More thoughts on reclaiming the word fat

Some regular readers might remember a post I made a long time ago about how we need to stop thinking that fat is a bad word, and just use it as a regular adjective.

I’ve had many conversations about that subject since then, and one thing that often comes up when I tell people to just call me fat is this. They say that a slur that is being reclaimed can only be used by the people who are reclaiming it. This is why Black people can use the n-word, but it’s completely unacceptable for a white person to do so.

To me this is just one level deeper of fat stigma and fatphobia! Because here’s the thing. What is the n-word? It was a word created by a group that had total power over another group, and it was given all the meaning carried by that power — you are less than me, less than human, I own you. It’s used by the powerful group to humiliate that marginalized group. So when that slur is reclaimed, it is a political action; it’s taking away the power to give meaning to that word. But every time someone from the original powerful group uses it, the meaning reverts to the slur. Which is why they can’t use it.

Let’s look at another example, slut. Slut is a slur that men and women use to refer to a woman to demean her and humiliate her. Women as a group were (and are still) historically marginalized by society because a woman doesn’t get to control her sexual rights. This is property is inherited by children, and men want to ensure that the children who inherit their property are genetically theirs. How to do that? Control who women have sex with. Now slut a word that is used for a woman when she breaks those social expectations of chastity. Once again, reclaiming it is an act of political power, and once reclaimed anyone can use it.

Now let’s get to fat. It’s a pre-existing word that is used to describe a fact, and to which the negative meaning was added as a result of certain social changes (such as the time of surplus). Anyone can speak up to reject that negative inflection, because once more it’s a word that is used as a slur for breaking social expectations, not as a way to highlight totalitarian power over a group of people.

So get out there, use the word, and if someone asks you why you’re using a bad word, ask them why they think being fat is a bad thing.