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cassidyroseIn a NOLOSE workshop called "Fighting Friendly Fire: What do we do when social movements we like do things we hate" co-facilitated by Kathleen LeBesco, she asked us how important we thought facts and data points are in engaging in discourse around issues of fat-hatred in other communities/movements we may be a part of. She wanted to know if we thought that a "war of facts" was really useful, and ultimately worth fighting.
As a data/research analyst and a radical fat activist I had a lot to say about this. I want to repeat what I said in the workshop because it actually elicited applause and I think it is important.
First of all, as someone who has worked with numbers and numerical data for many years, I know the myriad ways it can be skewed, misrepresented, misinterpreted, etc., so a "war of facts" around purely correlation-based data doesn't necessarily tell us all that much. That said, I do think it is important for fat activists to have a few facts in their back (or side, or front) pockets for use in deconstructing some of the arguments made that basically set up fat people as scapegoats for why America can't have nice things. One, it is key that we are able to challenge the very notion that there is an "obesity epidemic" because epidemiologically speaking it is not actually an epidemic, and two, it is also key that we know and share that the very definition of "overweight" changed in the 1980's and that is one very big reason that the number of overweight people increased magically overnight. Challenging the very core of the argument is important. Third, I think it is important that in debates around health care or food justice, that we work to re-focus the arguments on what corporations are doing, and not what individuals are doing as corporations are really our big fish to fry, not the random fatty-on-the-street who may eat one more cookie than the skinny person sitting next to them.
OK, that was not the applause part.
This is. (more or less...I have expanded my thoughts here)
I really truly believe that whether or not fat people cost more in health care terms than our thinner counterparts, or whether or not we actually eat more french fries than our thinner counterparts is neither here nor there.
It. Doesn't. Matter.
What really matters is that everyone, regardless of size should have access to quality health care. Everyone should have access to actual fresh food, and not just the stuff you can buy at a corner liquor store, as happens in food deserts. As fat people, we need to stop apologizing for being fat by justifying by how healthy we are, or how non-overconsuming we are, or how much we walk instead of drive, etc.
It. Doesn't. Matter.
Asking food justice or sustainability movements to stop using fatties as scapegoats because we meet some sustainability moral quotient keeps us in a position of weakness. While there can be power in disproving the stereotype, there is a whole hell of a lot more power in demanding humane treatment for all and changing the terms of the argument. It is much more important for us to focus on the real issues and move away from arguing about which sub-group should be today's scapegoat. When we engage in a "war of facts" to somehow prove our humanity we cannot ever actually win because we are ultimately playing a losing game.
It is time to change the game, our perspective, and how engage around these issues. We need to find the confidence and self-acceptance to dig digger and shed the "good fatty" baggage.
And now I will step off my soap box and go to bed.
As a data/research analyst and a radical fat activist I had a lot to say about this. I want to repeat what I said in the workshop because it actually elicited applause and I think it is important.
First of all, as someone who has worked with numbers and numerical data for many years, I know the myriad ways it can be skewed, misrepresented, misinterpreted, etc., so a "war of facts" around purely correlation-based data doesn't necessarily tell us all that much. That said, I do think it is important for fat activists to have a few facts in their back (or side, or front) pockets for use in deconstructing some of the arguments made that basically set up fat people as scapegoats for why America can't have nice things. One, it is key that we are able to challenge the very notion that there is an "obesity epidemic" because epidemiologically speaking it is not actually an epidemic, and two, it is also key that we know and share that the very definition of "overweight" changed in the 1980's and that is one very big reason that the number of overweight people increased magically overnight. Challenging the very core of the argument is important. Third, I think it is important that in debates around health care or food justice, that we work to re-focus the arguments on what corporations are doing, and not what individuals are doing as corporations are really our big fish to fry, not the random fatty-on-the-street who may eat one more cookie than the skinny person sitting next to them.
OK, that was not the applause part.
This is. (more or less...I have expanded my thoughts here)
I really truly believe that whether or not fat people cost more in health care terms than our thinner counterparts, or whether or not we actually eat more french fries than our thinner counterparts is neither here nor there.
It. Doesn't. Matter.
What really matters is that everyone, regardless of size should have access to quality health care. Everyone should have access to actual fresh food, and not just the stuff you can buy at a corner liquor store, as happens in food deserts. As fat people, we need to stop apologizing for being fat by justifying by how healthy we are, or how non-overconsuming we are, or how much we walk instead of drive, etc.
It. Doesn't. Matter.
Asking food justice or sustainability movements to stop using fatties as scapegoats because we meet some sustainability moral quotient keeps us in a position of weakness. While there can be power in disproving the stereotype, there is a whole hell of a lot more power in demanding humane treatment for all and changing the terms of the argument. It is much more important for us to focus on the real issues and move away from arguing about which sub-group should be today's scapegoat. When we engage in a "war of facts" to somehow prove our humanity we cannot ever actually win because we are ultimately playing a losing game.
It is time to change the game, our perspective, and how engage around these issues. We need to find the confidence and self-acceptance to dig digger and shed the "good fatty" baggage.
And now I will step off my soap box and go to bed.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-08 08:56 am (UTC)Yes. This.
Stay up there on your soapbox, girlfriend. The battle is an important one, and we need clear-headed articulate warriors who understand that it can be lost or won in the terms of engagement.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-08 04:05 pm (UTC)"A lot of environmentalists are still stuck trying to choose between different items on a menu that someone else has set. The real power is not choosing an item on the menu, but deciding what's on the menu. Of all the heroes I have, none would have rallied around something that was a little bit better than terrible." - Annie Leonard
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-08 11:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-09 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-09 08:03 pm (UTC)The way "touchy" subjects go in the southern dynamic, polite people "don't say" anything, but they quietly "do" how they feel. This, I think is far worse than the uncomfortable face-to-face conversation. An example:
you may interview for a job and nothing is mentioned or implied, but you may not get hired, no matter how qualified, because of your weight although they would go to the grave denying it.
The passive agressive thing is almost impossible to fight because you never know if you're being victimized.
I would be interested to know if people in other parts of the country actually verbalize fat discussions to overweight people?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-10 05:42 am (UTC)Yes, they do, most commonly under the guise of "wanting to help." And then there are the times we are just called fat bitches, lard-asses, etc. Oh, street harassment, such fun.
But what I am talking about here is more about generalized discussions of fat and fatness by individuals within certain social movements. These discussions tend to demonize fat people and fat bodies, and often people have no qualms doing this in front of fat people. One person in the workshop I was in said that she will often retort with, "Hey, that's *my body* you're talking about."
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-11 01:10 am (UTC)I always learn a lot from you.