Emma Specter
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
Thank you so much. What a delight. Thanks again.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
I would say rational, kind, hopefully, and political.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
Yeah, I mean, I think I feel similarly to Emma. And what I think was particularly obnoxious about it, if you unpack it, is saying, I really enjoy this form of unjust privilege that places me in at a major advantage over people who are larger than me when it comes to all sorts of aspects of life that are important. I mean, it's true that it is often easier
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
for thin people when it comes to employment and education and certainly healthcare. But the answer to that is not just revel in one person's thinness, it's to make the world accessible to all and to dismantle systems of oppression.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
I think as well as the backlash that we're seeing to that moment of body positivity, I think there is also this technological aspect of it where the advent of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have meant that there is this now means for some people with means of accessing thinness in a new way.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
And because that takes capital, it takes money, it takes socioeconomic status to access, it is now a marker of elevated socioeconomic status to be very, very thin or to lose weight. And so I think that that is part of why we've seen this trend towards greater thinness than ever because, frankly, it's a sign that you can afford a drug that will shrink you down to size.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
Yeah, I mean, that's the kernel of truth in her video. And I do think compassion is warranted. It is in many ways easier to access goods that are in particularly short supply for marginalized folks if you have that cultural capital of thinness. And there was a particular phrase of hers. She said that her favorite thing to fear is not being skinny.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
So this isn't just reveling in her current thinness. It's saying she's afraid of what would happen to her or how she'd be viewed or treated if she was larger.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
there's both a truth to the idea that there are these huge privileges in thinness and there's a moral case to be made for refusing some of those privileges in as much as you can, rather than saying more of that, I want more of those privileges. Instead, I think the thing to do is stand in solidarity with,
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
with people who are not thin and say, you don't get to treat us differently because we happen to have different amounts of flesh on our bones.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
I mean, I see it very powerfully in the mandate for conformity. I mean, at the heart of fascism is this idea that fundamentally people should look and be one particular way that is culturally mandated. And that whatever it takes to get a population to look like that
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
however brutal, however violent, however marginalizing, however genocidal, those means must be taken to get a population that conforms to that ideal. So yeah, I think this is a worrisome moment and it's not wrong to draw connections between the ways body ideals are changing and the fact that our politics are moving rightward in a pretty rapid direction and at a pretty rapid pace.
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
Think about the amount of energy and time and money and emotional labor and just all of it that we sink into the pretty sad, futile project of making our bodies in the long term only slightly smaller typically. Or imagine what we could do with all of that time and energy and maybe collectivity and solidarity if we banded together and
It's Been a Minute
Thin is back in, but did it ever leave us?
in ways that were not informed by beauty ideals, but moral and political ideals. I think that a lot would be possible that currently feels like it isn't.