Passing

So, I apologize in advance, dear reader, as i will be talking about fat quite a bit. I also link to Wikipedia, even though it has issues, I think it is a good way to get an overview of a subject.

During the readings for today, it talks about images of women, and "passing." Passing as a straight person, or as an American, or how to synthesize and integrate different parts of one's identity.

As a fat person, I didn’t "pass." Sure, I could "manage my stigma" (how I hate that phrase), but, really, who was I kidding? I was fat, everyone could see it, just as if I were black or in a wheelchair. But, while most people in this current age wouldnt make fun of someone for being black, somehow it was perfectly acceptable for people to point at me and laugh for being fat.

Now that I’m smaller, I am starting to "pass" more. and its an interesting experience. I can both see exactly how horribly I was treated before because now I am not treated in the same ways. No one looks at me in disgust when I get on the bus and I am looking for a place to sit. The other day? I sat down next to someone, and they didn’t try to squeeze themselves against the window so they wouldn’t have to touch me! Amazing!

I watched a racist video this morning. Link to Sociological Images. This video is part of the "Censored Eleven" in that Warner brothers has promised to never show or release these cartoons in the US because of the racist ideas protrayed.

The video, watched today, can be seen as clearly racist. So many different stereotypes, one would Never see anything like this being currently made. But, yet, we can still make fun of fat people. Search youtube for "fat" and you get many video blogs of people saying horrible things about fat people, and current movies (Wall-E, which I have not seen) that portray fat people as lazy people that eat a lot. And this is still acceptable.

(Side note: My aunt has a copy of Song of the South, which my family watched last winter vacation. My family did not see what was racist about the film. Not the Br'er rabit stories, but the story about the boy and the "plantation," they saw nothing wrong with it. So far still to go.)