Had terrible anxiety yesterday when I heard about a lawmaker in my country (the Philippines) propose a bill against o******. Being stuck with fatphobic relatives is bad enough, but god imagining it in a nation-wide scale is so fucking scary, I'm still not revovering well from it. There aren't any developments yet that could tell me it's getting approved but man the anti-fat sentiment in this country is so bad, (too many health professionals here still use BMI) I just don't have a lot of hope and I'm just so stressed about it.
Hoping to raise some awareness about it, too. Here's a link: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1774482/cynthia-villar-pushes-for-immediate-passage-of-anti-obesity-bill
That is extremely scary, I’m sending you the best of wishes anon, I hope you’ve been able to stay safe and take care of yourself amidst all of this anti-fat violence. Reach out to friends who support you, do whatever you need to do to protect your light during this stressful time. ❤️ You have an international network of fat liberationists who care deeply, right here. Let us know if there are any action steps to be taken, I will boost the hell out of it.
fat people deserve basic human decency, agency, and visibility, regardless of health.
fatphobic harassment will be deleted/ignored. I receive an overwhelming amount of asks. please understand that I cannot get to every message in my inbox 💌
Not a single one, eh? Are we gonna attempt to back that up with anything of substance whatsoever or are we just echoing eugenics into a fat person’s inbox and calling it a win? Sit down, bucko.
You know what else isn’t “healthy” or “normal” to be? Disabled. Yet disabled people have always existed. Imagine that!
Wild to think that part of being human means having a variety of differences in the formation and function of our bodies, and that our health status does not determine our right to exist in those bodies.
The eldest of these artifacts dates to over 30,000 years ago. A timespan longer than you or any mortal person can truly comprehend. We’ve been here since the beginning of humanity and we are still here. Fat people, specifically fat Black women, have roamed the earth long before colonization twisted perception of reality into hierarchy and poisoned the minds of generations to view certain human beings as disposable. Fat people have always existed and always will, no matter how much you fantasize about a past and future rid of us.
“How many statues of Black women do the ancients have to hide for you to dig up and understand what God looks like. How many times do fat Black women have to save your life in song. What are you paying attention to? This is why you can never see God in yourself. You are damned by hatred of fat Black women. And no part of you could ever live without them. This is why the universe (huge, black, unfolding, expansive) shakes and shakes her head, you fools. You wasteful fools.” Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M Archive: After The End of The World
I just left a plantation tour in Louisiana. I have a lot to say…
SAY IT!
I honestly thought I knew everything about slavery. Not so.
The owner of this particular plantation had it built by slaves for 3 years. Every brick was handmade. Over 120,000 bricks on 2,000+ acres of land (this place was huge.) The clay used for the bricks came from the Mississippi River. The majority of the slaves are buried under the Levees and water. Some are buried with their Masters. Not allowed to live with them but could be dead with them.
Before you enter the house, there’s a list of slaves who lived here including their age and how much they were purchased for. 124 total. Some slaves were worth as little as $25. As young as 5 years old.
On this particular plantation, the owner was big on punishment…he used noise making neck restraints. Imagine three 4lb balls around your neck with bells inside. Children were restrained by ankle locks that connected between their ankles.
This was a sugar cane plantation, one the worst practices to involve slaves because of its danger. A lot of slaves were decapitated, amputees and killed from the fields and machinery. A lot of kids lost their lives creating sugar. Speaking of children, a child stood in the living room and operated the fan with a string while guests ate dinner. As young as 3 years old.
Here’s what shook me even further: Before the Civil War, a lot of slave owners were going in debt and could not afford their properties and were not producing enough cotton and sugar to maintain their lifestyles. Slaves were used as HUMAN CREDIT CARDS. Slaves were a guaranteed line of credit. You could get HALF of your property’s value depending on how many healthy and able slaves you owned.
My people were human credit cards and lines of credit to BANKS. We were property. We were labeled as equipment and nothing more.
There is no such thing as a good slave owner. They owned my PEOPLE and used them as checks and balances. This cycle continues with prison and brutality. I do not want to hear shit about “Why can only Black people say this or that?” I don’t want to hear shit about “we’re all human.”
And by the way, not one of those slaves are at rest. Those spirits were so alive, you could feel their presence, their pain and someday, their revenge.
