Showing posts with label Today in Fat Hatred. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Today in Fat Hatred. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Melissa McCarthy Deserves Better

a promotional image for the television show 'Mike and Molly'; Mike is handing Molly a bouquet of flowers

Because I love Melissa McCarthy, I have tried watching Mike & Molly, despite knowing it would be dismal. And it is. It's ostensibly a show about fat acceptance, which hates its fat characters. And yes, subjecting them to all manner of ridicule and abuse, to make the point that fat hatred exists, which its targets and purveyors already know, is hatred of its fat characters.

Spudsy and I were talking about this trainwreck this morning, and, observing that the other female characters (particularly Molly's mother and sister) are horrible, conniving, nasty people, classic sit-com bitches, Spudsy noted that it's like the show's writers don't imagine that a fat female character could be likeable unless she's surrounded by sinister harpies.

There are a lot of problems with the show, and yet its worst offense, IMO, is that which I noted after seeing the previews: This show acts as though Roseanne never existed. It so self-evidently pats itself on the back for being some kind of transgressive, progressive contribution to the television canon, but there existed a show 20 years ago with two fat leads who loved and fucked and lived their lives—and they didn't have to suffer the indignity of the constant juvenile moralizing that lies within every implicit reminder that "fat people are human, too!"

It's a step backwards. Melissa McCarthy deserves better. And so do we.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

#mencallmethings

Yesterday I mentioned the #mencallmethings hashtag that Sady Doyle of Tiger Beatdown had started on Twitter so female bloggers could share some of the vitriol they receive from a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of thunderfucks in their inboxes and comments sections. It's still going strong, and, again, I encourage you to check it out and participate, with the note that much of the stuff people are submitting is triggering.

For those who aren't on Twitter and/or can't view Twitter from work, I've published below the fold (on most browsers) my contributions in chronological order to #mencallmethings. If you can't (or don't want to) participate on Twitter, but have experience(s) you'd like to share, please feel welcome and encouraged to submit your own experience(s) in comments.

[Trigger warning for rape culture, threats, violence, misogyny, fat hatred, disablism.]

● Everything @sadydoyle has already said, plus every variation on fat, ugly, and unfuckable under the sun and the moon. #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] Also unrapeable, despite the fact that I have been raped. #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] Here is Shakesville's famously unmoderated Opie & Anthony thread, for a breathtaking example of #mencallmethings: http://bit.ly/txe8KM (link)

● My most recent post on the subject of #mencallmethings: On Keeping On Keeping On. http://bit.ly/tzgdVf (link)

● [TW] "id have to rape her with 3 Popsicle sticks taped to my flaccid wang" http://bit.ly/tYspMG #mencallmethings (link)

● A "dumm bith." http://bit.ly/s45ah7 #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "No one wants to rape you, Shakes. Sorry to inform you." http://bit.ly/ltrQKM #mencallmethings (link)

● A steampunk abortion robot: http://bit.ly/uBoLLA #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "only tragedy is that a bullet didn't rip through ur brainstem after u were used 4 ur 1 & only purpose in this world" #mencallmethings (link)

● My "I Get Letters" section is a plethora of fun correspondence from anti-feminists: http://bit.ly/tbq5YN #mencallmethings (link)

● "What a raging, lunatic, hypocrite u are. And despicable. What a despicable person u are." This, b/c I criticized a movie. #mencallmethings (link)

● "gigantic feminazi pig" -- The subject heading on an email the entirety of which read, "How much do you weigh?" #mencallmethings (link)

● "Why you lazy dope smoking fat hog, sitting on your fat ass every day writing bullshit, you're so opressed." [sic] #mencallmethings (link)

● "wretched cum dumpster" / "rape-murder fail" / "cunt bucket" / "fat whore" / These are all from recent emails. #mencallmethings (link)

● "The problem is this there are soooooooo many liberals…and so few bullets." Sent by a gov employee from his gov email. #mencallmethings (link)

● When I start compiling this stuff, I do find it slightly worrying how inured I've become to vicious bullying & threats. #mencallmethings (link)

