Queering the Body

When I thinking about queering the body, the first thing that comes to mind now is the medicalization of terms like homosexual. As humans we feel the need to understand things scientifically and medically so much so that we take something that should be natural and dissect it down to a medical study. By doing this we are looking at the body not as a vessel in which our souls reside, but rather a specimen that needs to be studied. Everyone is different and we all have unique and beautiful bodies, therefore to get a true understanding of the human body we would need to study each and every person's body individually, and while that is not only not possible, it is also ridiculous in concept. Our bodies are special, not simply biologically, but also our only means to exist, and it therefore should not be broken down to simply science.

We also tend to break down our bodies with science in regards to sex and gender. Our society is so obsessed with being able to appropriately label everything that we cannot have any gray areas, but simply a binary system of man/woman or male/female. It is this need to create a study out of everything that keeps people close-minded to the queer identities that exist everywhere. Applying gender to body types is another way we stifle ourselves, labeling people as butch, fem, sissy, tomboy, and the list goes on. It is this need to label everyone and everything that keeps our identities in a box. We are all so different, both physically and mentally, and yet we try so hard to not only put others in labeled groups, but also fit in those groups ourselves. Butler gives some great examples of this medicalization of gender in the Undiagnosing Gender piece. As she states on page 78, diagnoses such as GID really do stem from a homophobic culture, and one that is not ready to accept the queer identities that we all have somewhere deep down. Butler goes on to describe how something like GID is diagnosed and it is truly fascinating how much scientific knowledge has been put into avoiding the queer identity.

The fat studies reader was very interesting. I had never thought of there being a fat history, but then again I hadn't thought much about a queer history either. The author makes a great point that these histories are not separate, and they should be studied cohesively and recognized and one. It has always been a mystery to me why being fat has such a negative connotation in this day and age. The latino woman's example on page 16 really stuck out to me, she doesn't see herself as fat, but rather well-cared for. Many societies throughout history saw being fat as a symbol of wealth, and even beauty, but today we idolize the anorexic models that really have more of a boyish figure than any woman I know. I would even be willing to say that the beauty we idolize today is far more queer than the beauty of yesterday.

As the second reading in the Fat Studies Reader points out, in addition to racism in queer culture, there is also prejudices against body types. While you may not be attracted to a certain body type, that does not mean a person with that body type should be shunned all together. The study on page 60 is particularly interesting, in that it describes the differences between African American woman and Caucasian woman in regards to self perception of body type. Fatter African American woman tend to see themselves as "healthy" rather than fat, and tend to embrace their body more easily than the Fat Caucasian women. This kind of blows my mind, but really makes a lot of sense too. I think about my weight probably 80% of the time, but never to I think about what it would be like to be starving myself to be skinny. While I could use to lose some weight, I am healthier than some much skinnier than me.