Future of Feminism, Day Eighteen: Size Acceptance

On day eighteen, I give a brief overview of the importance of the fat acceptance movement:

While I’ve already spent some time discussing the dangerous ways the media sexualizes women and girls, and how it gives the false impression that to be attractive, popular and interesting you must be skinny and hyper-feminine, today I want to switch things up little and talk about the body acceptance movement (also called “size acceptance” or “fat acceptance”), which attempts to combat the negative stereotypes around women and men who are conventionally considered overweight or obese.

One thing bears mentioning upfront: Fighting for body acceptance does not mean promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, according to Linda Bacon’s landmark book, Health at Every Size, and other recent studies, dieting is often ineffective at handling obesity, and sometimes the extreme measures used to combat obesity–surgery, liposuction, aggressive exercise programs–are more harmful than the extra weight. Not to mention that it’s far from true that all thin people are healthy. The myth that skinny equals healthy is rooted in our cultural obsession with weight and the media’s idolization of rail-thin actors and models.

Read the rest here.

Future of Feminism, Day Fifteen: Advocating for Sex Workers

Today's post considers some of the initiatives out there designed to support, advocate for and protect sex workers:

There’s no doubt that sex work in its various manifestations, ranging from stripping to prostitution to pornography, remains a contentious issue. It’s one on which even feminists notoriously disagree–a “fracture in ideology,” according to Kate Holden–with discussions veering back and forth between victimization and empowerment.

Of course there’s a substantial difference between becoming a sex worker by choice and, say, being sex trafficked by force, and I doubt anyone would argue that forced prostitution is empowering. However, “sex slavery,” as popularized in films and on shows such as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, represents a more extreme scenario, with many sex workers–at least in the U.S.–falling somewhere on a spectrum between choice and circumstance. One thing isn’t really up for debate, though: A sex worker, woman or man, cis- or transgender, shouldn’t be deprived of rights, protection or access to health care due to the social stigma that weighs on their profession. Today’s post features projects and organizations recognizing that no one should be left behind in our continual battle for equality.

Click here for more.

A Feminist Countdown to 2011 ~ Day One

From my post over at the Ms. Blog:

When I was a very young child, I received a late November package all the way from my grandmother in Germany. It was a large, cloth Advent Calendar, designed to hang on the back of my bedroom door and fitted with little pockets, one for each day leading up to December 25. In each pocket she’d stuffed a tiny toy or bit of candy for me to retrieve day by day. I took so much pleasure in this calendar that my parents felt compelled to fill it for me each year around the holidays, well into my preteens.

I wanted to pass on the joy of this countdown-of-treats to Ms. readers. So, I present to you a secular version of my childhood calendar to help us at the Ms. Blog count down to 2011.

As the days pass, you’ll see more and more of the image behind the dates revealed. You’ll also be offered links to virtual feminist “treats”–a video, a game, a story. Check back each day to see what’s next!

Presenting my Feminist Advent Calendar! Day One is up...



(Click here to visit the home page with the full calendar)

Health Care Bills and Protests

The health care reform bill just passed, and there's a bunch of unhappy people all over the country.

I won't pretend to understand the issue completely (I got bored and stopped following it closely a long time ago). But if the summaries are correct, (and the CBO is accurate, which seems reasonable), we'll get a moderate reduction in the deficit, some new taxes for the rich and people who use tanning salons, some decent subsidy expansions for low-income people, and some mild tweaks to medicaid and medicare. All quite undramatic, really.

All of which makes the protests quite bewildering.

However you look at it, this is not a new health care system. It's certainly not a single-payer universal coverage system. It's not going to allow the government to regulate the industry tightly, and it's not abolishing medicare/caid.

For that matter, the bill barely even falls under the reform category. I daresay what most feminists wanted (behind expanded reproductive coverage, which we couldn't possibly have gotten) was to ensure that single mothers, children, etc. were guaranteed health care - we didn't really even get that. The improvements we did get still filtersthrough the current (read, insanely complicated) system, which is doing a mediocre job at best. Hardly a dramatic victory.

Is it better? Probably. Will it hurt anybody? Probably not. And yet, the protests continue - "the worst piece of legislation ever presented to Congress!" as one radio program I overheard recently trumpeted.

I know a young man - twenty-something years old - who is the stereotype of the teabagger. He's white, decently educated, from a middle class background, rather (if unconsciously) racist, slightly sexist (openly), and republican as they come. He hates health care reform. Thinks it's going to give medicine to all the damn illegals (what a tragedy....) And everyone else needs to earn their own health care, dammit!

Except - he doesn't have insurance worth speaking of. He doesn't make much, his employer doesn't provide a decent plan. And if his girlfriend gets pregnant, she be in the system with the rest of them. All of which seems entirely lost on the man in question.

This doesn't prove anything, of course, but I suspect that there are thousands more just like that. They're protesting, not because the health care reform will actually hurt them, or the economy, or anything else, but just to be protesting - their lack of continued dominance over society, perhaps. Or simple racism, sexism, obsession with traditional family values. Something.

I'm not sure what, exactly (general fear - probably). But it's very strange, and rather frightening.

(Crossposted at Constant Thoughts)

Illustrating the Hypocrisy

A great political cartoon by Steve Sack of Slate Magazine (where you can find more cartoons of a similar persuasion):



(H/T FMF's Choices Feminist Campus Blog.)

Three Things for Tuesday

In order to not get too terribly depressed about Stupak and the attendant health care debacle, I went out seeking mindless entertainment today. Good things (some poignant, some funny, some crazy fun) were found. I thought I would share.

Poignant: Emma Thompson on The View speaking out about sexual slavery.

(H/T Melissa at Women in Hollywood

Funny: Sesame Street does Mad Men.

(H/T my good friend Gloria)

Crazy Fun: Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video

(H/T FanGrrl Magnet)

A Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition

Thought this might be of interest in the midst of the health-care debate: