A while ago I posted this rant in response to a tweet from Mia Freedman because basically that tweet hit all my “THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH WHAT PASSES FOR POSITIVE BODY IMAGE” buttons. Some other people ranted too. And soon after, this column appeared. And Twitter got interesting for a while, as it tends to do.
I don’t think I really have to explain what was so problematic about the ‘bum tweet’ but, I’ll summarise: it invoked fat-hatred (having a fat bum is obviously bad, in the story told by such comments, nevermind the lived experiences of people who are happy with their fat bums) and it also attempted to be humourous by poking fun at the way women are often anxious about their appearance (whilst erasing people with body dysmorphia by implying that only fatties wonder if their bums are fat — oh, and for bonus laughs, let’s not forget that fat people don’t realise we are fat!). In other words, this “joke” (which is obviously not new) blamed women for their own oppression. This is not an idea invented by Mia Freedman and nor is she responsible for its existence, I should note: but she is responsible for what she perpetuates by tweeting to her 30 000+ followers. Flippant or not, people are listening.
And I’m sorry but if you think that the millions of little negative comments made about fatness that a fat person hears in their lifetime don’t sting, don’t scar, and ultimately don’t individually contribute to a climate of free-range fat-hate, then I don’t even know how to explain reality to you. Except to say, go read Fat Heffalump’s post about this because it’s fabulous. And she said most of what many of us have been thinking, I suspect.
Now that I have a bit of time, I just want to put some of my thoughts out there too. Sometimes what I reel off without editing on Tumblr (in case you hadn’t noticed, this place gets the rants I can’t be bothered writing properly for my main blog) or what I squeeze into a 140 character tweet is easily misconstrued.
So. Just want to say, Mia Freedman doesn’t speak for me and she doesn’t have to. I don’t think fat activists can or should demand she see it our way, or that she start to represent fat people instead of continuing on her merry way. What I get angry about is the way in which the mainstream media (and even government) and, perhaps at times Mia & her supporters, tend to assume that she can and does speak for us. They assume that her brand of ‘body image’ (which is of course shared by others) is not harmful to some people, that we, and our lived experience, are not erased or damaged by the dominant discourse on body image. We are, and we need spaces to speak about that. We need to mount critiques of dominant discourse which should, in my view, include holding celebrity spokespeople for Body ImageTM to account when they are sending messages that are seriously problematic.
A critique is not a personal attack. Although, as some of my fatty friends have pointed out, when you live in a fat body and have had to put up with being villified for that, it feels pretty personally hurtful when someone in a respected position uses fat-hating language. I actually liked much of Leslie Cannold’s article. (The parts I didn’t like? Already thrashed out on Twitter by, well, lots of people!) I have enjoyed reading back over the efforts of FAers and others to explain and discuss those elements. And I think it’s great that Leslie Cannold addressed FA in her column because opening up discussion is what it’s all about.
But, I have to say, I do feel a little disappointed that a writer I like and admire categorises fat activists as vicious in our critique of Freedman. A quick Twitter search revealed there is a lot of true viciousness out there (something that comes with the celebrity territory) but it wasn’t coming from fat activists. There was also a lot of reasoned criticism that wasn’t coming from fat activists either! And, although I think there is limited usefulness in revisiting past grievances, I do feel it is unfair to make the claims of viciousness against FA without at least acknowledging that some of us haven’t been treated so well (I would say that calling Natalie’s work ‘a load of fucking tripe’ was closer to vicious than the feminist critique of Frockwatch that was posted at Definatalie, personally).
I get that human beings are imperfect and that celebrities are no different. But when you accept positions of responsibility (and also engage in promotion of yourself as some form of expert) then you have to be prepared to be held to account. That doesn’t negate your humanity (or mean NO ERRORS ALLOWED EVER). But it does mean sometimes having to apologise for, or at least acknowledge, your mistakes. I think that is what I find most galling here; Freedman’s flippant ‘bum tweet’ actively hurt, disappointed or offended many people (not all of them fat activists, I might add, because it bears repeating). Was it the worst tweet in the history of Twitter? No. Did it negate all of her previous efforts against air-brushing etc.? No. But her insistence that it was just a joke, refusal to acknowledge that language matters and consistency matters and the lived experience of people vilified for fat bums or suffering from body dysmorphia MATTERS is what made this into quite a mess.
I admire compassionate people who acknowledge their mistakes.
Who do I leave alone? Well, I believe that no one in a position of responsibility or power ought to be beyond reproach. Admirable, or not.
Maybe that’s not a popular position but me and my fat bum are clearly not in the popularity business.
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Admire or leave alone?
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