We Americans,
truly know how to,
screw up a haiku.
We Canadians
also know how to
bastardize haiku.
Sometimes I have fake blue hair. And wear polyester vests. I’m basically bottled elegance.
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America”
I recently read this book, and while several observations and statistics stuck out to me, this quote, on the last page, I believe really sums things up quite well.
(via lostgrrrls)
(via hollow-gram)
(via beautifulasastatistic)
1. The two chapbooks launched tonight: “Lemons” by Jade Alyssa (me) and “Logology” by Jeremy Colangelo.
2. Me, looking arrogant (I’m not sure why), while getting ready for the launch.
The pub was completely full (though I suspect almost no one there had come to listen to poetry). Considering the chaos that led up to this reading, everything went just fine.
Re:
lovelywinkers said: In what other areas of life do you define the standard as “the minimum needed to survive”, you have a tumblr, meaning you have access to at least several things you don’t need for survival, is that morally wrong? or is food special somehow?
wavesandmoon said: One should not make that assumption because one is not that person or that person’s doctor. Perhaps there are other things at play that contribute to the person’s weight. And even if there aren’t, it’s not actually my business how much that person consumes. I don’t like the…
Okay I’d like to address these both questions simultaneously because they’re both in response to the same post: http://madamedechevre.tumblr.com/post/24207985109/wavesandmoon-answered-your-question-questions
First off, I am using third person because ~I personally~ am not about to go out and start hassling people about their consumption of food or anything else. Really I’m not. Because, as lovelywinkers points out, I’m hardly getting by on “just what I need” so it would be silly of me to make that a standard by which I judge others. I’m asking most of these questions hypothetically, on the internet, because I have no intention of actually playing out any of these scenarios in real life. This blog is a space for me to think through problems so I can inflict my ignorance on people in the face-time world as little as possible.
So, to answer lovelywinkers: yes, I was posing the problem originally as “Is it okay to question and judge people’s food consumption in the same way one might question their consumption of other material goods, such as gasoline?” I wanted to know whether there is a fundamental difference in the way one might interrogate different kinds of consumption, or whether some types of consumption should be exempt from questioning and why. Or perhaps personal choices should never be interrogated and any issue of over-consumption (relating, for instance, to environmental concerns) should only be addressed structurally and socially, not individually. I don’t have an answer to the question.
To answer wavesandmoon: I apologize for the unclear wording. I was assuming that one might make a judgment about consumption not based on weight, but about actual knowledge of the person’s consumption. (Since, of course, weight does not tell the whole story). But perhaps you’re right and it is impossible to know enough about any person to ever make such a judgment.
I guess what I’ve been thinking about as I think of these questions is the relationship between consumption, environmentalism, and privilege. It seems like a complicated threesome.
“I think that this line of reasoning leads to really radical views on preference. I think that an ideal society for me would be primarily pan-sexual, even gender/genitalia preferences are based off of histories of prejudice and oppression. I definitely think that having generalized preferences in relationships is harmful: it leads to violence against gay and transgender people and people of colour, abuse against women, etc… Its definitely a big leap from the accepted view so I don’t know where this fits in, I don’t even necessarily practice it…but I think its probably how I would frame my ideal.”
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been discussing thin privilege and fat phobia and related social justice issues with me lately. You’re awesome and you’re making me think. :)
like a man loves a woman he never touches, only
writes to, keeps little photographs of. I would have
loved you more if I had sat in a small room rolling a
cigarette and listened to you piss in the bathroom,
but that didn’t happen. Your letters got sadder.
Your lovers betrayed you. —
Charles Bukowski (via dearlydisturbed)
Oh god.
(via dearlydisturbed)
wavesandmoon answered your question: Questions about thin privilege and fat phobia
2. Probably. You don’t know what a person’s caloric needs are & do not get to define “over-consumption” for them.
I kind of hate myself before I even write this post, but, for a moment, I’m going to suspend my tolerant and open-minded side and play the unrelenting skeptic. My questions are:
-If someone is very overweight, and is eating enough to sustain that weight, why should one not assume that they are getting more calories than their body “needs”? (As in, could survive just as well on far less).
-Does this mean it’s not acceptable to tell anyone they are consuming too much of any resource? Is it not acceptable to say that someone driving a Hummer, for instance, is using more than they need and to suggest that this is wasteful?
*Ceasing questions and going back to not sounding like such a douchebag now*
