From "The consequences of being fat are deeper than we realize/In the book 'Unshrinking,' philosopher Kate Manne argues that fatphobia is a form of structural oppression" (WaPo)(free-access link).
An "emissary" is — to quote the OED — "A person sent on a mission to gain information, or to gain adherents to, or promote the interests of a cause. (Until the 19th century used almost exclusively in bad sense, implying something odious in the object of the mission, or something underhand in its manner.)"
Do you think of your body as an emissary of your mind?
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39 comments:
My body aids and abets my brain, which has a correlation with my mind.
Of course fatphobia is a form of structural oppression. Isn't every thing?
She is actually not fat to the point that is she is stealing fat cred from actual fat people.
She is Australian. Social media there probably had a negative impact on her.
Sounds like she really means the opposite.
JFC. Her doctorate is in philosophy. She is an associate professor at Cornell.
She also wrote "Down Girl: The logic of Misogyny" , and "Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women." These are the creatures that infect our universities.
Albinophobia is celebrated proudly in parades and with systemic exhibitions not on the plains.
Homophilia is celebrated on womb farms, in sperm banks, and by blood-born pathogens.
Obesiphobia is celebrated by a trillion dollar healthcare industrial complex. Just eat it!
As vices go, gluttony is relatively harmless. No one ever missed a mortgage payment or stole from their loved one in order provide for their addiction. The detrimental effects of this vice are felt mostly--almost solely--on its practitioner.....My moral grandeur is is not visible in my outward appearance. One thing I take credit for is the fact that I'm not fat. My non-obesity is a result of character. I live in a neighborhood that is rich with bakeries, pizza parlors and the like. With the exception of that one BBQ joint, I rarely succumb. I suppose a philosopher might argue that my relative non-obesity is a function of my vanity or wish to stay healthy rather than my superior moral character.....There's merit to that argument. Still, a lot of things in life are the result of luck, but, as a general rule, everyone in America has the weight that they deserve and that weight is the result of their ability to resist temptation.
...but not of their ability to resist Ozempic.
Morality has migrated from sexual behavior to diet.
I doubt that. I suspect it has more to do with gut biota.
It is tempting -- very tempting -- to think that others' misfortunes are their own fault. It is easy to feel sympathy toward someone who has a problem that is going to get better. It is exhausting to feel sympathy for a person whose problems are intractable.
I imagine just about every nice guy who was ever friends with a fat girl in high school knows what it's like when she lets on she wants to be more than friends but for you that's impossible because she's fat but the good thing about it is you have to face up to the fact at a relatively young age that deep down inside you're really kind of a fucking asshole.
Being fat is imposing literal structural oppression on your body.
"Do you think of your body as an emissary of your mind?"
People say I look like Ric Flair. With no hair. The no-hair Ric Flair. I would say that checks out.
It's a lot like how every nice girl who was ever friends with a short guy in high school knows what it's like when he lets on he wants to be more than friends but for her that's impossible because he's short but the good thing about it is she has to face up to the fact at a relatively young age that deep down inside she's really kind of a fucking asshole.
She seems to worry about rape culture, which you'd think being fat would alleviate.
Another academic loon self-identifies.
I've found that female philosophers on youtube are unable to explain why you'd want to read this or that philosopher being covered. Coursework seems to be biography.
Hey she's on YouTube. Stand by.
Oppression and compression. On... oh, my knees.
Thar she blows!
A paraplegic mind in a paraplegic body. Who in his right mind, being gentle submissive, and sensitive to all ways of being no matter how absurd or reductionist, could possibly not welcome that maxim?
Kate Manne, fat philosopher. Seems standards have slipped a bit since Hannah Arendt, but then I studied under Tom "I Love My Dog but Hate You" Regan and had my fill of total bullshit early on. Nevertheless, she fits the modern mold (mold as in evidence of rot) blaming everyone but herself for the greed and hedonistic abandon that impels her to consume far more than she expends.
Fat body represents fat mind... Has Kate Manne pulled an epic-scale Freudian slip?
"Fat" = <10-20 extra pounds (over the ridiculous body weight norm charts, and the ridiculous SI swimsuit types)? Or "fat" = slovenly? As regards the latter, yeah of course...gross. As for the former (very fond memories of "more than friends" with a couple of them), most HS guys eschewed them more out of shallow fear of taunting by their shallow buds, than anything about the girl. And yeah, on that: fucking assholishness.
She sounds slightly New Zealandish Misogyny with the long e's, characteristic also of Judge Susan Hoerchner testifying for Anita Hill. It may be a feminist accent.
We should be conscious of the strong component of genetic "luck" involved in being or not being obese. To a degree, there are medical interventions available to the extremely overweight. Beyond that, there is no rational course of action that will solve the multiplicity of discomforts endured by the obese. This philosopher may take some consolation from the circumstance that she was not so unlucky as to be stupid, poor, and fat. I don't think the owners of that particular trifecta of social misery have many philosophers out there advocating for them.
There's got to be more than genetics at work here. When I was in grade school sixty years ago, there weren't near the number of fat (and by that, I mean seriously obese, not just a little overweight) kids (or parents, for that matter) as I see today.
She seems to want to butt heads with the patriarchy. Something is wrong and men have to fix it.
She was on Blogging Heads with Robert Wright.
I'd be willing to bet that hardly anyone is actually afraid ('phobos') of fat people.
"Do you think of your body as an emissary of your mind?"
No. It's mostly the emissary of pizza.
Being fat is unhealthy and unattractive. There's a reason for aversion. I feel sorry for the few of us overweight peeps who are fat due to genetic reasons. Some people really are "born to be fat" and there's little they can do, short of having their stomach stapled.
But the vast majority of fatties are fat due to gluttony and sloth. I'm one of their number, although in my defense I'm not technically obese and I am almost 60. But I realize the fault is not in the stars, but in myself.
"Do you think of your body as an emissary of your mind?" It is, but I don't think of it that way, for the simple reason (are reasons still allowed in philosophy?) that I know my body can decay, hurt, or get mangled in ways entirely beyond my control and unrelated to anything I think I am.
It’s more like a car that I really like and want to keep as long as possible.
I view it conversely; my mind, as an emergent phenomenon of my body (brain), is the emissary of my body. It allows me to interact with external reality including emissaries of other bodies. Even fat ones.
Phobic bullshit. Fatphobia is a projection for-profit. One of Diverse corporate conceptions.
It's annoying the way the left always tacks on "phobia" or "phobic" to the groups they want special treatment for. No one is afraid of fat people. It's just unattractive and unhealthy. Deal with it.
Emissary of her mind? A fatuous conviction. Therein lies her problem. That, and an unhealthy, morbid quality of life.
Fatphobia? It's not a phobia when we're not scared of you. We're sick of you. It's Porkyitis.
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