Comments of the Week: Mandisa Edition
In case you missed it, La Wade pointed us to Mandisa's Advocate interview, which addresses her feelings (Mandisa's, not Wade's) on homosexuality. I would sum it up as: she is opposed to it, but not hateful about it.
We also got a short comment in this entry that really made me disproportionately angry: "I say there is a big difference between "full-figured" and Mandissa" [sic]. What does this mean? That it's okay to be "full-figured" as long as you aren't too full-figured? What is Mandisa if not a full figured woman? I don't know; I was really irritated.
And here's my favorite comment, from Miche in this post with another take on my oversimplified notions of blackness and weight (it's a long and interesting comment, I endorse checking out the whole thing):
"While it is true that culturally, a little bit of 'phatness' isn't a dating death sentence, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is acceptible across the board to be fat. When I was heavy, I was called a fat, ugly bitch by as many black guys as white guys. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, Beyonce, and music videos, black men are tending toward the Eurocentric aesthetic as far as looks go...
So, yeah. Everytime you think that it's more acceptible for black women to carry some weight, I ask you to remember that it's been more than a decade since Sir Mix A Lot wrote 'Baby's Got Back,' and there really haven't been any comparable shout-outs to women of any colors since."
I thought I heard a song on the radio not that long ago that was a shout-out to the big girls but now I can't remember what it was. Is it true that the days of "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Big Bottom" are over?
We also got a short comment in this entry that really made me disproportionately angry: "I say there is a big difference between "full-figured" and Mandissa" [sic]. What does this mean? That it's okay to be "full-figured" as long as you aren't too full-figured? What is Mandisa if not a full figured woman? I don't know; I was really irritated.
And here's my favorite comment, from Miche in this post with another take on my oversimplified notions of blackness and weight (it's a long and interesting comment, I endorse checking out the whole thing):
"While it is true that culturally, a little bit of 'phatness' isn't a dating death sentence, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is acceptible across the board to be fat. When I was heavy, I was called a fat, ugly bitch by as many black guys as white guys. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, Beyonce, and music videos, black men are tending toward the Eurocentric aesthetic as far as looks go...
So, yeah. Everytime you think that it's more acceptible for black women to carry some weight, I ask you to remember that it's been more than a decade since Sir Mix A Lot wrote 'Baby's Got Back,' and there really haven't been any comparable shout-outs to women of any colors since."
I thought I heard a song on the radio not that long ago that was a shout-out to the big girls but now I can't remember what it was. Is it true that the days of "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Big Bottom" are over?
7 Comments:
Outcast -- "I Like The Way You Move" shouted out to the big women:
"Speacialy the big girl
Big girls need love too
No discrimation dis world
So keep ur hands off my cheeks
Let me study how u ride the beat(Ya big freak)".
I thought Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" was about bigger (or at least damned curvy) girls.
"What you gon' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside that trunk?
...
What you gon' do with all that ass?
All that ass inside them jeans?"
Well. To me, a "full figured" woman (used in the context of this post) would be someone who, while large, is healthy and energetic. You cross the border into "fat" when you reach the stage of both a) having to stop and rest when you walk across a room (I have at one friend for whom this is literally true) and b) becoming unattractive with it - think sagging rather than glowing, etc. Admittedly, the second of those is very subjective, and posting it here I fully expect to be yelled at by someone, but that's how I would interpret that difference.
Richard, that is pretty much how everyone defines it. "Full-figured" means "as big as you personally find attractive", and "fat" means "too fat to be attractive". The problem with that definition is that what is full-figured then? For some it is Britney Spears during her heyday (I kid you not, they think that THAT is "borderline fat"), for others it is Emme and other plus-sized models, who are around size 14, and for some, it is Mandisa.
Miche said much more eloquently what I had tried to hint at with an earlier comment. I'm glad she broke it all the way down.
It's interesting what can be justified by "marketing" and "upwardly mobile aspirations" these days -- but perhaps that's another discussion.
BTW, Anon, for those maybe looking for the record - it's OutKast. :D
So in that case, stick with the first definition - someone crosses the line from full to fat when their weight starts to be a limiting factor and a restriction of either (first stage) what they want to do, or (second stage) what is considered "normal" activity (going to the movies, walking between tables in a restaurant, climbing a flight of stairs, etc. Still subjective, nowhere near as much (and I think you'd see a much greater consensus).
Well, if you use "weight as a limiting factor for what they want to do", then most normal weight/skinny girls would be then "fat" - most of them won't go to the beach or something else until they lose the imaginary 10lb they have to lose.
I'd say that when the weight is a limiting factor in mobility, you are not fat, you are morbidly obese. As in, your weight is seriously threatening your life. "Fat" for me is anything bigger than say, a Degas painting, but still not big enough to face mobility problems.
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