Man I thought I was done ranting! It’s Sunday morning!
But a friend on Facebook posted this to make a great point so I’m going to do the same.
I dislike it when I see things like this (which is the point she was making, too). I dislike it when someone decides to support someone who is plus sized by bashing skinny people. That’s not supportive. Skinny people have done nothing wrong. And furthermore, what kind of example is that to set? We want people to support us, but then we bash the people we want support from in the same breath?
I have nothing against skinny people. At all. I have skinny people in my life and I’m not jealous of them or making snide comments about them, because they love me for me, and I love them for them. But I think this is a thing that happens to show support for someone who is plus sized and it’s not cool. And I will admit that, back in the day, I use to laugh at stuff like this and had this whole, “Skinny girl just needs to eat a sandwich,” mentality, like waaaaaaaaaaaay back in high school, but looking back… how terrible is that? Especially if your friends are skinny, or even if they’re plus sized but smaller than you. My partner is smaller than me. So is my mother.
The point of this whole plus sized acceptance thing is to show that you shouldn’t make fun of us because of our size, NOT that we’re BETTER because of our size, but that size shouldn’t be a factor period in defining who someone is. This whole idea irritates me with all… are these battles? I don’t really want to call them battles. But, you know, when you’re trying to support a group and you decide to do it by saying mean things about another group to do it? Or you decide not to include them? For example: I have heard (on tumblr) people in the GLBT circle bashing the likes of Macklemore and telling him to stop singing about things he doesn’t understand (i.e. his song, “Same Love.”)
First of all: it’s a song SUPPORTING US. AND IT’S IN MAINSTREAM! Do you know how blown my mind was when I heard that song on the radio? Do you realize how amazing that was? A song that hit number one status that has a positive GLBT message? And it wasn’t like I needed to read between the lines, no, it was flat out about us.
Second of all: who is it that we want support from? Straight people, right? So there’s one, right there, being supportive. Why is this a bad thing? For the most part people in the GLBT family are supportive of each other (I said “for the most part” because I know there’s people within groups who bash each other and that happens in every group but I’m not going to dwell on that), we aren’t outside yelling about equality to appease each other, but to show people outside of the group that we should be in this, too. So when someone outside of the group is like, “Yes you’re right,” the correct response should not be, “You’ll never understand so stop speaking for us,” it should be, “Thank you.”
Third of all: he never said that he understands where we’re coming from, he never said, “I can relate because I’m gay too.” He’s not gay. But just because someone isn’t something doesn’t mean that they don’t have feelings about the issue. Otherwise, who are we even talking to in regards to this battle for equality? I mean should we bash Beyonce for tweeting things like being for same sex marriage? Should we be like, “No sweetie you don’t understand, shut up.”
Good people understand that bashing someone or denying their rights because of race/gender/sexuality/size/whatever is wrong, and that everyone deserves the same rights and the same common courtesy. They’re on our side, so let’s not step on their toes. Let’s not be like, “Oh man I love a lady with curves skinny girls are a waste of anyone’s time.” And I’ve heard that in regards to my cosplay, and honestly, your compliment loses meaning when it’s, “You’re beautiful, way better than this person.”
