Skinny Privilege

 

Hi, my name is Sam Green and I have something I like to call skinny privilege. I do not think this term exists yet, at least I have not heard of it, but I know I have it. I have it every time I walk into a class and can feel comfortable sitting in the chairs. I have it when I have no fears about taking off my clothes in the locker room or showering with the volleyball team because I know my body will not be judged. I have it every single time I walk into a store with the intent to buy clothes or underwear because I know that wherever I go I will find clothes that fit me. I have skinny privilege everywhere I go and I realized this while reading and doing my homework.

In class we have started reading Kathleen LeBesco’s book called Revolting Bodies? The Struggle To Redefine Fat Identity. I decided to focus on her fifth chapter called Revolution on a Rack: Fatness, Fashion, and Commodification for this blog post because this chapter put fat challenges and fat oppression on the table in a way that I could not ignore. In this chapter, LeBesco examines the relationship between fat women and consumer culture, representations of fat women and consumption in media texts, and the role of the fat woman spectator as a consuming subject. (LeBesco, 2004, 66)

Reading this chapter made me feel a little guilty because I benefit from being skinny and embarrassed that I had never thought about the ways in which fat people are oppressed. Moving passed those initial feelings of guilt and embarrassment I realized that I have never thought about this or had this conversation because I have never experienced being fat. And even though I do have friends who are considered fat, being fat is not talked about, in my experience, in any way other than something to lose or something to not be.

I can understand how advertisers and clothing companies would not want to feature fat models because our culture looks at fatness as ugly, “…advertisers may want to avoid the association of their products with the stigma of fatness, as negative connotations have the power to undo a company” (66) But at the same time the United States is the second most obese nation in the world. From a marketing standpoint wouldn’t it make more sense to start marketing their clothes using models of all sizes because not only does one size not exist but statistics are showing that that one size that is represented is not the norm.

The next part of the chapter I wish to discuss is LeBesco’s inclusion of Mariko Tamaki’s critique for her fashion revolution because her words are extremely important and my reaction to those words validate her point even more. “I’ll take my naked body to the streets in protest. I’ll pummel the public with what it insists on denying and avoiding: tons of mountainous, sexy flesh. I’ll bare my bare boobs and squish my sweaty bum at strangers. I’ll squeak against every surface available and leave strange marks to embarrass the public. I’ll gather an army of fat angry naked soldiers and we’ll take to the streets. We’ll go to the Gap and touch all their clothes and use up all their perfume samples till they agree to stock size 16 to 30 as standard practice. Look out…the revolution is coming.”(LeBesco, 2004, 69) Mariko’s words illustrated such confidence that the passage was almost uncomfortable to read. It was uncomfortable for me because yes on one hand I wish for bodies to not be so criticized, especially fat ones. I wish for all women and men, myself included, to love their bodies. But at the same time, her passage made me uncomfortable because if I had her body I cannot see myself loving it. Typing this down and even thinking it inside my head makes me cringe because that is so messed up how anti-fat our culture has molded everyone, including me, to be. Which is why Mariko’s “revolution” is so necessary!!! I agree with LeBesco’s idea for how this revolution should take place, “The fashion industry won’t feature fat models because the public apparently won’t accept them, but the public stands little chance of being able to accept fat models until the fashion industry portrays them in the same flattering light they shine on their slimmer sisters. (71,72) LeBesco is calling for more variety for the public eye in terms of models shown as well as how they are shown in similarity to skinnier models. I like what she says because she is not making being skinny illegal or wrong, she is just probing the fashion community to accept fat women which will then allow for the public to begin to accept fat women in terms of acceptable beauty standards.

I personally think I am skinny. Sometimes I look down when I am wearing jeans and simply hate the roll of fat that hangs over my pants. Sometimes I don’t want to be intimate with my boyfriend because I wish I looked a different way. I am not invalidating my own feelings just because I am a skinny woman. That just because I am not fat I am not allowed to feel how I sometimes feel.  I am pointing out that the way I feel, so many other people feel the same or worse. Everyone not only receives criticism from our culture and the media but from ourselves. And those voices inside our heads when we look in the mirror, that is our worst enemy. So I found a short video online of a beautiful spoken word poem on UpWorthy about someone else’s personal experience with their body. I loved this poem because it wasn’t some happy “I always love my body I am beautiful” happy go lucky song and dance. Her poem shows a true and realistic struggle and within that struggle she finds inner peace and love of herself.