Privelege, unravelled and in a knot?

[nwhiker]

The concept of "privilege" is one that is, I think, difficult to see from the inside. I mean, I'm, pretty much, an upper middle class white woman. I have loads of privilege related to that. I'm fat, so I lose some. I have lived as a kinda non-privileged person (in France), so I know a bit about prejudice.

Still very aware of loads of privilege.

I know I've linked to Shakesville before because I love that blog. I love the political perspective, the unapologetic feminist view point, the respectful attitudes toward the concept of safe place, and the unfailing "calling out" on privilege. I don't comment much there, because I fear using a word they find offensive, or saying something that isn't ok. They aren't very tolerant of even slightly divergent view points when it comes to some things. Which is fine. (The one thing I despise about the blog is rather minor: the whole zie/hir bit. I much prefer s/he or whatever.) Anyhow.

I do like that they call out privilege when it asserts itself, because we often don't realise it. When a black woman comments about her hair being touched, to cite a recent example, saying OMG, when I was in Africa/Asia, people touched my blond hair too is irrelevant, it is NOT the same thing and it is offensive at the very least.

They're also very good about calling out thin privilege, and it's a fat accepting place. They strike for inclusiveness and respectful language. Overall, it's a pretty awesome group of bloggers/commenters.

With, imo, one pretty serious blind spot.

This post was made last week: Quote of the Day and since it's so short, I'll grab most of the post:

"By calling girls like me fat this is what you're doing to other people." — Miley Cyrus, on her twitter, responding to critics of her new, plumper body, by posting a picture of an emaciated woman. [...] Miley followed up with a tweet stating "I don't wanna be shaped like a girl I LOVE being shaped like a WOMAN."

Yay, Miley Cyrus, right? I mean, she's right: she isn't fat in the slightest, and skewing the perspective of what fat means is hurtful to many people. If someone like her is "fat", WTF are the rest of us?

Cyrus says that she loves being shaped like a woman.

And the pile-on at Shakesville started in the comments. The very thin women started to complain.

They're not fond of the "real women have curves" mantra. Yeah, I understand why. Real women are... women, they may or may not have curves. I get why the distaste.

But you know that? Fuck that.

Complaining like many people do, that "real women have curves" is a exclusionary vision because they're women, but they're flat chested/hipless/buttless is, imo, shit.

Because those poor skinny curveless women? Are the dominant paradigm of beauty in our society.

Whining that they don't have curves and they're women and it's not right to say to be a real women is to have curves because they don't, repeat ad nauseum, is about as offensive to me as a blue-eyed blonde with fair skin and straight hair complaining that "Black is Beautiful!" excludes her, because her skin is "pale as milk", and she can't sport an Afro in a million years because her hair is just too silky.

When you are the standard by which beauty is measured, screaming that you're be discriminated against by Real Women Have Curves, is, imo, hypocritical beyond belief, and to totally awash in privilege, I don't see how one can even unpick it.

Yes, I can see very thin, boyishly shaped women do get some negative stereotypes thrown their way, but nowhere near what happens to a curvier woman (Eat a sandwich vs Die fat pig!). Nobody takes their thin body shape to be a symbol of their morality (fat people are greedy gluttons, they're lazy and dirty). They are not prejudged in the same way. [eta] Nobody blames those thin boyish women for global warming and food prices. Just like nobody blames extremely thin kids for the economic crisis, like Michelle Obama did fat kids.

Curvier women have embraced "Real Women Have Curves" because it's one small fucking bit of positive light shone on curvier bodies. Whining that you, on whom the light of privilege shines brightly, are being excluded from this small bit of positivity, is like white men complaining that "women and blacks get it all". [eta] Or Christians complaining about "Happy Holidays" and calling themselves persecuted.

This has always bothered me at Shakesville, that they don't call out that bit of privilege, saying "yes, thin women, I understand that you are not overly endowed with curves... but a good percentage of the population would pick your body out as the archetype of a beautiful body, so please don't complain."