Topic of Discussion: How far does the notion of body acceptance reach?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

 Sometimes I feel like the message being sent by people's actions is that your fat body is ok as long as your eyebrows are arched, your legs and pits are shaved, and you dress "nice". It makes me wonder why it is that we can manage to accept something as radical as a fat body, but we have trouble letting go of other social norms. I get message after message about the state of my eye brows and I don't understand why. If our fat bodies are no one else's concern why are my eyebrows? I see people on tumblr making comments about people's hairy legs or arm pits and I wonder the same thing. I find it all to be very hypocritical when people make such bold statements about how every body deserves to be treated fairly and not be criticized, but then they make comments about other aspects of people's bodies not pertaining to weight.

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These are my eye brows a few weeks ago.

This also makes me feel like if you're fat and you aren't dressed "nice" then you're invisible. When I see statements made about me on Tumblr like, "Wow, a big girl that can dress", I feel happy because that is meant as a compliment, but at the same time I wonder would my being fat be as accepted if I just had on jeans and a T - Shirt? What about if you could see my hanging stomach through my clothes? Or if you could see the bulges on my back? I just wonder how people (online and on the street) would react to me if I my clothing choices were uneventful.

Some times when I look at blog a blogger may where a outfit where their book rolls or stomach are showing and that is discussed negatively in the comments. In this post I was told my pants were unflattering because it looked like I had a camel toe, but in reality what you were really looking at was my stomach. The message I get from this is that its ok to be fat as long as you camouflage your body and make it look as much like larger version of an ideal (to some) straight size body as you can. This means no large bulges, no hanging stomach, and no large back rolls. The fact is I am fat and while not every fat body is the same I happen to have one where my stomach hangs. I don't wear body shapers of any kind and a lot of time my stomach will show through my clothes. That is my reality.

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In this outfit you see my stomach through my clothes.

I  guess my basic questions are
Is every body a good body or are only certain kinds of bodies good bodies?
Is there an acceptable way to be fat?
How far does the notion of body acceptance reach?
Why is weight often not up for discussion but other aspects of the body are?

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