My post today at the Awfully Big Blog Adventure is a Privilege 101 piece that will be familiar stuff to many here, but it may be of interest to diceytillerman.
Really good post! I'm thinking about talking about the topic with some students - we're working on "issues" in my advanced composition class and always trying to get them to challenge assumptions.
Fabulous, Charlie. Love it. (And thank you for the linkies.)
The concern trolls really do pop up any time one mentions fatness, don't they? Concern trolls in the sense that each one might be earnest and sincere (as they seem on that site) but they don't know about HAES or fatpol and have no interest in researching them; concern trolls in the sense that they leap instantly from your analysis of fat characters in fiction to But what about the heaaaaalth? Sorry, dudes: if it were really health, only health -- I know they think it is, but honestly, if that were really the only thing on their minds -- why would it come up come up every single time fatness is the subject? Even when your point is that fatness shouldn't be used as a cheap symbol for evil and worthlessness? For them to bring up health as a comment to your post, there's underlying fatphobia there, no question. "Crying health" (like crying wolf??) is simply a way to express fatphobia that they think will appear less mean-spirited.
Kudos to you for persevering in the comments thread. I lost a few Sanity Watchers points reading those comments, but I gained more by reading your post and seeing you stick it out and challenge their assumptions in comments. Cheers!
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-24 06:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-25 12:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-24 06:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-25 12:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-25 06:24 am (UTC)The concern trolls really do pop up any time one mentions fatness, don't they? Concern trolls in the sense that each one might be earnest and sincere (as they seem on that site) but they don't know about HAES or fatpol and have no interest in researching them; concern trolls in the sense that they leap instantly from your analysis of fat characters in fiction to But what about the heaaaaalth? Sorry, dudes: if it were really health, only health -- I know they think it is, but honestly, if that were really the only thing on their minds -- why would it come up come up every single time fatness is the subject? Even when your point is that fatness shouldn't be used as a cheap symbol for evil and worthlessness? For them to bring up health as a comment to your post, there's underlying fatphobia there, no question. "Crying health" (like crying wolf??) is simply a way to express fatphobia that they think will appear less mean-spirited.
Kudos to you for persevering in the comments thread. I lost a few Sanity Watchers points reading those comments, but I gained more by reading your post and seeing you stick it out and challenge their assumptions in comments. Cheers!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-25 12:12 pm (UTC)