{"id":33455,"date":"2011-02-20T13:29:01","date_gmt":"2011-02-20T18:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=33455"},"modified":"2015-09-20T23:33:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T04:33:26","slug":"guest-post-possibilities-and-limitations-of-subversion-through-fatshion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/02\/20\/guest-post-possibilities-and-limitations-of-subversion-through-fatshion\/","title":{"rendered":"Possibilities and Limitations of Subversion through Fa(t)shion"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jessie Dress of Austin, Texas started the project Fa(t)shion February for Femmes and Friends<\/a>, she was responding to what she perceived as a gap in the online community celebrating \u201cfatshion,\u201d or fashion for fat-identified people.\u00a0\u00a0 She explains, \u201cI don’t feel like the fatshion blogs I see really represent the kind of radical queer fashion that I’m into and that feels like my community.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Jessie committed to posting \u201coutfits of the day\u201d (OOTD) every day in February. \u00a0Her intention was to celebrate and draw attention to three kinds of politicized fashion projects – first, fatshion; \u00a0second, the fashion of femme-identified queers; and finally, the fashion of allies of both fat and femme-identified people.<\/p>\n

The result was Fa(t)shion February for Femmes & Friends – an inclusive space for posting OOTD for those who find themselves outside the mainstream fashion ideal. \u00a0What started as her small personal project with a close group of friends has since exploded, with over 350 people participating in some way – a number that grows by the day:<\/p>\n

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Fa(t)shion February participant Gazel (of Gazelma<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The aim of the project is to \u201cqueer\u201d fashion in a number of ways \u2013 to celebrate the subversive possibility of fashion. \u00a0What\u2019s exciting about how the Fa(t)shion February project has developed is the many different ways this aim has been realized.\u00a0 For example, an amazing conversation has emerged through the project regarding the \u00a0\u201cfat experience.\u201d\u00a0 Fa(t)shion February was created to be explicitly inclusive of those who are often missing from the fatshion dialogue \u2013 that is, individuals on the fattest end of the fat spectrum.\u00a0 This privileging of \u201cbigger fats\u201d is an attempt to further radicalize the fatshion phenomenon, but it has come with its own set of dilemmas.\u00a0 Some users expressed fear of participation because they aren\u2019t \u201cfat enough\u201d or aren\u2019t fat-identified.\u00a0 In response to a conversation on The Rotund<\/a>, Jessie wrote on her tumblr,<\/p>\n

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The kinds of difficult \u2013 but incredibly important \u2013 dialogues that are happening in and around the project are part of what makes it succeed in its mission to use fashion as a tool of social activism and community building.<\/p>\n

[The rest of the post is after the jump just because it’s somewhat long.]<\/p>\n

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In addition to creating a space for these kinds of representations, the Fa(t)shion February project intends to celebrate and recognize queer and femme fashion.\u00a0 As do many of the project participants, Jessie defines femme as a gender identity, a \u201cradical and intentional\u201d way of doing gender.\u00a0 This is in contrast to the way femme has been perceived elsewhere — as a stereotypical and heteronormative complement to \u201cbutch.\u201d\u00a0 Instead, as Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha pronounced in a 2008 keynote address to Femme Con, \u201cFemme is about finding a way to be a girl that doesn\u2019t hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fa(t)shion February participant Bevin (of Queer Fat Femme<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Another important aspect of femme identity that has been asserted in the project\u2019s space is that femme identity isn\u2019t exclusive to people assigned female at birth or \u00a0who identify as women:<\/p>\n

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Fa(t)shion February participant Reid (of Dirties Do Fa(t)shion!<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Aside from body and gender politics, a discussion has emerged from the tumblr about challenging and resisting the inevitable commodification and commercialization that comes along with attention to fashion.\u00a0 User Sassyfrass Circus<\/a> asks,<\/p>\n

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Can we divorce our sartorial resistance from the psychological rush of finding the one cute dress on the rack that zips or even an entire store of clothes in your size (and conversely, the psychological crash of searching fruitlessly for a single item that fits), no matter what the social, political, or environmental implications of our consumption?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sassyfrass points out an important limitation of the radical potential of projects like Fa(t)shion February — \u201cthe ever-present imperative to shop<\/em>, to fall to the inevitable model of: Here is a picture of what I wore. Here is where you can <\/em>buy<\/strong> it<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, one of the fantastic things about the fashion that has predominated on Fa(t)shion February is the amount of thrifting\/remixing\/self-creating that is going on.\u00a0 Jessie laments, \u201cAs a femme, it\u2019s really something I hear a lot \u2013 that dressing well has to be expensive, especially if you are fat.\u201d\u00a0 For her, another facet of the radical possibilities of Fa(t)shion February is the way that users are dispelling this myth through creative sartorial strategies.\u00a0 Further, Jessie likes that \u201cpeople are comfortable posting in jeans and a t-shirt \u2013 especially for fatties, and female-identified folk, that can be really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Jessie herself is quick to point out, not all marginalized people are being equally represented in the project.\u00a0 The current typical user is white, urban, able-bodied, female-bodied, female\/woman-identified, and around a US clothing size 18-22.\u00a0 While there are people of color contributing regularly to the project, they are underrepresented amongst the site\u2019s images.\u00a0 Jessie says she would love to see more people over size 24, people of color, trans and genderqueer people, and differently-abled bodies in the project.\u00a0 In many ways, the missing virtual voices mimic \u201creal life\u201d limits of community \u2013 such marginalization is an issue Jessie and others contend with in their political and community organizing outside the internet.\u00a0 The limitations of the virtual space add another potential barrier in terms of access to both the internet and to virtual social networks, through which news of the project has spread.\u00a0 However, it might also offer a way of bringing together geographically isolated individuals who might not otherwise have an opportunity to engage in the critique.<\/p>\n

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Fa(t)shion February participant: Demi Monde (of Inspiring Demimonde<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I asked Jessie if she was considering extending the project beyond February, given its popularity, and while she\u2019s still working out what form that extension might take, she says she\u2019s like to \u201ckeep engaging with people about the project and how it has affected them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catherine Connell is an assistant professor of sociology at Boston University. \u00a0Her research interests include gender, sexuality, and organizations. \u00a0Her current project focuses on the identity negotiations of gay and lesbian teachers in California and Texas, states with disparate policies regarding LGBTQ employees.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

UPDATE (from Gwen): While we always like to encourage discussion at Soc Images, some comments have crossed the line from commenting on the topic of the post to ridiculing participants. I’m monitoring the comments as closely as I can to delete any personal attacks on the individuals pictured here, etc.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 2<\/span>: Comments closed. I simply can’t be on top of every comment or moderate the comments post constantly to try to keep people on useful discussions or to quickly catch any personal attacks, etc.\u00a0 Sorry, and maybe I’ll open them again later. Maybe not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Jessie Dress of Austin, Texas started the project Fa(t)shion February for Femmes and Friends, she was responding to what she perceived as a gap in the online community celebrating \u201cfatshion,\u201d or fashion for fat-identified people.\u00a0\u00a0 She explains, \u201cI don’t feel like the fatshion blogs I see really represent the kind of radical queer fashion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,244,225,229,55,2089,2103,2096],"class_list":["post-33455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-fat","tag-clothesfashion","tag-consumption","tag-gender","tag-gender-beauty","tag-gender-bodies","tag-gender-femininity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33455"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68032,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455\/revisions\/68032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}