Food for Thought: Issues of privilege

2nd November 2008

Food for Thought: Issues of privilege

posted in Class & Poverty, Eating Disorders, Fat Acceptance, Personal, Race Issues |

Privilege, especially as it pertains to white privilege, is an issue of increasing interest in the two online spheres — the Fatosphere and eating disorder awareness sites — I straddle most. Fatosphere bloggers at Fatshionista and Marianne of The Rotund in particular have written at length about the ways in which privilege intersects with issues of weight-based discrimination and fat rights. In the online eating disorder realm, talk of privilege is more implicit than explicit with discussions that combat stereotypes of who develops eating disorders and what causes them, and talk of recovery and health care costs.

I came across some great posts on issues of privilege recently and wanted to share them before A) I forget and B) Election Day (a couple links revolve around political issues and the U.S. presidential election). The husband and I are getting ready to go to an Obama rally tonight at my university (yay!), so I don’t have time to deconstruct them now, but feel free to discuss issues arising from the links in the comments below, or offer your general thoughts on privilege of any kind (white, economic, thin, able-bodied, etc…).

From polemicist blogger Tim Wise of the blog RedRoom comes two great links: Explaining White Privilege to the Deniers and Haters; and This is Your Nation on White Privilege.

And from Racialicous, a slightly older series on privilege that questions “Has Class Trumped Race?”:

Part 1: Understanding Privilege
Part 2: Interpreting Privilege
Part 3: Acknowledging Privilege
Part 3.5: An Aside
Part 4: The Question
Part 5: Discussion Summary

Bon appétit.

Click to Bookmark

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Class & Poverty, Eating Disorders, Fat Acceptance, Personal, Race Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On November 2nd, 2008, Bronwyn said:

Thanks for this post; I think a lot on this type of thing since I’m from a fairly low-class family that struggled pretty much through my whole childhood not to seem low-class; We were lucky in that we had a lot of family support so I didn’t really want for much even when we couldn’t afford food (and there were a few times we couldn’t).

As to how it applies to my eating disorder, well, perfectionism was rampant and a lot of self-hate among the fatter members of the family, combined with the fact that there WERE times when we didn’t have food in the house- I think all that has a lot to do with how my disorder formed. To this day a “lack” of food is a huge trigger for me, even if it’s something simple like being out of bread or milk, or one other staple in the house.

posted on November 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 pm

2 On November 3rd, 2008, susan said:

I’ve tried to explain the concept of “white privilege” so many times to people.

I don’t really know how it applies to my eating issues, except that we have good insurance and I was able to find a therapist to help me.

posted on November 3rd, 2008 at 1:36 pm

3 On November 3rd, 2008, Rachel said:

I can see how white privilege pertains to eating disorders simply in its diagnosis. I’ve read accounts by black girls and women with eating disorders who say that they’re ashamed to seek help, since eating disorders are often thought of as a “white girl’s disease.” And studies show that doctors are less likely to diagnose eating disorders in non-white women.

posted on November 3rd, 2008 at 2:11 pm

4 On November 3rd, 2008, Bree said:

I wonder if treatment for eating disorders for non-white or biracial women are not as diagnosed as much due to urban myths about non-white culture and body acceptance, especially in the black and Hispanic/Latino communities. For years, we’ve heard that fatness is accepted more in those cultures, but in reality, negative attitudes towards size doesn’t discriminate when it comes to ethnicity (although there are some non-mainstream cultures where fatness represents fertility and sexuality).

posted on November 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 pm