Queer Fat Femme: What it means to be femme

“The concept of femme that I employ doesn’t have anything to do with my partners, it doesn’t mean that I insist on butch/femme or heteronormative relationship structures. It doesn’t mean I’m passive in bed. It doesn’t mean that I need to constantly wear dresses and makeup and have two hours to get ready. I’ve had some pretty lengthy getting dressed sessions, to be sure, but I’m pretty comfortable in jeans, slip-ons, and *gasp* even men’s clothing. As simply as I can put it, femme is my gender identity and a political stance.

It has a lot to do with:

1. How I feel very emphatically female, regardless of what I wear, how I present or how I behave. It resonates with me on a level that is difficult to explain. I think femme is/can be queerly gendered.

2. How I enjoy putting on outfits and presenting in a way that is flamboyantly feminine, almost to caricature. Sometimes above and beyond caricature. It’s a persona that I put on which acts as both a critique of forced stereotypical femininity and a celebration of the choice to be feminine without doing so unquestioningly, as the result of socialization.

3. How I feel that certain manifestations of femininity itself are often ripped down altogether in feminist/lgbt/queer politic and make a point out of openly defying those who don’t like or don’t want to understand “girly.” Or those who think that anyone who doesn’t make the same choices that they do can’t be a feminist. Feminism isn’t about how you look, and neither is femme, really.

FAT CHANCE! An Interactive Workshop on Fat Activism

This weekend at Ladyfest!
Sunday November 29th
2:30-3:30

Join Chelsey Lichtawoman (formerly of The Fat Femme Mafia) on a short cityscape that will focus on fat bodies and (taking up) space. We will learn about what Fat Activism is, and the easiest ways to take part in it. The workshop will take place in stores and along Bloor St. near Bay (starting in American Apparel and making our way to H & M), and will also examine where fat people can shop, how spaces are constructed to be inaccessible, and who is invited to be a part of retail culture and why. Meet at the Tranzac 15 min before workshop time.

Please contact Chelsey beforehand with mobility concerns/other questions at chelsey.lichtman@gmail.com
Limited to 15 people.

PLEASE FORWARD WIIIIDDDDEEELLLLYYYY

More Princesses: Fallen or Twisted?

A controversial set of photos has been making its way across the feminist blogosphere, namely "Fallen Princesses" by Dina Goldstein. As y'all know, I'm simultaneously fascinated and repelled by the whole princess thing in our culture and so I was very excited to check out this series of photos. The premise was promising: knock the old archetype off of Prince Charming's very high horse and give it a dose of postmodern reality. Instead it seems (in my opinion at least) uninspired execution has left us with some very unchallenging and postfeminist messages.

Mo Pie of Big Fat Deal had much to say on the fattening of Little Red Riding Hood, and there's an excellent discussion at Racialicious about what it means that Jasmine is now taking up arms in a vaguely Middle Eastern conflict zone.

A commenter at Racialicious, a certain Mistress Scorpio (thanks!), shared a link to another gallery of altered princesses. This one is called "Twisted Princesses" and though the intent is obviously different, I'd like to make some comparisons. Dina Goldstein is trying to make social commentary with hers, while I think Jeffrey Thomas' intent is more to subvert the sparkly princess stereotype and just make them more kickass. Nonetheless, both are presenting an alternative to the golly-gosh Disney princess and I think it's interesting to see how they do it differently. So tell me: which do you prefer? "Fallen" or "Twisted" Jasmine?

Thomas is sticking to Disney canon and thus hasn't made a Little Red Riding Hood, but what about Snow White? "Fallen" or "Twisted"?

Much has been made of the Beth Ditto cover story of Love Magazine's first issue. A fat woman, stark naked, in a glamourous photo shoot, and on the cover of a mainstream fashion magazine, it's definitely something new. But when the story is put into context, it's obvious that this move is tokenistic and played for shock value, and unfortunately it probably doesn't mark a precedent for bigger women in mainstream media.

Though Ditto may be the cover girl, among the other pop icons profiled in the issue (Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Kate Moss), she's still the odd girl out. All the other subjects are rail thin (and save one, they're all white). Her difference is touted not only in the text of the article, where it is repeatedly pointed out, but in the images that accompany it. Ditto's otherness is emphasized by the fact that she's completely naked, and combined with her makeup, hair, and unusual jewelry she almost seems alien. It makes one wonder if promoting her is really a progressive move by the magazine, or simply an effort to seem "edgy" and new, to compete with established magazines in a tough market.


