jane
Well-Known Member
Have the fat jokes stopped yet? Is it safe to come in?
It's the media more than anything who made her weight a focus, and it is positive. It's not that anyone is overlooking the health risks of obesity, it's that it's important to accept yourself in the body you have no matter what. In fact, it's much harder to lose weight if you can't accept your current body, or there is too strong a link between your waist size and your self-esteem. It's not saying, "It's great to be fat, let's all have more cake." The message is, "It's important not to let your body or your body image define your sense of self-worth."
Yes, you have to take care of your health, but it's important for women like Beth Ditto to send out a message that it's okay to accept yourself no matter what your size. Lots of other women have attempted to do this, but it's hard to really convince people when that message is coming from an unusually attractive woman, which it usually is (i.e. Kate Winslet who, like her or not, is not willing to starve herself).
I don't particularly like the way the media makes women's bodies an issue, but if they're going to make it a focus of the way they talk about Beth Ditto, it's better that she use that forum to speak positively. It's cool as shit that there's a big queer feminist making a splash without having to hide her big queer feminism. Anyway, she's probably used to being interviewed by smaller publications who have different criteria, and who are less prone to sensationalise based on image -- fanzines don't treat interviewees the same way the mainstream music press does.
Also, I think it's cool that she doesn't want to play a gig in a shop that doesn't sell clothes she can wear. She is wililng to do some things in order to maintain her present level of success, but the Gossip know where their boundaries are, and what they will and won't do. It was smarter, too, for publicity's sake, for her to publicly refuse to do the Topshop gig, and give a reason, than to just turn it down quietly -- she probably got the same publicity she would have gotten if she'd played.
I will warn yiz all: one more fat joke, and I'll go off on one.
It's the media more than anything who made her weight a focus, and it is positive. It's not that anyone is overlooking the health risks of obesity, it's that it's important to accept yourself in the body you have no matter what. In fact, it's much harder to lose weight if you can't accept your current body, or there is too strong a link between your waist size and your self-esteem. It's not saying, "It's great to be fat, let's all have more cake." The message is, "It's important not to let your body or your body image define your sense of self-worth."
Yes, you have to take care of your health, but it's important for women like Beth Ditto to send out a message that it's okay to accept yourself no matter what your size. Lots of other women have attempted to do this, but it's hard to really convince people when that message is coming from an unusually attractive woman, which it usually is (i.e. Kate Winslet who, like her or not, is not willing to starve herself).
I don't particularly like the way the media makes women's bodies an issue, but if they're going to make it a focus of the way they talk about Beth Ditto, it's better that she use that forum to speak positively. It's cool as shit that there's a big queer feminist making a splash without having to hide her big queer feminism. Anyway, she's probably used to being interviewed by smaller publications who have different criteria, and who are less prone to sensationalise based on image -- fanzines don't treat interviewees the same way the mainstream music press does.
Also, I think it's cool that she doesn't want to play a gig in a shop that doesn't sell clothes she can wear. She is wililng to do some things in order to maintain her present level of success, but the Gossip know where their boundaries are, and what they will and won't do. It was smarter, too, for publicity's sake, for her to publicly refuse to do the Topshop gig, and give a reason, than to just turn it down quietly -- she probably got the same publicity she would have gotten if she'd played.
I will warn yiz all: one more fat joke, and I'll go off on one.
