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Okay.
I was reading fanfic last night, and I came across one that, I think, was about a pair of characters from 'Rent'.
One of them was a skinny woman named Alison.
Which may be part of why I had the reaction I did, but not necessarily.
Anyway. This skinny woman was compared to another woman... Joanne? whom the author of the fic described as having "a real woman's body".
That's what made me so angry.
I decided that, since an innocent little piece of fanfiction set me off so much, clearly I need to spout about this to *someone*.
And you, dear lj-reader, are that someone (whether you like it or not, hahaha...)
Right.
Counter-cultures (including scific/fantasy fandoms and the Pagan community, among others), not surprisingly, tend to be made up of people who are given the shaft by mainstream society.
So, among other shafted people, there are a large number of fat people, particularly fat women (in my experience) who, justifiably, are sick to freaking death of the crap-loads of 'you should not exist' propaganda that gets heaped upon them, pretty much 24/7, by The Mainstream.
As a tall, large-footed woman, I can kind of understand a little bit of what that's like, if only because the infinitely vast majority of non-custom furniture and women's foot-wear (and doorways, bus-seats, car cielings, etc) don't fit me, either.
But not much. I realize.
Anyway.
I think that one of the results of this heaping is that, when these women find themselves in Safe Space (chatting with a group of like-minded people, in a Women's Rit, or yacking in a chat-room or a livingroom about (I dunno) current sci-fi shows, or what-ever) some of that ire starts coming out.
In the form of phrases like 'I could break a skinny girl in half' or 'at least I have a real body', or 'you must be annorexic', or what-have-you.
The implication that 'goddess sized' refers *only* to those of us who are shaped like the Venus of Willendorf, and not to, say, those of us who are shaped like, say, Artemis, or the wasp-waisted Snake-Women of Crete, or the Nile River Goddess.
I hate, and I hate, and I loathe the implication (which seems to be fairly prevalent in my corner of the sub-cultural world) that thin women are *weak* and/or that we aren't really *women* at all -- that we're still under-developed girls. That we're children.
That makes me very, very angry.
So I thought I'd bring it up.
Anyway. :-)
In other news: Paul is convocating today. Whee! :-D He also (still) needs a new suit, because the one he inherited from him grandfather is starting to get a bit tight in the waist. (Possibly we can take it to a tailor and have it taken out a bit. :-)
I get to be in charge of taking pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get the camera to focus this time. ;-)
AFter the ceremony, we are going to The Lindenhoff restaurant, which is very filling and very tasty, and does a yummy mushroom strudel, among many other (non-vegetarian) things.
It will be good. :-)
In still other news: I am cold. I bring this up because my chill is due to my own actions. Or, rather, inaction. I have yet to turn the heat on in the house.
I would *like* to hold off until the first of November.
However it's cold enough to be camping in here, in the mornings, so I'm not sure if we'll make it the remaining week-and-a-half.
This means that a visit to Home Depot is in order for (most likely) tomorrow, so that I can pick up some 50"-wide window-wrap stuff. This will help keep what little heat we have (Generated by light-bulbs, the stove and oven, and the computers. And ourselves) inside the house. :-)
(I could probably pick up a few bulbs while I'm there, too. I'd like to get some Scilla, and perhaps some pink daffodils/jonquils, if they have any. I know that Vessey's does, but whenever I look in their catalogue, I see too many things that I want, so I try not to look too often. ;-)
The squash is ripening. :-)
Woohoo! :-D
I need to hit the pharmacy today, to pick up the following:
1) Hair sticks
2) A graduation card for Paul
3) Soap (we're using lever-2000 soap, 'cause I happened to have some in the cupboard, but niether of us really likes the smell. It's the Emergency Soap. ;-)
Hitting the A&P will happen at the same time, for the following:
1) bag-return (yay for all-plastic recycling!)
2) Juice
3) Hot chocolate!
4) Burner-liners
and, possibly
5) ice-cream and/or other junk food. This isn't nano-prep junk food, I'm just craving potato-chips and nibs. I don't know why. :-\ (Although, given the state of my skin right now, I could probably guess about the chips. ;-)
Anyway.
That's my story.
