I want to follow you.
Whoever has told anyone they’re “not fat enough for fat acceptance” is DOING IT WRONG. Fat acceptance needs allies with thin privilege, just as feminism needs allies with male privilege. I’m never going to tell someone they’re too thin to accept their own fat but more importantly, I’m never going to tell someone they’re too thin to accept MY fat. That would be self-sabotaging.
I WOULD tell someone they have too much thin privilege to enter safe spaces for fat people, which seems to be something you’re having trouble understanding lately? But hell, I’m 5’4, 212 lbs., BMI 37, and I have too much thin privilege to enter some fat safe spaces. I’m definitely fat. I have experienced fairly severe anti-fat bigotry including fat-shaming from friends, relatives and medical professionals. There are very few representations of my body type in mainstream media, and even fewer that are not serving as a punchline.
That being said: privilege is a continuum, and there are some ways in which I have degrees of thin privilege. While my ass won’t necessarily fit in an airline seat without touching a stranger’s ass more than I’m comfortable with, I don’t need a seatbelt extender (or at least I didn’t 20 lbs. ago). While I have trouble finding clothing that fits well, is of good quality, and is priced reasonably, I can drive ten minutes to a brick-and-mortar store that carries my size in some kind of absolute clothing emergency (such as a catastrophic fire that destroys everything I own). My ass hangs off the sides of the chairs in my dining hall, but I am not so fat that the arms prevent me from sitting in the chair at all. I have little thin privilege, but I do not have zero thin privilege, and this means some safe spaces do not include me.
Spaces open to all fatties? Great, I’m in. I hang out at The Rotund, I hang out at Two Whole Cakes, I have submitted to doublechinlove and plan to submit to bigbellybabes. I follow and admire deathfatties, but I don’t submit my photo, because I’m not deathfat and the presence of my body would be intrusive in that space.
Is this really that difficult to understand? Can’t we all just respect each other’s safe spaces and get the hell along?
Reblogging (this time in the format I actually Wanted) for commentary. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
(This is me not making a joke about how I hang out at The Rotund, too. *grin* Well, shit, I made the joke anyway. In all seriousness, yes, this. I was thinking this morning about how it would never even occur to me to post to a space that was designated for smaller fats - and that would never even bother me because smaller fats deserve their safer spaces, too. I think I keep coming back to this because it seems like such a basic thing and so many people seem to get it - to actively and fundamentally GET IT - that it kind of blows my mind when people don’t.)
Reblogged for pastthestorm’s commentary. <3
Yes to the commentary. As a small fat, there are spaces I don’t belong! I am 100% ok with that and fully support it because my experiences as a fat person who is on the inbetweenie level are not the same as those of larger fats, deathfats, etc. and I think it is extremely important for them to have safe spaces where they can be with each other without my intrusion! Or without my insinuation that I ‘know what it’s like because I’m a fattie toooooo!’ This is not about being ‘not fat enough for fat acceptance,’ it is about being not fat enough for some spaces dedicated to discussions about fat acceptance.
Safe spaces for people who share a given oppression are critical for all kinds of things. All kinds of great and important conversations take place in those spaces and they cannot take place with the presence of intrusive people. Pouting about spaces where you don’t belong instead of supporting them is not working in solidarity with people.
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Reblog if you've been told that you're not fat enough for Fat Acceptance
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