For this second post, I want you to consider our discussions in class about disability, fatness, and oppression, and how these conditions or states of identity are intersectional with other identities.
Please look at Nomy Lamm's "It's a Big Fat Revolution" article (link below) and write a response to this article, thinking of how she approaches her discussion of fatness intersectionally, and how this connects to our discussions about disability and oppression/privilege.
http://tehomet.net/nomy.html
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10am: POST #3
For your final blog post, I would like you to read and respond to the poem "I Want a Dyke for President" written by artist and act...
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For your final blog post, I would like you to read and respond to the poem "I Want a Dyke for President" written by artist and act...
In regards to Noms Lamm’s “It’s A Big Fat Revolution” article, I can agree with her perspective when it comes to society’s attitude towards people who are fat or simply who do not match up to the current/popular body image. I give her props and I respect for her resistance to the negative things that she experienced due to her body shape. The part where she talked about how she was born with one leg did not matter to other people more than her fatness really opened my eyes to how cruel and ignorant people can be in today’s society. She states:” I am amazed that I haven't turned into some worthless lump of shit. Fatkikecripplecuntqueer. In a nutshell. But then I have to take into account the fact that I'm an articulate, white, middle-class college kid, and that provides me with a hell of a lot of privilege and opportunity for dealing with my oppression that may not be available to other oppressed people.” I think it was important for her to talk about her understanding of her privileges along with the oppression she feels. I also appreciate how she mentioned the oppressions such as difference in race, difference in class, being physically disable, and sexuality. I think it was crucial for her to talk about oppression of disability (physical and mental) on an intersectional level because it would have made it seem like she wanted her readers to focus just on her and her oppression.
ReplyDeleteI find myself feeling a little split about her idea of the lies behind obesity. From a scientific standpoint, she is right about how starving people have the same peculiarities as people who are overweight. But I think it would of been better if she put it in a way such that she’s not calling the medical consequences “lies” and to talk about it in more of a social way, such as that our modern society (especially in America) is structured for people to become overweight rather than underweight. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think she is healthy, I think how a person’s body turns out definitely has something to do with one’s genetics but altering one’s lifestyle can enhance one’s life quality and prolong one’s lifetime. She did mention that she has been a vegetarian since she was ten year old, which is crazy to me. Simply from that I can tell she has great mental control on how she wants to eat and what she wants to do with her body. Therefore, her essay stands strong against the societal negativity towards fatness and disability.
I'm glad you pointed out how she only has one leg, because, honestly, after I read that that fact it left my mind because I was too focused on the argument revolving fatness. And looking back on it, the fact that people dismissed that she was born with one leg and focused more on her fatness is horrid.
DeleteHello,
DeleteI agree with you, if she would have decided to only talk about her oppressions it would have made her argument and message less powerful so I'm also glad she decided to state that.
Women face a lot of beauty standards created by society. What is the ideal body type? How to feel sexy? What makes a woman beautiful? And if an individual doesn’t fit the body mold then the individual will face oppression. Women who are fat are unfairly categorized as being ugly and unlovable, as Nomy Lamm pointed out in her article “It’s a Big Fat Revolution”. Nomy states that people who are fat are deemed ‘unlovable’ because they can’t be carried elegantly, or that people who are fat NEED to be on a diet because they are unhealthy and would be much happier if they lost the weight. Societal standards are oppressing fat people. No matter which way you want to look at it – in the job force, in the beauty industry, in the health realm, etc. Fat people just aren’t being given the opportunity to live the life they want to live without getting pestered on what they ‘should’ be doing. And I think that Nomy made an amazing argument and point when she decided that her body is the way that it is because that is how it is supposed to be and that she is going to love it how it is. I hope that a lot more people can adopt the mind set of bodies are the built the way they were meant to be built, and as long as the person is happy then that is all that matters.
ReplyDeleteI like that you talk a lot about beauty standards that women have to face in society today and give examples of them such as telling women how to feel sexy. I also liked that Lamm informed the reader how she was happy with her body and had confidence in herself.
DeleteHi Amanda,
DeleteI can definitely agree with you on how fatness is shamed by society from different aspects. The job force, beauty industry and health realm all have their own judgements on how someone's body image should look like and I don't think that is fair at all. Any body shapes that do not match up to the default body shape are looked down on and considered as less important and attractive. Different cultures also have ideal body shapes as well, I think that should be included when one is talking about fatness on an intersectional level.
