Today, a bit of creepy irony, courtesy of Janet Bloomfield’s JudgyBitch blog.
Yesterday, Bloomfield put up a post (archived here) with the title “Feminists borrowing from terrorists now?” The source of her outrage? The anger directed at the now-notorious “Are You Beach Body Ready” ads posted in London tube stations by a weightloss powder company called Protein World.
The ads’ detractors, many of them feminists, think that the ad campaign contributes to fat shaming. Some of these critics have — gasp! — written on the ads with magic markers to express their dissatisfaction, acts of minor vandalism that the company’s CEO indignantly denounced as “terrorism.” No, really.
The company has also, it claims, gotten a number of threats, including a bomb threat. That’s a lot more serious, and completely indefensible; bomb threats are indeed intended to terrorise.
The irony? When I went to take a look at Bloomfield’s post last night, this was the first comment left on it:
I’m sorry, but that’s pretty fucking creepy. And it’s now been up on her site for a day.
I’m not quite sure how Bloomfield figures that bomb threats are terrorism but a comment warning feminists that “I’ll have my vengeance” is fine.
Holy shit that was some autocorrect fail on my part.
Sorry Banana Jackie Cake.
@sparky
That’s “The Goddamn Batman na Jackie Cake” to you.
As long as I don’t have to be Sparkrobin.
…I wouldn’t mind the Sparky Wonder, though. 🙂
It’s really awful to be fat when shopping for clothes; I usually end up cursing under my breath the whole time.
When in college, though, I went shopping with a thin friend of mine–and it was no better for her. If you don’t believe me, try finding a size 0 some time. (Yes, she was quite healthy, just very short and very small. I suppose we looked like a set of matrioshkii dolls together.)
This might be slightly TMI, but it was Christina Hendricks that helped me realize that I wasn’t straight. (Though I thought I was bisexual for a while before I realized there was a word for Pansexuality.)
@Paradoxical
I understand. I completely understand.
I agree, Banana Jackie Cake, and I have two theories. Theory Number One – Lots of men say that women who are actually shaped like women – breasts, waist, hips and roundy curves – are “fat.” When you look at the women these men say are sexy and attractive, they are often shaped more like boys, albeit starved boys. My first theory is that many men may actually want to sleep with boys as well as girls, but cannot handle the idea that they may be “gay.” So, women who look like boys substitute for the boys these guys cannot have.
Theory two is a bit more sinister. In many countries, India is one example, boy babies and children are fed first and get the bulk of the protein, fat and carbs. If they are being nursed by their mothers, there is often little milk left for the girls. Girls get what is left over, often being malnourished. I was told by a woman from India I knew a while back that it is not at all uncommon for a two year old boy to get the breast, while his newborn sister gets the few drops left, and that the infant mortality rate is much higher for girls. To a lesser degree you see it in Western countries, where a woman going out to dinner with a man is “supposed” to order a lite salad and not much else, while the manly man chows down on steak and whatever.
The basic needs of life – food, water, shelter, etc. – are seen as, by rights, for men first. And the skinny ideal for women reflects that.
Wow, Sparky! My husband and I were just talking about this exact same thing a few hours ago!
One of the things we realized is that as long as women are kept focused on our bodies and our inadequacies, we are prevented from being a serious “threat” in other areas of life. Religions focus women on the various ways in which we are just not good enough in order to keep us from whatever enlightenment is. In every sphere of life, we are silenced and re-focused on our only legitimate reason for being – our biology.
Why? I think the men are profoundly frightened of women, especially women who see through the lies and speak our own truths. They do not want to hear us or see us in any capacity outside of our usability as commodities here to comfort and make them happy. Why else write us out of history, claim our work as theirs and tell us, over and over again, that it is only men who are truly intelligent, truly creative? Why else is it supposed to be a huge compliment if a woman is told that she thinks like a man, but a terrible insult if a man or woman is told s/he thinks like a woman?
Oh definitely. Fat is the go-to insult for any woman, regardless of her weight, because it conveniently tiptoes around the sexual harassment aspect of strange men demanding you look sexually attractive to them while still conveying the body policing through bullying. Lately under the pretense of “we just want you to be healthy” bullshit.
I got called fat by a male stranger the day I went to primark and could hardly find anything because they didn’t have extra extra small. Each of my ribs was visible in the changing room yet I needed to be reminded that a stranger wa still opposed to my non-existent body fat. This is reality for women. You can literally be on life support from anorexia and white men will still debate if you’re “too fat”.
@samantha amazing! I’m thrilled for you 🙂
I take the porcine stuff as well (thank you, piggies!) and feel great. My numbers are good, but I’d be interested to hear about the iodine supplement you take – thanks!
Re: female celebs and bodyshaming – in modelling, a US size 6 is considered plus-sized now. A size 6.
@samantha,
It’s interesting that you bring up the connection between the religious guilt that fundamentalists push on women and the fat-shaming of all women, even those who are thin or even underweight. I’ve actually seen that guilt and fat-shaming pushed from the same people at times. There was a fundamentalist guy who went to my university who thought that Masaccio’s painting, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, was sacrilegious because it portrayed Eve as unbangable (in his opinion), which was (in his opinion) biblically inaccurate because Adam and Eve as the first humans would’ve been perfect. When I tried to explain to him that Masaccio was focusing on their grief, shame, and guilt and that that was why Adam and Eve seemed unattractive (as well as explaining that he was probably portraying Adam’s hands as worn by work and Eve as pregnant to foreshadow their respective punishments), he asked me why grief would make someone’s thighs bloat up like Eve’s thighs apparently had.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Masaccio_expulsion-1427.jpg
It was at this point that everyone asked him if he’d ever seen a real, non-photoshopped woman’s thighs before and pointed out that thin women’s thighs tended to be about that size.
Later on, he went on to explain that he wouldn’t date a woman who had cellulite because that was a sign that she didn’t take care of herself. He didn’t believe that having cellulite was also normal, even for thin women.
@Tracy – Sorry it has taken me a few days to get back to you, but here is the info:
In addition to the porcine thyroid, I take two capsules of the following, twice a week. It is called Thyroid Care and it is made by Terry Naturally. It contains 30,000 mcg of iodine as potassium iodide, sodium iodide and molecular iodine (from kelp). It also contains 400 mg of L-Tyrosine. I got online from Homestead Market http://www.homesteadmarket.com and it costs $15.96 for 60 capsules.
Hope this helps you as well!
What? I’m confused. So calling in bomb threats aren’t terrorism? Holy cap batman do stupid people like this exist? Stupid is you anonymous person who wrote this crap.
Holy lack of reading comprehension Batman!
Also, I didn’t realize that David is anonymous.
Illiterate troll is illiterate.
Which explains why Judgy Bozo’s fans all think she’s so smart.