Stereotypes Part 1: Fat People

For the next two posts I will be addressing common stereotypes related to my topic of fat feminism. This post is about stereotypes associated with fat people. Angry.net (a website whose sole purpose is to offer a place for people to rant) provided many people’s stereotypes of fat people. 

1.     Are never active/ never exercise

The author of the article I linked seems to think losing weight should be a fat person’s biggest goal in life. And if they are not losing weight, it must be because they are not exercising. But there are heavier people who love exercising/ being active just as there are thin people who hate exercising. The size of someone’s body is not always connected to their participation in physical activity. Even Olympic athlete bodies come in a large range of sizes.

2.     Never eat healthy/ constantly eating

Just like with exercising, size is not always related the amount of food a person eats. Metabolism plays a large role in how someone’s everyday diet effects weight gain. People can watch portion sizes and calorie intake and still be larger than someone with a naturally thin person that eats whatever they want because they have a faster metabolism.

3.     Suffer from poor health

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Some people like to believe that they can look at someone and be able to accurately assess that person’s health. However judging someone’s outward appearance does not make one a doctor. Poor health affects all people. A person is not automatically unhealthy because they are overweight and a person is not automatically healthy because they are thin. 

“The only thing that anyone can diagnose, with any certainty, by looking at a fat person, is their own level of stereotype and prejudice toward fat people.”
-Marilyn Wann, “Fat Studies: An Invitation to Revolution”

4.     Smell bad

This stereotype is certainly the most childish misconception a person can have about fat people. Size is in no way connected to the amount of body odor someone produces or how they handle their personal hygiene.

5.     Desperate for sex/ easy/ kinky/ into fetishes

This is probably one of the more harmful misconceptions about fat people. Fat women are often stereotyped as being desperate for sex because they go unloved for so long because of their weight. Some men seem to think that getting a fat woman in bed will be an easy task. It is also rumored that fat women give better blow jobs because they eat so much. These are just misogynistic views of fat women by men who see them as nothing but sex objects. Expecting sex of any woman, regardless of size, is objectification.

6.     Fat people are fat because they are not disciplined and are lazy

Weight gain happens for a myriad of reasons. Some people gain weight because of injuries/ surgeries that leave then bedridden or unable to move and exercise as they did previously. Other health problems unrelated to being overweight or obese can cause weight gain. Medications can sometimes cause an increase in appetite and can make losing weight difficult. To automatically assume that someone is overweight because they are simply lazy is ignorant of possible health problems that are beyond their control.

Fat Celebrities

One would be hard-pressed to find a celebrity that has not been called fat by the media. As soon as an ounce of cellulite is spotted, that famous person is written off as “let themselves go”. Some celebrities have become well known for their large size. It is the celebrities that have embraced their fat and have made it a part of their image, while not letting it become their only quality, that I admire the most. 

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Beth Ditto is the lead singer of the indie band Gossip (O’Brien). Her bold sense of fashion and her wild stage antics set her far apart from the mainstream. She has been known to strip down to her underwear for her concerts (O’Brien). She is a strong advocate for gay rights, fat acceptance, and self-love (O’Brien). What I admire most is her openness with her body. She performs on stage in as tight or as little clothing as popular, thinner singers and she does this without shame.

“Don’t hang out with people who don’t love you. Don’t try to impress people who aren’t worth it. Don’t try to win people over who aren’t worth it. Focus on yourself, and focus on the people who are really awesome and who love you. Don’t hang out with people who make you feel like shit. Don’t spend your energy on them.” - Beth Ditto

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Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe rose to fame in 2009 for her role as the title character in Precious for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (Gabourey). She is currently starring on Showtime’s The Big C (Gabourey). Unlike the character of Precious whose low self-esteem was her main character trait; Gabby self-acceptance of her body and her confidence is inspiring for people of all sizes.

