Where are the disabled bodies in conversations about natural beauty?
Disability As Beauty
Tag: bodies
Christian Rhetoric in Food Policing
When people claim we are a secular society, I always laugh, because I don’t really know how else to respond. Christian attitudes and worldviews are very much wrapped up in Western thought, and they’re impossible to evade, whether you’re talking about ‘atoning’ for a mistake or exclaiming ‘oh my G-d’ when something shocking happens. Christianity […]
Tattooing and Intimacy
I sometimes say that as a tattooed person, I am never truly naked. I bear ink on my skin that goes with me wherever and whenever I go; when I was in surgery recently, the people in the operating room commented on my chest piece, noting that it was quite a dramatic and interesting statement. […]
Fashion, ‘The Rules,’ and Hiding Your Body
So many of the rules of fashion for non-normative bodies seem to boil down to a mandate to hide your body. Concealment is the order of the day, and it’s presented as the mode, chic thing to do; if you expose your body, if you admit you have a body, you are not fashionable. It’s […]
On Bodies and Beaches
Perhaps nowhere is social exclusion of ‘undesirable’ bodies more overt, and accepted, than at the beach. The media deluges us in messaging about how to prepare our bodies for the beach, with a reminder that they should be plucked and properly shaded and ‘toned,’ by which they mean thin, and every year, this messaging seems […]
The Placebo Effect Is Valid When It’s Happening To You
The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating and well-studied phenomena in medicine. It’s a critical part of clinical trials, of some medical treatments, of research to learn how and why people respond to medications. When people are given something and told it will make them feel better, it often does. When they’re warned […]
Dying to Be Thin
The merits of dieting are, we are coming to understand, significantly overrated. Studies indicate that caloric controls are unlikely to result in permanent weight loss, that the body has a set point which it will cling to unless you are willing to go to substantial lengths to force it. Those lengths may include permanent calorie […]
The Devil, Disability, and Fatness: How Divorced Are We From ‘Medieval Thinking?’
The Middle Ages are often used as a reference point for thoughts and ideas that people want to describe as outdated and ridiculous; no one believes that anymore, it’s a relic of the dark ages. Despite the ardent desires of modern humans to separate themselves from this period in history, though, it’s left a profound […]
Bikini This
Now that it’s officially June, the onslaught of bikini-related advertising campaigns can commence in force, not like that stopped anyone earlier. Indeed, as far back as January I was encountering reminders about the looming summer months and the necessity to get ready for Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. No one wants to look […]
On ‘Taking Care of Your Body’ and Value Judgments
One sentiment I often encounter about fat people is that we do not ‘take care of’ our bodies. Because fat, on its own, is viewed as a sign that we don’t care for our bodies; people assume they can read everything about us from our appearance, before we even open our mouths. This is particularly […]