Body Oppression + Everyday Feminism - MY TAKE ON IT

hey guys and welcome back to my channel so today we're going to be talking about the website everyday feminism calm I came across their Twitter and I then went to their website out of morbid curiosity and there was this little tab saying ditch diet culture or whatever and so I was like okay what what what now how are they can relate feminism to like body positivity so you get this screen that says and everyday feminism online course the body love course how to dump diet culture and embrace radical self-love two things I do think diet culture is real probably not to the extent that these people do but I do think it's real because I mean diet being thin is push as an ideal in most every social media platform television newspapers they're trying to always tell you these [ __ ] teas on Instagram I mean it is everywhere and that's true do I think that it's oppressive no you can just decide to ignore it like many people do like many many people do on a daily basis and it doesn't have to be the end of the world so diet culture is a real thing but I don't think it's probably as a big a deal to me as it is some of the people I everyday feminism an embracing radical self-love to is concerning because it's everyday feminism so they're probably going to do it wrong and radical self-love if it implied that self-care would be in it I'd be totally down but I just feel like this is the kind of self-love where you just give yourself a pat on the back all the time and you don't call yourself out when you need to be called out and you don't bite the bullet when you need to bite it so let's just see this description do critical thoughts about your body of ruined important moments in your life is your body the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning and the last thing on your mind at night do you feel like you can't even go on a walk or have something to the invasive internal monologue starting up so first of all a lot of these are relatable because I think they're normal at some points you know not all the time and if it's all the time you might have an eating disorder so this probably is not even the place you shouldn't be going you should be seeing like a medical professional not a group of people who just wanna you know love themselves then in bold it says acclaimed author body image expert and fat studies scholar Virgie toolbar has the answers and wants to help you start a radical new relationship with your body so you can stop waiting and start living the cringe this 5 module lifetime access course will provide you with tools you need to adopt a body love practice grounded and intersectional feminism you'll leave with an understanding of how to analyze and articulate the current paradigms around bodies weight and food so you can finally deep program your mind deep program anger that sounds like something they would say in Scientology I love watching [ __ ] about Scientology oh my god anyways um okay and there's a money-back guarantee I don't know how how that would really work because anyone could just like it's not like you can prove that you've gained a self-love or disprove it so can you just get your money back anyways okay so all of this reminded me of something else I came across so I was on the YouTube so it reminded me of this video that I came across by Melissa a fellow who used to a worker right for everyday feminism and this video is 4 months old and it says widening the lense on body oppression and I felt like this is the kind of thing that would be included in the intersectional feminist radical self body love whatever the [ __ ] so I figured we could watch it together and just get just a little inkling of what we're in for when we're surely gonna sign up for that $100 course welcome to beauty school the youtube series and our first ever video version of unpacking body politics and beauty culture through a feminist lens my name is Melissa Ava bellow and today we'll be talking about my stomach kind of my stomach and I have a complicated relationship it loves and respects me and does all of the amazing things it's supposed to do the organ it holds helps me digest food and my core keeps me from like falling down my stomach generally speaking does not fail me but I sure as hell fail it and I don't really like it very much okay so I don't know if I need to say cuz I feel like it's really obvious you know the mom from Mean Girls he like tries to be cool and fit in I just want you to know if you need anything don't be shy okay there are no rules in this house not like a regular mom I'm a cool mom right Regina please stop talking I'm getting those kind of vibes like I don't know and especially the way that it's kind of trying to be educational but it's also trying to be relatable like I don't like my stomach and like it's transparent to me anyways also I love how like in her videos she's like my name is Melissa a favela and I'm like yes it's your channel like I clicked on it I I know I know who you are you aren't this new stranger to me I have like two little ABS instead of an Instagram worthy core and my waist I feel like doesn't quite curve in enough pants give me muffin tops half the time by the end of the day I feel bloated it's just like not my favorite part of my body okay that struggle is legitimate I'm a queer woman living in a patriarchal heteronormative society and capitalism sure as hell doesn't help okay so I was waiting for it so let's have the buzz words had to happen right so queer capitalists heteronormative yeah so while these things might have some effect on your body like assuming that these things are even like as prevalent as you say they are patriarchal also I don't think there's a table with guys sitting and they're like you know what Melissa if a bellow does not feel [ __ ] enough but we can make her feel worse so I mean I do I I can understand that surrounding factors might have an effect on you but also there's this thing called taking charge and you can take charge of how you view yourself and you can work on yourself so I mean the victim the whole victimhood thing is starting isn't it in a fat phobic diet culture where we're sold the thin ideal is not just a beauty standard but also proof of our worth it's normal to feel like you can never be skinny enough never be pretty enough that's real but because body image is such a personal experience and because most of us struggle to appreciate the body that we move through the world with it's easy to get stuck in the minutiae of our own personal battles particularly as white thin conventionally attractive women but let's zoom out for a second because learning to accept our bodies is not and cannot be the focus of body liberation movements we need to widen the lens of how we talk about body based oppression because wow yeah my agent of my stomach is totally the result of some [ __ ] up [ __ ] when I focus on that experience I leave out a lot because when I focus on my oppression I kind of forget about my privilege yeah okay oppression I knew that Kim hood was coming so first of all I think that this body liberation movement like I'm not even sure what exactly that's about but if we all individually dedicated ourselves to loving ourselves the