Quickies: Fantasy poisons, the myth of shared female experiences, and pumping iron

Amanda

Amanda works in healthcare, is a loudmouthed feminist, and proud supporter of the Oxford comma.

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4 Comments

  1. Fascinating article about society’s noticably more respectful treatment of the newly thin woman (“Gastric bypass, thin privilege, and passing over”).
    I wonder how one could test oneself for unconcsous discrimination? I honestly don’t think I value fat people less than thin, or women less than men, or people of colour less than white people, etc. I want to say that I’m positive I don’t do this. But I’d guess most of the people who ignored the fat Professor Schechter-Shaffin but then respected the thin one had no idea they were doing this.

      1. Thanks – I did the survey for thin/fat preference, and it decided I had a strong automatic preference for thin people. But since the survey required me to adjust to first one set of associations (fat+bad, and thin+good, and then switch to the opposite pairing) I can’t help but see the survey as flawed. If the survey sometimes starts with the pairing fat+good and thin+bad, then I think the survey may overall provide an interesting insight into people’s unconscious biases. But the single test I took doesn’t convince me that I unconsciously think fat people are bad.
        If anyone else takes the test and gets the pairing of terms fat+good first, I’d be interested to hear it.
        If it is always presented in the same order, and those in charge of the test are actually intending to interpret the data as evidence for real unconscious biases, then their results are going to be meaningless.

  2. That article about gastric bypass and thin privilege is one of the best reads I’ve had in a while. I think it’s a good introductory read for the topic, actually.

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