Author: María Unanue
Translator: Sol Tovar
Original Title: ¡Grita, gorda, grita! - Published by Pikara Magazine - Translated with their authorization.
I wish my 14-year-old self would have had access to Magdalena Piñeyro's book when she would suck her belly in when she was in front of people in the pool. How lucky we are now that, thanks to fat activism, body activism and transfeminism, there will be generations of children who will go out into the world without hating their bodies!
Cover of Magda Piñeyro's second book, illustrated by Arte Mapache
We've had a lot of success this summer. The author of Stop Gordofobia y las panza subversas (which, if you haven't read, you should definitely get) has finally had the decency to give us the second book we were begging her to write. At last! Her new offspring is entitled Diez gritos contra la gordofobia and was published in May of this year in Penguin Random House's Vergara collection.
Magdalena Piñeyro is an Uruguayan migrant in the Canary Islands, who holds a university degree in Philosophy and a Master's degree in Gender Studies and Equality Policies. You may know her from being the co-creator of the
Stop Gordofobia Facebook page, a platform dedicated to highlighting the discrimination against a certain sector of society (us, fat women, wow) and criticizing the canons of beauty with which we are bombarded day in and day out. As well as admiring her for all the above, I must admit that her facet that fascinates me the most is that of
a punk singer-songwriter.
The work consists of a magnificent introduction, ten chapters (which will be listed below) and acknowledgments. In addition, it is beautifully illustrated by
Arte Mapache ilustraciones. Arte Mapache is a marvel because when I see the person on the cover, I feel like clapping and shouting out loud: ordinary arms, an ordinary belly. But most of all, a cleavage with tits that could be mine and I don't see them anywhere. THANK YOU! Please we need more depictions of boobs that are not a pair of little round balls placed at armpit level. Ask anyone over thirty: are your boobs anything like the ones in magazines, or has gravity already started to play its part, or do your nipples face down and not forward, or are your breasts closer to your belly button than to your neck? Notice to women under thirty: a neckline like the ones in magazines only exists in magazines and gravity, the passage of time and the looseness of your skin will make your body (fat or not fat) not look like it did when you were 16 years old. Soon everything will start to hang and become softer. It's not you: IT'S ALL OF US.
The dedication of the book leads us to think: "Dedicated to my grandmothers, who taught me how to cook and how to enjoy food". It's nice to read an acknowledgment to those who taught us something so basic as to feed and nourish ourselves. And it's nice to see the gratitude towards those who have made it possible for us to do so with pleasure. A few lines later one can also read: "and you, who for some reason have this book in your hands". Why do you read the books you read? You tell me. I have no idea. Now: please do not take for granted that this text is meant only for fat people, because it is not. Piñeyro's reflections will be useful to you no matter what body you have, no matter what age, no matter what gender you identify with. Why? Because just as it is widely known that we live in a racist, classist, sexist, transphobic society, we also live in a fatphobic society. The society we have just described is precisely that, and although you may not directly suffer from certain oppressions, we should all fight against them. Shouldn't we? Thus, this book will be of interest to you, whether you are fat or not. If you want to be minimally conscious and fair with your environment, it is not superfluous to find out what the party is about and how the multiple forms of violence intended to be exercised against us work, so that you are aware of them and can respond effectively. Whether they lead you, your patient, your friend, your brother, your student, your co-worker or your greengrocer up the garden path. Why? Because, as the author points out just before her introduction, "Your silence will not protect you".
Magdalena Piñeyro explains in the first lines of her work that she has kept almost silent for about thirty years. (Think: How long have you kept silent?) The writer also notes in this first message to whoever is reading the book, that most of the reflections that she captures in Diez gritos contra la gordofobia, do not belong to her, but are rather a puzzle made up of conversations with an infinite number of fat activists, friends, feminists and people in general. I believe it is VERY important to say this, and that it is SO rarely emphasized because of this eagerness that we have to believe that we are the creators of the raw knowledge that has been passed on to us... To tell you the truth, I, who have the pleasure of having heard the author speak, know for sure that in her case this is an act of extreme modesty and that in reality, much of what she expresses here is the result only and exclusively of her thoughts.