Thanks for sharing!
Yue Hui (Amy) Li
Hi Amanda,
DeleteI strongly agree with that Nomy Lemm made a great point that everything about her including her fatness is natural and a part of who she is. She is confident about her body and herself and I think that is that is truly amazing. Society stigmatises fatness but as she said, there is nothing to be cured in "fat" people. Thank you for sharing your ideas.
In “It’s A Big Fat Revolution” by Nomy Lamm, the author uses her own experience to talk about being fat in today’s society as wells as discussing intersectionality. Lamm reveals how her psyche has been affected by the hegemonic belief that fat is unattractive and unhealthy. She shows this through descriptions of how her own friends and family have made comments that resonate with her. I️ appreciate that she talks about how when these comments are made she isn’t afraid to let them know. This relates to the discussion we’ve had in class about the articles we read on disabled and fat women. These articles show us how differently they are treated in society even by other women. For example, fat women experience income inequality and disabled women are seen as people who can’t achieve a human life to the fullest potential. The author’s experience relates to these articles because those experiences have stuck with her just like the experiences have stuck with the women in the articles. Lamm also discusses that she is still privileged in the sense that she is white and middle-class. I️ like that she wonders about how her life would be if just one element of her intersectionality was different (being a women of color or being poor). One thing that surprised me was when she said that even though she was born with one leg, it never had as big of an affect on her body image as being fat did. Something i️ really liked in this article was the mention of how the author sees the revolution to be today. She states that the little things such as just her and her friends talking about feminism, oppression, and privilege is the revolution. I️ appreciate that she says she can fully understand the revolution but she knows it’s happening and that the “fat grrrl” revolution is hers but it doesn’t belong to her.
ReplyDeleteHello,
DeleteI really like how you pointed out about Lamm discussing her privileges and how it would have affected her if an element of her intersectionality was different because I do feel like her experience would have definitely been more different. Although many people of different identities struggle with this same subject, there is always a different experience to one's story.
I felt like Nomy Lamm’s made great points throughout her article “It’s a Big Fat Revolution,” because even though she had her own subject position, she also included everyone else outside of her identity through intersectionality. It’s so true how social media and the environment in which one lives in shapes the oppression of fatness. When she mentioned the weight loss commercials, even I connected to her point that because there is an ideal image or certain weight, we strive and will do anything to achieve that ‘perfect body image,’ ignoring the fact that not everyone either has the resources/privilege like some others, or simply doesn’t want to change the way they look. I feel like a lot of individuals including me try to lose weight just because of how much it is emphasized that being thin is not only better for your health but will also make you feel better about yourself, yet sometimes even when you do, you still feel the same way. Lamm’s confidence in accepting her body, despite some times not so much, is something we should strive for because not everyone can be exactly the same. We are all made in different ways and that should be an even bigger reason why we should embrace our body no matter what size we are.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you. The media and society has made people believe that being thin is the only way a women can be beautiful. It is sad to know that people have to go through the same struggles as Nomy Lamm. Everyone does come in different shapes and sizes; instead of creating a "perfect body image" that girls should follow they should teach them how to love themselves for who they are and what they look like.
DeleteStefanie, I do share the same opinion as you. In today society, every one is oppressed and convinced that they have be a certain size or have figure like the models covering the magazines. However, forcing oneself to comply and conform to certain body size and shape can't change their genetic composition. Everyone is beautifully unique in their own way.
Delete“It’s a Big Fat Revolution” by Nomy Lamm is my favorite text I have read so far in this course, the way she formatted and decided to share her story perfectly illustrated her standing position. Nomy discusses how fatness is frowned upon and looked at as a bad thing, and how girls like her don’t exist overall. Even though she is well aware that she belongs to the dominant group because she is a middle class white woman, she mentions how she is also oppressed because she is disabled, labeled as fat, and bisexual. I appreciated her work more because she didn't look past her privileges. I can relate to this text because society also made me feel like my body wasn’t worthy of being beautiful because it didn’t meet the standards they so openly prefer. She states how she was born with one leg but that still didn’t stop people from only looking at her fatness which reminded me how dehumanizing and damaging society can be when it comes to body image. Nomy also discusses how her fatness is looked at as something bad that needs to be fixed, and somehow because she is fat she is also unhealthy, but she responds to this by stating that, that is also true about people who starve themselves. I agree with her statement because dieting can also lead to unhealthy eating habits, and eating disorders. I also liked the way she used the term revolutionary and how the fat girl revolution was hers but it still felt like it didn't belong to her. At first I was confused by it, but as I read the text again I understood why it still doesn't fully belong to her even though she's part of it. She describes her fatness as intersectional because her fatness and her being a woman cannot be looked at separately, the beauty standards that have hurt and damaged her are targeted specifically towards women.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI completely agree with you on the the way Nomy Lamm wrote this article; it is read extremely relatable, raw, and unapologetic. She was able to touch on all the experiences, good and bad, in her life in a coherent and fluid way.
