Click here for a transcript of this episode.
In this episode, we’re talking about clothes in quarantine — dressing up for fun, wearing what’s comfy for fluctuating weight, and hashtag queer cottage core — with style advisor to the pod, Jazzmyne Jay!
Bookclub:
Fearing the Black Body / Black Owned Bookstores
We have 2 new places to participate in the SAF Anti-Racist bookclub.
From Sophie:
we’re working on it lol
From Lynn:
Page 67, end of the middle paragraph, “The racialized female body became legible, a form of ‘text’ from which racial superiority and inferiority were read.” Okay WOW — something to track is WHITE femininity, thinness, and morality.
Page 72, end of the first paragraph, theories about race “were to be read and expanded upon by subsequent scientists and philosophers, several of whom were deeply invested in maintaining or extending the slave trade.” Folks. We have to remember that this new way of looking at “race” HAD A VESTED INTEREST in explaining away the dehumanization of enslaved people. If they could prove that Blackness was innately bad or sub-human, they could justify the slave trade. And that’s the BASIS ON WHICH RACE THEORY WAS WRITTEN!
Page 84, middle of the second paragraph, linking fatness and blackness “transformed the act of eating from personal to political.” This is an important chunk of text to start understanding the thesis of the book — how fatphobia was begotten by anti-black racism.
Page 92, bottom of page, “the fascination with Sara’s [Sara Bartman] size [...] was simultaneously grotesque and exotic: a sexual specimen with a peculiar racial identity.” Here’s another really important idea to track: Black Female Sexuality, and how white European men defined it as excessive and grotesque.
From Laila:
As covered in Chapter 3 of the book, French born, Francois Bernier “was the first person in the world to create a system of human classification based on ‘race’ ” He specifically championed the racialization of female bodies. In modern day France, sadly yet unsurprisingly we still see the imprint he left behind. Racist ideals are constantly thrust upon French women even today. In 2016, there was a ban on "burkini’s” across the country. Stories across the country began popping up of beachgoing Muslim women were being harassed, publicly shamed, and fined for wearing full-length swimsuits. While this issue intersects with Islamophobia, it is also about feminism and ingrained racist ideals that value thin and white bodies. In one incident in Nice, a group of French policemen went as far as making a woman remove her clothing in front of fellow beachgoers. The woman was also issued a fine, which read that she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”. Then French Prime Minister Manuel Valls stated the burkini and burqa represented the "enslavement of women". And French education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said as a feminist, she disapproved of the “burkini”. Despite the courts ruling from the state council that the burkini bans to be a “serious and manifestly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms”, more than 20 mayors have defiantly kept in place decrees under which municipal police can stop and fine any women in full-body swimsuits at the beach. It is clear that France is still perpetuating racist scientific theories created by people like Francois Barnier and projecting them onto any women that don’t conform to their narrow standards. I would argue against the Prime Minister’s words, and say that what is actually enslaving women are oppressive viewpoints such as his. And as if that wasn’t enough? France will still ban Islamic face coverings even after making COVID-19 mask wearing mandatory. This state of afairs in France not only exemplifies how the policing of non-white bodies must continue to be called out in an effort for a more nuanced dialogue, but it also points out France’s Femism and Islamophobia issues, too. This is why intersectionality matters, folks! Our various oppressions are interlinked.
In what ways do you see racist ideals towards Black and non-white bodies around you? Can you spot the intersectionality that underpins oppression(s)?
For next week, read chapter four!
The Meat of It:
Jazzmyne’s Insta, Twitter, and ASOS insta / article on alt black girls / Jazzmyne actually did bleach her eyebrows / Ori / Why queer teens are embracing Cottagecore /Miss Honey / Chessy from the parent trap / depop / tunnel vision / Personal Style episode / Mailbag episode
Call to action: DONATE to the Black Trans Lives Matter Youth Fund
If you can’t donate, please read about their mission and share them. The fund is organized by the Black Excellence Collective.
From their GoFundMe, “For 5 years we have operated as a volunteer collective. We’ve organized rallies and vigils to uplift trans and gender nonconforming folks lost to state or interpersonal violence. Hosted countless workshops and trainings to educate our community. And coordinated direct support to folks experiencing housing/food insecurity, incarceration and immigration detention. We have done all of this work without exceeding a budget of $50,000 a year.”
The Black Trans Lives Matter Youth Fund is a direct response to how COVID-19 and police violence, among other things, have disproportionately impacted the Black trans and queer communities. They’ve already raised $100,000, and give a detailed breakdown of where that money will go — but we want to mobilize our fatmily to keep bringing that number up to their $250,000 goal. Donate. Send us your receipt. We’ll be keeping track on our insta of how much the fatmily has raised. Hopefully that can inspire the community to donate more and more! As the Black Excellence Collective says, “Now is our moment to change the world!”
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Editing and Sound Design by Laila Oweda.
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