Mexican actress Michelle Rodríguez is on the cover of the latest issue of fashion magazine Marie Claire with a confident message and a spectacular photo shoot. Many people celebrated and praised the actress, but on social networks many spoke negatively and violently about her body. In response, she released a video saying, “Fat phobia is something that exists and we don’t have the slightest discussion about it in our country. I’m taking the opportunity to talk about this because just as many people took the time to make positive comments, so many people took the time to have great discussions that distract from the work of the entire team. [de la revista] and they refer to me with very ugly adjectives. They say I’m not pretty and fat and that shouldn’t happen, that we romanticize obesity, it’s disgusting that I see myself like that because I’m in such a magazine, I see myself.” situation , which Michelle Rodríguez had to experience, carefully analyzes the anatomy of gordophobia, how it intersects with gender, racism and, in this particular case, with the very problematic demands that the market places on actresses.
Let’s start with the big picture before moving on to the details. Fat phobia is the discrimination, negative comments, ridicule, harassment and violence inflicted on a person for having a large body. A fat body, we’d say, without sounding pejorative. There are many ways to name it, eg B. curvy, plus size, XL, but the word fat is the most common. And like the currency of everyday use that reveals its value: a word loaded with negative connotations, as when it is popularly meant “I like so-and-so”. The single word “fat” is an insult in itself. Of course, fat phobia is also a phenomenon that has a lot to do with the social, patriarchal and economic context that generates hatred and phobia of bodies that are not part of the norm or canon of beauty. So far, fat phobia has not been a gender-only problem, but it is exacerbated when crossed by gender. After all, who gets the most comments about what to do with their bodies in an area where women still don’t have the freedom to control their bodies? Where abortion has not been decriminalized across the country. In this context, the woman will inevitably get more comments about what she should or should not do with her body, because gender and fat phobia are on the rise, they are part of the same problem. For example, 9 out of 10 cases of bulimia and anorexia are in women, which is an example of how fat phobia is worse when it overlaps with gender. The case of Michelle Rodríguez has all those wrinkles, a fat, dark woman from a racist country who is also an actress and dares to pose topless on the cover of a magazine. Beware of the internet as it is broken.
Let’s talk about actresses. All that is required of them: they must be beautiful, they must always be young, because if they are over 35-40 years old, what roles await them? If they want to be protagonists they are usually young, beautiful and follow patriarchal norms that seem to be the specs of a Starbucks coffee that is getting more and more impossible, more and more distant from what a morning coffee is, what can be here, there or where also be taken along. What roles can an actress in her 40s and 50s aspire to? Being the mother of the young protagonist? And in times when fiction has to be as close to reality as possible to be valid, even worse. Since the actress then has to be as close as possible to the part she’s playing, there’s no place for her to do something she’s not. In other words, there is less room for fiction, for the art that involves drama, and more desire for reality. The market and the platforms demand the same as the patriarchy: beautiful, skinny, white actresses who aren’t lesbians, God forbid. The case of Michelle Rodríguez shows the multi-faceted nature of the subject in all its complexity: a person who – oh, who would have thought to be born – is a woman; followed by a fat woman – what? Is he romanticizing obesity because he has the body he has? Hey, isn’t she getting sick?–; that she’s not only female, but also fat and dark – but how did she get on stage, on screen, with that shared last name? Well, not at all, and what roles can she play at her age, fat and dark? and like the icing on the high-calorie cake, this tragedy of tragedies for women is comical – no, well, how does she want to make us laugh! –. And to make matters worse, she appears in her underwear in a fashion magazine. Pause to continue.
The cross fat phobia problem is huge because it is everywhere. For example in clothing stores. In the so-called large size clothing stores with high production and affordable costs, such as Zara and H&M (in haute couture, it should not be said that they usually do not appear on the catwalks or in their lines). Plus clothing is often a replica of standard sizes, and often these oversized versions don’t fit, may not look as sexy, or look more like excess fabric than a model designed for bodies that don’t meet these standards. . On Instagram, for example, we see this all the time. A few years ago, Facebook, which owns the app, tossed out some filters that were harmful to mental health. They simulated operations or aesthetic treatments, such as filters that erase wrinkles, enlarge the lips, thin the nose, lighten the skin, and so on. With filters and without filters, the most common posts are selfies. And a 2017 study by the Royal Society found Instagram to be one of the social networks with the greatest impact on mental health. This virtual place – luckily it’s not a utopia – where everyone is happy, beautiful, thin, strong and everyone does what they would like to do. There we watch it as the screen lights up our faces, enjoying everything we’re not as the phone slides across our faces. These factors in context make fat phobia more prickly as they exacerbate the mental health consequences of disorganized bodies. In her answer, Michelle Rodríguez mentions the attacks that cause many people to die from a situation like the one that happened to her. He is right, the third leading cause of death among minors and young people (between 10 and 24 years old according to Inegi) is suicide. Attacks on social networks play a very important role in this.
As women, we grew up making comments about our bodies. All the time. If you’re too fat, if you’re too thin, if you’re too short, if you’re too old to do this or that. Always a little too much. At the age of six, the girl already knows that she must be thin and knows that deviating from the norm is wrong. A cover like Michelle Rodríguez’s for Marie Claire magazine isn’t just another example of girls I expect to see in line at the grocery store, at the newsstand, or at home, dreaming that their bodies, whatever they are, are capable of is to be loved, admired and desired.
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Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
