Dangerous Bodies: Blackness, Fatness, and the Masculinity Dividend

• Authors: Usienkiewicz Marta

Title variants

PL

Niebezpieczne ciała. Rasa, grubość i dywidenda męskości

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Contemporary obesity epidemic discourse galvanizes racism and classism under the veil of “care,” and is used to further stigmatize mostly poor people of color. I examine the intersection of fatness, race, and masculinity to show how in the case of black male bodies fatness is criminalized and used to legitimize excessive violence inflicted on those bodies. I discuss the oftentimes conflicting projections attached to fat black male bodies to analyze the mechanism that enable not just the criminalization of race and poverty, but also of fatness in the American culture of personal responsibility. I also discuss the unacknowledged racial and gender biases or fat studies, which partially impede the analysis of non-white non-female bodies.

PL

Współczesny amerykański dyskurs epidemii otyłości przywołuje w nowej formie dyskursy klasistowskie i rasistowskie, jest też kolejnym wcieleniem moralnej paniki wykorzystywanej po to, by pod hasłem „opieki” stygmatyzować biednych i niebiałych członków społeczeństwa. W tekście przyglądam się splotowi grubości, rasy i męskości, by pokazać, jak w przypadku czarnych mężczyzn w USA otyłość jest kryminalizowania i wykorzystywana w celu uzasadnienia stosowania przemocy wobec czarnych grubych ciał. W artykule omawiam sprzeczne wyobrażenia na temat grubych czarnych ciał, pozwalające pokazać, w jaki sposób otyłość, tak jak wcześniej rasa i bieda, stała się w Stanach Zjednoczonych „przestępstwem”. W pracy zajmę się też analizą samej dyscypliny fat studies, by pokazać, że i ona nie jest wolna od rasowych i klasowych założeń, które częściowo uniemożliwiają analizę niebiałych, niekobiecych ciał.

Keywords

EN

race; masculinity; fatness; masculinity dividend; disability

PL

rasa; męskość; grubość; dywidenda męskości; niepełnosprawność

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Ośrodek Studiów Amerykańskich
• Journal: InterAlia: Pismo poświęcone studiom queer
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 11a
• Pages: 19 - 45

Contributors

author

Usienkiewicz Marta

• University of Warsaw

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