losing weight after ivf pregnancy
My friend sizeoftheocean posted on Twitter the other day that she really dislikes the term fattist. I also dislike this term and hoped that she, being very smart, would be able to shed light on my own ire. She said that it has a defensive tone to it and is used by people who are not otherwise into fat stuff. I agree. My own dislike also extends to its linguistic construction – yes, my snobbery knows no bounds – sexist, racist, classist, disablist, heterosexist, fattist, right? Youd think it would work because its consistent an allies fat with other kinds of identities. But I still cant get on board with it when I have fat hatred, fatphobia, fat oppression as means of naming the same sort of thing, concepts that are rooted in histories and cultures of fat activism, rather than something that seems tacked-on. I feel similarly about looksist, which to me seems too shallow a way of describing the systemic marginalisation of people who represent difference; its not just about the act of looking or ones looks.
Ive been thinking about other terms that people use to describe what I think of as fat stuff, or simply the movement, or even just fat. Size acceptance and fat acceptance are popular, though they are not for me because I find them too limited; I think self-acceptance is fine, but social acceptance is not enough for me, Im more invested in social change. I want to change things more than I want to be accepted, in fact I realise that acceptance is not something that motivates me very much at all. Size or weight are too euphemistic for me. I tend to use fat activism, sometimes fat politics, occasionally the more restrictive fat rights, but often feel that I could do with more language here.
As Ive been researching, Ive noticed a few references to fat pride. Like fattist, these tend to be made pejoratively by people who feel burned by the movement in some way, and/or by people who would be less likely to understand the association between fat pride and queer or LGBT pride movements. Here pride is a slur, fat people shouldnt be proud because it connotes arrogance, the valuing of one type over another, smugness. In this context the ultimate goal is for fat to be stripped of any value, good or bad, just let it be what it is. I agree with this to some extent, but I also think that even if there were no negative connotations to fatness, I would probably seek out some kind of pride in myself, a pride that is associated with self-respect, pleasure, confidence, feeling as though you have value. As it is, fat pride is a useful concept in the current climate, which looks unlikely to change very much any time soon, and where there are many daily attempts to stomp these feelings out of fat people.
Again, the fat and proud movement, or the fat pride movement are not terms that I would use these days, perhaps I have become sensitised because of these attacks. Ill never forget an interview in which Shelley Bovey talks about "the fat and proud brigade", and compares the movement to fascists. Ive wondered if this is a reference to me because of the title of my first book, in which I expressed misgivings about some of her work. Brigade is an interesting addition, it implies some kind of officious, blundering Dads Army set-up; a group of pompous buffoons. Whilst there are many pompous buffoons in fat activism, including me, not to mention other extremely annoying people, this description doesnt really fit the diversity of the movement, it is a barbed caricature.
We could probably talk about preferred terms for how people think about fat until we are blue in the face. I agree that language creates meaning and that there is a lot of language in the world that denigrates fat embodiment, there are many terms I dislike. But policing language is problematic because the contexts in which words are used vary so greatly, being forceful around good and bad words is unacceptable, its too close to censorship. Some words work for some people and not for others, where I feel uncomfortable about language I try and look for the intention rather than blame the form of the words; often people are just a little ignorant about fat and language. What I want is more words rather than fewer, I think the more fat language there is, the easier it becomes to think and talk about fat.
Are there any linguists in the area? Can you illuminate any of this?
References
Brooks, L. (2002) Size Matters [Online]. Available: http://www.shelleybovey.com/frameset.html?/sizematters.html [Accessed 9 March 2010].
Cooper, C. (1998) Fat & Proud: The Politics of Size, London: The Womens Press.
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