Pages

8/12/2010

Women's Perception of Women: "Skinny Whore"

Never mind.  I do have something to say.  But please continue to the post below and the Gratuitous Kitteh Picshurz.

As usual, there are all stripes of post-BlogHer roundup posts floating around the ol' BlagoWeb this post-BlogHer week.  They range from ruin-your-keyboard-with-Perrier funny, to dry lists of activities, to fabulous gluts of pictures to... well... to totally gobsmacking.

A post to which I will not link* recounts a meeting in a Hilton elevator.  The blogger is asked by a fellow elevator rider if she is, in fact, a blogger.  When answered in the affirmative, the stranger tells our blogger that she "fits the bill" and elevator chick will leave something with the concierge for our blogger.  We get no description of elevator chick, other than that she is "this very interesting chick."  Later, picking up her gift, our blogger discovers that elevator chick left her a large bottle of humidity-control hair product.

At this point, elevator chick ceases to be elevator chick and becomes a "skinny whore."  

This transition:  I have issues with it.

How is her body size relevant?  Is she a whore because she's skinny, or was she being paid by some guy in the elevator while he was zipping up his trousers?  Is she a skinny whore because she has inadvertently (and admittedly in a really gauche way) insulted our blogger?  What if the gift had been free eyeshadow?  I'm guessing she would have remained in the realm of interesting elevator chick.

One of the Comtesses asked me if there is any insult for a marketing shill that wouldn't have rankled.  Sure, I can think of a few.  "Graceless marketing shill."  "Marketing shill who needs to think about how she'd react if someone approached her with those words."  "Girl who really wanted to go to BlogHer but couldn't make it without sponsorship from a brand willing to pay her way."  (Except I that last one's not an insult.  BlogHer is expensive.  Sure, there are more subtle ways to fulfill your sponsorship duty, but why should money prevent you from the experience?)

Can you imagine if elevator chick had been labeled "fat whore"?  How about "ugly whore"?  But because elevator chick is "skinny" (whatever that means), we can criticize her body and roll all our feelings about her momentary lack of social grace into a perception ball, implying that because she looks a certain way, she is a certain way.

Any time I see body shape or size being used against someone in an arbitrary and, basically, uncalled for manner, I will protest.  Most people have at least one thing that they just don't find funny, that others will suggest they lighten up about, and this is one of mine.  I don't think making malicious assumptions about someone based on their body shape or size is acceptable, in jest or no.

Sometimes I'm just no fun.


* It's not that I don't want to send traffic her way.  It's that I have never read her blog before.  Therefore, I don't want to give the impression that my thoughts on this post are My Thoughts On This Blogger.  I don't have any thoughts on her yet, other than that she seems very outspoken in her humor.

3 comments:

  1. You may not be aware of this, but simply being skinny is enough to earn the label of "skinny whore", as if body size were determinate of means of earning money. I've been called that, though only once to my face, a few times, by people who know nothing of my sex life or employment status. It's really charming.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been called it as well, again, in jest. Something about seeing it so baldly in a blog post, with literally NO description of the elevator chick's physical appearance prior to "skinny whore" really rankled, though.

    And of course, one realizes that "whore" is used colloquially, not literally. But what a cruel phrase.

    My line around my in-laws is that fat prejudice is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices in our culture. But it's really just "body prejudice," with different flavors.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am still just so stunned when people make reference to physique in either insults or compliments. Especially for the insults though, as you say, it's one of the last prejudices. I wouldn't say someone was a Jewish whore, a Hispanic whore, or a fat, skinny, ugly, or beautiful whore. But I guess, like you, I wouldn't be calling anyone a whore to begin with.

    ReplyDelete

Get rude, get deleted.