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Intersectionality And Fat Folks
Activists Must Embrace It In The Battle For Freedom
If you’ve ever read my blog you’ll know one of the key topics I discuss is the fact that I am fat. It’s also a fact that I am okay with being fat. It’s taken a lot of work but I truly love myself just the way I am.
My happiness doesn’t mean that I don’t come under the blanket of society’s prejudices about fat people though. I’m seen as unattractive if not downright ugly. I’m seen as lazy or greedy. People assume that I either don’t like to exercise or I don’t know how to exercise. They are extra effusive in their praise if they see me at the gym. Patronising much?
Until I read about intersectionality the types of discrimination I don’t suffer had never occurred to me.
My Privilege
With the exception of being fat, I know that my life is one of privilege. A lot of privilege. Here’s a list:
- I am white
- My sexuality is straight, and even more than straight I’m married, which takes a big old box in the conservative sections of society
- My gender is cisnormative
- I live in the western world, which is a world of plenty — I never worry about where my next meal is coming from
