Tag Results
18 posts tagged body policing
Diet ideas: Eat whatever you want, and if anyone tries to lecture you about your weight, eat them too.
(via sparkamovement)
“I suspect it’s difficult for men to imagine a world in which their bodies have long been inextricably linked to their value as an individual, and that no matter how encouraging your parents were or how many positive female role models you had or how self-confident you feel, there is an ever-present pressure that creeps in from all sides, whispering in your ear that you are your body and your body defines you. A world where, from the time of pubescence on, you can feel the constant and palpable weight of the male gaze, and not just from your male peers but from teachers and sports coaches and the fathers of the children you baby-sit, people you’re supposed to respect and trust and look up to, and that first realization that you are being looked at in that way is the beginning of a self-consciousness that you will be unable to shake for the rest of your life.
Even if they are never verbalized, the rules of bodily conduct for females become clear early on: when school administrators reprimand you for the inch of midriff that shows when you lift your hands straight in the air or youth group leaders tell you that the sight of your unintentional cleavage is what causes godly young men to fall, you learn that your body is dangerous and shameful and that it’s your responsibility to cloister it in a way that is acceptable to everyone else. You learn that your body is a topic of public debate that everyone is entitled to weigh in on, from a male classmate telling you that those jeans make your ass look huge to the male-dominated United States Congress dictating the parameters that rape must fall within to be considered legitimate. To be a woman, and to live life in a woman’s body, is to be held to a set of comically paradoxical standards that make you constantly second-guess yourself and jump through a million hoops in pursuit of an impossible perfection.”
(via redefiningbodyimage)
“You may not agree with a woman, but to criticize her appearance — as opposed to her ideas or actions — isn’t doing anyone any favors, least of all you. Insulting a woman’s looks when they have nothing to do with the issue at hand implies a lack of comprehension on your part, an inability to engage in high-level thinking. You may think she’s ugly, but everyone else thinks you’re an idiot.”
(via sparkamovement)
(via fatbodypolitics)
Welcome to the City of Self Love.
loveintheshadowsistheonlykind:
We Brighton-dwellers and Brighton-lovers are here to bring body-positivity and sex-positivity to your front door. We know that EVERY BODY IS BEAUTIFUL and we believe in the RADICAL POSSIBILITIES OF PLEASURE, BABE. Through music, poetry, film, conversation and zines we’re bringing a message of world grrrl peace, of confidence and autonomy.
We’ll be out there in the real world, and in digital form at www.cityofselflove.tumblr.com
Self-Love September marks the launch of the City of Self love. Throughout September we’ll be celebrating the self AND fundraising for Scarleteen. In this age of misinformation, abstinence-only education and 50 Shades of Grey, websites like Scarleteen are increasingly vital. Providing accurate info about sex, the body and feminism, Scarleteen is a resource we want to celebrate and stand in solidarity with.
The central Self-Love September event is Self-Love Sunday, on the 23rd September in the West Hill Hall. It will feature a jumble sale, a film screening and a riot grrrl gig featuring The Tuts, Colour Me Wednesday and Screama Ballerina. All proceeds will go to Scarleteen, and the message to all attendees, and all residents of the virtual and physical City of Self Love will be simple: you are a person of worth. You deserve your love.
My latest project. Feeling pretty excited about it. If you want to spread the word, that’d be AWESOME.
[tw: fatphobia, rape culture, eating disorders]
Ok thin people I get being told you look anorexic sucks but i was physically bullied and badly for roughly ten years straight and I get semi-regular rape threats telling me I should be grateful so uh
Pretty sure thinness and fatness and the kinds/intensity of bullying thereof is pretty fucking different
Like yup all body policing is bad but let’s not pretend it’s all created equal, thanks, bye
Yes, because your experience is representative of everyone elses experience anywhere in the world ever. And dismissing other people getting bullied, rather than building relationships to change a culture that cares more about our bodies than our brains legitimizes you…how, exactly?
So here’s the the thing - I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, and this kind of sentiment is actually the worst. I’ve been reading a lot of popular radical queer thought (spec. regarding marriage and why it’s not important to their movement), so it’s not the same thing, but the similarities are there. Mainly, people who could be building bridges of understanding and solidarity are instead ripping apart people who could be allies, and telling followers what to believe/think.