DeleteUnfortunately, until reading these articles and our discussion in class I was not aware of the way systems of power influenced states of identity in such an oppressive way. I had recollection of injustices on the way society viewed “fatness”; however, I didn’t not realize to what extent. In Nomy Lamm’s article “It’s a Big Fat Revolution”, Nomy states it as a revolution to combat the harsh societal perceptions about “fatness”. Nomy lists off her social positions in the beginning of the article as an articulate, white, middle-class college kid, punk rock, with ability has only one leg and fat. She comments that with this she has been given a lot of privilege and opportunity because all of these social positions work intersectionally. What would be the difference if it was a middle-class fat girl opposed to a poor fat girl or a white woman opposed to a woman of color? Thus, the social positions she is born into give her unearned advantages and disadvantages that allow her to experience particular privilege and oppression.
ReplyDeleteThrough her lifetime she points out key points to when she felt hurt by the way people oppressed her because of her weight. It is seen that “fatness” is a disability in itself, while her one true disability is only her shortage of a leg. The system of power on the view of physical appearance pushes people to believe that the only body time to be proud of and will only be loved and accepted is a thin body type. It is advertised all over TV or just in the common setting of school or the home that dieting to lose weight is a beneficial thing. They use the medical excuse that it is “for your health”, which to an extent has validity, and that all a person needs to do is lose weight and then they will maintain a happier life. Reading this from Nomy’s point of view I realize the destruction this can have on a person even with her high self-esteem and support system. From this, individuals are oppressed externally and internally by combatting the idea that they always need to lose weight in order to be happy and accepted. In addition to oppression, Nomy has elements of privilege in her life. She was born white and was able to receive an education and has friends and family that support her even though they to at times incline to the societal views of weight.
The way “fatness” is viewed through Nomy is intersectional to her other social positions. Hopefully, this revolution will spread and slowly change the way society views “fatness” as a disability and the oppression that it brings with it.
I agree with what you are saying about the need for a change in society because the system really hurts the people who need the most support and help. People who are overweight or disabled or poor are being oppressed by the media and how it portrays people that look different from "the norm". Ads for diets and other weight-loss programs can also hurt the self-esteems of people who are overweight or obese because it's saying that these people need to become skinnier in order to be happy and be able to "live a full life".
DeleteIn the article “A Big Fat Revolution,” Nomy Lamm talked about being oppressed because she is fat. She approached being fat in an intersectional way by talking about how her sexuality, race, and disability as all being a part of her fat oppression. She is not oppressed strictly because she is fat; she is oppressed because she is also bisexual, white, and has one leg. Her positionality all play a role in her oppression and she is not able to just single one out because they are a part of her. Something that stood out to me in the article was when she talked about how some girls who aren’t fat look at themselves in a mirror and feel fat. To be brutally honest this is relatable because in high school I would always look at myself in the mirror and think I was fat, but everyone would say I wasn’t and I never believed it. As I got older I learned to love my body and accept that bodies come in different shapes and sizes. I do look back at pictures and see that people were right, but it is sad to think that society really shapes young girls into thinking that the only way to be beautiful is to have not one inch of fat on their body. Nomy Lamm says that the media and everyone around her have said that being fat is ugly, she also believes that media has also shaped society into thinking these thing about the perfect beauty standard and is willing to be the support for women who are going through what she went though or feel the same way as her.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl for accepting yourself! self love is key :)
DeleteI found Nomy Lamm’s article “It’s a Big Fat Revolution” to be very interesting. It was raw and honest. Throughout her article intersectionality and the idea of privilege is represented. Lamm addresses her own struggles, her own identities, while at the same time including everyone else outside of those identities. Lamm address the fact that she is a white, middle- class kid who is college educated which already provides her with a lot of privilege and opportunities for dealing with her oppression that may not be available to other oppressed people. I think it’s important to address the fact that Lamm herself states “I’m still a real person, and I don't always feel up to playing the role of revolutionary. Sometimes it's hard enough for me to just get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes it's hard enough to just talk to people at all, without having to deal with the political nuances of everything that comes out of their mouths.” This quote address many factors of disabilities (physical and mental) and even viewpoint of the oppressed. This quote, in my opinion, ties into disability as a mental form because an individual with depression or anxiety may find it difficult to get themselves out of the house, it ties into disability as a physical form because there may be times where a persons body needs to rest and is unable to perform at its