I really cannot even fathom how people interpret this blog's pointing out thin privilege as an impetus for thin people to gain weight. Do they also think that pointing out male privilege is a suggestion that women should become men? Or that pointing out white privilege is a plea for PoC to become white?

Asked by

unemployeddianenguyen

I think at some level they do believe those things. Let me clarify: I think what they believe is that talking about privilege will usurp the privileges of being white and/or a man. And they’re right. We want to destroy the privilege white people and men receive because the flipside of privilege (which I’ll remind everyone is unearned advantage) is oppression (unmerited disadvantage).

Allies see the fight against privilege/oppression as not a bad thing. Uncomfortable, as if we’re successful they’ll lose their unearned advantages, but necessary. Non-allies see the fight against privilege/oppression as an attack. That their world is going topsy-turvy, because they make maleness and whiteness and thinness equivalent to success and thus can’t fathom women and PoC and fat people occupying the same social strata they do.



So yes — pointing out privilege can make some people feel attacked. Transformed from privileged person to someone without unearned advantages — torn down, in a sense. But that’s a good thing. That’s the maturation of a society, of a mind, of perspective. Some people are capable of maturing. Some refuse. We can’t let those who refuse to mature stunt our growth. And as long as we let trolls stall the conversation with derails or otherwise let them dominate the conversation we don’t grow.



“Pointing out thin privilege is hating fat people!” and “But thin people have problems too” and “Accepting fat means wanting thin people to be fat” are no more than desperate attempts to shift the focus of a civil rights conversation back to the people in power.

-ATL