Like a disturbed nest of hornets, the internet is abuzz this week thanks to US blogger Cora Harrington, who has published a Twitter thread about the concept of “thin privilege”. Harrington, who runs a blog called Lingerie Addict, has used her thread to explore some of the unwitting advantages straight-sized people may have over those in the plus-size community, regardless of whether or not they “feel thin”.
“Thinness isn’t a feeling,” Harrington tweets. “If other people perceive you as thin, you are thin. If you are able to walk into any clothing store and expect to see a wide range of options in your size, you are thin.”
“No one looks at a photo of me online and tells me to lose weight or sees me out and about eating a cookie or an ice cream cone and sneers at me in disgust,” Harrington goes on in her Twitter thread that’s received over 20,000 favourites and 4,000 retweets since posting on Sunday.
“In fact, no one comments on my body at all. The ability to move through life without people insisting you need to be a smaller size...if you don’t have to think about that, it’s privilege.”
Unfortunately for Harrington, the thread may not have had exactly the desired effect. Although she’s certainly started a ~conversation~ online, as with any discussion about “privilege”, the Twitter hounds are baying over the idea that there is any inherent advantage to being thin.
“Of all the divisive conversations taking place thin privilege is probably the most annoying,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Imagine working out and eating healthy to be in shape just for someone that’s sitting on a couch eating Cheeto puffs tell you that you have thin privilege,” tweeted another.
Phew, a lot to unpack there.
First up, it’s probably worth pointing out that expert-level nasty responses to the idea that being thin might make your life easier are exactly why people concoct phrases like “thin privilege” – to try and protect already put-upon people who deal with lots of discomfort and discrimination.
Not everyone who is fat sits on the couch eating Cheeto puffs; just as being skinny doesn’t automatically mean you must work out and eat healthy. There are dozens of reasons why people’s bodies are they way they are.
And yes, everyone has self-image issues. But, just like the people in these tweets are showing us with their unkindness toward fat people, you can bet your bottom dollar that the people out there being shamed the most for how they look are the ones who don’t fit the conventional standards for body acceptability. Yes, the fat bodies.
Actually, I don’t need a thin person advocating on my behalf for something as ridiculous as “thin privilege”.
I have a fat body, and yes, sometimes that means my life is harder. Often I can’t shop in the stores I’d like to shop in; sometimes people in my life treat me differently because of the size of my body. But, actually, I don’t need a thin person advocating on my behalf for something as ridiculous as “thin privilege”.
Because I agree, asking people to feel bad about the bodies they are in isn’t a good step for any body movement in any direction. And breeding discontent between skinny people and fat people is (surprise, surprise) likely going to end up reflecting worse on us fat people than it will on any thin people.
I don’t need any thin people – friend or foe – to check their privilege. Not just because I think there are better ways to address this, but also because I think a divisive call-out like “thin privilege” causes more problems than it solves. (Though you’re free to disagree with me, and perhaps other fat people do!)
What I think we should advocate for is something a little more radical, and far more beneficial for everyone.
Being human means having a body: thin, fat, tall, short, dark-skinned, light-skinned, able, disabled.
How about instead of “privilege” or “positivity” or “celebration” of our bodies, where we centre them as so fundamental to our positive self-perception, we just settle for body neutrality all round?
Being human means having a body: thin, fat, tall, short, dark-skinned, light-skinned, able, disabled. But those bodies are ours, and we need them to, you know, take us places and to help us achieve things – no matter how difficult they can sometimes be for us.
We don’t always have to love them; but we don’t need to hate them either. They just...are. They’re our bodies.
So, thin people: calm down, friends! No one is actually asking you to check your “thin privilege”. However, if your response to Harrington’s thread was to call a fat person disgusting, perhaps just check yourself in general because no one likes a dickhead.