“One day I decided I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I were a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see. Your body is your temple, it’s your home, and you must decorate it.” - Gabourey Sidibe

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Rebel Wilson is an Australian actress who caught fame in America after her roles in Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect (Rebel). I admire Rebel for a different reason than Beth or Gabourey. In 2011, Rebel Wilson became the spokesperson for Jenny Craig in Australia (Rebel). Wanting to lose weight does not automatically mean that someone hates their body. I respect Rebel Wilson because she is confident with her appearance but has chosen to watch her weight to be healthier.

“I know I pick up the roles other actresses don’t want. When there are movies where there are two sisters and one’s the uglier sister, there’s always no actress that wants to go for it. I’m like, why not! They’re the best roles!” - Rebel Wilson

Works Cited

"Gabourey Sidibe." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.

O'Brien, Jon. "About Beth Ditto." MTV. MTV, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013.

"Rebel Wilson." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013.

Love for All Bodies

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Someone cannot claim to be body positive and fight for the right of respect for one body type then bash another body shape. This will only hurt their cause in the end. As I said in the first couple of posts on this blog, fat feminism is not limited to only those over a certain size. This blog is about self-love and body-positivity which is for people of all shapes and size. 

It seems that some fat people (especially women) are put into this stereotype that they hate skinny people. Fat women are often shown being jealous of any woman thinner than them, so they hate them for stealing men and getting everything they want. Society has set up a terrible double standard when it comes to women’s bodies. Just as overweight women are told by the media that they need to be thin to be attractive, thin people are told that they need to be curvy. Women are told to carry a certain amount of weight in exact places (breasts, hip, and butt) so they do not look like boys, but not to have too much because then they will just be fat and unattractive. 

Every woman struggles with their body image and how they perceive themselves at some point in their lives. Rather than tearing down one body type to make another seem better, people need to help each other see the worth in all of their bodies.

Misogyny and Size Discrimination in Cosplay

Link Cosplay; Lumpy Space Princess Cosplay; Wonder Woman and Poison Ivy Cosplay

        Seeing as I attended Katsucon from the 15th until the 17th, it is only fitting to write about this topic now. A fairly new hobby of mine is cosplaying. Cosplaying is a portmanteau for costume player. Cosplayers wear costumes of their favorite characters from comic books, web comics, animes, and TV shows. Their costumes are often self-made or put together from found clothing. Rarely do cosplayers just purchase costumes that can be found at any party store. Cosplayers may also have costumes custom made. Cosplaying is a major part of comic and anime conventions were people wear their cosplays, have photo shoots, and may compete for awards for best cosplays. But something that should be fun for everyone has people trying to exclude others who they deem unworthy.

        Misogyny is an unfortunate part of cosplaying. Women are often ridiculed for even attending conventions and/or participating in cosplaying. With the recent release of the blockbuster, The Avengers, there has been a wave of men calling female fans “fake geek girls.” A fake geek girl is a female who only likes comics or certain TV shows because it is what is popular at the moment. There really is no such thing as a fake geek girl. No one should be told they are not allowed to like something or participate in an activity because they do not have encyclopedic knowledge about that subject.

        On November 12, 2012, comic book illustrator Tony Harris wrote a long rant on his Facebook claiming that any woman cosplaying at a convention is not a true fan, but an attention seeker trying to lure men. What Harris does not realize is that not everything a woman does revolve around men. Cosplaying is not done just to look attractive for men and going to conventions is not done just because women want to go hunting for guys. Tony Harris’ slut-shaming of women in the cosplay community is similar to what all women face. Buzzfeed summarizes Harris’ thoughts perfectly; “Ladies, you are clearly here only for our amusement but we loathe you for it, you whores. How dare you expose your skin to portray a character?... You owe us your time. If you are going to dress like a whore, you OWE US. You are not a person, you are a thing, and by God, you will speak to us or we will slut-shame you right out of our world.” No woman should be ashamed of the way she wants to dress. Whether it is for cosplay or for everyday life. And she certainly does not owe anyone anything.

