{"id":61626,"date":"2014-02-25T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=61626"},"modified":"2015-08-18T23:42:23","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T04:42:23","slug":"the-privilege-of-assuming-its-not-about-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2014\/02\/25\/the-privilege-of-assuming-its-not-about-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The Privilege of Assuming It’s Not about You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haley Morris-Cafiero is an artist, a photographer, and a scorned body. \u00a0Aware that her appearance attracts disgust and mockery from some, she decided to try to document people’s public disdain. \u00a0The result is a series of photographs<\/a> exposing the people who judge and laugh at her. \u00a0She chose to publish several at Salon.<\/a>\u00a0Go take a look. I’ll wait.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Dmitriy T.C. was the last of many who’ve suggested I write about this. \u00a0I’ve decided against it in the past because I anticipated a critique, one that dismissed the project on the argument that we can’t really know what is going through these people’s minds. \u00a0Maybe the cop is just a jerk and he does that to everyone? \u00a0Maybe the gawkers are looking at someone or something on the other side of her? \u00a0Where’s the proof that these are actually<\/em> instances of cruel, public anti-fat bias?<\/p>\n

In some cases, Morris-Cafiero has a story to go along with the photo. \u00a0The girl waiting to cross the street with her, she said, was slapping her stomach. \u00a0In another instance, she overheard a man say “gorda,” fat woman. \u00a0This type of context makes at least some of the photographs seem more “legit.”<\/p>\n

But, as I’ve thought more about it, I actually think the project’s strength is in its\u00a0ambiguity<\/em>. \u00a0The truth is that Morris-Cafiero often does not know what’s going on in the minds of her subjects. \u00a0Yet, because she carries a body that she knows is disdained by many, it is perfectly reasonable for her to feel like\u00a0every<\/em> grimace, look of disgust, laugh, shared whisper, and instance of teasing is a negative reaction to her body. \u00a0In fact, this is how many fat people experience being in public; whether they’re right about the intent 100% of the time is irrelevant to their lived experience.<\/p>\n

And this is how people of color, people who speak English as a second language, disabled people and others who are marginalized live, too. \u00a0Was that person rude because I speak with an accent? \u00a0Did that person say there was no vacancies in the apartment because I’m black? \u00a0Was I not chosen for the job because I’m in a wheelchair? \u00a0Privilege is being able to assume that the person laughing behind you is laughing at something or someone else, that the scowl on someone’s face is because they’re having a bad day, and that there must have been a better qualified candidate.<\/p>\n

For many members of stigmatized groups, it can be hard not to at least consider the possibility that negative reactions and rejections are related to who they are. Morris-Cafiero’s project does a great job of showing what that looks like.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haley Morris-Cafiero is an artist, a photographer, and a scorned body. \u00a0Aware that her appearance attracts disgust and mockery from some, she decided to try to document people’s public disdain. \u00a0The result is a series of photographs exposing the people who judge and laugh at her. \u00a0She chose to publish several at Salon.\u00a0Go take a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,244,23645,403,329,283,675,23706,37],"class_list":["post-61626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-fat","tag-bodies-prejudicediscrimination","tag-deviance","tag-emotion","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-psychology","tag-public-space","tag-social-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61626","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61626"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67739,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61626\/revisions\/67739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}