" Yeah, sure, but what are the ten screams that are being shared with us?"- you may think. Well, I'm glad you're asking this question. They are the following:
"Fat is not an insult" (“Gorda no es un insulto”) is the reminder in case you haven't realized yet and still use it as if it were. Furthermore, it is vital to be aware of the fact that we make a reaffirmation out of the insult and call ourselves by that name; "Our self-esteem is not a question of attitude"(“Nuestra autoestima no es cuestión de actitud”) sets the record straight and problematizes the over-simplistic "love yourself" mantra that we are so often told is as if we were living aseptic, decontextualized lives where we are not surrounded by hate and we were responsible for our own complexes (yes, dear reader, the "put the blame on the oppressed" game is older than dirt, and you are not the only one being held accountable. So, once again, it is not you: IT'S ALL OF US); "Our body is not gross. Society is gross!" (“Nuestro cuerpo no da asco. ¡La sociedad da asco!”) couldn't be more explicit and I thank Goddess for this chapter. It is not nice to read about situations that other fat women have been exposed to, and I feel a tremendous desire to (even though it is not pedagogical) put many people in detention for many weeks while reading this chapter. Similarly, the quotes from Constanza Álvarez, Lucrecia Masson, anecdotes from Gaborey Sidibe and from other women who have chosen to tell their experiences in conversations, will make you feel goosebumps. Definitely, "Society, you are the one who is disgusting" (“Sociedad, eres tú la que das asco”) no one can deny it; that "health is only an excuse" to thinsplain and enlightened gordespotism is known by all of us who have flesh on our bones; logically, self-love unfortunately does not grow on trees, and "What do cultural representations of fat women say?" (“¿Qué dicen las representaciones culturales de las gordas?”); You should read the chapter entitled "We don't have to hide our body" (“No tenemos que esconder nuestro cuerpo”) for obvious reasons; And for the love of the Goddess never forget that "Recommending diets is violence and so is the #iloveyouanyway" (“Recomendar dietas es violencia y el #tequieroigual también”). Really, let us live and don't be tiresome. You sound like broken record and we know before you even utter a word all the strings of condescending fatphobic bullshit that you are going to list for us; It is not a bad reminder that "Love and not hate, must be the driving force of our decisions" (“El amor y no el odio, debe ser el motor de nuestras decisiones”).In this chapter, watch out for the concept of "transit body" and don't you dare let that mouth say FALACIES such as that fat people are sloppy. If there is one thing I have learned in fat activism it is that without a "Fat Alliance" (“Alianza gorda”) (and without networks in general) this is pointless and that's why the following chapter has moved me so much: "Alone nowhere, together until Utopia" (“Solas a ninguna parte, juntas hasta la utopía”). Finally, the last chapter is about that "invisible hypervisibility" and how "We have the right to exist and be happy" (“Tenemos derecho a existir y a ser felices”).
I swear you have just read the last word of the last line of the last chapter and if you are not crying a little and full of energy and elation to go out into the world and eat it up, I will give you your money back. But how have we been able to live so far without this book? It's pure gold. Drawing parallels with other oppressions, television series, celebrities, quotes from fellow fat activists, stories from friends, and her own musings often in the form of a poem, Magdalena Piñeyro writes what we've all been wanting to read for a long time. I wish I had had access to these lines when I was 14, when I would suck my stomach in when I walked past people in the pool. How lucky we are to know that from now on, thanks to fat activism, body activism, and transfeminism, there will be generations of children who perhaps will go out into the world without hating their bodies and knowing that, although they don't belong to the norm of the aesthetic canon, they are part of something that we fat activists didn't experience when we were little, but that we can facilitate to those who come after us.The writer Arantxa Urretabizkaia said in an interview that she felt the obligation to enlarge the small feminist path that her previous ones left her, and turn it into a road. What better than a group of fat women taking up space at the beginning of the road to open up a three-lane freeway. Thank you, thank you, and thank you Magdalena Piñeyro for the work you've taken on leaving part of yourself in this second book! This is just what anyone who is starting to know themselves needs to read, and what those who are responsible for people who are learning to be self-aware need to know so that they do not get in the way and contribute towards their better perception of themselves. If you are an adult: read this book and give it to anyone around you who is not. If you are not an adult: read this book and talk about it with your friends. Don't let them shut us up. Let them know that we exist. May the canons of beauty imposed by capitalism and patriarchy not lock us up at home or within ourselves anymore. You know perfectly well, and if you don't know I' ll tell you for the thousandth time, that capitalism wants you unhappy and consuming, and the patriarchy wants you unhappy and submissive replicating the patterns it has set for you over centuries. So what do we do against this?
INSUBORDINATION, DISOBEDIE(T)NCE AND THRIVING!
SCREAM, FATTY, SCREAM!
And to you, who have come this far: I wish you a very conscious and happy summer.
