Feminism and Body Image (Blog 6)

My favorite reading was “Bad Feminist” by Roxanne Gay. I like how Gay simplified feminism by breaking down stereotypes. Gay calls herself a bad feminist which in and of itself is fairly humorous due to the honesty of the statement. She addresses the different views on feminism and explains why she views herself as a bad feminist, “I embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy. I'm not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I'm right. I am just trying-trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good for this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself: a woman who loves pink and likes to get freaky and sometimes dances her ass off to music she knows, she knows, is terrible for women and who sometimes plays dumb with repairmen because it's just easier to let them feel macho than it is to stand on the moral high ground.” I think that this reading addresses feminism in an extremely straightforward way with little bits of humor throughout. 

 I think the scene from Shrill dives into body image and feminism. In the scene you can see how uncomfortable Annie (the main character) is in her own skin, at least in front of large groups and in certain clothing such as a swimsuit. Annie herself seems to be happy and confident with her friends, her style, and her work, but it seems like she feels judged because of her weight. As the show goes on there is one conversation she has with a women at the pool party about how companies don’t make cute or normal plus size clothing, they discuss how hard it is to style themselves because so many brands focus on “thin” women’s clothing rather than all sizes. I think an important thing to note from this scene is how comfortable Fran is in her own body and expressing herself. It seems like Annie wants to be more like Fran, but feels judged and finds every excuse possible.

 I enjoyed “You’re so Brave for Wearing Clothes and Not Hating Yourself” because of the author’s approach to talking about body image and weight. The author talks about her own struggles with body image and self love due to her weight and breaks down these social ideals that people toss around and that she specifically has heard. One quote that really stood out to me was, “The fact is that I'm fat because life is a snarl of physical, emotional, and cultural forces both in and out of my control. I'm fat because life is life.” The author personalizes the narrative by sharing conversations and experiences she’s had because she defines herself as “fat,” but doesn’t want that to be a shameful word. Her humor is straight forward, she isn’t trying to necessarily make you laugh but her honesty and openness leads to quotes that you can’t help but laugh at. 

I enjoyed all of the readings, but these three happened to stand out to me most.