There is the obvious and virulent form of this unclepan you find on the internet and WhatsApp groups—propelling misinformation, trolling feminist handles, frothing about love jihaad, body-shaming and victim-blaming. Uncouth uncles openly complain about how women dress at schools or in workplaces, empathising with #MeToo offenders, revealing their highly sexed way of tackling the female body that holds public space, demonstrating their innate resentment of the hard-won freedom of many salaried women to escape unfulfilling marriages (and bad sex) as a means of securing a living. But these online uncles are easy targets. My conversations on workplace politics offer a more complex and nuanced picture of the unhelpful uncle. The men that drew maximum ire from the women I interviewed were not right-wing WhatsApp uncles. Instead, I heard multiple stories about how self-professed liberal uncles, often beta-men, could inflict chronic damage on a woman’s career and confidence. Navigating and complaining about a clear and clumsy display of bias is far more straightforward—although onerous—than its subtle and sophisticated form.
Sharanya Bhattacharya, ‘The tyranny of the Indian uncle’, Mint
The fact that you have to separate the word 'fat' from the word 'ugly' before you can be positive about it is deeply problematic.
Will there ever be an ugly-positive movement? Being fat is certainly a type of ugliness, but there are better-looking and worse-looking fat people.
There's a movement to 'accept' body hair (which I think is ugly in all circumstances), but this is tied up with no fewer than two problematic concepts, namely naturalism (equating 'natural' to 'beautiful' or 'correct') and the necessity of calling something 'beautiful' in order for it to be 'correct'.
In other words, body hair has to be seen as beautiful before it can be seen as acceptable or even desirable. This makes some sense considering the removal of body hair is an aesthetic consideration, but it means that the deeper moral problem of socially condemning that which is not beautiful (which is probably justified tbh) is not solved. Simply one item is removed from the 'ugly' list.
We can continue to judge those who are ugly harshly (and you see 'socially conscious' people do this to a degree that would make you blush) so long as we only do so for the approved list of ugly things.
I realize that I am a little late to the TLJ party, but in the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading a lot of meta and commentary, and I’ve been intrigued by the way in which the bodies of the First Order characters are used (and abused) in this film. From what I read, it was clear that the idea of their being something shameful about bodily vulnerability, particularly in men, plays some role in this film, but I didn’t know if that was going to be painted as some First Order facist ideology (which it is) or as something that is to be taken for granted. I have seen the film now, and I have to conclude that it is, unfortunately, the latter. And yet, I’m still intrigued. What does it mean to read bodies solely in terms of power or weakness? What is being overlooked in this focus on bodies?
I will consider two examples in passing and one at length. (It’s possible that my interest stems from just wanting to talk about Domhnall Gleeson’s body. Astonishing, I know.)
First, it’s worth noting that the majority of the First Order is made up of people whom we never see: the stormtroopers. There is nothing we can assume about their diversity--Finn, one of the few we ever see uncovered, is a Black man--and this seems to be the point. They are completely covered not just for protection but to erase their individuality. So, when we see part of a First Order body, or learn something about one, it’s worth noticing.
This film marks the first time we ever see any part of Captain Phasma. When Finn lands a blow that shatters her helmet, we get a glimpse of Gwendoline Chistie’s eye and part of her face underneath. This could be a moment of vulnerability for her, but it’s not. She maintains a kind of vicious dignity, even when exposed. “You were always scum,” she tells Finn before she falls, presumably to her death.
The only First Order body that is actually exposed is, of course, Kylo Ren’s. He appears to Rey with no shirt and no pretext for showing so much skin, which clearly catches her off guard. Is there a reason why he does this besides to say, “Come to the dark side, Rey. We have nice pecs?” I wasn’t able to detect one. But what is clear is that while Kylo may be emotionally vulnerable, his body is anything but. As a former marine, Adam Driver has the hardest body in the cast; he loses little of his power when he loses his clothes.
General Hux, however, has a body that is both figuratively and literally dragged. This begins in his first scene when Poe Dameron enrages him by calling him skinny and pasty. It is well worth asking, as others have done, how Poe knows Hux’s body type when he has never seen what he’s got under those uniforms, but what I want to know is, how did he know it’s going to bother him so much?
What I find troubling is that it is funny, in part, because it’s true. This is Gleeson’s second time playing General Hux. After all the press for TFA two years earlier, the Star Wars audience knows that Gleeson really is quite slender. Unlike Poe, we have a visual reference for the body we’re being asked to see as ridiculous. Poe’s intention is to capitalize on the First Order’s hatred of individuality by outing Hux’s unique traits to taunt and humiliate him in front of his subordinates, and it’s a great success. But he could have done that with any body type if it’s the individuality that’s shameful. The film’s writers present a kind of male body that is routinely shamed in Western culture, and that the actor actually possesses, for the audience’s laughter.