● "Oh, well, just another day being wished raped and killed, and called a fat stupid cunt! Totally normal job, I'm sure!" #mencallmethings (link)

● [Like @KateHarding] I've also gotten emails imagining in vivid detail my sex life, while calling me disgusting/unfuckable & pitying my husband. #mencallmethings (link)

● Wonder passingly if it's the same guy, then realize I don't actually care. #mencallmethings (link)

● An "anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigot." http://bit.ly/v9XBVe #mencallmethings (link)

● "I know where you live." Also: My street address used as a commenting handle. #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "If you can look at her without wanting to punch her in the face, you're not looking hard enough" http://bit.ly/tYspMG #mencallmethings

● [TW] "she is just hoping someone will get pissed enough at all her feminist shit & revenge rape her." http://bit.ly/tYspMG #mencallmethings (link)

● "Please die, PLEASE??????????????????????? Fat and Ugly is noway to go through life." http://bit.ly/t3mK18 #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "I hope you whiny cunts find your way on top of a pinball machine in the near future." http://bit.ly/t2VER8 #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "too bad that terrible rapist didnt kill your fat ass…. Cunt" http://bit.ly/s3ZNGr #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "guess the guy who raped you somehow left his dick behind b/c you have a major pole up your ass." http://bit.ly/s09Ygk #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "lying pinko-commie-feminist-bitch complains abt the 1 time in ur life where u served a purpose!" http://bit.ly/samGyw #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "If you stopped being such a stupid bitch & accepted the raping, you wouldn't have gotten beaten" http://bit.ly/vIVuDD #mencallmethings (link)

● [TW] "Oh and that guy that raped you. Fucking owned your ass." http://bit.ly/t60iIp #mencallmethings (link)

● Also, I have been called a liar by rape apologists. Over and over and over. #mencallmethings (link)

@mistyclifton was the 1st Shakesville mod (besides me). We could write an entire #mencallmethings book from deleted comments alone, lolsob. (link)

● A member of The Weaker Sex. LULZ. #mencallmethings (link)

● I do so love the irony of the women who put up with this shit day in and day out being called "oversensitive." #mencallmethings (link)

● Weak! Hypersensitive! Reactionary! Hysterical! Easily offended! Possessor of delicate lady fee-fees! LULZ. #mencallmethings (link)

● Whoooooooooooops turns out we're not weak or oversensitive; we do not crumble, even under 10 metric fucktons of harassment. #mencallmethings (link)

● [in response to @SadyDoyle tweeting: "'Self-absorbed/bragging/self-involved' thing might be my favorite #mencallmethings. Makes it clear that you liking yourself is the problem."] Liking and respecting other women seems to be a pretty big sticking point with these harassers, too. #gofigure #mencallmethings (link)

● #mencallmethings: Stupid. At least, that is the implication when people feel obliged to inform me "not all men are like that." (link)

● #mencallmethings: Unfair. That, too, is the implication when people feel obliged to inform me "not all men are like that." (link)

● #mencallmethings: Mean. That, too, is the implication when people feel obliged to inform me "not all men are like that," as if I don't know. (link)

● It's not that I'm asserting "all men" harass women. I'm reporting that all the harassment I've received is from men. #mencallmethings (link)

● Deliberately eliding that distinction in order to call ME stupid, irrational, reactionary, etc. is a rich irony indeed. #mencallmethings (link)

● #mencallmethings just since this hashtag started: Head hog / Fat bitch / Cunt / Ugly / Whore / Liar / Evil / Hysteric / Easily offended (link)

● #mencallmethings just since this hashtag started: Hypersensitive / Toad / Unfuckable / Unrapeable / Every variation on fat imaginable. (link)

● Oftentimes, it's not that #mencallmethings. It's just that they don't link to me or support my work because they quietly agree [with the harassers]. (link)

● There are men who are ostensibly political allies who quietly call me "too strident, too hysterical, too FEMINISTY." #mencallmethings (link)

● They fancy themselves fundamentally different from trolls who want to silence by shouting, but silencing by marginalization is different only in that it lacks the honesty of its misogynist convictions. #mencallmethings (link and link)

Monday, October 31, 2011

When Mendacious Corporate Media Shills Say With Affected Wide-Eyed Wonder That They Just Can't Figure Out What Occupy Wall Street Is All About...

