The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Fat, Black, Queer and ANGRY!

Posted on | September 5, 2019 | Comments Off on Fat, Black, Queer and ANGRY!

 

 

Ashleigh Shackelford (@ashleighthelion on Twitter) has described herself as “a queer, nonbinary Black fat femme writer,” complaining in 2016 she was “always scripted as the angry Black bitch” in her “organizing spaces.”

As a one-woman embodiment of the identity politics that now defines the Democrat Party, Ms. Shackelford has few rivals, which may be why she was paid to contribute to a new series of Teen Vogue articles “celebrating what it means to be fat, from destigmatizing the word to taking stock of the discrimination fat people face.” In case you’re wondering why an angry fat black queer would be considered a proper contributor for a teenage fashion magazine, I’ll remind you: “Condé Nast Is Decadent and Depraved” (March 24). Condé Nast has joined the anti-Trump #Resistance, which means publishing a lot of radical left-wing agitprop, even if this means losing readers and advertisers (Teen Vogue ceased print publication in 2017). One doubts that Ashleigh Shackelford appeals to a demographic coveted by the clothing and cosmetics merchants whose advertising dollars are necessary to the financial success of a fashion magazine, but Trump Derangement Syndrome has so completely seized the minds of the New York-based publishing industry that Teen Vogue editors gave Ms. Shackelford a platform for a genuinely bizarre rant:

For me, fat is a way of saying “f*ck you.” . . .
How fat is weaponized, and the reclamation of the word, goes beyond size. Fat stigma is also tied to anti-blackness, in that being black is the abundance that white supremacy seeks to shrink. . . .
My definition of fat is Black AF, multidimensional, and futuristic. Fat means I exist. Fat means taking up space and demanding more. Fat means black. Fat means f*ck you. Fat means human. Fat means creating a world full of possibility without shame. Fat means saying f*ck you.

You can read the entire thing, but the question is: Who thinks it’s a good idea to celebrate being fat and angry as a source of empowerment? Even if you share the anti-Trump politics of Teen Vogue‘s editors, does it make sense to encourage this attitude? Do they think this will help Democrats in 2020? And why is this kind of stuff — FAT ANGRY BLACK QUEERS! — being published under the masthead of a teen fashion magazine?



 

Category: Gays, Media Bias, Racism, Sex Trouble

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