This revelation about Hux’s body sets the stage for his treatment in the rest of the film. Even in a society as quick to use violence as the First Order, he is singled out for special physical abuse. He is thrown face-down and dragged on his own bridge by Snoke, force-chocked by Kylo, and later thrown against a wall by him. (A scene in which he taunts Rose Tico and she bites his finger was cut from the film, and frankly, that would have been overkill!) He’s far from the only person to be brutalized like this--Rey and Kylo are both thrown around by Snoke too--but Gleeson’s sound effects signal that this is comedy. Rey and Kylo may gasp with surprise or pant with exertion, but Hux yelps, cries out, and whimpers. He lets us know that it hurts.
Throughout the film, Hux’s body is a site of vulnerability and punishment, and that makes it easy to overlook the fact that he has a much better grasp on what is going on than either Snoke or Kylo. Snoke is confident that he has Kylo under control, and Kylo cuts him in half. Hux sees the threat in Kylo; when he finds him passed out after killing Snoke and the fight that ensued, he reaches for his blaster to kill him. This is only minutes before Kylo force-chokes him for challenging his claim to be the new supreme leader. Once Kylo has stepped into that position, his first act is to play into Luke Skywalker’s hand by fighting with him while the rest of the Resistance flee to safety. Hux tries to advise him against this, and that’s when Kylo throws him into the wall.
No doubt, Kylo is confident he can continue to use the force--and brute strength--to keep Hux in check. He does need him, after all. But I would argue that by focusing all his attention on Hux’s physicality, he’s neglecting the dangerous part of him: his mind. He may have cowed him into submission for the moment, but I don’t think anyone has Hux under control but Hux. In his last frame in the film, he is watching Kylo enter the ship with a calm, collected intensity; he’s making plans already. Hux may be weak in body, but he is strong in purpose, unlike Kylo, who waffles back and forth between good and evil and throws temper tantrums that would embarrass a teenager. I have a feeling that before the end, Kylo is going to wish he’d choked him harder when he had the chance.
Okay I really didn’t want to do this but I feel like it’s necessary.
For such a long time, since the very beginning of her career actually, Taylor has been considered “too thin”, “without boobs or ass” and many more awful things that have absolutely nothing to do with her ability to sing, dance or be a fantastic human being. People said she should eat more and that she didn’t look healthy. During her break, yes, Taylor gained weight. Healthy weight. She is nowhere near “fat”. If you actually do believe she is fat, you need glasses ASAP. She is happy and healthy and if you truly care about her weight, that probably proves how superficial you are and that you should reconsider your priorities. After her two performances this week, I saw A LOT of people claiming she was now “too fat for the industry” or that she should lose weight because everyone in the industry needs to be fit and slim. Do you realize how messed up and wrong this is? Would you like for someone who knows absolutely nothing about you to call you fat? To say you should lose weight because “everyone in Hollywood” is skinny? I don’t think so. I know most of the people who will read this never ever called her any of those things but I’m writing this because I. am. so. SICK. of her being body-shamed every single time she does something. Leave the woman alone. You should be happy that she’s back on stage and not care about her freaking looks or weight. Taylor looks much more confident lately, let’s not ruin this. She is having so much fun, let’s not ruin this. She finally found who she is and who she wants to be, let’s not ruin this.
P.S: I’m sorry for any mistake I might have made, english is not my first language :)
My mother thinks body-shaming me is a sign of her love for me, and it seems like that’s because, on some level, she believes that there is a possible future where she wouldn’t body-shame me anymore. Every time she makes some hurtful comment about my body, she thinks she’s helping to improve me and guide me to a state where I will make my body one she can be proud of. But I have spent so many years trying to have the body she wants me to have, and it doesn’t seem like anything I’m doing is resulting in my body looking any better by her standards.
Honestly thin people deserve better than this gross fat-worshipping world we live in. Thin people are attractive and amazing and fat people will never live up to that. Fat people deserve to be treated as though their size makes them less than human, because it does.
*Feeds the troll*
We don’t live in a fat-worshipping world. At least not in Western society at the present. Just look at the attractive celebrities and look at the models in ads, etc. Look how heavily weight-loss is promoted. The only weight-gain stuff you see is targeted at gym junkies who want bigger muscles.
Most fat people wish they weren’t fat, and even if they don’t, if they were to magically find themselves thin they probably wouldn’t complain.
There is some fat-worshipping that goes on, but it is a minority.
Healthy thin people are more attractive to a greater number of people than fat people. Even though the majority of the population in my country and in the USA (and some other Western countries) are overweight or obese, that doesn’t make them the most desirable. That makes being fat normal and common.
Fat humans are still human and should be treated as such. To treat them otherwise would probably cause suffering for most fat people. Do you really want more suffering in the world? Most people would like to see a decrease in suffering in the world.
How would you feel if people went around saying we should treat a category of people that you fit in as less than human?
Be careful with how you treat others. It may cause you to lose opportunities if you treat people badly. For example, let’s say one day you insult a fat person and then it turns out that fat person is in charge of a decision about something you want and decides you are not a good enough character to deserve it. Whereas if you had been nice then that person may have chosen you over someone else to get that thing you want.
Of course that’s not the only reason why you should treat people well. You should treat people well because it’s the right thing to do, will make the world a better place, and because of sympathy and empathy making you feel good when you are nice to others.