...it is quite reasonably pointed out to them by patient people who indulge their manufactured ignorance that many USians are quite frustrated with the banks, and deregulation, and the erosion of workers' rights, and corporate greed. Unemployment. Student loans. Foreclosures. Bankruptcies.

Big concepts. All correct. But it's also just shit like this, wearing on people day in and day out and grinding them down until they're nothing but raw nerves, vibrating with anticipated pain from the constant attacks on their security and dignity:
Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

It also gave workers a mandate - quit smoking, curb obesity, or you'll be paying higher healthcare costs in 2013. It doesn't yet know by how much, but one thing's for certain - the unhealthy will pay more.

The credit union, which has more than 500 employees, is not alone.

In recent years, a growing number of companies have been encouraging workers to voluntarily improve their health to control escalating insurance costs. And while workers mostly like to see an employer offer smoking cessation classes and weight loss programs, too few are signing up or showing signs of improvement.

So now more employers are trying a different strategy - they're replacing the carrot with a stick and raising costs for workers who can't seem to lower their cholesterol or tackle obesity. They're also coming down hard on smokers. For example, discount store giant Wal-Mart says that starting in 2012 it will charge tobacco users higher premiums but also offer free smoking cessation programs.
I'm not going to get into, yet again, the reality that weight is not a great indicator of health, nor the inherent disablism in a policy requiring people to lose weight irrespective of any underlying illnesses or disabilities contributing to weight gain, nor the outsized fuckery of penalizing people for eating crap like ubiquitous, fat-making HFCS or being addicted to cigarettes which our government allows tobacco companies to make increasingly more addictive, because, while those things are ALL TRUE, the average worker being subjected to this garbage isn't thinking, "This is bullshit! I am being tasked with finding an individual solution to systemic problems!" but is thinking, "Oh my god, how am I going to pay for my healthcare?" and/or "I'm a moral failure because I am fat!" and/or "CHEESUS FUCKING CHRIST THERE IS TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON ME FROM UNPAID DEBT AND UNPAID OVERTIME AT MY UNDERPAID JOB AND MY MOTHER IS COMING TO LIVE WITH ME BECAUSE SHE LOST HER HOUSE AND MY KID NEEDS NEW CLOTHES AND MY CAR'S ABOUT TO DIE AND I HAVEN'T HAD A VACATION IN TEN YEARS AND I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ THE PAPER AND I AM GOING TO CRACK."

Hey, USians! We heard you didn't have enough stress already, so howsabout adding "quit smoking" and "lose weight" to the pile? Sound good? Great! Love, Corporate America.

That's what people are feeling. And all the arguments about "healthfulness" and "long-term costs to the collective" and whatever are not going to change the fact that hard-working and highly-stressed people are hearing, "You know that cigarette or candy bar you enjoy at the end of another shitty, soul-destroying day in the employ of a corporation who is wringing every last shred of carefreedom out of your life to maximize its profits so its CEO can have a gold-plated bidet installed in his executive bathroom? Well, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ANYMORE. Not if you want healthcare benefits."

It doesn't matter if that thinking is right, or wrong, or ethically neutral. What matters is that's what a hell of a lot of 99 percenters are thinking. And when they think it, they aren't blaming institutional prejudice, and they're not blaming Washington, and they're sure as shit not blaming themselves for wanting the ability to exercise a little fucking control over their bodies and lives.

They're blaming corporations—their employers, and their benefits providers.

And rightfully so.

* * *

About the same article, Digby makes a related point: "Libertarians make the argument that the government is a threat to liberty because it employs 'men with guns' who can rob you of your life and freedom. Without getting into that tired debate, I would just like to make one observation: for most Americans, the greatest threat to their freedom comes from 'men with pink slips' not men with guns, particularly now. (These men with pink slips, by the way, are exalted by 'free market' worshipers of all philosophical bents.)"