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212 posts tagged food
“Good” and “Bad” Foods
This is just a general observation that relates to thin privilege: It is so frustrating to me how in the U.S. we have warped ideas about food. Foods are either good or bad. The amount of food you eat is either good or bad. These rules apply whether you’re eating alone or with others. In films, you’ll almost never see actors actually eating their food. People will pay thousands of dollars for a starvation diets in the hopes of becoming thin. I feel like we are all so terrified of our food. I think many people with thin privilege are probably less-terrified, but our society’s attitudes towards food take a lot of the joy out of food for everyone.
This is thin privilege. Because it’s okay to make jokes about fat people without worrying about them being offended because fat people don’t have feelings. Because all fat people are fat because they never stop stuffing their faces. Because fat people can never be as intelligent as skinny people. Because there is absolutely nothing funny in that Facebook status.
Thin privilege is not being afraid to take candy from your teacher when you get an answer right in an advanced class. Thin privilege is not replying “oh I just don’t do candy,” when they ask you why. Thin privilege is allowing yourself rewards.
I’ve been vegan for three years and I’m tired of people telling me that I should have lost weight or assuming I’m trying to lose weight. Veganism is not a fad diet. It’s a lifestyle choice that I made because of compassion and a commitment to the animals. It doesn’t make most people thin and I’m tired of the expectation that it will being taken and plastering those expectations all over my intent.
Thin privilege is this ad for Slim-Fast equating being thin with being more sexually desirable, insinuating with its message that what the user really wants is not to be thin but to be sexually attractive because being thin = sexy.
Speech bubble: “I want my jeans to go on easier.”
Thought bubble: “I want my jeans to ~come off~ easier.”
Text at bottom: “Get what you really want. Slim-Fast!”
Thin privilege is being thrown out of a clothing store because “they don’t carry your size anyway”… Even if you were shopping for a friend.
Thin privilege is not walking shamefully out of a restaurant because their chairs didn’t fit your needs.
Thin privilege is not being refused the “all you can eat” buffet because the waitress says you will eat too much.
Thin pivilege is not being told: “You have a beautiful face, it’s a shame that you are so fat…”
Thin privilege is being vastly more likely to receive positive comments about how your body looks instead of shame.
Thin privilege is nearly always having the option to wear whatever you want instead of being told you have to wear very specific kinds of clothes that ‘flatter’ you.
Thin privilege is not being refused to see a doctor at a clinic because you don’t feel the need to lose weight.
Thin privilege is not feeling like you have to send your thin husband, alone, to buy you some sweets or chips because you don’t want to be shamed going yourself.
Thin privilege is being able to eat as much junk food as you want, never gaining an ounce, then shaming someone who gains weight from the slightest bit of it. Thin privilege is society skipping over YOUR eating habits, but telling the girl with a slower metabolism that she isn’t as healthy because she can’t eat whatever she wants without gaining weight. Thin privilege is not having your diet criticized and scrutinized constantly based off your outward appearance.
Thin privilege is not being blamed if food goes missing at the cafe you work at. It’s not having people look at you like you’re committing armed robbery when you take your lunch break. It’s being able to eat pizza without being judged, and being able to eat salad without people acting like it’s the only food you have a right to.
Thin privilege is never having to hear the phrases “You’re cute for a bigger girl” or “You’ll look even better once you lose some weight” or my personal favorite “Well, at least you have your personality. Its never having to hear your doctor say “Why don’t you ask for Weight Watchers for Christmas this year?”. Thin privelege never makes you question if you’d look funny beside your crush because they’re not as big as you are. Its never feeling like you’ll never be good enough to be anyone’s wife one day. Thin privelege is not getting used because he heard that fat girls are easy. Thin privilege doesn’t make you wish a car would just come and hit you full force but make you take back that wish because you don’t want to burden anyone with having to pick up your dead weight. Thin privilege is not having to know that you didn’t get put on the cheerleading squad because of your weight, no matter how good you were. Thin privelege is something I’ve wished for my whole life.