Don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoyed the article in many ways. It was exhilarating to a fat female body shown in a glamourous, flattering light for once, I couldn't stop looking at the photographs. But, as my fellow pirate Jenna pointed out to me, there is another side to this article. I'm interested in seeing Love's next issue and if they continue pushing boundaries or just regurgitate conventional representations, while throwing in a few tokens for edge factor.

Frames and stickers on Bloor

On the north end of Bloor, just a little west of the ROM:


WOMAN AS OTHER: "The blood, indeed does not make woman impure; It is rather a sign of her impurity."


We officially have a fan.


Gettin' noticed.

At Bloor and University:

Intervening in a particularly heteronormative scene.


Would you like some fat lesbians? Why thank you, I would.

Fat Princesses

Growing up female in North America, one of the many female "role models" we have in children's popular culture is the fairy-tale, oft-Disnified princess. Unlike many of my peers, I am not nostalgic for the Disney Princess. My deconstructive lense is often way too far into overdrive to find them anything better than questionable, yet I am fascinated by why they're so ubiquitious and why some young women hold on to their images with affection. Among the troubling sameness that is the Disney Princess* is her thinness. You ever check out the waistline of Sleeping Beauty or Jasmine? I don't know if they had corsets in medieval Agrabah (or wherever the crap that Hollywood-derived, vaguely Middle Eastern city is supposed to be), but that ain't natural!

Years ago, when I was a teenaged "photographer" and deviantART junkie, I came across an unusual series of drawings. The artist had taken several Disney Princess characters and redrawn them as very, very fat (see Jasmine, Alice, and Maid Marian from Robin Hood). Interpreting them as subversive, I favorited them with glee. Reading the descriptions now, it is obvious that they're anything but, the artist made them as a joke. Because in our culture, the idea of a fat heroine is laughable.

In July of last year, a capture-the-flag-type video game was released called, you guessed it, Fat Princess. The titular princess is the flag, and to insure that the opposing team will not capture her the player feeds her cake until she is so fat that she is literally immobile. In this case, though the princess' fatness is sorta kinda positive, it's a means to make her an object, a holy grail of sorts, with no volition of her own.

I chose the Princess because she's a powerful archetype in our culture, an ideal of beauty and feminity that is to be emulated and worshipped by little girls, but you could probably apply these principles to other types of characters. Yet the message is always the same: fat is laughable, debilitating, and undesirable. And therein lies the problem.

*In this case I mean any main heroine, often in Disney movies, as they are mostly princesses. But not all the characters that follow the tropes of the Disney Princess are literally princesses.

I'm done with all the shame.

I’d like to talk about size. I’m not skinny nor have I ever been. I would not consider myself fat either. For one thing the term is fully loaded with shame, guilt and gluttony. Though there are many fat feminist mafia’s out there in defence of size, I have not, personally, been able to reclaim the term. I also do not think I am fat, because that always seems to imply being unhealthy, which I am not.

I’d like to talk about size because I am not the only one out there who does not see people of their shape and size represented in the media. I would like to talk about size because I am not the only one would like to be heard, seen and respected as a human being who is not a size 2. I would like to talk about size because I am not the only one would like to be heard, seen and respected as a sexual, happy, fulfilled human being and not someone filled with shame and self-loathing for enjoying a piece of cake.

These are deeply important issues to me, and many people in the world who have since the shattering of blissful childhood ignorance found the world to be difficult when you are above the “average” size. Simple things like finding clothes that fit, and make you feel comfortable and attractive in your own skin, are difficult when you are of a certain size. (Finding clothes was close to traumatic for me as an adolescent). Growing up as a larger person can be hellish, adolescents are not known for being particularly nice. Even after childhood teasing, there is harassment and discrimination within the workforce to face.

I would ideally like to represent women of size as being silenced, yet I would also like promote them as sexual beings. We deserve to be seen, heard, respected and represented. So, I hope that we can with our installations represent size and sexuality respectfully while accurately portraying the silence people face from not being represented in our society.

-babbitthica