Saturday, May 09, 2009

Marriage, Thin Priviledge, deportation case

Yes I really should be working on presentation stuff, but it's late and I wanted to highlight a few posts that have appeared on the F Word blog recently:

On Marriage There follows an interesting discussion on the nature of marriage, it's symbolism, whether it's possible to have a feminist marriage, the distinctions between marriage and civil partnerships, perceptions of cohabiting couples vs married couples, next of kin arrangements, and so forth.
To all intents and purposes I am married. Me and the boyfriend haven't had the ceremony, and we won't, but we live as a married couple. People are well aware of our relationship, and our commitment to each other, yet people still ask when we're getting married and I have to defend my decision not to. If we were to get married I wouldn't be given away, I wouldn't take his name and I would remain a Ms. I probably wouldn't even wear a ring.
I can see the strength in declaring your commitment and love in front of your friends and gods, but there's too much baggage with the wedding ceremony and the connotations surrounding it for me to ever get married.
I do love going to other people's weddings though.

On Thin Privilege
Interesting. This post opened up a whole can of worms. The comments cover whether thin people are actually privileged (my view - yes, but that doesn't mean it's all kittens and joy), whether it's OK for thin people to come in and hijack a thread about fat people's experience of discrimination, how thin privilege operates, the role of gyms, the role of the diet industry, whether it can be tackled outside of a larger feminist framework, and the relationship (or not) with eating disorders.

So a warning : The post could be triggering to anyone with an ED.

If you can read it, it's well worth a read. My thoughts? Hell I've had enough of dieting I'm, gonna eat all the cake and chips and biscuits I want and if I get fat I don't give a shit. I've had it with worrying about my weight and the size of my stomach. I'm not gonna buy into that crap anymore. And deciding this, it's a really fucking liberating feeling. Not having to check the food labels in shops. Not working out how much and what I've eat each day to see if I can allow myself to eat a biscuit, to not have to convince myself not to feel guilty if I do. Liberating.

Deportation case
Sima Valand came to England several years ago with her husband. She was beaten and raped many times. She eventually went to the police, he is now in gaol, they are divorced and she is facing deportation. Despite the fact her family in India have told her they will cut her up and kill her if she returns.
How is deporting her even on the cards? Anyway, the comments show that women wrote to the airline requesting they don't fly her. And Ms Valand is still in the country. Who says activism doesn't work?

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