problem would be solved so essentially I do think that putting yourself first in terms of that would probably be the smartest thing kind of like you know when an airplane loses pressure and then the masks come down you help yourself first and then you help the next person I kind of feel like it should work that way but you know I digress if you know every time you think about your stomach you need to think about all the oppression that any other person world is going through because of their body or whatever else go off I guess when I forget about my privilege I leave behind folks who are oppressed in ways that I am NOT body based oppression is far more complicated and varied a concept than most people who call themselves Bo PO allow for and I'm not just talking about fat although that might be the first thing that comes to mind then privilege is totally a thing it's the idea that mainstream clothing sizes airplane seats and even the widely used BMI scale we're all made to benefit us and fat Sigma absolutely needs to be at the center of the work that we do and there are other forms of body based oppression that we often leave out of our work completely racial profiling is body based oppression in accessibility for disabled people is body based oppression the astounding rate of murder against trans women is body based oppression the way that we obsess about Muslim women's clothing the prevalence of sexual violence against Native women the fact that skin lightening creams exist non-consensual genital reconstruction on intersex infants xenophobia and immigration bans the caste system food deserts and communities of color all body based oppression I lost count of how many things she brought up his body based oppression but this is the thing if you want something to fit in a category and most of the times you can bend it enough to make it fit especially body based oppression since all of us live in bodies technically anything that oppresses us could be counted as body based oppression right because we're in our bodies so by definition it would be body based oppression causation and correlation here just oh and she had to bring in racial profiling like I thought we were talking about your stomach in like fatphobia and self-love and then she's dragging in all these other things that have first of all that are pretty much unrelated and aside from that that have a lot of other factors and that are a lot more complicated than just body based oppression then I I need to remember that she brought up Muslim women and their clothing and stuff and that's kind of weird to me because if you are a so-called intersectional feminist wouldn't you be interested in discussing what Muslim women are allowed and not allowed to wear not necessarily in the Western world but in the Middle Eastern countries where they still have to wear the hijab or some kind of veil I mean this is all weird this is all contradictory and generally a [ __ ] show and listing [ __ ] out like this most the time is just an intimidation tactic it doesn't really hold anyway unless you explain to me exactly why each of these is body based oppression specifically and more so than any other kind of oppression okay how many of us myself included are regularly talking about these issues through the lens of body liberation how often are we taking a step back from my stomach will never be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition how often do we dissenter ourselves and our totally legitimate experiences to make room for arguably more pressing issues outside of ourselves how often are we sitting our audiences down to be like okay y'all today we are talking about mass incarceration rather than just referring them to someone else body liberation is not about feeling good in your skin although yes that will be a side effect body liberation means tearing down all systems of oppression by drawing attention to them and making people uncomfortable with how often we ignore them so here's a challenge everyone watching this especially if you fall into the categories of thin white and pretty choose one issue just one related to body based oppression that you don't usually talk about now post about it it can be an article video or tweet thread by someone with more expertise it can be a series of infographics that you create with pertinent statistics or it could be a personal reflection on why you've never talked about this before but say something and let's all try to make it a habit tag me at F yacht FA bellow on Twitter and Instagram when you post so that I can share and learn to [Music] okay let's all say it together so it starts with the whole stomach thing so you think it's gonna be like about body positivity or whatever and then it goes to body based body based depression is that what was called I can't even remember and she doesn't even really define it she just it kind of seems like an umbrella term for any kind of oppression because like I said all of us live in a body so by definition and the oppression that may or may not occur will be body based depression initiatives about mass incarceration as an example and I'm like how is that related to where you started your topic what the tummy thing cuz literally this could have been you could have not mentioned your tummy at all and just been like they're pressing issues we have to talk about we have to stop focusing on stupid [ __ ] like having belly rolls because in the end there are bigger problems in the world but the way that this video is framed I don't understand you know I don't understand why I'm still sitting here making this video after watching this video like what didn't we just [ __ ] watch umm anyways I'm not gonna come to conclusions because there's no real conclusion here because it's just like hey guys talk about something I makes you uncomfortable which I do think is an important thing to do I don't necessarily think that her perspective of what we should be talking about is exactly what I would talk about but I do think that it's important to talk about important topics and uh but in connection with the body love course see I feel like this is the kind of stuff that's gonna happen in it where you're not actually really prioritizing self-love in terms of taking care of yourself and loving yourself and giving yourself credit and be more confident and you know wearing the damn thing you promised you to wear like ten years ago but you still haven't worn because you don't like your body uh guys I give up on this one like I actually I feel like my brain was just put in the micro so if you guys understand what Melissa a fellow was trying to get to please please let me know also if anyone by chance ends up taking the body'll of course or has taken any courses or has any information about this please let me know because I'm actually really curious to see like what kind of gems are hidden in there anyways guys thank you so much for watching thank you to my patrons and let's get into the fan er [Music] [Music]

Channel: READY TO GLARE

Views: 277,102

Rating: 4.8855352 out of 5

Keywords: feminism, everyday feminism, body positivity, body image, self confidence, self love

Id: MZu8SplrKF0

Length: 16min 22sec (982 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2018