Sunday, February 10, 2008

Skinny Bitch: helping veganism, or giving it a bad name?

Sipping on a smoothie over books, I overheard a giddy student exclaiming to her friends how the book Skinny Bitch "changed her life" and prompted her to veganism.

Maybe I should be happy about the vegan cookbook's success--but I'm not.

Veganism is not about being "skinny". Being healthy is not about being "skinny". What our culture promotes as "skinny" is generally unhealthy.

The gendered implications also bother me. Why is it called Skinny Bitch? Because when you are a "skinny" woman in mainstream culture, you are "better" than other "non-skinny" women and therefore entitled to your bitchiness. You are also a bitch because other "non-skinny" women are jealous of your weight, and whisper "bitch" behind your back. This book feeds off of the division and competition among women to be the envied, "skinny bitch".

I won't even get into why women are divided and compete with one another--because this is how they win the big heterosexual male and access resources/social privilege/"fulfillment"--but will say I'm not a fan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Three W's: women, weight, and worth. I doubt that I'm the only one who wants a post about the 3 W's :)