WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
We are constantly redefining our own perspectives, and therefore tend to write a lot about our personal experiences. Many followers and contributors are living with anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and a variety of other body image disorders or mental illnesses, so please be respectful and remember that health applies differently to everyone. Any and all potentially triggering content will be prefaced with a trigger warning.
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Thin (and able bodied) privilege is not being mocked for using an assistive device in a fitness class. Fat discrimination is assuming the device is necessary because someone is just too fat to move a limb properly, as opposed to a chronic injury or disability.
Well done Sunday Times, you decided to write a spread on Feminism and successfully included all the problematic white cis feminists who parade around ruining feminism for the rest of us. Lena Dunham, and her lack of PoC in “Girls” as well as her problematic, racist, Orientalist travel diaries soon to be published as a book; Hadley Freeman, who shames women like Beyonce for being happy enough with their bodies to pose/wear little clothing (and thus, Beyonce is not allowed call herself a feminist!?); the Vagenda for dismissing intersectionality because it’s ~too hard~, for always sticking up for Moran, and this lovely quote, ignoring all the feminist efforts by WoC, “feminism is, and to an extent always has been, a white, middle class movement”; and Caitlin Moran, possibly the biggest douche EVER, who’s slut-shamed, victim-blamed, “literally could not give a shit” about the lack of PoC in Lena’s “Girls” and never, ever, EVER owns up or apologises for her mistakes.
Yep, a really fantastic load of feminists you have there, and of course, there was obviously no space to feature any feminists of colour right (or feminists with worthwhile, non-problematic, intersectional points of view…?)social justice identitarians love branding themselves, don’t they? reactionary whiteness is terribly trend aware.
are you kidding me with that vagenda bullshit? intersectional feminism or no feminism, i say.
Last year, a kid at work asked me to buy Världens viktigaste bok (“The World’s Most Important Book”). I looked it up and promptly bought it. Since then, it has been constantly lended out or in reservations, and only now have I had the opportunity to take it home and share a few pictures.
Sex ed books always get a dual reaction from the kids: “Ew, that’s gross!” and “Can I borrow it?” - quite often both from the same kid. :-) This has proven more popular than any of the others, which gladdens me, because it’s so good. It’s not just “Let’s tell the kids the basics about reproduction so they don’t get a shock when they enter puberty.” It’s “Let’s tell the kids everything we wish that we had been told in middle school.”
As you can tell from the pictures, it takes care to include a variety of bodies and sexual orientations. It also questions gender roles, portraying both the “factory” where boy things and girl things are packed into neat boxes, and the kids outside the factory trading with each other. The text is much the same. Take this excerpt, for instance:
“Many people who have a vagina feel like girls, and many who have a penis feel like boys. But it’s not always true. Sometimes the body doesn’t fit with how you feel. You can have a boy body but feel like a girl. Or have a girl body but feel like a boy. Your body doesn’t decide who you are, you decide it for yourself. You’re the one who knows if you’re a girl or a boy. Some people don’t feel like they’re boys or girls at all. Maybe you feel like both, or something else entirely. Or you don’t want to choose. There aren’t always words to fit with what you’re feeling, but that doesn’t make the feeling less true.”
The kids at work are conservative, as kids often are. (They have questioned both the fact that I’m still single, and the somewhat androgynous way I dress.) But they’re reading this stuff, in the library, in the classroom, at home. The school nurse, too, has recommended it as reading. I have every hope that for at least some of them, the message will be received.I WANT THIS BOOK.
They need to translate this book in a bunch of different languages for all kids to read. So useful!
this thing is an awesome thing, and I want it to be in English please.
by Rowland Túpac Keshena
For those who don’t know much about me, I am a currently studying for a Masters Degree in Public Issues Anthropology, specializing in a Fanon and MLM infused analysis of revolutionary Native nationalist and anti-colonialist movements in North Amerika. I also have really strong interrelated interests in revolutionary critical pedagogy, the “reindigenization” of the Chicano community and movement and, the subject of this post, indigenous feminism. Anyway, one of the perks of my program is that I can create my own courses, and I’ve taken such a route this semester by creating my own directed studies course in indigenous feminist theory.
