the lovely and talented sarah took the words right out of my mouth:
Why is it acceptible to go after people who are overweight?
Exactly! Basically it's HELLO mister western society predujice - based just as much on economic market factors, diet industry, food industry, face it, the way you feel is a business chicas. If everyone was happy with themselves, why gosh! What the fuck would happen to the world?
wow, can I get an "amen"? imagine what would happen if everyone woke up tomorrow and decided they were ok with how they, and everyone else looked? billion-dollar industries would collapse! no more anorexic teens on the chat shows, it'd be all sexual dysfunction, all the time! I might actually stand a chance with my heart-stoppingly beautiful dream boy!! ;)
After all I've done, I still don't know why thinness should be valued so much, where in the history of the world has thinness been a value? Perhaps related to class with upper classes being thin.... fat people are perhaps subconsciously resented, geee I don't know.
In countries where the birthrate is highest, the "ideal" woman is *way* heavier than the "ideal" woman in America, cause a heavier woman communicates fertility and health - important characteristics in a mother. but in countries where the birthrate is lower, so is the "ideal" weight of a woman. in a weird sort of way, I think thinness might represent a liberation from the traditional, confining role of mother, the sign of an upwardly mobile woman who has set herself apart from the breeding masses. I think the obsession with thinness is really creepy, because being dangerously thin (as most models are) takes away all your secondary sex characteristics - hips, breasts, body fat - and it makes you look child-like again. maybe the way some men fetishize thin women has something to do with wanting a frail, child-like creature, easy to dominate and totally non-threatening. I don't know.
Read Fat is a Feminist Issue to find out more,
yeah, also read "Where The Girls Are" by Susan J Douglas, it's about growing up a girl with the mass media, and it's not pretentious at all. it's so fantastic, she has this theory that the Beatles were so beloved because they were this totally modern fusion of male and female gender codes, and they were actually a trojan horse smuggling sexual rebellion into the sleeping fortress of American morality! woo-hoo! the chapter on the psychology of the catfight is also very illuminating... love! leeann * * * * if you have an extra ticket to belle and sebby's November 2nd show in new york city, won't you please be a dear and get in touch with me? - leeannjea@aol.com - thank you! * * * * +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+