fat bodies- shockingly we don't all look the same

fat bodies- shockingly we don’t all look the same

I wanna take a second out of my busy Supernatural marathon/cat cuddling/black berry eating self care day to talk about something that is becoming increasingly more frustrating to me.

Tumblr, I’m gonna need you to stop posting pictures/drawings of the same type of fat body that you find acceptable. You think you’re so rad and body positive because you’ve reblogged a couple of pictures of size 16 ladies with hourglass shapes? No. You’re not. You’re just annoying me.

See, those of us who are fat know something y’all don’t. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter how much you weigh or how big you are. Sometimes the difference between being celebrated and being ignored is a distribution of body fat. There are acceptable fat bodies and there are unacceptable fat bodies. Guess which one I live in?

Here are the qualities of an acceptable fat body for ladies/femmes/non-dudes:

1. white (pretty obvious)

2. non-droopy breasts for folks who have ‘em

3. comparatively smaller waist than hips and chest

4. proportionate butt and hips

5. thinner looking face/no double chin

Examples:

see also: Beth Ditto, every model on Torrid, etc.

Unacceptable fat body characteristics (aka I look in a mirror and list all the things I feel dysphoric about errrday)

1. double chin/fat face

2. shaped like a rectangle with no discernible waist

3. no ass

4. back fat

5. droopy breasts (for those who have ‘em)

examples:

Me looking super unimpressed before queer prom.

Other examples: Lauren from Glee,Gabourey Sidibe, etc

I know thin folks don’t get it. I know you think fat is fat. I know this because I have this argument with you like once a week (literally like once a week cuz like all my partners are skinny right now and so are all my friends). You’ll tell me about a club/meeting/event/party/house/whatever and I’ll say, “Were there fat kids there?” and you’ll look at me all uncomfortable and say, “Yeah…maybe” and I’ll be like, “Sigh. Ok. Were there kids there whose bodies looked like mine?” and you’ll be like, “Uh…” and then I’ll go/see pictures and there’s like one size 12 kid with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in my face and I don’t get sprung I just get annoyed.

Fat kids with acceptable bodies, I love you too. I ain’t mad that you get the “nicer” bod. And I know y’all get hella sexualized and fetishized too so it’s not all of bed of cakes. But hey, how about some solidarity with the rest of us?

I don’t have any other analysis, really. I’m not gonna tell y’all that all bodies are beautiful and body shape diversity is important in fat liberation because whatever, you know? I just started thinking about how this kind of hourglassbodypedestal is actually pretty transphobic too because those bodies are read as “natural” and “feminine” and all that gaggy stuff. But I ain’t a rectangle trans lady, just a rectangle cis lady so I’ll leave that analysis for someone who’s lived it.

Anyway seriously Tumblr I’m calling you out for your weird bodyshape politics. Knock it off, dudes.