The reason I think racism outweighs "fat phobia" is because racism is real and dangerous. Fat phobia is just having to deal with a couple rude comments, and facing the fact that life doesn't accommodate you or anyone else.

Asked by

theycallmeflaca

wackandmild:

thisisthinprivilege: gallifreyglo: thisisthinprivilege: Never mind that people FUCKING DIE because medical personnel won’t treat them for the problems they actually have, never mind that fat people are PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED and receive DEATH THREATS, never mind that fat people are denied access to basic services, denied custody of children, and legally discriminated against both by individuals and by the state. Never mind that this blog is made up of examples of this shit, right there for you to read. No, no, fatphobia is just “a couple rude comments”. Fuck off. -MG I don’t agree with intenseobsessions that fat phobia is “just comments”. They face very real problems.



But as someone who is both fat and black, if you don’t think black people (of all sizes) aren’t “denied access to basic services, denied custody of children, and legally discriminated against both by individuals and by the state”, then you haven’t been paying attention to local, national, or world news or history.



Fat and black are overlapping circles on a Venn diagram of oppression with people in the middle like me getting shit from both sides AND thin and white society. Sorry if I was unclear. Black people (and other people of color, disabled people, queer and trans people, and other groups) ABSOLUTELY ARE denied access to basic services, etc, etc. What I was saying is that what fat people experience is oppression precisely because we also experiences those things for being fat. That’s the entire basis on which we rest our claim of fat oppression, that we get that, too, like other groups who are oppressed. Not all of the ways in which we are oppressed are the same, nor are people from different groups oppressed to the same extent, but these are the things that oppressed groups have in common. That’s a fake apology that tries to reconcile your previous statement with the fact THAT I’M OPPRESSED TOO OKAY. The replier was trying to point out that these race and weight frequently overlap and the fact that you’re lumping race with other oppressed groups (which also overlap) is downplaying race with the “we’re all oppressed card”. As much as I hate the oppression Olympics, the fact that you used “We” when referring to fat people and then list other oppressed groups signals to me that you don’t belong to any other group. Yes, we all have the fact that certain rights are denied to us incommon, but there is a unique experience in being in more than one oppressed group and you have to acknowledge that without using the “we’re all in this together” excuse.

OK, the original asker was saying that fat oppression isn’t real, racial oppression is real, but fatphobia is just bullying. (This is the second ask/answer exchange.) I was saying that no, fat people ARE oppressed, and here are some things that qualify fat oppression as oppression. What I apparently failed to communicate is that these are things that many oppressed groups experiences, and are part of the definition (structural and systemic) of oppression, which is why fat oppression qualifies, because it works like other oppressions in these ways.

I am very sorry that I was unclear. I am now attempting to clarify and will attempt to be more clear in the future.

I am a white queer mentally ill (and hence disabled) woman who is a member of a minority religion. I experience other oppressions, am part of other oppressed groups. I also have a great deal of privilege, including some measure of economic privilege, racial privilege, cis privilege and more. All of this is real, and all of it matters.

I am not saying that all oppressions are the same, or that all oppressed people have to pull together or anything else. I am saying that if we define oppression as systemic and structural discrimination against a group, discrimination that massively impacts the lives of the people in that group, then all of that applies to fat people, too. That’s all.

-MG