When I originally made it, I very intentionally used the term “fatphobe” because I wanted it to be clear that we were about liberating fat bodies first and foremost, and sizism is often taken to mean all shapes and sizes, but fat bodies are most marginalised and gaaah I hope someone makes sense of this post for me.
I have been thinking about this since I first scrolled past your post a little while ago. It’s hard. Because I have experienced people who fear my body, and they fear their bodies turning in to my body. It hurts me, but it also hurts them. I was trying to think of a new name that respected phobias while centering the disenfranchisement, poor treatment and demonisation of fat bodies but I kept going round in circles.
I actually thought STFU Diet Culture… but that refers to system where shitty treatment of fat people is a symptom. My brain is wobbling right now. I don’t know if any of this contributes to the discussion but please consider this thinking out loud.
STFUfathaters?
I like STFUDietCulture, but it doesn’t really cover the other stuff we talk about… STFUFathaters is pretty onpoint, but I don’t really like “fathate” as an SJ term.
Oh hai, I’m Sibz, I’m annoyingly fussy about things sometimes but can’t clean my room.
Edit: I forgot to mention, Natalie, I completely agree with what you say about genuine fear- it definitely exists. Same with Islamaphobia I reckon- people are genuinely scared.
I’ve seen “fat hatred” as a term in SJ circles; I know it’s the term of choice at Shakesville, for instance. “STFUfathatred” just doesn’t really make sense… like the “war on terror.” Concepts as direct objects generally don’t work. But I think “fat hatred” is a good descriptor of the kinds of things we cover, in terms of covering diet culture, trolls of the concern and ordinary varieties, etc. (The trouble with size politics in general, I think, is that there are about a billion different terms that each names a distinct set of issues… I envision it as a giant three-dimensional Venn diagram.)
So maybe “fat hatred” rather than “fat hate” will convince you. Otherwise, I’ll sleep on it. Email me if you think of something you really like? (True story… I deleted the message that had your email in it, because I am a genius.)
Or… I was just thinking about how “fatphobia” is a lot like “homophobia” in that I think it has come to be understood as having angry and somewhat violent implications rather than just fear, at least within the movement, and wouldn’t it be nice if there were a parallel term for “heteronormativity” within the fat/size/body acceptance movement? So we could try to move the name in that general direction—decentering it from fat backlash to excessive thin praise? “STFU people who think being thin is morally superior to being fat” is KIND of a long name, though…
Finally: I will always 100% support fussiness in language in the context of social justice. Language is generally shaped by people with privilege and I pretty fervently believe that appropriative and bigoted language contributes to a huge chunk of the -isms that people internalize subconsciously. Language actively oppresses others. There is basically nothing I love more than talking about problematic language.
Reblogged for discussion.
My shorthand for “being thin is morally superior to being fat” is “normative body/ beauty ideal”… I don’t know if that works for everyone but when I had to talk about the status quo for ideal bodies that’s what I came up with in a pinch. Because I’m not traditionally educated in this stuff it might be entirely the wrong phrase to use and I also don’t mind being picky about language, so I’m totally open to critique on the language I use. I’m not in this to back the status quo, because that directly harms me. Therefore LET’S GET FUSSY!