Over the weeks and months that follow, I hope that you will join me in Questioning our FAT PHOBIA.
I put this in capital letters quite intentionally. I am through with apologizing for the space I take up or the discomfort you feel with my body. I am not looking to collect haters but I am also not interested in attracting chubby chasers or guilt ridden sinners.
This will also not be a place of comfort and sanctuary. I am not interested in creating a space for safety. I am happy to co-create such a space with you if there is interest in that. That is not my purpose here.
I will include personal experience here. I believe that narrative is a way for us to find connections with each other and the issues/concepts we will explore and question. I hope you find a way to use your own stories to bring to life the theories and concepts you share here.
What I am hoping to do is to bring together a community of intelligent and critical thinkers who are looking to co-create a more socially just world and realize that this simply cannot be done as long as fat jokes are okay.
Fat jokes are only one example of the way that sizism rampantly runs through the streets of our communities. There are far more insidious and grievous ways that sizism is a part of systemic discrimination. I have found it in streets as policemen mocked my size and in job searches when interviewers stared at my stomach instead of being engaged with what I said. These are only a few examples of how fat phobia is the actual elephant in the room. We aren't even supposed to talk question it. Fuck that.
I want to co-create a space of dialogue and action. I want us to watch tedtalks, read articles, share stories, and spit in anger and disgust as we uncover a framework of how we believe change can happen. I want us to explore the intersectionality of oppression and challenge ourselves and others to learn theory and have a historical perspective on this issue. And I want us to take ACTION.
I am not sure what those actions might be. I most assuredly know is that not standing up, that not using my voice, and that not taking action is exactly what hegemony wants and expects of me. I am not playing that game anymore.
So be with me in revolutionizing our own journey to a "FAT PHOBIA"- free world.
I would be honoured to post the first comment on this site and I hope that's its in the spirit of its intent.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I think we should all be thinner.
But the thinner I'm talking has nothing to do with size of our clothes or our BMI. It has to do with the space between our hearts/souls and those of people around us. It is about having a thin soul that allows your inner being to reach out and touch others and allows others to reach in and touch you. It has to do with the weight we carry around our hearts that stops us from seeing other people as they really are, regardless of appearances. I think we should be looking for ways in our lives that inspire us to have thinner souls - music, faith, art, whatever it is that touches you inside and makes you feel more connected to others, that makes you feel more a part of the collective human body.
It's not the thickness of your body that stops you from being a complete human being, its the thickness of your heart. Thick hearts can come in any size body but, fortunately for all of us, thin hearts can as well.
Thanks Deborah for starting this site.
Thanks for you comment, Brian. I hope that you continue to drop by and be a part of the dialogue.
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