Sarah Hollowell, an established essayist, poet and young adult author found herself at the center of a complicated scandal late last week after it was revealed that organizers at the Midwest Writer’s Workshop (an organization she’d belonged to for five years) made fatphobic remarks about her when they were determining if she was qualified to be appointed to the organizational committee. The incident dates back to last fall, but was brought to light early last week when former MWW faculty member Roxane Gay took to her own personal Twitter account to detail what occurred. The established feminist writer posted a series of tweets early last week explaining in detail the story and expressed her complete disgust for the organization and their remarks.
Midwest Writers Workshop issued a public apology and explanation of what occurred, but the issue of fatphobia and belittling women to their appearance is an issue that is not new and is deep rooted in intersections of body shaming and misogyny. In light of the recent events, Hollowell was gracious to enough to share with Her Campus via Email her own thoughts on this particular breed of discrimination that continues to plague women everywhere and how fatphobia is an issue we can no longer ignore.
“One of the worst things about fatphobia is that it’s insidious. It’s everywhere, but it can’t always be proven, and sometimes it’s nothing more than a bad feeling in your gut. Sometimes the people who make decisions based on the fatness of someone don’t fully realize that’s what they’re doing.
We’ve simply been trained to see fatness as a sign of laziness, sloppiness, poor self-control, gluttony, evil. In a professional environment, this translates into people thinking you probably have a poor work ethic. In their mind, you’ll take up too much space and you’ll be messy and you won’t get the work done.
Which is ridiculous. Anyone of any size can be messy or lazy or not get work done. You can’t tell that by weight. But it gets put on fat people, and that’s why we also find ourselves having to be Extra Presentable. Our clothes have to be perfect, but also, good luck finding more than a couple pieces of plus-size work appropriate clothing that you can afford. Women better wear makeup, too. Can’t look lazy (even though, again, these things have nothing to do with each other).
I can’t speak for every other fat person who has ever done a job interview, but for me, my big fear is not noticing there’s a stain somewhere on my clothing. It could be a stain from anything, but I know what the people who see me will thing: Food stain. Because I’m fat, so I must do a lot of eating, and I must be sloppy about it. A little stain could confirm all the biases that are already there.
Of course, still, in the end, we can rarely prove that we weren’t hired because of our fatness. Sometimes we can sense it. Sometimes we can know it. When you have any kind of marginalization, you learn what certain looks and inflections of voice mean, and they can’t be explained to anyone else outside that marginalization. We can’t use it to prove discrimination.
Even in my case, when I have a witness account of someone on the Midwest Writers committee calling me fat and disgusting, it still can’t be proven because MWW is changing the story and it wasn’t in email or in minutes. As easily as I can believe the person who told me, they can call her a liar.
I’m lucky. I had a decent platform of my own before this. I’m friends with Roxane Gay. I could email her in tears and tell her what happened, and she stood up for me. People rallied around me. I’m lucky because I had a support system in place, and it’s grown.
Not every fat person has that. Most fat people who face discrimination at best have a friend to vent to. Maybe not even that. Maybe they just have friends who tell them they’re paranoid. Maybe they just have a family who tells them to lose weight if they don’t want to be judged.
It gets worse with every intersection. If they’re fat and a woman, it’s worse. If they’re fat and a woman and a person of color, add on more difficulty. We live in a country where anti-blackness is especially violent and pervasive, so being a fat black woman? And what if you then add being trans onto that? Getting support when you’re fat is hard enough, but when you’re battling other kinds of oppression on top of it, that’s just more unfair walls you have to get through.
This all sounds pretty hopeless, huh? What do you do when it’s everywhere?
If you’re a young fat writer who’s feeling (understandably) scared and hopeless, know that there’s a bright side. It’s not absolutely everywhere. There are good people out there. There are other fat people out there.
If you write short stories, look for markets that specifically look for diversity and marginalized voices. They tend to be safer spaces. Same for if you’re writing a novel and seeking agent representation — do your research and see what they have to say about diversity and marginalization. Many agents now put up-front that they want to hear from marginalized voices.
But you can submit anywhere, and I encourage you to do so! They’re not looking at pictures of you when you submit your story (though that isn’t to say that ends discrimination — people with names that don’t sound white enough are less likely to be chosen for many things even if their face is never seen), they’re looking at your words.
Even if you’re doing something where they do see you, I encourage you to try. It’s scary. You might get hurt. Might be discriminated against. Trust your gut on if you think a place isn’t safe, but also be willing to take chances. People will surprise you with cruelty but they’ll also surprise you with goodness. Yes, I discovered that there were people I worked with at Midwest Writers who saw me as disgusting, but dozens more have come out to defend me and support me.
Being a fat person in this world is hard and it is scary and, if you’re fat, you already know the kind of hate that comes your way because of your body. But here’s the truth: It’s okay to be fat. You are worthy and deserving, you are loved, and you got this.”