The growth of indigenous feminism is, for me, a huge interest, both personal and academic, not just because of the obvious importance struggling against both white supremacist (ne0)colonial capitalism and hetero-patriarchy if we want to achieve meaningful freedom, justice and equality, but also because for a long time the status quo within our movement was that you could not be both a feminist and a native warrior. On the one hand we are not Native enough if we call ourselves and our movement feminist, but on the other we are not feminist enough for the whitestream feminists since we pointing out that the whitestream movement does not take us, and our unique experiences and struggles into account. I am indigenous man and I find this to be one of the greatest failings of our movement, and for that reason I wholeheartedly endorse, support and promote the rise of an indigenous feminism.
Anyway, with that in mind and in the spirit of sharing ideas, and radical education I’ve decided to post my reading list for others to take a look a lot, critique and/or otherwise contribute their thoughts. It’s made up of a mix of books and articles, both academic and non-academic, which are available on line.
Books:
Making Space for Indigenous Feminism, edited by Joyce Green
I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism, by Lee Maracle
From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii, by Haunani-Kay Trask
Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, by Andrea Smith
Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism, by Eileen Morton-Robinson
Online Articles:
Indigenous Feminism Without Apology, by Andrea Smith
Jennifer Nez Denetdale on Indigenous Feminisms
An Indigenous Perspective on Feminism, Militarism, and the Environment, by Winona LaDuke
Zapatismo and the Emergence of Indigenous Feminism, by Aida Hernandez Castillo
Academic Journal Publications:
Wicazo Sa Review “Native Feminisms: Legacies, Interventions, and Indigenous Sovereignties,” guest edited by Mishuana R. Goeman and Jennifer Nez Denetdale
Whiteness Matters: Implications of Talking Up to the White Woman, by Eileen Morton-Robinson
Race, Tribal Nation, and Gender: A Native Feminist Approach to Belonging, by Renya Ramirez
Introduction: Special Issue on Native American Women, Feminism, and Indigenism, by Anne Waters
Patriarchal Colonialism and Indigenism: Implications for Native Feminist Spirituality and Native Womanism, by M. A. Jaimes Guerrero
Dismantling the Master’s Tools with the Master’s House: Native Feminist Liberation Theologies, by Andrea Smith
oh my gods yes. This reading list is amazing.
[TRIGGER WARNING FOR CISSEXISM]
They reblogged this picture and added a caption that said “this is a safe space for both sexes and all body types.”
Shortly afterward, they received an anonymous message:
It says “Before anyone gives you shit, you should…
YOUR “BODY POSITIVITY” WILL BE INTERSECTIONAL OR IT WILL BE BULLSHIT.
Seriously, there is no excuse for this shit. None at all.
- fat shame is not the last acceptable prejudice, seriously. Look around you. Get it together.
- if you blog diligently about thin privilege but are unable to check your own privileges? GTFO. Stop looking up at the privilege you lack and start looking at the ones you’ve got.
- yes fat phobia sucks but if you shout to the rafters about being fat bashed but then say nothing about racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, ageism or any of the other bad isms? You’re doing it wrong.
- if your message is “fat is beautiful” but the subtext of every post you make is that fat is only beautiful when white, youthful, “beautiful”, able-bodied, hetero, cis-, economically advantaged, and always falling in a lockstep line with the slavish & brutal corporate fashion industries? umm you’re not helping, bro.
- let being fat inform the way normativity works in our world, how those of us with fat bodies fall outside the “norm” which is a system of classification set up to place on a pedestal the white, the young, the wealthy, hetero & cis people of this earth, and yes, thinness is part of that but only a slender fragment of the larger picture. Let your experiences being fat bashed inform the way you process race, class, gender, sexual orientation, class status, age, “ability”. Don’t just rally to be treated the same as other thin, young, white, pretty people.
thank you and much fatty loveness.