full capacity, and it ties into oppression because there will be times where it is frustrating and exhausting to have a discussion with someone who does not understand your struggle. Lamm continues on to say that that there are times where she really hates her body despite her self-confidence and work that deals with fat oppression— despite the amount of work, despite the awareness, despite the confidence, that she feels at times vulnerable (like many of us have experienced) but that does not make her any less strong. I also liked when Lamm states This is the revolution. I don't understand the revolution. I can't lay it all out in black and white and tell you what is revolutionary and what is not. The punk scene is a revolution, but not in and of itself. Feminism is a revolution; it is solidarity as well as critique and confrontation. This is the fat grrrl revolution. It's mine, but it doesn't belong to me. Fuckin' yeah” In this quote, she is describing what the revolution means to her and her only. Everyone, depending on their identity or struggle, have a different definition of what their revolution is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, there does come a time when no matter how much effort you are putting in to not let society bring you down people will still have bad days. Also, every has their own way of revolting. The simple act of Lamm writing this and expressing how she feels it is her way of revolting against society norms.
DeleteNomy Lamm's article is well-articulated, in a certain way. I appreciate that she's able to successfully display her personality and her opinion through her writing, but I also think she took it a tad too far by using phrases like "wanna" and "cuz." Formal writing is still a very important aspect of academic writing, and I believe she could've made her point without these little jabs. However, her point was valid and clear. I agree with what she says, that being fat is portrayed as a bad thing that should be fixed, and it's not. As long as you're healthy, your body size doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're a size 2 or a size 14. There's nothing wrong with it. These ideas of the perfect body change throughout history. In the 14th century, it was sexy to be fat. It was a good thing. But now, in this culture, for some reason people think being fat is unhealthy and is caused by a lack of determination. We even have words like "overweight" to put fat people into a separate category, like somehow they're different than skinny people in any other context other than BMI.
ReplyDeleteI've been fat for my entire life, and I can tell you that it sucks, at least for me. I'm usually the fattest person in the room, and I can feel it. I feel uncomfortable in my own skin, and for some unexplainable reason, I feel like less of a woman. I don't think that's because I have low self esteem. I think it's just because I was raised to believe that skinny is better than fat, and I should be skinny at all costs. I did lose a lot of my weight. I lost 85 pounds last year, and then I gained half of it back. And I feel worse than I did before I lost weight. I'm constantly aware that I'm fat and that most people are skinnier than me and I wished I look like them. The only thing that makes me feel normal is being thin, and body confidence has turned out to come really difficult to me.
I truly believe fat oppression is a real thing. I think fat people are stereotyped and oppressed and shamed. And I think that's a serious downer. Because I would love it if everyone could love their bodies, I know that would sure make my life a lot easier. I'm not saying that I'm more oppressed than others, or that I'm more special than others. I don't want to be interpreted that way. I just would like to destigmatize being fat. I want to feel beautiful without starving myself and having to work out 5 times a week. I'm not really sure about the whole idea of a revolution, that seems a bit extreme to me. But I will definitely fight to create a society in which fat people are every bit as valuable and beautiful as thin people.
I agree! Everyone should love their bodies :)
DeleteIn “A Big Fat Revolution,” Nomy Lamm reveals the horrifying experiences she undergoes due to her "fatness." Her body size acts as an outlier only because the society has decided to set up a "normal" body size. Unfortunately, the social structure and expectations that define a proper woman othered people who are not fitted in the norm and ultimately brings disability upon them. In other words, it’s a form of injustice and oppression naturalized by the people of the community and gets circulated around via different forms of media. For example, magazines always correlate unhealthy body with fatness and suggests “healthy diet that quickly helps you lose weight”. This is simply wrong on many levels. People are born with different genetic compositions which leads to the great variety of body sizes and shapes. That is something we should embrace from an evolution viewpoint because variety and survival positively correlates with one another. In other words, a size-12 woman should be respected and appreciative like any other women of same or different sizes. For that reason, I have immense respect for Lamm for standing up against the social oppression and encourage people, men and women, to embrace their "fatness" since it’s not always true that fatness equals unhealthiness. The acts of oppression that are humanized due to the social structure normalizing one group as dominant group leading unfair treatments “fat” people face such as income inequality, employment opportunity and many more need to be stopped. One should know those who truly love you will continue to show their unconditional love regardless of your appearance, body size, and shape. After all, I believe you cannot judge a book from its cover.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you mentioned that variety and survival positively correlates with evolution.