To The Non-Fat Readers
I’ve been watching this blog for awhile now and I wondered if you’d be willing to post my response to many of the folks who come here to troll or think this blog is about hatred or something. First off- it’s not. No one is trying to say thin people are bad people, or that we dislike them because they incur privileges we do not. We’re not trying to play victim or feel sorry for ourselves. We come here to say that no one, no matter the size, should be treated badly because of it, and the examples are there to remind us we aren’t imagining we’re treated differently for our size- a lot of others like ourselves are suffering too.
To those of you who do have a problem with fat people, I want to ask why. You may say it’s about health. Maybe you assume every source listed here is wrong, and every fat person is not only unhealthy, but a lazy person who eats all the time. Now, I know for a fact that is not true, but let’s assume it is, that being fat and overeating is unhealthy. So out of concern, you try to tell us as much. My question is, do you equally “encourage” those who use alcohol, drugs, or smoke cigarettes? Do you insult them and tell them they disturb you or ignore them entirely? Do you go out of your way to reblog them to remind you not to be like them? (You shouldn’t, because again, they’re just regular people). It is commonly agreed that these things are “unhealthy”, so why is it they are considered okay? Meanwhile, there are quite a few skinnier people who eat and drink and are quite lazy in the way fat people are believed to be- but they get away with it.
My guess is, it’s because you don’t find those people as unattractive as fat people. They can still be sexy or at least a human being with perhaps a flaw. Why can’t fat people be seen the same? You have to admit at this point it’s an entirely shallow reason. Maybe to you, fat people are disgusting or unattractive so you don’t want to see them or for them to exist, or perhaps they just make you uncomfortable.
Well, guess what? I don’t find thinspo blogs to be attractive- actually, I find twiggy and severely emaciated girls frightening and I worry for them. I don’t dislike them, though. I don’t follow them to remind myself not to be that way. I don’t treat them any differently, though Goddess knows, if they asked me for someone to listen or care I would. The fact is no one can be attractive to everyone- and that’s okay, because worth is more than how you look, what size you wear, what color you are, or what genitals you have. I’m not asking you to think I’m sexy, I’m asking to accept me being an equal human being.
Thin Privilege is (maybe not the best example of privilege, but an observation I find interesting) is assuming that because I’m fat I eat at least 3 meals a day, with snacks all the time.
While I always make myself at least a simple breakfast, I generally forget to eat for the rest of the day, just existing off tea and coffee to keep me going through labs and lectures. It’ll get to 9 pm and I’ll hear my roommate making dinner and I’ll think ‘oh, lunch… I guess I forgot that, should probably have food now shouldn’t I?’. And yes, I know this isn’t very ‘healthy’, the latest antidepressants I’m on list a decease in appetite as a potential side effect.
Thin Privilege
Thin privilege is not having your boyfriend ask what you would look like skinny, despite his knowledge of your long term disordered eating.
Mod add: The institution of thin privilege (and fat oppression) is training young people to use weight as one of the primary filtration mechanisms on potential partners. This further stresses to young people that partners should be objects that enhance their status rather than full-fledged people in their own right, with dreams, desires, opinions, and flaws. The objectification of potential partners feeds into even more problematic dynamics like rape culture. Thin privilege and fat oppression are intimately related to how we’re taught to treat our partners and sexual interests. -ATL
Thin privilege is when you don’t worry that ordering a salad at a restaurant because you are nauseous and do not want meat or pancakes will make your friends or family think that you’re trying to lose weight.
Thin privilege is when you’re allowed to try to perfect a cookie recipe you’re inventing without your mother getting concerned about the fat content in it.
Thin privilege is not being praised for your eating disorder.
[tw: eating disorders, anorexia]
I have been anorexic since I was 13. I lost a full 100 pounds, going from 200 lbs to 100 lbs, which was sickly for my 5’4 body. I always found ways not to eat. From lying and saying I was nauseous to spitting my food out into an opaque cup. I would fast for hours and hours, only consuming water and gum. I would spend all my time looking at images of anorexic girls and yearning to look like them. Everyone praised me for my extreme weight loss, my doctor praised me the most out of everyone. My entire family complimented me on my willpower. Everyone always asks me how I did it, and I don’t want to tell them I am anorexic, so I lie and say “diet and exercise.” The sickest part? When I gain a slight 5 pounds, I have a major panic attack.
(bold emphasis mine, since it most clearly illustrates how the institution of fat oppression and thin privilege can be incredibly damaging to people with eating disorders -ATL)