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
I was reading fanfic last night, and I came across one that, I think, was about a pair of characters from 'Rent'.
One of them was a skinny woman named Alison.
Which may be part of why I had the reaction I did, but not necessarily.
Anyway. This skinny woman was compared to another woman... Joanne? whom the author of the fic described as having "a real woman's body".
That's what made me so angry.
I decided that, since an innocent little piece of fanfiction set me off so much, clearly I need to spout about this to *someone*.
And you, dear lj-reader, are that someone (whether you like it or not, hahaha...)
Right.
Counter-cultures (including scific/fantasy fandoms and the Pagan community, among others), not surprisingly, tend to be made up of people who are given the shaft by mainstream society.
So, among other shafted people, there are a large number of fat people, particularly fat women (in my experience) who, justifiably, are sick to freaking death of the crap-loads of 'you should not exist' propaganda that gets heaped upon them, pretty much 24/7, by The Mainstream.
As a tall, large-footed woman, I can kind of understand a little bit of what that's like, if only because the infinitely vast majority of non-custom furniture and women's foot-wear (and doorways, bus-seats, car cielings, etc) don't fit me, either.
But not much. I realize.
Anyway.
I think that one of the results of this heaping is that, when these women find themselves in Safe Space (chatting with a group of like-minded people, in a Women's Rit, or yacking in a chat-room or a livingroom about (I dunno) current sci-fi shows, or what-ever) some of that ire starts coming out.
In the form of phrases like 'I could break a skinny girl in half' or 'at least I have a real body', or 'you must be annorexic', or what-have-you.
The implication that 'goddess sized' refers *only* to those of us who are shaped like the Venus of Willendorf, and not to, say, those of us who are shaped like, say, Artemis, or the wasp-waisted Snake-Women of Crete, or the Nile River Goddess.
I hate, and I hate, and I loathe the implication (which seems to be fairly prevalent in my corner of the sub-cultural world) that thin women are *weak* and/or that we aren't really *women* at all -- that we're still under-developed girls. That we're children.
That makes me very, very angry.
So I thought I'd bring it up.
Anyway. :-)
In other news: Paul is convocating today. Whee! :-D He also (still) needs a new suit, because the one he inherited from him grandfather is starting to get a bit tight in the waist. (Possibly we can take it to a tailor and have it taken out a bit. :-)
I get to be in charge of taking pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get the camera to focus this time. ;-)
AFter the ceremony, we are going to The Lindenhoff restaurant, which is very filling and very tasty, and does a yummy mushroom strudel, among many other (non-vegetarian) things.
It will be good. :-)
In still other news: I am cold. I bring this up because my chill is due to my own actions. Or, rather, inaction. I have yet to turn the heat on in the house.
I would *like* to hold off until the first of November.
However it's cold enough to be camping in here, in the mornings, so I'm not sure if we'll make it the remaining week-and-a-half.
This means that a visit to Home Depot is in order for (most likely) tomorrow, so that I can pick up some 50"-wide window-wrap stuff. This will help keep what little heat we have (Generated by light-bulbs, the stove and oven, and the computers. And ourselves) inside the house. :-)
(I could probably pick up a few bulbs while I'm there, too. I'd like to get some Scilla, and perhaps some pink daffodils/jonquils, if they have any. I know that Vessey's does, but whenever I look in their catalogue, I see too many things that I want, so I try not to look too often. ;-)
The squash is ripening. :-)
Woohoo! :-D
I need to hit the pharmacy today, to pick up the following:
1) Hair sticks
2) A graduation card for Paul
3) Soap (we're using lever-2000 soap, 'cause I happened to have some in the cupboard, but niether of us really likes the smell. It's the Emergency Soap. ;-)
Hitting the A&P will happen at the same time, for the following:
1) bag-return (yay for all-plastic recycling!)
2) Juice
3) Hot chocolate!
4) Burner-liners
and, possibly
5) ice-cream and/or other junk food. This isn't nano-prep junk food, I'm just craving potato-chips and nibs. I don't know why. :-\ (Although, given the state of my skin right now, I could probably guess about the chips. ;-)
Anyway.
That's my story.
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
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