You should probably never listen to anyone who tells you what to believe/think.
The worst part is, their divisive speech serves no purpose at all. Take the radical queer anarchist movements. By talking about how marriage is oppressive, and wanting to be married is stupid, and there are other causes that are infinitely more worthy of time/energy; what do they accomplish? The people who think like them will just agree, some more vehemently than others, but will act the same. The mainstream queer activists (aka HRC marriage-folk) will be shunned and less likely to align with them/stand in solidarity with them in the future. The views of mainstream media/outsiders remain the same.
So basically, activists are grandstanding instead of building solidarity that could be used to accomplish ALL OF OUR GOALS.
AND IT IS FUCKING STUPID, YOU GUYS. WE NEED TO STOP.
We face enough divisive pressure from the outside without turning on one another.
how is it dismissing other people getting bullied to say that generally, weight-related bullying for fat people is significantly worse? I did not say all bullying. I did not even say that thin people don’t get bullied (I don’t think that). I’m saying that body policing and weight-related bullying is significantly more intense & violent when you’re fat, especially when you’re a fat woman. some girl posting pictures of her thin, cis, white body and saying “fuck you, people who say I’m not good enough!” is great for her (seriously, the more power to people who decide to taken control of their own self-esteem) but when she follows it up with “body policing against thin people is just as bad! and people who are working for the empowerment of fat bodies are being jerks because they’re not paying attention to thin bodies!” she’s not only wrong but using her place of privilege to erase the voices of fat people. which isn’t fucking cool, and I’m allowed to be angry about it and I’m allowed to point out it’s problematic as hell.
also, word of advice? telling people when they should be angry or how they should feel always makes you an entitled, self-aggrandizing asshole. especially when you tag it with “GUYS SERIOUSLY WE ALL NEED TO JUST GET ALONG” or whatever bullshit. like, really?
(via timetogotochurch)
Available as a silkscreen patch at http://www.etsy.com/shop/cathausDIY
you see this?
it’s called a razor
if you’re a girl, USE IT
your hairy legs and armpits aren’t cute okay
you’re not helping out for woman’s rights or anything
YOU’RE JUST MAKING YOURSELF LOOK NASTY
Or!
Women have been socialized to believe that they must remove hair for a number of reasons, primarily the following:
- hair is historically and Biblically associated with power; we as a patriarchal culture are obsessed with keeping hair on men (facial hair, Hair Club for Men, hair plugs, whatever) and keeping it off women. You say hair on women is nasty; why is it only hair on women? Women and men have the same pubic hair. We all grow it out of our follicles for the same reason. Why is it only gross on women?
- women’s bodies have been considered the property of men since the dawn of time, and therefore we have been held to a standard of beauty and attractiveness that is not determined by us but is instead determined by something called the male gaze, which is erases all sexualities and genders other than cisgender heterosexual men and assumes that women are performing for it.
- childlike women are considered less “threatening” and more “feminine” because they are naive, quiet, and rely on ~*adult men*~ to take care of them.
AND ALSO:
- there is a fallacy about pubic hair that it is dirty. It is not dirty. In fact, it’s there to keep your genitals cleaner. Pubic hair and armpit hair are also (possibly) there to spread your pheromones around and make it easier for you to attract a mate.
- all mammals have hair. We’re mammals.
AND FINALLY:
- No one else’s body is your business. Ever. You want to shave? Go ahead! That’s totally your prerogative and if you’re more comfortable shaving, feel free. But given that pubic hair isn’t innately dirty, there’s no reason for anyone to remove it if they don’t want to.
You’re not sending out some edgy, hardcore message here. You’re just reinforcing what our culture wants you to reinforce. Before you pick up that razor again, think about why you want to shave. Is it just because our culture told you to? Why’d they tell you to? What’s the point?
Do what makes you comfortable and what makes you happy, and let others do the same.
This response exploded on my personal blog last night despite being months old and I realized I NEVER REBLOGGED IT HERE, WHAT WAS I THINKING.
