You Gotta Stand for Something

sugaredvenom:

This whole “oh people DO look at my thin body!!!”

Just be quiet

They’re not. You’re just self-absorbed.

Thin people are the norm. They’re what we see in the media. We expect to see thin people, so when we do our brains just tick them off like “yep that’s a person”

It’s when their body markers aren’t alligned with what your brain is TRAINED to expect to see that you notice people, hence the hypervisablity of fat people, disabled people, trans* people and POC.

And godforbid anyone ever intersect on those things, because then people really lose their shit. Over, y’know. A person. Not looking like what they expected. Because that’s totes reasonable??

And if they do notice your body, their first reaction isn’t “ugh!” or a joke about your size. Maybe some light body-policing, but nothing that puts your immediate well-being at risk.

I know what thin people think about fat people. I haven’t always been fat. I know the shit I used to think and say. I know how everyone agreed and said similar shit, but closed up when a fat friend would come in, or make excuses about how OH THEY’RE NOT LIKE THAT.

And you know what?? I still have internalised sizism. I still have size privilege over those fatter than me. And I still have split-second reactions that I know come from those things. If I’M thinking these things, I know a hell of a lot more of y’all are than are willing to admit it.

ANd I don’t hold the internalisations and the privileges and the -isms against you. I really don’t. We live in a system that keeps us fighting and hating on each other as a way to control us and keep each othre down, and that’s some serious bullshit.

What I will hold against you though, is your refusal to DO something about your privilege. To challenge your gut-reaction, or your pre-concieved ideas and your stereotypes and all the oppressive shit you’ve let build up inside you. Because this is about more than you.

tl;dr? Don’t be an asshole. Or at least try to not be an asshole and apologise profusely if you are an asshole by mistake.

THE END.

This ^^^