DeleteLamm's "It's A Big Fat Revolution" is extremely personal, as she said in the article, it is her life story. The informal use of "cuz" and "wanna" creates a sense that she is talking to you as a trusted companion and I think it helps us readers sympathize with her more. I have been skinny all my life and I've been one of those girls that look in the mirror and cry about how fat I am when really I'm not. I used to be secretly delighted when my parents tell me I'm "too skinny". From the difference in our subject position, I think it's sad that I can relate to her because this means it's an even bigger issue than fat oppression.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm part of this group and have never experienced being fat, I completely agree with Lamm that mainstream feminism misses the whole point when it comes to body appreciation. She says "The most widespread mentality regarding body image is something along these lines: Women look in the mirror and think, "I'm fat," but really they're not. Really they're thin." " Since this article was written in 1995 it is slightly outdated because the new figure promoted by the media is extremely curvy but slim and toned, even more unrealistic than just skinny. Now by promoting curvy bodies, mainstream feminism is still missing the point. We shouldn't be learning how to love certain body types, we should be learning to love all body types. By promoting curvy body types, skinny girls like me get shamed for having no curves. The cycle will never end if we just move from appreciating one body type to another.
However, the "curvy body" being popularized now isn't fat either. There is still a distinction between curvy and fat, which shows that even after 12 years from the year this article was written there is still fat oppression. Since the empiricism is seen as the least biased and most fact driven, people always turn to Science for answers. It is scientifically proven that being overweight is correlated with a variety of diseases such as coronary heart disease, type II diabetes etc. Even if the risk of other diseases are related with being underweight, this does not discount the fact that they are also correlated with being overweight. Furthermore, weight is seen as a controllable feature of ones body, by changing your diet or level of exercise. Due to these beliefs, overweight people are seen as unhealthy and lazy because they appear to do nothing about their weight, so weight is treated as a disability. It is such a disability in today's society that Lamm's weight is more detrimental to how she sees herself than having been born with one leg less than the average human.
In the article Lamm also describes her subject position and how intersectionality affects the way fatness is viewed. She says "[what does it mean to be] A middle-class fat girl as opposed to a poor fat girl? What does it mean to be fat, physically disabled and bisexual?" I feel that the further away you deviate from the norm (which in this case would be slim, middle-class, white, cis-woman), the less accepted you are by society so "fat, physically disabled and bisexual" which she identifies as would be much less accepted than a "middle-class fat girl".
I agree! Especially with what you're saying about curvy bodies being popularized. They are still unattainable. It's like its okay to be have fat, but only in the right places, and I think that's still unfair.
DeleteIn "A Big Fat Revolution", Nomy Lamm talked about the experiences she had as a "fat" girl. Lamm herself is a middle class white college girl who feels outcasted from the society that values thinness. She feels that the oppression and unearned disadvantageous "fat" people face vary depending on their social location. Poor fat individual will face problems that are different from those of colour "fat" person and so on. Society looks at "fat" people as they are lazy, unattractive, and violation of societal norm. Lamm explains in the article that although raised by same parents, her sibling are very thin. She claims that her "fatness" is the natural state of her body and that is who is she. In class, we have discussed about fatness and inequality of income. We live in a society which regards thinness as the standard and fatness as the outliner. Because of this hegemonic thinking, "fat" people have to ideal with unearned disadvantage of income inequality. Just as Lamm argues in the article, society need to understand that there is nothing to be cured in fat people. Society as a whole need to change its way of thinking about individuals because there is nothing wrong or right but being natural self.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your statement that "there is nothing to be cured in fatness"! I think that fatness is not the real issue, but the negative mentality against fatness needs to be addressed in order to create a more motivational and body positive environment.
