I'm tired of seeing some skinny little thang' get into a "fat suit" to prove that fat people are treated differently than skinny people.
Duh -- look around, listen to what fat people tell you and use your brain.
Thin is in and if you aren't thin, you are less of a person.
Frankly, I'm as insulted by the fat suit as black folks should be about people who paint their skin dark to see if racisim exists.
As if my testimony isn't enough to convince you that there are fat-biggots out there.
yea, once again I'm disgusted by the media and popular culture... so, what eles is new?
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6 comments:
I didn't know you were so consistant in the need for a black face.
But then, I'm no antropologist for that matter. And I just wear dresses in the summer.
Lolitah Peach
Perhaps people who haven't faced adversity do not believe it exits.
here, here! I am also tired of rich people who act homeless for three days or who work at shitty jobs for a few months writing lucrative best sellers to tell everybody that poverty sucks. Gee, whillikkers. Ya think?
Chaser,
I know what you mean about the 'pretending to be poor' person -- although, I have to admit that I've read both books and the first one made me think a lot about my own behavior in places like Target and K-Mart... Mostly because I realized that there were things I could do to make their lives suck even more... and I ought not do that.
There is a really fine line to be walked. Sometimes when I think about social science work, I feel that way. If you are studying people that are having a hard time aren't you obligated to help? Don't you want your work to make things better for them? Yet usually a successful academic career is more beneficial to the researcher than it is to the research subjects. Is that work really much different than the 'pretending to be poor' writer's?
To answer your question, Breena, the answer is "no" it's not any different, and as a result you do have a set of obligations. There is a very good book by Linda Tuhiwai Smith called Decolonizing Methodologies if you are interested in my views on that.
I wasn't thinking in particular of Nickel and Dimed, though that is the book that I would imagine comes to mind. I'm thinking more of people like Tyra Banks who go out and live "homeless" for a day or two (with bodygaurds and cameramen) to show us how bad it is. On the one hand, I respect it, because at least they are putting themselves on the line a bit and trying to make the invisible visible, to use a cliche. Then there is the other part of me that says Jeez, we walk by bruised and battered homeless women all the time in cities: the only we can find to relate to them is by watching TV?
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