Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Fat Talk

6 replies

mumwithdice · 25/03/2012 14:55

Someone linked to this post in an AIBU thread, but I wanted to bring it over here to see what you all made of it.

It caught my eye because I have been guilty of doing this. I am BFing, chasing an active little person, I walk every day and my clothes fit yet I still had to ask DH to remind me that it was all right to feel hungry and to eat to alleviate said hunger. Why do we do this?

OP posts:
blackcurrants · 25/03/2012 19:06

because we don't feel that we deserve to be here, let alone that we deserve to be here and not 100% perfect looking in every regard.

Woe betide we should take up one inch more space in this world than the patriarchy allows!

I hate the 'good' and 'bad' and 'naughty' talk about food. I fucking HATE IT. Whenever my mother starts up on "ooh, cake, so nauughty" I say: "It's cake. Not stealing, not genocide. Cake. Have some, or don't. But it's not a moral agent. It's FOOD."

ARGH HARHGHOURHFIGOSUNFVSD ARGH!

blackcurrants · 25/03/2012 19:12

also, I think anxiety about being allowed to satiate your hunger, and being allowed to even feel hungry (i.e. have needs) is extremely feminine-coded behaviour. Can you imagine for even a moment worrying about whether or not your child 'should' feel hungry? Can you imagine spending time thinking about whether or not your child should want to eat something so s/he can not feel hungry any more? Cos I can't. If my child is hungry, when he was very small, I fed him, and now he's bigger, I either give him food or tell him that there will be food very very soon. It makes perfect sense to me, that I should answer his needs. Why on earth shouldn't I answer my own? But there's still that doubt that I should.

I don't know of a single man who worries, when he's tired, if he should let himself sleep. Or who worries, if he's cold, if he should be feeling cold, or if perhaps giving in and putting on a jumper would be greedily-comfort-seeking.

Women are told that they aren't allowed to have needs or desires, and they're certainly not allowed to give themselves what they need or desire. Hell's bells: if women look after themselves then they're not looking after men, and we can't have that, can we?!

I think all the 'ooh, I'm having cake! i'm so bad! it will make me fat!' performance is a performance, yes, it's for others, but it is a way of propitiating the social stigma about women actually caring for themselves instead of others. "I'm feeding myself something I want or need, but so that you don't judge me for selfishly caring for myself, I will make a loud noise explaining that I know I am doing wrong, and I feel bad."

It makes me want to vomit, that we should be in this situation.

CrunchyFrog · 26/03/2012 10:02

Fat talk keeps you fat anyway.

Really does.

I am so happy to be liberated from it! I've lost the 6 stone of unnecessary weight that I had on by just not conforming to the diet industry any more. I will eat whatever I want whenever I want it. I am sick of the Hmm faces if I e.g. eat a tray bake or something with my tea - I think a lot of people genuinely believe I'm vomiting up everything I eat, because they have been brainwashed into believing that if you eat normal food, you cannot be thin.

We as women are so screwed up and twisted about food and body image, and it's all backwards. Sad.

swallowedAfly · 26/03/2012 10:23

But if a dog is picked on, and it feels for whatever reason that it will lose, what it does is to roll over and expose its throat and belly. It?s a gesture that says, here: you can kill me if you want to, here are all the soft vulnerable parts. It?s intended to appease the aggressor in the exchange, make it feel that there is no challenge or danger coming from this direction, so that they won?t escalate the violence. It?s a way of, essentially, saving your life by offering it up. Actions like these aren?t uncommon, amongst pack animals who operate in a hierarchical fashion; they?re called ?submissive gestures.? Or, if you?re a human being, they?re called ?femininity.?

and another penny drops perfectly into place....

swallowedAfly · 26/03/2012 10:25

most of the shit i've had in my life from men and women alike has been through my refusal to roll around on my back like a submissive dog. the punishments for not doing that can be pretty full on, i'm not sure she covers that reality fairly, but none the less yep, not doing it is feminism.

mumwithdice · 29/03/2012 10:44

Thank you all. I think it is about taking up space mostly. It's sort of a You can have the space if you acknowledge that it isn't really yours and apologise for borrowing it.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page