“The reality is that fat people are often supported in hating their bodies, in starving themselves, in engaging in unsafe exercise, and in seeking out weight loss by any means necessary. A thin person who does these things is considered mentally ill. A fat person who does these things is redeemed by them. This is why our culture has no concept of a fat person who also has an eating disorder. If you’re fat, it’s not an eating disorder — it’s a lifestyle change.”
Lesley Kinzel (via curvesahead)
I will always reblog this because it is so so important.
(via infinitetransit)
I just want to nail this to every stable surface I can find. I cannot count the amount of times that I’ve seen fat folks being encouraged, cajoled, and even forced into behaviors that would be recognized as disordered eating/exercising patterns in thin folks.
Pretty much everything that’s done on shows like The Biggest Loser would be called out as pro-ana/pro-orthorexia in a thin person. Exercising past the point that it hurts, to the point where you’re throwing up, even injuring yourself? Berating yourself because you didn’t lose ENOUGH weight this week? Constantly talking about how fat is weakness and thinness will make everything better, about how you can’t stand to be your current weight anymore? Emphasis on weight as a sign of how much control, strength, and worth you have? Viewing food as bad, as a temptation to sin? Constant sharing and talking about tips on how to minimize food intake, how to lose weight?
That sounds exactly like every pro-ana/pro-mia blog I’ve ever seen. It’s also what fat people are told we need to be doing to ourselves until we’re thin.
(via madamethursday)
If Your Life Makes You Fat, Then Maybe You Should Just Be Fat
another day, another stupid article about how something that happens to most people in everyday life is ZOMG MAKING YOU TEH FATZ. today, it was an article on one of the blogs i read (i forget which one) about how having a screwed-up sleep schedule can mess up your metabolism. ok. i think most people know that it’s not super healthy not to have a regular sleep schedule.
there’s an article like this pretty much every week, if not every day. eating dinner somewhere other than a dinner table is making you fat. having red walls in your dining room is making you fat. not sleeping at the right time is making you fat. sitting at your desk while you work is making you fat. BREATHING AND BEING A HUMAN IS MAKING YOU A BIG FAT DISGUSTING SLOB. ugh. i’m just fucking done with it.
i know how to be healthy. i know that ideally, i need to devote an hour or so a day to movement. i need to eat mostly fruits and veggies, supplemented with whole grains. i need to drink water more than any other beverage. i need to get enough sleep. i need to take my vitamins. i need to walk instead of drive. i need to not ingest a lot of sugar.
but you know what? life does not always provide us with ideal situations. sometimes i’m going to go through a period of time when i don’t get enough sleep, like when i’m finishing up an article, or writing my dissertation, or, god forbid, if i ever have a child. there are times when i’m traveling that the healthiest food option available to me is pretzels and powerade. there are times when i have to drink a coke or two because i need caffeine and coffee makes me throw up. there are times that i can’t afford to buy fresh fruits or veggies, or when i am so strapped for time that i have to rely on frozen dinners. there are times when i’m out with my friends and i’d rather order french fries instead of a salad because THAT’S WHAT I FUCKING WANT TO EAT. there are times when we all eat dessert.
in other words, if being thin means that i have to behave perfectly, and police my life down to the nth degree, then FUCK BEING THIN. if i have to live so rigidly that i can’t enjoy my life in order for society to not discriminate against me and treat me like shit, then FUCK SOCIETY. it’s not me who needs to change, it’s you and your bullshit.
kate moss famously said that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. i profoundly and completely disagree. further, sometimes pulling a week of all-nighters to produce a really amazing piece of writing is better than skinny feels. sometimes blowing off the gym to go to the beach is better than skinny feels. sometimes staying all week at the hospital with a sick relative is better than skinny feels. sometimes working a desk job 40 hours a week in order to not get evicted from my apartment is better than skinny feels.
life is more important than being thin. people are more important than being thin. if you can’t understand that, then you need to take a moment and rethink your own humanity.
Boom! If you are not already following this amazing person, DO IT. She is relatively new to Tumblr but I met her years ago during my first master’s degree and have been in awe of her bad-assery ever since.
(via redefiningbodyimage)
