crumb’s “Angelfood McSpade”?
Contra: Ebony’s seven black influencers and bloggers “challenging fatphobia,” by being black, fat, and not immoral, lazy, or impulsive?
Why, yes: “As a body image coach and activist, [Danni] Poundcake is fiercely dedicated to fighting the damaging stigma of weight in society.”
Meant to be: Her name is “Poundcake” and she became a body-image coach, whada-ya-know, and she’s fiercely dedicated to fighting that stigma! No laziness there.
And: “Influencer Achieng Agutu is no ordinary black woman.”
Wasn’t the point supposed to be that these were ordinary black women,” who nonetheless disprove the “body type marker”? If they’re extraordinary, is the body type marker true of the rest?
“Self-dubbed “a tantalizing confidence queen,” Agutu, a thick-bodied beauty, is no stranger to lack of visibility. ‘In Indiana, I was the only Black girl in most of my classes,’ she remembers. 'I didn’t see people who looked like me, and there was nobody who was really hyping me up!’
The horror. Anti-Blackism at its worst.
"Agutu’s solution? Hype herself up.”
She’s “self-dubbed,” and she’s “no stranger to lack of visibility,” so she “hyped herself up.” Well, of course. Whudjexpect?
But wait: “I often feel like my lived experience is completely invisible,” says Ushshi Rahman, a Bangledeshi writer now based in New York City.”
Consider the complaint: “My lived experience is completely invisible.” And she even lives in New York City!
But: “The pendulum has begun to swing . . . as a rise in AAPI hate crimes has skyrocketed over the past year.”
Oh joy! We’re victims too! Hey, over here, over here.
And yet: “[W]ithin the plus-size sector, little space remains for honest dialogue about what it means to be fat and Asian in society today, and how rebellious that notion can be for those who proudly claim both identities.”
Wanted: Space in the “plus-size sector” for honest dialogue about what it means to be fat and Asian, cuz by god we’re victims, but we’re rebels too! And, ya know, we have our issues and shit, so pay attention!
Contrived identities packaged to “hype up” in the interest of authenticity. It appears that the “anti-Blackism” that accompanies “fatphobia” is a failure to selflessly, constantly, surrender attention.
One imagines a scrum of bodies—faces, elbows, feet—all pressed against the lens, struggling to claw their way into the frame. “Waaaiit! Lookamee! Lookamee!”
Meanwhile, the earth continues to orbit the sun.
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