But how does she have the courage? Fat like that, with your belly showing? Being fat is fine, but showing your belly is too much. Being fat is OK, but wanting to wear fashionable clothes is not good enough. You're sure you're fat, but do you need to want to leave the house? Being fat can, but how does she have the courage to have fun? Fat like that!
The fat woman who has never heard something similar to this in her friends' circle, in the bread line, at the gym, on the bus, at her children's school or on the street at home, let the first brigadeiro be thrown!
These phrases, so commonplace (especially outside the bubble of women's empowerment), are nothing less than fatphobia. And like this: naked, raw, without disguise.
There are those who guarantee that they are not fat people, but, without even realizing it, they recognize their prejudice. Just see the fat woman on the street, living her own life, who immediately tries to congratulate her: wow, I admire your courage so much!
Courage of what, person? Courage, for me, is living with a minimum wage supporting the house, in a country like Brazil ; is paragliding; it's building your own house, under the sun, watching a tutorial video on Youtube; it's taking a dip in the sea; it's abandoning the public contest to live on your own dreams. Wearing a crop top and going out on the street, most of the time, it's just really hot.
Brazil is a tropical country. People go to the beach, swimming pools, waterfalls and enjoy Carnival – during the summer – in the blocks, in hot urban centers. It is common for bodies to be on display and it is natural for these bodies to be fat as well. There's nothing brave there. What you have are high temperatures and the desire to feel good.
But I understand who says that. The person admires that the fat woman, despite the prejudice that all external society, manages to go out to the streets, dress and exist in the same way as thin women. This, therefore, knows how cruel discrimination is, whether in thought, or in lines of 'concern with health', or in unassuming comments about how people are 'dead of fear of eating a piece of pizza and getting fat'. The fat woman's attitude is seen as courage, after all, it takes a certain amount of detachment and self-confidence to face the world that not only says, but SCREAMS, all the time, that the fat woman should be ashamed of herself for being who she is.
So why does a woman on the streets in short clothes sound brave and heroic? Because you don't want – nor accept – that fat bodies like ours exist. When we challenge this, it's as if we gathered all the courage of those who gave up, those who couldn't stand the accusing and annulling looks, those who surrendered to surgical mutilations, those who left. It is as if we condemn, in the absence of fear of criticism, everything that is shouted at and imposed on us. Indeed, it takes a certain courage to disappoint so many expectations. It takes courage to exist and be who you are, despite you. In spite of you.
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Jessica Balbino is the type of electric woman, who mixes journalism, cultural production and literature with pepper, caffeine, phosphorus and gasoline.
Lidia Llamas is an artist, activist against fatphobia in Spain and studies Visual Arts at the Universitat Politècnica de València.
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2 comments
TUDO pra mim! S2
TUDO pra mim! S2