The above is very important. Read it, then read it again.
And WIN on the gif.
-ArteToLife
Fat people clearly should acknowledge all the intersectionality of privlege, but the way this is written, it sounds a like weight priviledg takes a back seat to the other ones mentioned. That is called oppression olympics and most people make a policy of not doing that. Fat people no more need to constantly be dealing with race in their activism than race activist should be dealing with sexuality. Yes, recognizing that no privileged and no oppression stand alone is important, but choosing one cause and making that your focus is also okay.
This last here? That’s privilege talking.
It’s bullshit. The OP takes thin privilege as a given, and does not, anywhere, engage in oppression olympics. What it DOES do is call on white, straight, cis, TAB, and/or male fatties to acknowledge their privilege in other areas because it’s the right thing to do. Because if you call other people on their privilege over you, but don’t acknowledge or talk about the privilege you have over others, you are a fucking hypocrite.
This is an absolutely classic privilege-person whine. I’m a white feminist, and I see other white feminists pull the same kind of bullshit when WOC try to talk about racism in feminist spaces.
White fat people ignore and talk over fat POC in fat spaces all the fucking time. And you’re doing it now.
If you cannot grasp intersectionality and different axes of privilege, or if you can’t stand to acknowledge ways in which other people are oppressed, then you need to go adjust your thinking and educate yourself. And in the mean time, get the fuck off my side.
To paraphrase Flavia Dzodan, my activist will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit. And when your activism is bullshit, I will fucking call you on it.
On of the places where fat acceptance is FAILING is in building an intersectional foundation. There’s nothing in the original post that plays Oppression Olympics, nothing that questions or hierarchizes the existence of fat hate. What there IS, and what we as fat people should in fact be conscious of as we work in an activist way, is the acknowledgment that we exist within a system that is built on oppression — and if we fail to let that inform our fat acceptance, then fat acceptance fails to be anything other than a movement for white pretty (mostly middle class and able-bodied) people who just happen to be a little bit fatter than the “norm.”
When we talk about making fat acceptance inclusive, this is the meat of it — we build a movement that actively welcomes EVERYONE by explicitly addressing the issues of intersectionality and using that as our framework.
The OP said, “Let your experiences being fat bashed inform the way you process race, class, gender, sexual orientation, class status, age, “ability”.” I would add to that — let all of those things inform the way you think about and talk about fat bashing. Because your experience is not universal and all of those things impact body politics on a fundamental level.
There is not, to my mind, any such thing as “choosing one cause” — we all have finite energy and we might put the bulk of our efforts under one heading but no cause is functioning in a vacuum and the movement we build as fat people should not simply replicate the current oppressive social paradigm in the way it deals with other oppressions. If you cannot even begin to make an effort to see how other oppressions are related, then you are not paying enough attention to the other people involved in your “chosen” cause.
Bolded emphasis mine. This thread addresses the some of what I was writing about a few days ago, around relative size privilege and the difference between body positivity and fat acceptance. It is impossible to make an effective, honest, and truly inclusive social justice movement without constantly acknowledging the intersectionality of oppression. Though, as Marianne said here, and I sad yesterday morning, it is totally OK (and in fact perhaps more practical) to focus your limited energy to one or a few areas of identity politics, but if you don’t remain vigilant and open about your own privileges and fail to acknowledge how the oppression you are fighting against intersects with others, your politics will fail. 
Had to reblog this in its entirety. If I could pick one thing on Tumblr in particular to follow to Hell and back, it would be body positivity communities, and I really enjoy this post.
The one thing I believe is lacking here is intersectionality, even though it’s touched on lightly. No body is just a fat body. If a body is seen as “just” a fat body, most likely that body is also white and cisgender, Those traits normally end up being unmarked, which shouldn’t be so—that privilege still has to be recognized. Fat bodies are also disabled bodies, bodies of people of color, etc. Because of intersectionality, any group with a specific goal, no matter how singular, is always inherently a diverse coalition. Fat Acceptance does or should include disability, race, sexuality, gender, age, gender expression, etc, and should address the marginalization of those bodies to the extent that it intersects with the FA movement’s ends.
