Fat Black & Ugly

(I posted this on my tumblr, http://hiphopcheerleader.tumblr.com/)

Let me start this off by saying that I'm not very familiar with Tumblr. I've been active on here for a couple of months but I'm not Tumblr famous or anything. I still can't figure out how to reply to people's replies and I don't really do any serious writing on here. The times that I do write, my posts never get as many notes as I feel they deserve. Lol.

But I'm writing here today to address something that I've noticed. The lack of blackness in the Tumblr fat community.

Now, I should also say. I'm coming from a place of thin privilege over here. Therefore, I use the word fat, not as a reclamation but as the word that is usually meant to mean overweight, obese, and/or overall "thick." Also, I want to make it clear that I am not in the position to speak for anyone, I know the fat, black community is in a perfectly capable position to speak for themselves. I am speaking (in solidarity, I hope) as a black woman who is permanently outside of white standards of beauty. That said, direct me, if you please, to any posts on this subject made by fat black womyn.

First, I want to make this clear for anyone whose forgotten.: White people who are fat, still have white privilege. I'm not sure why this is so difficult to understand but intersectionality folks. Intersectionality. Just because you are oppressed in some ways in your life, doesn't erase your position as a privileged white individual. For example, I am able bodied, meaning I have privilege over a black-disabled person. The fact that I'm black doesn't mean I can disregard the fact that I am able bodied.

What I've noticed is that the fat, white community on Tumblr has a problem with this fact. Why am I not surprised? Because its typical white people shit. Mu'fuckas just don't want to acknowledge their privilege. Following a few fat blogs, I see about 20 times the number of posts on the beauty of white fat womyn than I do for fat black womyn. I guess these fat white womyn feel they are rejecting the beauty myth but by leaving out womyn of color they are only reinforcing it. Remember the time a fat white woman compared her being fat to the struggle of a black woman goes through? Only one fail from the white, fat tumblr community. Another fail was when the woman who creates "ugly" graphics used a black woman in one with a banner across it stating "ugly don't care." Or the gif with the white woman from glee singing TLC's Unpretty, she wasn't fat & neither are TLC but still showed that y'all don't get it. Or the picture with all the white womyn with "real" bodies trying to show bodily diversity but didn't think to include any womyn of color. this is all just another reason & facet to why white feminists fail at developing full analyses, they stop at where their privilege meets & leave womyn of color out for the 5011th time. your whiteness doesn't erase shit. you're still white. fat white womyn are concerned by how well they fit into the perfect white beauty myth & black womyn are concerned that we are constantly judged by how well we fit into that myth, no matter how hard we try to fit in, our attempts are futile.

Here's where I get into the difference between being a fat black woman & a fat white woman: a fat black woman could so much more accurately talk about this than I can but here goes: fat tumblr has a white face. why am i not surprised? because its typical white shit. to exclude womyn of color voices & in the case of beauty politics, particularly, black womyn. the rhetoric still exists: black womyn are not really womyn & we're not even really human. our beauty politics don't matter because we're so far gone from ever being beautiful, trying to include us is a worthless, waste of time. white fat womyn on tumblr seem to be reclaiming their fatness in an effort to say "I am still a white woman! i am still apart of the beautiful people club! stop thinking my body is ugly! accept me!" they seem to be trying to (i don't want to assume anyone's motives) reclaim their stake in beautiful white womanhood because its been taken away from them due to their fatness. But black womyn don't have that privilege. Fat is seen as something that can be changed. This is why people tell fat people to lose weight. they just tell black womyn to die. The belief is that if fat white womyn just lose weight, then they can go back to being in the beautiful club. White womyn are still within the realm of attainable beauty. Black womyn are not. Skin color cannot be changed, its permanent. beauty is constructed. & its constructed against black womyn. black fat womyn get treated harsher (a fat black woman would do better in coming up with specific examples) than white fat womyn because of their ugly, permanent, unfortunate blackness. race compounds the fat plight. its seen as a continual, permanent ugliness. white womyn are seen as just being temporary deviants. if you lose weight you can come back to our exclusive white woman pretty club. but you black fat bitches are out forever because then we'd have nothing to measure ourselves up against.

the end.

*drops mic*

Yes, It Still Matters: Light vs Dark: Updated

This post if by request. Usually when I write posts, its because I want to shed some light on the situation and present a prespective that I feel probably hasn't been thought about before. This time, someone actually suggested to me a perspective that I hadn't thought about before. What this post about, is the age-old debate of light skinned vs. dark skinned. Dark skinned vs Light skinned is a issue that some see as only happening in the black community, but it is an issue in every culture, from Mexican to Indian. I am someone who believes colonization is the root of almost all problems that we have in the world and especially in the US. The main ingredient of colonization was a white, male centric standard. Sometimes, standards can be good, most times they are bad. Yet, having standards is an idea that is seen as appealing to people. However, when we place standards on people that inhibit who they are as a person, the standards become dangerous instead of helpful. This is what the white standard does. It gives everyone an idea to try to live up to, but an idea that they will ultimately never achieve. The white standard, includes an ideal of beauty; thin, long, straight hair, and white skin. Minorities work everyday to try to achieve this white standard of beauty; with weaves, skin bleaching creams, and constant dieting. Minorities, not only try to achieve this beauty standard within ourselves, but we find ways to marginalize those who don't try to achieve, or don't achieve this beauty standard and we find ways to create a hierarchy, with those that have achieved the beauty standard as much as possible. For example, the people who are light skinned and have long hair are valued above those who don't. In addition, we tell fat people to lose weight, we tell those with natural hair to get a weave, etc. We constantly find ways for those who are not apart of the white standard, to try to achieve it.

In the black community, we create the two identities or dark skinned/light skinned as opposing, binary identities and treat them as sub-races. Light skinned, long hair; dark skinned; short, nappy hair; these are believed to be the true identities of the black race. (Read: School Daze) There's a constant fight between these two identities. Now, I'm not here to knock anyone's perference of getting a weave, or dieting or liking a dark skinned/light skinned complexion in a mate, however, we have to understand that the issue is deeper than just preference, its very possible that your preference is because of the influence that this standard has.

This is a real issue in many communities, but we never really hear of any possible solutions to the problems, we just have repetitive conversations about the problem, what do yall think can help solve the issue?