Fetish? Or not??

http://2bdancing.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/i-am-not-fat/

As I was reading chapter three titled, “Sexy/Beautiful/Fat” from Kathleen LeBesco’s book, “Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity,” I was a bit taken back by the vivid descriptions from the magazine, “FaT GiRL: A Zine for Fat Dykes and the Women Who Want Them.” Truthfully speaking, I did not know much about fat politics, let alone knew it existed. But I am slowly learning something new about this topic as I continue to read this book. So, when I came across this specific section in regarding the sexual, erotic beauty in fat bodies, I did not expect it at all. My first thought when I read the descriptions of the photographs in the Zine magazine was is this not fetishization? Or did I come up with the wrong conception and that it was simply appreciating the female fat bodies?

I first came across the term fetishizing on Tumblr because people were blaming fanfiction writers for fetishizing homosexual relationships because they believed it to be damaging to the queer community as a whole in that the gay relationships depicted in these stories are not what they actually are in reality. I recommend reading this blog if you want to know more what I am talking about in terms of fetishizing and fanfiction. However, that is not my main purpose of this blog entry. I want to talk about apply fetishizing to fat women’s bodies, and what that really entails. Fetishizing is to make (something) the object of a sexual fetish. I found this definition when I typed it in google, and the fact that GOOGLE used this as an example makes me think things has definitely got to change: ‘women’s bodies are so intensely fetishized.’

In the following, there was an advice column where “The Invisible Blob” was worried about her thin girlfriend getting too much attention and feeling insecure. The response was along the lines of “FLAUNT IT!...Public Displays of Affection...you obviously have something very appealing to said gf…And by this, I mean more than a butt you can grip with both hands. You are great and beautiful. Revel in their pathos. Feel sorry for them.” After reading this, I was confused, and I had to read it a couple of times to fully understand it. I was unsure whether the responder was trying to say to the “Invisible Blob” to be confident in her curves because that is the reason why her girlfriend is dating her. But, this was not the case because the responder also mentioned “...more than a butt…” indicating there is more to the “Invisible Blob.”

What caught my eye and made me think was that “Unlike other liberatory texts that fete fat to protest the hegemony of thinness, FaT GiRL goes so far as to exclaim that fatness is the preferred way of being in the world.” I thought that this was biased because it is saying that fatness is the ultimate ideal while disregarding other physical body shapes. It seemed interesting that the author, LeBesco used this sexualized example of the zine to show that. Is she trying to prove that fat people should be focused on because of their sexual physicality?

To me, it felt like the author, LeBesco used the example of FaT GiRL to really demonstrate the sexuality of fat women and their bodies, but at one point, I thought it went too far when she included the detailed portrayal because I thought it was fetishizing fat women’s bodies. The reason why I thought so was because the magazine was highlighting and enhancing the fat curves of the women’s bodies. But, I did some outside research, and I found a personal firsthand experience from a women who have met people who were interested in her because of their fat fetish or they had a preference towards her plump curves. Through her account, I learned the true difference of fetishizing fat women and appreciating fat women. She said that those who were interested in her JUST because of her being fat were the people who had a fat fetish. They were the ones who were fetishizing her body, not who she really is as a person along with her body. On the other spectrum, she has met guys who truly wanted to get to know her personally, while at the same time appreciated her curves. Yet, the curves was not the main purpose of them meeting her. Since I learned this, going back to the advice column, I realized that it was not fetishization because the person who wrote the advice told the “Invisible Blob” that her girlfriend likes her because she sees something in her personality, not just because she is fat, and that she should be confident in herself as a beautiful person.

One of the examples of racial fetishization of Asian-Americans where in this picture, Asians are fetishized to look "cute" and "adorable" as if that is what they are supposed to be.

Not only can there be fetishization of fat women, but there are also fetishization of women’s bodies: breasts, legs, butt, etc. Plus, there is the fetishizing of racial women who are African-American, Asian, Latino, and so much more. What is more, I must not forget, there is fetishizing of transgendered, gay, lesbian, basically the whole LGBT group. All in all, fetishization of the women occurs in every aspect: body, race, culture, and sexuality. As of now, what is not surprising to me is that the most common form of fetishization in the United States is racial fetishization of women and even men. It is so prevalent in today’s society due to popular culture, media, and art. There have been so many instances where Asians and African-Americans are objectified and stereotyped. Even I have experienced this many times throughout the course of my life. I do not intent to get into detail about my personal account. Instead, I wanted to bring attention to the fact that fetishizing women goes in hand with objectifying and stereotyping women because both of these acts completely disregards who the women really are in terms of personality and intellectual; essentially what makes up a person. This occurs in many different ways, and that it is an issue in the topic of feminism.

So, as I finish up my blog, I talked on a very large scale of topics, from fetishizing fat women’s bodies to briefly on contrasting forms of fetishization. But, the big question that I want to leave with you, is what can be done to stop the objectifying? The fetishizing? The stereotyping? These are such large issues that it seems impossible to even think of tackling them. Will people ever learn that this is wrong? That it is not right to be even doing that to women, and taking away their identities? Therefore, please do let me know what you guys, the audience, think about this overwhelming situation.