DeleteI agree with her argument that society has created unrealistic beauty standards for women, in specific obese women who do not fit within what we consider the standard body size (S-L sizes). Most stores do not even carry sizes above an XL, invalidating the bodies of fat people. However, I am not sure if I agree with her argument on the article Fat is a Feminist Issue. While I believe every body is beautiful, I do not see a problem with changing lifestyle choices if you personally do not feel happy in your body. There are a lot of health benefits to eating healthy and living an active life, and if someone that is obese wants to start these healthy habits, I do not think it necessarily means they hate their body. I think that the fat body is treated similar ways that the disabled body is treated. Society has created ways to exclude the fat body from many things, such as shopping, certain careers, etc. While the disabled body may experience more serious oppressions, this is still discrimination towards the fat body.
ReplyDeleteToday's society oppresses women who do not fit into the ideal category of being white and skinny almost looking like a barbie. In "A Big Fat Revolution", Nomy Lamm shares her experience being disabled and "fat" but she also recognizes that she is privilege for being white and in the middle class. Society has made people feel inferior for not being skinny. In class we have gone over how being fat is also affecting a women's income. We see over and over again the injustice for not fitting the social norms. Society needs to understand that size does not matter and it should certainly not define a person and their abilities. I have experienced something similar but not for being fat, for me it was being I was too skinny. I have actually had a guy tell me before that I was pretty but that he would not date me because I was "flat" from the front and back. He used a table to describe my figure. This goes to show that no matter what it is difficult to satisfy societal norms of the body figures we see on magazines. To me it feels more like society keeps looking for excuses to add people into this "other" category. This takes a toll on a persons well being.
ReplyDeleteThe pressure put onto young girls turning into young women, and young women entering their earliest years of adulthood to have the perfect body image has always been prevalent in years past and present. Nomy Lamm expands on the realities of being a young women battling with self-confidence and societal expectations that aren’t as simple as they are put. Lamm inspiringly says that Feminism is going to be an individual movement for her, and its going to represent her own struggles and her voice on issues in this world that affect her.
ReplyDeleteThe elements of her subject position has allowed her to see this world, as well as take the punches life has thrown at her in harsher ways than many women have to endure. Due to her disability, her sexuality, and body size, she finds it hard to find herself on that thin line between being a revolutionizer, and being just a real person. Nomy faced so much pain in such early years of her life, but continues to see herself and her body as beautiful and has inspired many through this.
Her mindset that her life “is wrapped up in my [her] fat” has made it hard for her to understand this revolution she talks about. Yet, I find it so inspiring how she takes possession of this societal expectation and makes it her own to inspire and encourage body positivity, as opposed to let it continue hurt her. The intersectionality of her subject positions are first spoken with negative connotation, however its incredible how her elements have allowed her to move through the world with a mindset so different than women who maybe share her race, or sexuality, or body image.
Our class discussion really opened up my eyes to the oppression with fatness and disabilities. Today's society sees people with disabilities and fat people as not "normal" and there are so many other stereotypes that have been pushed onto these people. These states of identity are definitely intersectional with many other identities. For example, we talked in class about how women have it worse than men with it comes to being bigger because women are held to so many expectations and one of them is to be skinny. Men do not have it so harshly. On top of that, women with disabilities are almost held to the expectation of having no sexual desire, so a persons sexuality cannot be stopped or taken away even though society sees it that way.
ReplyDeleteNommy Lamm's article "A Big Fat Revolution" does a great job at showing intersectionality through her weight, disability, gender, and sexuality by talking about personal experiences and her point of view. She brings up so many good points about a persons weight being unrelated to someones health and how society makes fat people seem like a burden or unattractive. I think its really unfair and hurtful that society sees some people like this just because of their size. Th media always shows just one type of body as being beautiful, and although there has been some progress with body positivity, we still have a long way to go because smaller bodies are still heavily praised especially in the media. The media creates and shows this body type that is almost unattainable yet so many people strive to look that way. There is definitely privilege with having a smaller body shape, but even skinny people can think that they are fat because of these unattainable models of beauty that we are always exposed to. Even though skinny people may feel like they are fat, they still have so much privilege over people who are actually overweight, and Lamm brings this up when she is talking about her friends conversations around her. I appreciate that she told us how it makes her feel because it makes me more aware of what I say and how it could make others feel especially when it comes to weight.