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        Females have a hard enough battle to fight when it comes to wanting to cosplay. And they have an even harder time when their character has a costume that shows some skin. It seems some men only tolerate women cosplaying if they have a sexy outfit with plenty of cleavage for them to look at. But God forbid a plus-sized woman should want to participate and not live up to a man’s standard of beautiful. I would be willing to guess that at least 90 percent of the people cosplaying do not have the exact body type of their character. Most men do not have the muscles of a super hero, yet they dress as popular heroes all the time. Most women do not have the large breasts, tiny waist, and long muscular legs of female characters but that does not have to stop them from enjoying cosplaying as them. Larger women do not have to be limited to larger characters either. The reality is that almost everyone cosplays outside of their body type and there is nothing wrong with that.

Cosplaying is an art form and should be an enjoyable experience for all who want dedicate their time to participating. No one should have to justify how well they know their character to anyone and they do not have to look exactly like a character to want to cosplay as them. If someone is having fun with what they are doing; no one should make them feel bad for doing that because they do not satisfy their standards.

To finish off this post, I thought I should share some photos of my cosplays. I unfortunately do not have photos of all my finished costumes. I guess I was just having too much fun running around in them. 

Ode to the Bouncer Cherry; Eros and Apollo Cherry; Hawkeye

I have cosplayed as:

·       Cherry from the Studio Killers (both her Ode to the Bouncer and Eros and Apollo outfits)

·       A female version of Eric Cartman from South Park

·       A female version of Hawkeye (his outfit from the 2012 Aja/ Fraction comic

books)

·       Anderson from BBC Sherlock (This was a crossplay)

I absolutely love cosplaying. So far most of my costumes have been put together from found clothing but I have done some DIY. I got a sewing machine recently and am hoping to make a cosplay from scratch. I have cosplayed as a character (Cherry) who has a body almost exactly like mine as well as characters with a body nothing like mine. This did not stop me from enjoying myself and feeling good about my cosplay.

Stop Looking to BMI for Accuracy

Take a second to calculate your Body Mass Index here. Now I want you to ignore whatever result you got because it has most likely given you an inaccurate result and gives no accurate measure of your health.

Before beginning my research for this post, I would have thought that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was a reliable source for health information. However their definition of Body Mass Index is completely inaccurate:

“Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems” (CDC).

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            Seeing that the CDC described BMI as “reliable” is both laughable and harmful. BMI is an extremely flawed way to measure body fat. BMI uses just height and weight measurements to try to determine if someone is underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese (Brunning). The problem is that BMI does not take into account a person’s body composition (Brunning). Athletes with large amounts of muscle mass will weigh more. They may show up on the BMI scale as overweight or even obese. BMI cannot tell the difference between muscle mass and body fat (Brunning).

            BMI also has absolutely nothing to do with how healthy an individual may be. Someone with heart disease may show up as “normal” on the BMI scale while someone overweight or obese may be perfectly healthy. This does not mean that a person is automatically in good health if they are overweight or obese (Prevent Disease). This just means that BMI is completely unrelated to health and other tests are needed to determine how healthy a person is.

            If an individual is concerned about their weight and their health, then the Body Mass Index is not the direction to look to. Judging someone’s health because of where they fall on the BMI scale is extremely ignorant. “There are many, many technically ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ persons who eat balanced meals, watch their caloric intake, and exercise on a regular basis” (Adipose Activist).

            BMI has been used for 200 years now and scientists are working on new and more accurate ways to measure someone's body fat. BAI (Body Adiposity Index) uses height and hip measurements (Huffington Post). Taking waist/hip measurements has been seen to be more accurate in predicting health concerns such as diabetes and hypertension (Huffington Post).

            I find it very concerning how BMI is still accepted by many people as being accurate. I remember being so embarrassed when I had to have my BMI measured in middle school for FACS class. I also remember calculating my BMI years later when it was in the health section of Seventeen magazine. I was so concerned because I was “obese” according to the BMI scale. I now know that I should ignore this outdated way of measuring body fat and instead focus  on my health which can be determined in far more accurate ways.