The crossroads of blackness and Color
The crossroads of Color and Fatness are complex. In both states of being he people living them are dehumanized. If you are a person of color you aretold that you ar wrong and less valid and valuable.
For example women and men of color are objectified and told our dark skin is too erotic. Too sexual. We are turned into a fetish and robbed of our innocence and told we should be glad for this vile grasping exotic fertilization. We should be honored that we are considered attractive and “Sexual objects” by “real people.” No A black woman in lingerie is no more erotic that a white woman. A black woman is not inherently sexual and a white woman is not inherently innocent. We are tol that we because we are people of color are not deserving of love respect representation and humanity. We are delicate, genteel, emotional, serious, we are human.
Men and women of size of different ends of the fat spectrum are told that our bodies are wrong, unhealthy, offensive, and disgusting. We are dehumanized and our health needs are ignored by medical professionals who chalk every problem we have to our fat. Fat men and women are likewise told to be thankful for any sexual or romantic attention even if it is violent. We are told that because we are fat we are not deserving of respect and love humanity or innocence.
And this intersection becomes clear to me as I see more and more of the same language used to dehumanize both fat and non-white bodies. Both fat people and people of color are hypersexualized and sexually invalidated by this language. Black women and men and fat women and men are not capable of restraint and controlling their appetites. They are too lazy to rein in their bodies and lose their fat and resist the advances of people they are not attracted to. NO! This is not true. Black women are women we are perfectly capable of controlling our desires and appetites but we should not have to to make you comfortable. Black men are men and perfectly capable of controlling their natural desires and instincts but they should not have to to make you comfortable. Fat women are women and should not have to deny themselves for your comfort. Fat men are men and are perfectly capable of handling the human dignity thin people are and should not have to deny themselves for your comfort.
