Here’s a SNEAK PEEK at an upcoming post in which I will explore our culture of fat shaming and body terrorism. Body shaming is not limited to people of size, but I will begin by exploring this particular facet of our culture of fat phobia, since I have first-hand experience with it.
Excerpts from the upcoming post:
“Body shaming is a multi million-dollar industry, purposely designed at making us feel bad about our outward appearances so that we will buy the products and services that promise to transform us into someone “normal, acceptable or even beautiful.” It was no secret to me that my earliest feelings of “not good enough,” “not pretty enough” and mainly “not skinny enough!” were born from and promoted by magazine advertisements. I nurtured self-inflicted wounds that stemmed from me comparing myself to the models in such advertisements. It seemed like every magazine I picked up contained articles about how I could lose weight and contained diets to help me achieve this goal.”
“Public humiliation of people of size it still widely accepted (and even encouraged). As an avid reader of fiction, I am astonished at the frequency with which authors demean people of size. Whenever I am read a novel that demeans people of size it really hurts my feelings and makes me want to put the book down (and not support the author with my dollars anymore, nor with my recommendation of his/her work to others). I often wonder why authors don’t take this into account, since so many people are “of size” and many readers that form their fan base are potentially offended. It just doesn’t make good marketing sense to me. The same holds true with film… the bad guy or the stupid guy or the lazy guy is always fat.”
“Our culture had developed such hatred of people of size that it literally almost dangerous to be in public. I have two personal stories of my experience with public slander and humiliation.”
“Never mind being treated fairly at a doctor visit. It is likely your physician has no earthly idea how you’ve arrived at your present “obesity,” nor does he/she know how to advise you to reverse this condition… and instead of receiving the care and testing afforded to people with the “default body” you may very well be sent home and told to lose weight instead since, surely, that is the cause of all of your health issues… and by the way — it’s your fault, so don’t expect any compassion.”
“In my reading of Sonya Renee Taylor’s Book “Radical Self Love – Your Body is Not an Apology,” my life began to take a turn. I felt a passion rise inside me; one that I wanted to share with others. I found myself wanting to share her book with all of the women in my life so that they could apply Sonya’s principles. (Of course, women are not the only targets of body shaming, but we are the largest collective group of suffers).”
“Sonya pressed me to think back on my earliest experiences with body shame – whether it was directed at me or whether I witnessed it being directed at another – and think about the nature of the shaming: who was doing it, why that person was doing it, how it affected the target person’s opinion of his/herself, and how it impacted the target person’s life.
Sonya made me see that while I have personally been the target of body shaming, I have (often un-wittingly) perpetuated the body shaming culture from which I suffer!”
In this post I aim to take the reader-of-size from despair, hopelessness, shame, and blame to an understanding of: the origins of cultural fat phobia, the basis of self-loathing and the loathing of other people of size, the principles that can guide us to self-love, and a new perspective of ourselves and the world around us. Also, I aim to give the reader-of-size some new tools to not only survive, but to thrive!
