obesity | The Scarlett Woman

I preach on this here blog about body policing and that a thin woman’s body is no more public property than a large woman’s.

But the other day, I found myself guilty of fat-shaming.

I was speaking to a friend about a mutual acquaintance’s new boyfriend. I marveled at the fact that said acquaintance had a boyfriend, as she is morbidly obese.

I’m cringing just typing those words. If anyone should be ashamed, it’s me.

I pride myself on being colour-blind, disability-blind, weight-blind, gender-blind, sexual orientation-blind and whatever other blindness you can think of. But I slipped up.

Health issues aside, which this woman would have to have, or be on the verge of having, everyone deserves love and acceptance and no one deserves to be judged by the way they look.

I’m judged by the way I look every single day. Because I take pride in my appearance and dress nicely, people think I’m well off, which couldn’t be further from the truth!

Because I am in tune with my inner teen, and speak the way of the “OMG Girl”, people think I’m dumb.

Because I usually wear tight, body-con dresses when I go out dancing because they make me feel good, people think I’m a slut (whatever that means).

One misconception I don’t have to deal with is people thinking I’m unhealthy and unlovable because of my weight.

So, I’m going to use this regrettable incident to practice what I preach. Down with fat-shaming!

So a Tattoo Makes Me Public Property, Huh?

So Misunderstood.

SlutWalk.

Unfinished Business at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Images via Top News, The Daily Telegraph, Yahind News.

These iconic images, taken by photographer Lennart Nilsson for Life magazine in 1965, and later used for pro-life propaganda materials, have actually been taken of aborted embryos, not living fetuses in the womb:

“Although claiming to show the living fetus, Nilsson actually photographed abortus material obtained from women who terminated their pregnancies under the liberal Swedish law. Working with dead embryos allowed Nilsson to experiment with lighting, background and positions, such as placing the thumb into the fetus’ mouth.”

“Does Carrying Condoms Make You Easy?” Will.I.Am seems to think so.

Erica Bartle on maintaining the balance between “frothy and bubbly and frivolous” and her passion for writing about her faith and God on Girl with a Satchel, which she understands can sometimes be “like receiving a knock on the door from a Jehovah’s Witness (or a pamphlet in the postbox)” for some. (Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m one of them.) Food for “critical thought”.

Should the government be pouring money into funding to fight domestic violence against women and children, when there are also men who are victims of domestic violence out there?

Girl crush porn in Mia Freedman’s new weekly post, “A Week in the Life” on MamaMia.

The importance of “good, old-fashioned” sub-editing.

How to be a Playboy Club Bunny, circa 1968.

Love, domestic violence and Gossip Girl.

On Hillary Clinton being photoshopped out of the situation room photo in Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung:

“The religious paper never publishes pictures of women, as they could be considered ‘sexually suggestive.’ Apparently the presence of a woman, any woman, being all womanly and sexy all over the United States’ counterterrorism efforts was too much for the editors of Der Tzitung to handle…

“Der Tzitung edited Hillary Clinton out of the photo, thereby changing history. To my mind, this act of censorship is actually a violation of the Jewish legal principle of g’neivat da’at (deceit).”

Would you rather be blind or obese? According to an Arizona State University study, 1 in 6 women would choose the former…

Images via The Hairpin, Sociological Images.

The Scarlett Woman

Discussing femin- & other -isms

Tag Archives: obesity

Body Image: My Name’s Scarlett, And I’m a Fat-Shamer.

On the (Rest of the) Net.