It’s difficult for me to believe that any particular movement can focus on one specific topic. From my own experience, I may be particularly concerned with queer bodies and trans* bodies as an advocate for Queer Rights, but because of intersectionality, I also have to be an advocate for the rights of fat bodies, disabled bodies, and on. Where those identities intersect, all those rights are queer rights, and queer rights are the rights of those diverse communities.
Bringing it back, I don’t want to just be “Body Positive” in the sense of an empowering concept, I would want to find ways to seek intersectional Body Positive-social change. Most likely in addition to, rather than replacing, Fat Acceptance. What this particular Body-Positive social change movement is or should be called, I have no idea.
These reflections are probably ignorant of some basic concept that I’m not even noticing, most likely because of my own privilege. (I am a cisgender white male of a relatively more social acceptable size, after all, so I experience oppression of my body on a vastly smaller scale than many others.) But, I can’t learn if I’m not told I’m wrong, so I’ll rant on and see what happens. I’m just starting to wade into activist spaces. Personal growth always has introspection, reflection, and call outs at some point, right?
I think you totally right about the necessity of intersectionality within ANY effort to advance identity politics, whether it is FA or feminism or queer rights etc. Of course, many if not most people involved in FA suffer from more discrimination than just fatphobia, and the other ways they are marginalized often enhance and intersect with their fatness. A queer fatty or a PoC fatty or a trans* fatty are oppressed not only on the basis of their size in addition to homophobia/racism/transphobia, but often they oppression they face as a fat person is enhanced by homophobia/racism/transphobia. FA cannot be an effective or honest movement if the people within it don’t recognize intersectionality and constantly check they ways in which they are privileged even while fighting to end the fat discrimination they suffer from.
I think the problem with a really broad movement, one that seeks to change any and all kinds of body hate and address the marginalization of all kinds of bodies on the basis of race and gender identity and sexuality and disability and class and age and on and on and on is that it then becomes incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to for effective activists groups to form and prioritize and set concrete, material agendas. In this hypothetical all-inclusive coalition, what will they tackle first, racism, sexism, homophobia, cissexism, disability? How will they distribute their limited resources in the fight against body hate? Even attempting to make these decisions will marginalize a TON of people, and by addressing all problems at once in one group, I think it is likely one would get less accomplished.
Of course, activists can do more than one thing at a time. It is totally possible to be an advocate for FA and also for disability rights. Or to do both feminist activist work and anti-racist activist work. And of course, each and every one of these movements must always remain aware of intersectionality, and these movements must, almost by definition, support and aide one another in there various fights against different kinds of oppression, because all of these kinds of oppression are overlapping and intersecting. BUT, speaking purely on practical, pragmatic terms, I think activists movement that want to be materially effective must focus their efforts on particular kinds of oppression WITHOUT forgetting the intersectionality of all oppression. I just have the feeling that one group trying to fight everything at once is bound to fail, even though their intentions and methods were completely inclusive. That’s the main point I was trying to make.
Privilege isn’t absolute.
Privilege is a bit abstract in this way. This is one of the things that naysayers cling to. You’ll see from time to time, “Well, I’M fat, and I’VE never had _______ experience!” or “I’ve never known any black people who’ve experienced racism!” This in itself is a privilege because people who say this are basing it on their own experiences, and their own experiences alone. It’s very important to realize that just because you haven’t had a specific experience, there are many, many people who have, and by not believing what they’re saying, you’re invalidating their personal experiences. This is definitely something to avoid! Privilege is relative and deeply personal, and one thing you don’t have the right to do is tell someone that their experience doesn’t matter. It’s also important not to judge the way an experience that you haven’t had affects someone else.
Privilege works on a sliding scale.
