Oddly, I’ve been training myself to do the exact opposite of this, on the basis that writers appreciate feedback, even if all I say is “that was interesting”. Perhaps this is less important on Shapely Prose than it is in my normal hangouts, but still …

MAG,
That was interesting. I enjoyed reading it. It informed me.

TRiG.

(I’m also used to a forum where outrageous topic drift is standard, so the SP way takes some getting used to.)

It intrigues me that it seems to be acceptable in the US for people to refer to themselves/be referred to as being ‘half this and half that’ in regards to ethnicity. In my experience with the Australian Aboriginal population (my husband, daughter and extended family are Aboriginal and I am extensively involved in our local Aboriginal community) it is considered extremely offensive to refer to someone has being ‘half Aboriginal’. The only time I have heard the ‘half’ term being used is when the person is of Aboriginal and some other non-white ethnicity. If the person is of Aboriginal and white ancestory, they either identify as Aboriginal or as white. I have never heard someone identify as ‘half Aboriginal’, as I said, it is considered disrespectful and offensive to do so (at least in the communities I have been involved with). I am not saying it never happens but it seems to be quite rare over here. Another one of those cultural faux pas that someone from the US could unknowingly commit if they came over here…

(nb, I do not in any way mean to sound as though treating immigrants like shit is ok or understandable, it’s not. but, at least in the UK, the most recent wave of immigrants are mainly white East Europeans, and they still get a hell of a lot of shit, so it’s xenophobia rather than necessarily racism, although obviously a lot of immigrants are brown and thus also experience all the racism too.)

Richelle – another reason why your alteration of the text from rule 11 doesn’t really work is that, well, while being skinny doesn’t = being oppressed in the same way as a fat person is, it does still (at least potentially) put one in the path of body shaming and suchlike, albeit possibly a milder form thereof.

That is to say, the “just eat a sandwich!!!” type crap is much more directly analagous to “god, stop eating so many sandwiches, lardo!” than the experiences of a white person in a not-mainly-white country are to the experiences of a non-white person in a mainly white country.

I’m not saying that it doesn’t suck to have people hate you because you’re white, it just sucks in a totally different way because, well, because it’s just really bloody complicated! Unfortunately, racism and white privilege are FAR too complicated for any kind of direct comparison to be worthwhile. It’s comparing apples and scooters.

I’ll admit, I did relate to it – as fatsmartchick has said, probably because it’s uncomfortable to realize that my race is still oppressing others even in the presence of (admittedly ridiculous) beauty standards.

I grew up in Southern California, the land of plastic surgery and tans (real or fake). I take after the Irish side of the family, and am so pale that when I went on a study abroad to the UK, I was whiter than all of my English and Welsh housemates.

If that can be as oppressive as I remember, I can only imagine how much heavier those standards fall on people who are farther from ‘meeting’ them. I’m not intending to go all oppression olympics here, and I hope it doesn’t sound that way – more thinking, if my deviation from the standard was enough to make me HATE my skin (and torture myself with mild sunburns countless times in the vain hopes of getting a tan), how much heavier that standard must feel when you’re automatically disqualified because of your race.

Beauty standards are so fucking stupid! The amount of self-loathing they cause us to internalize is nauseating. Perhaps some day we can figure out a way to break free of them…and in the meantime, a way to mitigate the harm they do. I guess this is more proof that we still have a lot of work to do. MAG, thank you for giving me at least a glimpse of how race plays into beauty standards. I will try to carry this lesson with me.

Exactly. This is one of those times.

The “gotcha” angle wasn’t very cute, Richelle.

Kimberly, thank you.