Society has always had these beauty standards for women (and men). I feel like these standards are always put in place to target the "fat people" because they are seen unfortunately by others as disgusting and and how Nomy Lamm said "unlovable". I found her writing very interesting because in a way it made so much sense. And I thought it was very interesting how different "fat" people who were basically the same in the way their body is shaped is still treated differently because of their financial status and skin color. In today's society fat people are still body shamed but in a way people have sugar coded it. For example, instead of calling people fat they are called "thick", which somehow puts "thick" people above "fat" people in society. These are the ideas society programs into people, which is kind of scary because people fall for it and the cycle just continues.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that stood out to me from Nomy Lamm's article "It's a Big Fat Revolution" was that she is very unapolegetic about the fact that she is fat. This is something that is very lacking in our current society because people are ashamed of the fact that they are different from what media sets as the standard of beauty. This is why so many people go on diets and starve themselves until they end up with multiple health problems. Instead of treating the symptoms, we should try fixing the problem and change how people view and talk about body size. We know that it's not okay to discriminate against people based solely on the color of their skin or their gender so why is it okay to treat people who are fat differently? There needs to be more representation of different people in the media and this shouldn't be a world where companies are praised for using models of all different sizes because that should be the norm.
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DeleteI found that part of the piece very appealing too, and that unapologetic tone is something to be proud of. What I think we've all come to understand from this class is that society is far too rigid. It has a set standards for how its populace should be and punishes anyone that deviates. Fat shaming and discrimination based on body type is no different from racism or misogyny like you said. It's still people being poorly treated because of their bodies so why does society seem to do this every chance it gets through the media and yet racial and gender prejudice is frowned upon? This is a harmful double standard at work.
DeleteIn the article "It's A Big Fat Revolution" by Nomy Lamm, she used her personal experience to express her opinions on fat and disability oppression in society. After reading this, I thought that she discussed how fat oppression connected her subject position very clearly. Society’s attitude about fatness is often negative and somewhat dehumanizing. Society tends to value a certain beauty standard and exclude everyone else that does not fit into the same mold. This forces people to go on diets and find new ways to lose weight in order to fit into that mold in fear of being ridiculed and singled out. However these diets often lead to unhealthy eating habits and serious body image issues. People also often equate fatness to laziness or not trying hard enough which is quite cruel and completely unmotivating. Something I found interesting while reading through the essay was that fat oppression is often not addressed in feminism for the sake of acceptance or empowerment, but it is often a business scheme parading as acceptance. Another thing I found interesting was how subtle fat oppression appears in our daily lives. An example is how her friend’s and family’s comment on going on a new diet or being happy because they fit into a smaller size. We often say these things without thinking about it because we have been taught to fit within the mold. I believe that fat oppression needs to be brought up more within the feminism dialogue because it is also an issue that many people are still facing and the discrimination against fatness is often overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that fat oppression needs to be brought up more within the feminism dialogue! Also, I appreciate that you pointed out that diets lead to unhealthy eating habits.
DeleteAs a girl who used to be bullied for being fat, I instantly relate to "It's A Big Fat Revolution" by Nomy Lamm. In the city where I used to lived before moving to the US, girls who weigh more than 110lbs are considered "fat". During that time, I was 120lbs! Everyone made fun of me. Like Nomy Lamm, I experienced many negative things that people talked about me behind my back. However, I could not stay as strong as she did. I starved myself to lose weight so I can be prettier and more attractive. I soon realized that being skinny does not mean healthier as what society has been telling me. Currently, I weigh only 80lbs and still, I do not feel any more confident nor prettier than before. Nowadays, many women are blinded by the beauty standards that society set for them. Don't let society set standards for you physical and emotional healths! No one should worry or depress about how much they should weigh and how they should act or look like.
ReplyDeleteIn Nomy’s Lamm's "It's a Big Fat Revolution" she discusses fat intersectionally by asking questions like how the differences would be between being a fat white girl or a colored one and the difference between a poor or middle-class fat girl. She talks about how the world views women that may be overweight and how they’re treated because they are not the ideal shape society has been encouraged to value. People who are fat face oppression because even though there are plus size models and body positivity there is still fat shaming in every underlying situation. Oppression, fatness, and disability all intersect with other identities by connecting to the way one is treated like someone who identifies with being brown, fat and disabled would be oppressed by their disadvantages. In class we discussed how there are social and medical disabilities like getting medicare or just stairs being an obstacle for people with wheelchairs. Fatness is seen as the least attractive body type in most cases and girls are introduced to advertisements of diets and models who all share the same body size. I feel like these issues are brushed under the rug even though everyone is aware of fat shaming, oppression and disability. Many girls go through life feeling like they’re not perfect because they don’t look like everyone else and Nomy Lamm writes an inspiring article on being okay with who you are and more comfortable with the identity you shape.