This one is especially relevant for thin privilege. The experience of a person who’s a size 16 is going to be extraordinarily different than a person who’s a size 32. Although both of these sizes are considered fat/plus size/what have you, you can ‘get away with’ a lot more if you’re a size 16. Lots of stores will still have clothes that’ll be able to fit you. Chances are you won’t have to think about buying two seats on an airplane. Movie theatre seats aren’t going to be too uncomfortable. However, if you’re a size 32, not only will you not be able to find anything to wear in a regular store, even most plus size stores don’t go up to your size. You will get stared at every time you leave your house. People will constantly talk about your health and your weight. The same idea applies in a situation with a person of color who’s light enough to ‘pass’ for white vs. someone with very dark skin.
Privilege is intersectional.
Intersectionality is super important when talking about privilege (I’m actually going to do a separate post on intersectionality because I think it’s one of the most important parts of any movement like feminism or fat acceptance.) Intersectionality is how different groups of oppressed/minorities meet, or intersect, (hence the name!) Example–a woman has less privilege than a man. A woman of color has less privilege than a white woman. Likewise, a disabled person has less privilege than an able-bodied person. And a fat disabled person has less privilege than a thin disabled person. In the case of a fat disabled person, many people will assume that they’re disabled because they’re fat, and judge them harshly for it.
READ MORE at Adipose Activist!
When you discuss the wage gap, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Only white women make $0.77 to a man’s dollar.
- Black women make about $0.68 to a man’s dollar.
- Latina women make about $0.58 to a man’s dollar.
Intersectionality matters.
Re-posting because it’s always new to somebody. Truth bombs are full of truth.
i actually didn’t know this until a few months ago.
let’s see tumblr get as excited about this as they did the totally “inclusive” white ~feminine~ rendition
$20 says nope
I like how intimidating they look.
Reblogging again.
Too awesome not to reblog again.
True facts!
Feeding The Hungry Heart by Geneen Roth (via ravenki)
Thank You Geneen for setting the parameters for what are the experiences of fat men. You show so much empathy.
(via william-m)
Seems to me she’s clearly stating fatness is a lesser issue for men than for women. That’s all very fine, but it doesn’t tell us how that actually plays out for men in the contexts they operate in.
I am actually interested in that but men don’t seem to need to talk about it in quite the same ways as women.
(via bumsquash)
I don’t think it is a matter of a lack of empathy for what fat men go through. It seems obvious that fat oppression operates differently for men than for women, as it operates differently for POC than for white people, and for queer fatties and straight fatties etc. This is the principle of intersectionality. The quote doesn’t tell us much about how the experience of fatness differs for men, though we know that fat men are also prejudged by their doctors, denied care, ridiculed by peers and discriminated against in the office, their male privilege inculcates them from some of the worst symptoms of fat oppression. They can still be seen as worthwhile human beings, even as desirable. A fat man can still see images of bodies like his portrayed in a positive light, coupled with conventionally attractive (thin) women, successful in his career. Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Al Gore: all can be successful and respected politicians even though they are fat. They are subjected to cruel fat jokes (especially Christie) and pressure to loose weight when they want to run for president, but I can’t think of any female politicians on the national stage who are as fat. In fact, female politicians much thinner than Christie publicly discuss their plans to loose weight (Hillary Clinton is a good example). Women’s worth is much more closely tied to their appearance than for men, which I think explains, in large part, the gender discrepancy among fat activists. My question is, what, if anything, should be done to encourage more men to get involved in FA? Is the fact that fat is seen as so connected to feminism what prevents more men from getting involved? I certainly don’t want men to feel excluded from the movement, but denying the intersectionality of fat oppression is ultimately counterproductive, so what is to be done to increase empathy all around?
(via reimaginefat)
The problem is that nothing that you have mentioned has any baring on the past or future experiences of men who are fat enough to attract fat bias. These are the men who would come to Fat Acceptance looking for support and they are told that the experiences of smaller fat men and the difference of how smaller fat men and women are treated cancels our the larger fat man’s need for fat support because that is all Fat Acceptance has to offer them.
