Hi friend,
We'd sold out for the Exhale Retreat coming up in November, but one of our attendees sadly had to cancel, so there's
one spot left.
Now, on to this week's letter:
Taylor Swift's new album just came out, and the music video for one of the songs features scenes that illustrate some of her personal demons.
In the video, Swift (who has struggled with an eating disorder) steps on a scale on which the numbers have been replaced with the word FAT.
(I'm not going to share a screenshot because I try not to perpetuate fatphobia while fighting it, but it should be googleable.)
The thing is: Fatphobia is intrinsic to eating disorders, which (with some exceptions) are based in a fear of fatness.As many others have said before me, eating disorder recovery is in large part about eliminating internalized fatphobia. (Which is why fatphobic ED treatment tends not to work well.)
This is because most eating disorders are based in caloric restriction. (That's also why there's no recognized eating disorder based on fear of thinness.)
Several fat activists posted some fantastic commentary about how imagery like this perpetuates weight stigma, but I can't link to many of those threads because their authors were so bombarded with abuse that they were forced to lock down their social media accounts.
Every time a celebrity is fatphobic in public people say "well hopefully this will Start A Conversation," but the only "conversations" that result are fat activists getting dogpiled for daring to comment.
It's interesting how the thin folks commenting in support of fat activists on this are getting a lot of mixed replies, as opposed to the 99% vitriol and abuse the fat activists themselves are getting.
Hmm, what could the difference be?
A good bit of the pushback from Swift megafans consisted of how the comments about how Swift's fatphobic video clip is a PERSONAL thing about her PERSONAL experience and how DARE you tie it to anything broader??
But these videos have huge budgets. They get storyboarded and workshopped. This is not an unknown performer with a camera in her basement.
When one of the planet's most famous people says or does something, it affects the culture of the entire planet. With that power comes responsibility.
That doesn't mean you can't tell your personal story, but it does mean there are ramifications to how you tell it.
See this week's resources section below for more great commentary from other folks on this.