Q: How cool is this? A: Pretty cool!

[fflo]

upcoming "Fat and the Academy" conference at Smith

There's an "emerging field of Fat Studies"? With a "current flourishing of scholarship" in its multi-disciplinary self? Hunh. Wow. I mean, I know about people working in the area, and a scholarly element of the resistance, but the notion of a toehold in the academy is news to me. Leave it to one of the Five Colleges/Seven Sisters to organize such a conference. And I used to make fun of them "sweater girls."

Some people & titles:
• Kathleen LeBesco, "Queer Tactics in Fat Politics: An Assessment"
• To The Earth (Tribal Bellydance), followed by the Royal Renegades (the Philadelphia Drag Kings)
• Paul McAleer, "Blog This: How You - Yes, You - Have Changed the Media's Stance on Fat."
• Stefanie Snider, "Fat Girls and Size Queens: Visual Productions of the Fat and Queer Self in Contemporary American Culture"
• Pattie Thomas, "Fat as Social Problem, Social Stigma as Solution"
• Paul Campos, "Ask Your Doctor if Cultural Hysteria is Right For You"
• Marilyn Wann, "Fat Liberation 101 - Life's Too Short for Self-Hatred & Celery Sticks!"

Comments

[atleastdefiant.livejournal.com]

That's what I mean, right there. It wasn't enthusiasm, just plain statement of fact: Many fat women are sexier than many skinnies, and there are attractive physical elements that only come from fatness. Like the fuller cheekbones, deeper dimples, curvy shoulders, and that's staying above the neckline. But we'll never win acceptance in the mainstream beauty spectrum (is that actually the point?) if we can't even see it ourselves. When we said "black is beautiful" in the 60s, we weren't saying because previously we didn't think we were beautiful per se; but because the mainstream only promoted very light skinned blacks as beautiful. the media is a powerful weapon. So saying "black is beautiful" was a way to acknowledge the truth beyond the much-hyped lie that it wasn't.
That's what many fat girls are missing. The real belief in their own beauty, beyond an academic analysis of fat suppression and invisibility. Like, the ability to look at their own naked bodies without hating everything.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Fer shur!

Do you think the analytical/academic pursuit may be one path further down the road of not hating that reflection? I must say, I don't think my growth in comfort with my shape has much to do with the theoretical pondering. Though I think I like having the theoretical stuff to talk about it with, or justify it in some way. Which, of course, implies that it requires proof, which implies that liberation necessitates the consent or agreement of those who (at least at the moment, and including ourselves) are buying the larger culture's take.

I guess psychic liberation is the liberation from giving a rat's ass what people think, but political liberation is not being fired or not hired or denied health insurance or stuff like that there. And that's where the movement needs its rhetoric.

[(Anonymous)]

True that! That's real life, on the ground stuff I didn't take into consideration.