by Marilyn Wann - NAAFA Board Member and Fat Rights Agitator
I scrutinize my words when I talk or write about weight. I consider the assumptions, the politics, and the likely effect of my words on readers or listeners. Twelve years into this practice, I'm still refining my word choice.
A while ago, a group of fat activists (Jennifer Portnick, Elena Escalera, Esther Rothblum, and myself) attended a year's worth of monthly meetings of a task force appointed by San Francisco legislators that was initially called the Task Force on Childhood Obesity Prevention; then, before they even saw us coming they changed the name to the Task Force on Childhood Nutrition and Physical Activity (perhaps in hopes we'd be appeased?). In talking about this profoundly irksome group, I called it the Task Force for the Abolition of Fat Children. All three of these names were accurate descriptions of the body in question.
People in this culture are trained to view the world through weight-colored lenses. The anti-"obesity" crowd will co-opt weight-neutral descriptors to push their weight-biased agenda. When we talk about celebrating weight diversity and Health At Every Size (HAES), we also need to point out the distorting lenses to people, ask them to remove them, reassure them they'll still be able to see, perhaps more clearly than they did before.
Years ago, I heard oppression compared to being in an elevator, and having someone stand on your foot. Whether the person is knowingly or unknowingly standing on your foot isn't immediately clear, but they keep doing it. What do you say? Do you clear your throat and say, "Excuse me, but you'restanding on my foot"? Still, they stand on you. What do you say next? "Please stop stepping on me." "Hey, get off my foot." "Ouch, that hurts!"
What do they say in response? "I'm not standing on you." "People who allow their feet to get stepped on must enjoy it." "Foot-stepping is an honored tradition in elevators." "If you didn't want me to step on your foot, why did you place it under mine?" If you witnessed this exchange as a fellow passenger on the elevator, what would you say or do?
I don't think anyone is a bad person. I think foot-stepping is bad. In old-school elevators, everyone is at risk of stepping on feet or being stepped on. Not fun for anyone, I imagine. Wouldn't it be lovely if feet were respected and safe from harm in elevators?
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