You hardly ever see much written in Fat Acceptance dealing with men fat enough have to face fat bias, but books could be filled with the information from Fat Acceptance about the greater acceptance of smaller fat men. Fat men who are small enough that they are accepted by society are not likely to be in Fat Acceptance for anything beyond being a Fat Admirer.
Myself, I am offended that Fat Feminism has felt entitled to define the issues that I have received in life from being fat as the product of the Patriarchy. Fat Women did not like it when Society defined their existence, yet they felt it was OK to do the same thing to fat men.
(via william-m)
Hey, thanks for the response! I don’t want to speak for you, or anybody else, obviously. I would never tell anyone that they don’t deserve support from the FA community because they are male! I haven’t personally observed the phenomenon you are talking about, of fat women attempting to define fat men’s experiences (which obviously doesn’t mean it isn’t real, just that I haven’t observed it in my limited time in the FA community). I strongly disagree with anyone who claims that fat men don’t experience fat bias - I know they do from listening to fat men talk. But I do think it is important to acknowledge they experience fat bias differently than fat women, and I don’t think doing so necessarily excludes fat men from the movement.
I don’t know whether or not the Patriarchy is the genesis of fat bias, but it certainly changes the way fat bias is experienced. Sexism oppresses men as well as women (for example, by punishing men who have traits defined as “feminine”, which fat has sometimes been historically) so I don’t think that claiming that fat bias is a product of Patriarchy necessarily excludes the experiences of fat men. I think that it is important for women and men (and POC and queer and trans* and other fatties who are marginalized in other ways) to share their experiences with each other, and we all have a responsibility to listen when they do so. Any woman who attempts to define a fat man’s experiences, or refuses to listen to a fat man describe his experiences with fat bias is wrong. But men who refuse to listen to the ways that sexism affects/magnifies how women experience fat bias is wrong also, for the same reasons.
Oppression is messy and it is often difficult to untangle what experiences are the result of fat bias, what of sexism, what of racism, classism, ableism etc. And these oppressions magnify each other. For example, women of color not only experience both racism and sexism, they also experience sexism in a very different way because of their race, and often to a greater degree as well - there is a much bigger wage gap for WOC than for white women, they are more likely to be the victim of a sexual assault etc. This is parallel (not identical) to the way that sexism magnifies fat bias, which is what the quote and my response to it point out.
These systems of oppression are very complicated, which is why many fat women cannot separate their feminism from their fat activism. Are you claiming that women writing about how sexism changes the way they personally experience fat oppression is keeping men away from the movement? (That is not the same thing as defining men’s experiences for them, which, again, I do not condone at all). I hope that isn’t why there are fewer men in FA, but I know there are some men for whom any discussion of sexism, no matter how it is framed, is enough to make them feel excluded. That doesn’t mean that fat women should stop talking about sexism though. I hope that we can all stretch our empathy and apply it to people unlike ourselves, because I don’t think FA will be a successful or honest movement unless we can continually acknowledge the intersectionality of oppression.
TL:DR version. Fat activists need to makes sure that the movement is an inclusive space for men, but not at the cost of ignoring the intersection of fat bias with sexism.
(via reimaginefat)
Hey RBI! I am reblogging this LOOONG convo that I am engaged in on Remimage Fat. I wanted to add, after I just wrote that long post, that I re-read the original quote, and I agree with william_m that they way the author describes the differences between smaller fat men and fat women erases the experiences of larger fat men, and that is bad bad bad. I stand by the rest of what I said though, about sexism and FA.
- Lena Dunham veiled herself as a joke about “fundamentalists” and tweeted a photo. In one weak apology, she asked if this was “a bad time” (because it happened right after the shootings at the Oak Creek gurudwara).
- In another weak apology, she apologized if people “thought” that was offensive, and then followed it up with a joke about Isabelle Adjani.
