NPR Guest Claims ‘Thinness’ Is ‘About Maintaining Systems of White Supremacy’
If you thought you were trying to be thin for just health reasons, you are actually upholding systems of white supremacy, according to an author. Author Virginia Sole-Smith, who wrote the book “Fat Talk,” was…
If you thought you were trying to be thin for just Health reasons, you are actually upholding systems of white supremacy, according to an author.
Author Virginia Sole-Smith, who wrote the book “Fat Talk,” was interviewed on NPR’s “Fresh Air” on Tuesday and spoke about some of her issues with the “concept” of “thin privilege.”
“Thin privilege is a concept that I think is tricky to get our heads around, because if you have it, you don’t really see how much you have it. I mean, it’s a lot like white privilege in that way because you don’t see how much it’s benefiting you,” Sole-Smith said.
NPR’s Tanya Moseley noted, “Thin privilege, you also write, is a White and heteronormative ideal. When we strive for thinness, you write, we’re reinforcing every other form of stigma at the time. You kind of alluded to this for people of color, specifically, thin privilege then gives you access to white privilege.”
She asked, “Can you explain this?”
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Sole-Smith responded, “Yeah. I mean, the thin ideal is definitely a white ideal. When we trace the history of modern diet culture, we really trace it back in the United States to the end of slavery and Sabrina Strings’ book, ‘Fearing the Black Body’ is sort of, you know, the iconic work on this that I would refer people to.”
She went on:
“Her research talks about how as slavery ended, Black people gained rights. Obviously, white supremacy is trying to maintain the power structure. So celebrating a thin white body as the ideal body is a way to other and demonize Black and brown bodies, bigger bodies, anyone who doesn’t fit into that norm.”