Thin Privilege

Well, the easiest way to talk about it is to say that there are few official, government-endorsed prejudices in America anymore, but one of them is discrimination against fat people.  I mean, it's not like we don't have past experiences with governent-endorsed discrimination, right?  There was this:

(Double the irresponsible vote.  Because I guess dudes who vote irresponsibly marry irresponsible women who will also vote irresponsibly, which is odd because you'd think they'd be too irresponsible to show up at the polls.)

And there was also this whole thing:

(A Jewish guy forced to pass as a Gentile... in blackface... I don't even know where to begin ennumerating things.  I picked this picture, by the way, because it's more overt and shocking than the civil rights march pictures we've all seen a lot.  "Jim Crow" laws were bad, but the point is they could only exist because society as a whole was ok with stuff like this.)

Both of these examples seem fairly egregious to us.  So why are we ok with something like this:

(Granted this is PETA, known for the high rates of self-imposed lobotmies among its members.  But can you imagine what would have happened had they unveiled a billboard that said something like, "Save the Crows: stop eating fried chicken"?  Then I'm pretty sure there would have been no debates over whether the billboard was protected speech--which it is, unfortunately--and whether black people were just being "too sensitive".)

I don't really need to give a lot more examples of the way we discriminate against fat people, do I?  After reading previous posts, you will not be surprised to know that the "science" behind harrying fat people is pretty much the same type of "science" that was used for years when racial discrimination was institutionalized.  You know, this stuff:

                   

The idea that there's a "criminal type" and a "negroid type" and that they're the same was actually researched, and talked about by smart people.  I love the book Daddy Long Legs, and I love most of the sequel, Dear Enemy, but not the part about fixing people through eugenics.  It was written during the 1920s by a Fabian socialist who believed the tripe written at the time about the Kallikaks.  It seems perfectly logical and even kind to the writer of Dear Enemy that people be forcibly sterilized by the government, in order to prevent them from passing on their "feeble-mindedness".  Because, really, who wouldn't rather be forced to undergo operations that the government deems are best for them?  After all, governments don't ever make mistakes and always have your best interests at heart, right?

I don't really see how this is much different from current prevailing viewpoints about fatness--that, for instance, you shouldn't be allowed to have knee replacement surgery if you are fat.  (Some orthopedic surgeons will do it, God bless them, but they're bucking their professional organization to do so.)  The rationale is "Fat people are harder on their joints; they have to lose weight before surgery."  How someone with excruciating knee pain is supposed to "diet and exercise" I have no idea; what I do know is that fat people often get arthritis and joint troubles in their wrists, as well as their knees and weight bearing joints.  Wrists aren't under extra weight pressure.

It may be that the genetic components of joint deterioration are tied somehow to the genetic components of weight, which might make being fat and having bad joints happen at the same time, but correlation is not causation.  Having more brittle bones and a higher risk of dying if I get diabetes are genetic ickies I get from being a relatively thin person, but when I broke my foot the doctor didn't lecture me on gaining weight so it wouldn't happen again.

Which is what I mean by "thin privilege".  There are all kinds of situations that I get a pass on, just because I'm thin (through no virtue or fault of my own--I just happen to be thin, like I happen to have green eyes, whoop-de-do).  The massive, overwhelming discrimination against fat people in pop society and medicine have given me an automatic edge over anyone even a tiny bit heavy.

It also, if I would let it, could terrify me beyond belief about my weight, keep me hungry and preoccupied with it, and make me spend a lot of money on diets, diet products, supplements, and gym memberships.  And that should be the kicker, if you needed proof that all the hysteria about fatness is just that--stupid hysteria--the fear.

Because science isn't about fearmongering, or shouldn't be.  When it crosses the line into threats, then you get pseudoscience, what some people call "Woo".  I'm talking about the stuff that says your mattress is poisoning you, your kids will die if you vaccinate them, your DNA needs to be "activated", people of a certain genetic strain are inherently superior or inferior, that there is magical energy in colors that will offset the "toxins" in your body, and that fluoride makes you stupid.

Making fatness the scapegoat for our social ills and fears--making it the definition of our social ills and fears--is no different than using Jewishness or blackness for the same purpose.  (Because, as we've been discussing, your fatness or thinness isn't something you can control, any more than the color of your eyes.)

So what about "thin privilege"?

Well, if I'm honest and responsible I have to quit pressuring anyone about their weight.  I have to quit acting like I'm doing something righteous and like I "earned" my size.  I can't patronize those magazines that do cover shoots of celebrities who have gained or lost weight, and I can't let my doctor congratulate me on my weight (or condemn me) without asking him if he's actually read the studies--the whole studies, not just the abstracts--showing how harmful weight cycling is and that skinny people have a higher risk of death from almost all causes than fat people.  I certainly can't let him speak about my children's weight in front of them--ever.  (Actually we have a really good family doc, and I have spoken about my children's weight in front of them with him, but all we say is "they're at 55 on the curve".)

I even have to protect my kids from those dang NFL Play 60 commercials, and the "eat healthy" messages on Nick Jr., because I want them to play because it's fun and eat apples because they're good not because either thing will keep them from being fat.

And I absolutely will continue to refuse to laugh at pictures and videos of fat people falling down.  (Thanks Mom, for teaching me when I was little that someone falling down is never funny, no matter what America's Funniest Home Videos thinks.)

All this still doesn't mean I have any clue how hard it is to live in America in a fat body.  I don't.  I've never been teased about being too big--too skinny, sure, we're screwed in America, nobody is allowed to just have an okay body--and I am never worried when I'm not pregnant about fitting into restaurant booths.  I'm never humiliated when I go to the doctor for a cough by being told to lose weight, subtly or directly.  I'm never insulted on the street based on my size.  I've never had to wonder if I didn't get a job based on my size.  I've never had anyone well-meaning or malicious tell me, because they were "concerned for my health", that I should really lose weight.

(I don't think there is anyone that insensitive reading my blog, but if there are: quit telling fat people to lose weight.  They KNOW they are fat.  They are not dumb or in denial or stubborn; they don't need an intervention.  They are aware that pop medicine thinks they are killing themselves and everyone else too.  They are NOT just lazy foodaholics.  They generally eat less than skinny people.  They HAVE tried to lose the weight--who wouldn't, under that kind of pressure?  They HAVE noticed that nothing in the world is built to accomodate them.  Everyone has told them they are fat, everyone, all day, so you don't need to help.

If you think that's harsh, let's make this stupider: do you think it would be acceptable to tell me that I should really wear makeup more often and sweats less often, because you're concerned for my marriage?  No?  I rest my case.)

This is turning into a rant, so I'll close here, and see if I can't get an encouraging post up later today about how to move forward, now that we've acknowledged the problem.  The reason I felt obliged to call out fat discrimination is so that we can understand some of the reasons we're so reluctant to admit that we don't, in fact, control our weights.

I don't know if political action is the way this will change, or indeed, if it will ever change.  But I do know that the most positive thing we can each do is individual action--refusing to oppress fat people, refusing to buy into the diet industry, refusing to accept standard fat-phobic advice from our physicians and even (if you feel you can--an RN degree helps) challenging it, and being brave enough to trust our bodies as we eat.

We'll all support each other.  Welcome to the counterculture.

Cheers,

Breanna