Amy Farrell’s book Fat Shame breaks down the ways ‘fat shame’ plays out through race, class, and gender. Her unique theory on the relation between fat and citizenship shines light on how fat acts as an umbrella for feminist issues that address race, class and gender. Fat as a theoretical contemporary feminism, and perspective provides space to launch discussions that address intersectional identifiers (race, class, gender). Fat discussions are an important aspect to feminist discussion because they address power relations by challenging societal norms of citizenship. Citizenship is often understood in constitutional terms but the citizenship that Farrell addresses is a citizenship of belonging and often becomes a citizenship of exclusivity. To clarify a definition of citizenship Dictionary.com defines Citizenship as,
the character of an individual viewed as a member of society; behavior in terms of the duties, obligations, and functions of a citizen: an award for good citizenship.
The keyword that hits me is, “obligations”. Society has constructed humans worthy of citizenship when they fulfill and adhere to specific obligations. Obligations In normative American culture this obligation plays out for women as an obligation to be thin, yet curvy. To fulfill normative societal constructed obligations is to be worthy of power. Citizenship equates to power. When fat people are denied citizenship they become marginalized, fat becomes an alienated demographic, a other. In essence women’s studies, studies power dynamics and exploitation of those constructed as others. Historically feminism has played into cycles of fat shame as seen in suffragist rhetoric reinforcing ideas of fat bodies as humiliating, “certain people were simply more fit for citizenship than others” (104). Feminists histories’ undermining of fat bodies has carried over into contemporary feminism creating challenges for feminists in dealing with women and standards of beauty. I believe fat studies has a lot to teach feminists about fighting mainstream dominant culture because fat spans all identifiers. I am curious to know more about how fat plays out in masculine identities. Fat men are stigmatized differently than fat women. I can think of a lot more men who are fat in popular culture than I can women. Does this mean their bodies are more accepted than women’s fat ones? Is there something for us to learn in the acceptance of fat men’s bodies or is this just because their sexuality is constructed differently?
Citizenship should be about obligations to social justice, and equality of society. If one does not belong, they are marginalized and this is seen through the multiplicity of stigma’s surrounding fat. It is a shame fat discussion does not occur more often. Fat needs to be discussed in positive ways, especially by feminists but also by the general public. Perhaps fat talks can teach us new ways to understand what citizenship is and allow us to understand what the ultimate purpose and goal of citizenship is in the first place. My ideal citizenship would be one that uplifted the entire community by including and valuing people’s differences, even fat.
While reading this, I was reminded of men in popular culture who are fat. The main person I could think of was, the comedian, Gabriel Iglesias because he says he's fluffy and not fat. Thus showing that even males have this need to explain their body and to cover up the word fat. Perhaps it's hard for me to think of many other male figures who may be fat in the media because they are so rare, females even rarer. I keep coming back to this image of President Obama in magazines working out on a beach. Our own president can't even be fat. Citizenship has become more based on the fact that you must be thin to be considered somebody.
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