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In this episode, we’re re-visiting a tried and true topic of discussion: fat travels! We’re joined today by Natalie Robinson and Ashley Wall of fatgirlstraveltoo.
PATREON DRIVE!
Join Team Paisley Mumu in the next month to be part of our BABYSITTERS CLUB. That means weekly lives with Sophie giggling at a chapter, special shoutout next episode, group crafts, and maybe even something special in the mail ;)
BOOKCLUB:
Fearing the Black Body / Black Owned Bookstores
From Yeli:
One of the things that really stood out to me about this chapter was how many writers and poets were out here being at the forefront of these fatphobic and racist movements! I never studied Ralph Waldo Emerson in university, but I know for a fact that his name is tossed around constantly. I can’t say I’m surprised that he was so vile, but it really goes to prove how much (again) learning institutions uphold white supremacy! For anybody that’s ever been in a literature major or course, or even simply in high school, you KNOW how white the course reading and theory is! The fact that Shakespeare is crammed down our throats every single year of our education, yet books written by a Black author are cornered into “multicultural studies” is absolute white supremacy! AH!!!
Another thing that really stood out to be was how many WOMEN were out here propagating the ideas that fatness was immoral, and how that was tied to Blackness! It reminded me of how the birth control movement is seen in present-day as some sort of revolutionarily feminist movement from the beginning, when in reality its roots were actually racist - lots of the ways that reproductive control were marketed and justified were actually in order to minimize the amount of non-white people being brought into the world. Have you ever heard somebody say that the reason the world is overpopulated is because families in other places in the world have millions of children? Because I was TAUGHT THAT in high school, and it was only a couple of years ago that I was able to educate myself and unlearn it! Anyways, goes to show how white women have historically always been NOT intersectional. If anyone wants to learn more about the rise of reproductive “rights”, there’s a really great documentary up on Youtube called “No Más Bebés.”
From Laila:
In this chapter, we can spot so many ways the editorial world upheld fatphobia and racism. Namely, Harpers Bazaar editor Margaret Elizabeth Sangster promulgating theories of Anglo-Saxon superiority by featuring writers such as Edith Bigelow, author of “The Sorrows of Being Fat”, in which she described fatness as “the most undesirable state”. In one magazine article, Bigelow went as far as to say a fat society lady “will not be a social success unless she burnt-cork herself” and go to live in Africa where they value fat women (for those unfamiliar, the term “burnt-corking” refers to donning a form of blackface in which literal cork is burned to ash and then used as cheap blackface makeup.). If you were white and fat, you were not considered white at all as fatness was explicitly associated with Blackness and Africa. In other words, Harpers Bazaar was promoting a zero tolerance zone for fatness in America. Let us not forget, the requirement to be truly American has always been, first and foremost, to be white.
Something to note was the historical exclusion of the Celts from elite white Christian life on the basis that they were not white. The writing of British Ethnologist James Cowles Pritchard purported the Celts, on the basis of their looks back then (short, tan) were Asiatic aka Arab or North African, Semitic, and therefore “African Kin”. Pritchard said “Whatever else they may be, the Semitic languages are first, African”. What truly caught me off guard was the eventual absorption of the Celts into the American mainstream during the 1880's through 1920’s better known as “racial rehabilitation”. Being finally granted white privilege meant the lens of discrimination could now be shifted from their backs onto a new target.
Exercise: Can you spot the pattern of colonial mentality and oppression that makes up the basis of our country? Who do you think wears the target on their backs in the present day? In 2020, who gets to be white in America? Also, can you spot examples in editorial (print and digital) that go against the grain of promoting fatphobic and racist norms? I challenge you to explore the ways you can divest your dollars from fatphobic and racist companies. Begin to intrrogate the ways in which your complicity helps contribute to the continued oppression of fat non-white bodies.
From Lynn:
Podcast episode rec: Codeswitch: Is Beauty in the Eyes of the Colonizer?
From Sophie:
Sabrina Strings Interview on NPR!
For next week, read Chapter 6!
The Meat of It:
Natalie Robinson / Ashley Wall / Fat Girls Travel Too / on Insta / Resource on Election Laws by State / @hownottotravellikeabasicbitch
Fat Girls Travel Too wants SAF listeners to use code SAF100 to get $100 any travel experience with the fat girls travel squad (whenever traveling becomes safe again!!)
CALL TO ACTION: Center Black and Indigenous voices in your life.
We can’t pick your friend group, but we can pick your new social follows. Here are 10 activists, artists, and writers to follow. + SEND US your fave BIPOC x fat x queer follows so we can share them with the fatmily — and if that’s you, DM us so we can hype you up!
Follow: Junglechimera / Dashaunlh / Thethicknutritionist / Amapoundcake / Embrace_mess / Nalgonapositivitypride / Sassy_latte / Ihartericka / Shaneebenjamin / iamjarijones
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Editing and Sound Design by Laila Oweda.
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