ReplyDeleteNomy Lamm's "It's a Big Fat Revolution" is a retrospective piece covering instances of what Lamm believes is the "the revolution" occurring in contemporary society and reflecting on her own place in said society. Lamm reflects on both "marks" of oppression pushed onto her as well as the privilege granted to her because of her body by society. Lamm knows society has labeled her as a fat white woman. She was also born with one leg, but Lamm believes that living with one leg hasn't contributed to her oppression as much as being fat has. Her reflection continues as she contemplates how changing areas of her subject position could have drastically shifted her life experiences. (i.e. being born a white woman as opposed to a woman of color, being a middle-class fat girl instead of a poor fat girl, etc.) Despite her work denouncing fat oppression, loving her own body, and having a naturally high self-esteem, Laam admits that there are even times when she has negative feelings about her body. Anti-fat statements made by her friends and family which she knows aren't intended for her but hurt her nonetheless and always lead her to keep confronting this part of herself despite her desire to want to move on to other issues. All throughout her life, Lamm has been reminded of her "overweight" body and how society has told her "fat is ugly". Rather than look past our bodies and their attributed qualities such as race, class, gender, etc., Lamm believes we need to confront these. Moving past these social positions is the same thing as acknowledging them and yet refusing to work with them at all. As Lamm puts it, it's like calling her "fat, but you're beautiful on the inside" which is no different than saying she will never be beautiful on the outside. To stop hating fat people and accepting it as a normal and natural part of life is the right step, and that is absolutely true.
ReplyDeleteWhat has always stuck out to me from the lecture discussing fatness and society's response to that type of body is that both males and females are treated in a negative manner and yet males are the only ones who are allowed to overcome these detriments. The key word is allowed. The impression I got from the lecture is that no matter how successful a woman is society will never let her go beyond being labeled by her body image, and that is horrid. Like Lamm says, society continues to subject its populace to advertising focusing on dieting and removing fatness. Based off the commercials and advertisements I've seen, I personally believe I'm not wrong in assuming these are advertisements are disproportionally targeted towards woman. To be beautiful is to be skinny, which is among a laundry list of other unreasonable standards that society subjects women to. What I found was the most interesting part of Laam's piece though was the paragraph she spent reflecting on her social position. How different would her life had been had any one of these parts have been changed? Her race, her social class, her disability, her sexuality - all of these could have drastically made her life either more privileged or more oppressive. As I go to more and more lectures from this class, I believe it's within everyone's best interest to do the same reflection . . . not just for the final paper for this class, but beyond. Had I been born with some kind of physical or mental disability how differently would society treat me? If I was gay instead of heterosexual how might my daily struggles increase? If I was born a woman instead how would I choose to live my life living in a society that finds constant ways to judge and limit me? These are all questions I find I'm asking myself nowadays.
DeleteI'm glad we had the opportunity to focus on this side of society. I personally believe that fat shaming and negative stereotypes associated with certain body types isn't given the amount of coverage it deserves. We as a society need to learn to accept all bodies, and like Lamm perhaps the first step is learning to accept our own.
Nomy Lamm's ''It's a Big Fat Revolution'' is a powerful personal prose about what it meant to be fat coupled with Lamm's personal anecdotal claims of her ''white privilege'' intersectionality.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest takeaway from the article is how ''fatness'' is personal; everyone deals with it their own ways. She touches base on how an overweight white person would feel as opposed to a overweight black person. Or how someone who isn't really fat says that they are around a overweight person.
''I know that feeling of having nowhere left to turn, of feeling like I'm useless because I can't lose all that "unwanted fat." But I know that the unhappiness of not a result of my fat. It's a result of a society that tells me I'm bad.''
Fat is not something that someone can just change, both mentally and physically, overnight. Because of this, weight can sometimes be the elephant in the room. The awkwardness or stigma around fat is a societal issue that plagues the minds of every person. When all a person sees on big screens and ads are skinny, fit people, it makes them question how they fit in society or how others perceive them. I do believe that ''unhappiness is not a result of [one's] fat'', it is a result of how others make them feel for how they physically look and as a society, we need to change that mentality.