- Uh, there are basically no people of color in any of her films or her television show, unless they are the help.
- When she got called out for this, she said: “We really tried to be aware and bring in characters whose job it was to go ‘Hashtag white people problems, guys.’ I think that’s really important to be aware of. Because it can seem really rarified. When I get a tweet from a girl who’s like, ‘I’d love to watch the show, but I wish there were more women of color.’ You know what? I do, too, and if we have the opportunity to do a second season, I’ll address that.”
- There’s a satirical article circulating tumblr as “truth” that really invalidated a lot of arguments against Dunham. In it, she says “I don’t know any black people.” The trouble is that her actual statementsaren’t so far off from that satire: “It was a complete accident that it happened this way, I wish that we were representing the population of New York in a more accurate way – and hopefully if we get to do a second season we will.” It was a complete accident, according to Dunham, that her show was 100% white.
- In response to the criticism that Girls doesn’t represent enough people of color, Lesley Arfin (who is a writer for the show, and a professional The Worst Person), tweeted: “What really bothered me moth about Precious was that there was no representation of ME.” Her tweeted non-apology was “Without thinking, I put gender politics above race and class. That was careless. The last thing I want is girls vs girls.” Because, to white women like this, black women don’t count as women. The politics of black women don’t count as “gender politics.” Could they make it any more obvious?
(In defense of Arfin, Street Carnage wrote a piece called “The Lynching of Lesley Arfin.” Take care if you choose to read that, it’s one of the more racist pieces among racist pieces.)- She went to Tokyo and then wrote this Orientalist nonsense. She describes a Japanese woman as having “hands like paper cranes.” She uses the phrase “yellowish fever.” She says: “I know I said I could never imagine a Japanese affair, but I’ve changed my mind. Kazu, the art handler hanging my mom’s show, is gorgeous like the strong, sexy, dreadlocked Mongol in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(causing my sister to email the instruction: ‘Yeah, girl. crouch that tiger, hide that dragon. P.S. That’s a Chinese movie’).” and “Being the only Caucasian in a room, you almost feel invisible because you are so visible. When you’re in Mexico or someplace, at least they want your paper dollars.”
- In defense of Lena Dunham, Feministing said “she’s essentially a comedy writer and comedians say racially offensive things all the time.” (We’ve spoken about this before.) In the past, Feministing spoke against Daniel Tosh’s rape jokes, saying “this conversation should be about holding public figures accountable for the impact they have on larger culture.”
In case you guys haven’t figured out why Lena Dunham is a problem, this is it. Lena Dunham is an important symbol of white women’s upward mobility. She is an important figurehead of white feminism. Lena Dunham needs white supremacy to succeed, and white feminists need Lena Dunham to succeed. Women of color (much less not-women of color) are not relevant to the white feminist project. They do not count as women, and their rights are not valued.
Defending Lena Dunham’s dignity over the personhood of the women of color that she and Lesley Arfin need to threaten in order to exist means that you are choosing your position as a white person (or a white feminist) at the expense of women of color.- This is a sentence that came out of her mouth: “The world’s getting more and more full. Our generation is not just white girls. It’s guys. Women of color. Gay people.” (What??)
UMMMMM…no.
This is the bullshit white feminist line of thinking that deters WoC from joining the feminist movement.
It ignores 1) that women is a blanket term and that fact the women of color experience both sexism and racism 2) that the feminist movement is latent with racism.
And by trying to equate the oppressions, you actually undermine the history of racism and the existence of Women of Color.
Sexism does not affect everyone the same. Racism is not the same as Sexism, nor does it have the same consequences.
“Suffering is not necessarily a fixed and universal experience that can be measured by a single rod: it is related to situations, needs, and aspirations. But there must be some historical and political parameters for the use of the term so that political priorities can be established and different forms and degrees of suffering can be given the most attention.”
Anyone that doesn’t realize this hasn’t fully examined the status of women of color in this society nor do the understand the basic assertions of functional feminism.
^^^ The bolded