So I’ve been seeing things on-line lately that amount to thin derailment regarding fat oppression and fat liberation posts - basically comments like “but this happens to thin people too!” and “everyone’s body is judged like this.” This is a difficult thing to address because on one level, yes body policing is pervasive, and a variety of people get harangued re: whether or not they have an acceptable body, in one aspect or another. A discussion about fat oppression does not mean no other body policing exists, or that people who participate in that discussion, don’t realize that other types of body policing exists. It just means that for that moment, the conversation is being centered on fat bodies - that’s it. Why this continues to be problem in many on-line spaces, is beyond me.
Although body policing is pervasive, there are relative privileges out there. Simply put, I think the fatter you are, the harder it is culturally for you to gain acceptance. Not everyone has the realistic fear of being kicked off a plane due to their fat - this is an actual difference in the lives of the extremely fat, just as one example. These differences matter, and talking about these differences and differing variations of privileges matter. I wish the lives of fat people, and our expressed experiences of oppression were taken seriously more and listened to in their own right, without being dismissively told “oh well, everyone goes through that.” No not everyone goes what we go through, not exactly, it’s more complicated than that.
THIS!
I’ve seen this among fat people, too, where larger fat people are just told to stop being divisive towards smaller fats because or where fat men try to recenter discussions about how fat women are treated. The discussion of the unique concerns and needs of one community shouldn’t be seen as hostile to related but different concerns. Trying to reduce things to some sort of essential level just erases already marginalized perspectives in pursuit of the lowest common denominator. There can both be an umbrella discussion of how body shaming acts in a larger context AND a discussion of how body shaming acts in the context of fat bodies. Responding to discussions about the fat context with “what about the thin people” is worse the unproductive, its actively destructive.
