BENQ
Yesterday Entertainment Weekly ran a piece about debut novels with six-figure advances and why publishers are willing to take big financial risks on (relative) literary unknowns. The answer is, among other things, “because they believe they will make even more money later,” but the part that really leapt out at me was this:
You can’t count on selling a book on the writer’s talent alone—so while factors like being photogenic or savvy with social media won’t make or break a deal, they can definitely sweeten it. “I actually knew very little about [Sweeney] when I bought The Nest,” says her editor at Ecco, Megan Lynch. “I didn’t know that, for example, she knew Amy Poehler well enough to approach her for a blurb. That was a happy bonus.” Lynch stresses that while she would never “decline a book I loved because I felt like the author wouldn’t be able to handle an NPR interview, it would certainly affect how determined I might be: Am I going to hang in for another round at auction, or drop out?” Herr, for her part, acknowledges that an author’s appearance can affect an advance — “We look at all of that stuff” — but insists, “We would have paid her the same money if she weighed 500 pounds and was really hard to look at. That’s my firm belief [emphasis added].”
“We would have paid her the same money if she weighed 500 pounds and was really hard to look at.”
This is such a telling quote in so many ways, and says a great deal about what types of writers so many of the gatekeepers in publishing are looking for – often, although not in this case, unconsciously. The “if she weighed 500 pounds” part is so clearly a hyperbolic flourish, as if Herr was thinking, what’s something really outrageous, something that no great writer would ever be, to make it clear how much we don’t let someone’s looks influence the size of their advance, as if to say, Can you imagine a brilliant writer who also weighed 500 pounds. It’s the “or purple” of “I don’t care if you’re black, or white, or purple”: This would never happen, but even if it did, I wouldn’t care.
“We’d have bought this book EVEN IF – I don’t know – the writer were 500 pounds, as if that could ever happen.” But that could, and does, happen! People of that size both exist and write. They sometimes write tremendous and valuable things.
It’s easy, I think (and entirely appropriate!) to be angry with Claudia Herr as an individual for saying this, but this is less a case of one bad apple spoiling publishing for everyone than one person perhaps-unconsciously echoing a common, often unspoken, sentiment. Most likely Herr and others would not say to an interviewer, “I doubt fat people could write a book worth two million dollars,” and would in fact think of themselves as open-minded when it comes to size, but in an unguarded, unreflective moment, would throw out the idea of a 500-pound writer as an absurdity, as a mental exercise, rather than a plausible occurrence.
I don’t think, for what it’s worth, that the best possible outcome of this story is that Claudia Herr issues a public apology and is rejected or forgiven; I’m less interested in her personal culpability and more interested in critiquing and opposing the idea that anyone is “hard to look at.” This quote makes it fairly clear what constitutes “easy to look at,” and I have to imagine that a lot of aspiring writers reading this article who know they might fit into a “hard to look at” category would be discouraged from ever pitching an agent or editor.
What that quote promises is, at best, that editors and other publishing gatekeepers will do their best not to hold a writer’s appearance against them, and promises it weakly at that. “We would have paid her the same money if she weighed 500 pounds and was really hard to look at” translates roughly to: “We would not try to offer a fat writer less money for being fat,” which seems an awfully low bar. The effect is a little too self-congratulatory by half. While it’s not a direct comparison, I imagine reading a prospective employer proudly promising not to pay fat employees less money than their thin counterparts: “We promise not to violate the law when compensating people for their work”. It assumes, too, that the reader believes it’s normal or somehow instinctive to want to offer less money to a fat writer (or anyone “hard to look at”). A lot of writers who know that editors and agents think of their bodies as “hard to look at” knew what that sentence means for them and what they can expect in trying to get published.
“A body that is hard to look at”! What a phrase: it exhausts and it fascinates me. A body that is hard to look at. We promise to offer money, even to someone in a body that is hard to look at. We all know the bodies that are hard to look at. “Even if.” We promise not to hold your body against you. Everyone knows you’re hard to look at, but we promise not to mind. We notice it, but we won’t mind. It’s so clear what “easy to look at” means here! Think of the bodies that are easy to see in publishing: those are the bodies that are easy to look at. Writers who know their own bodies do not fit in that category, bodies that are too big, too dark-skinned, not able-bodied, not cis or cis-passing, too queer, not conventionally attractive, and any combination thereof, know what it means, and what being “hard to look at” will cost them.
Publishing is overwhelmingly dominated by white, heterosexual, able-bodied women. What bodies do they think are hard to look at?
It says a great deal how common this attitude is within publishing that Herr did not think twice about having this quote attached to her name, that she did not wish to be quoted anonymously. Everyone will know what I mean. She likely will end up offering a public apology of some sort, something like, “What I meant to say was that we would pay any author of any size the same amount if the book was good; I merely acknowledged we live in a world where women’s appearances are often counted strongly for or against them.” And that will be fine, in its own way, but it’s also an extraordinary opportunity for the people working in publishing to look at how easy or how difficult they make it for fat writers, for queer writers, for writers of color, for writers with disabilities (especially those with immediately visible disabilities), to stop seeing size as a setback or a deviation from the norm that must be overcome with some additional, extra-special qualities.
I also simply and fundamentally disagree that a body can be hard to look at. You may or may not like someone else’s body; someone else’s body may elicit a sense of discomfort within you, but that does not make them hard to look at. You’re not hard to look at.
No one is hard to look at.
A body is a body is a body. No matter how heavy or “ugly” or visibly disabled somebody is, you can look at them just fine. They aren’t fucking Cthulu.
I am Cthulu tho.
Yeah, I suspect I may also be Cthulhu. 🐙
I’m Cthulhu and so’s my wife!
I’M Spartacus!! I mean, Cthulhu!
Can I also be Cthulu?
Cthulhu for ALL.*
*Some restrictions apply, void where prohibited.
<3
Or a Gorgon.
I read this as “Or a Groupon”
Buy three Gorgons, get the fourth free
But don’t look them in the e-
Or a basilisk.
Your body is only “hard to look at” when you are shining incandescent with the fire of a million far-away stars gone supernova. Blinding us with your impossible and immortal radiance is rude.
ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD!
I am not Cthulu, but I am fucking Cthulu.
It’s pretty great.
Thank you. I read that article the other day and immediately felt shame about my overweight, old body. I don’t have a problem with myself, generally, and publicly celebrate bodies of all shapes. I’m super body-positive! And yet, that throw-away line in a cheap magazine (that I subscribe to, and look forward to reading, don’t get me wrong) threw me for an effing loop.
Social conditioning is real, apparently. Ugh.
I’m really intrigued at Herr (and in a slightly more deniable way, Lynch) saying first “Of course we take into account appearance” before saying “But we absolutely don’t take it into account”. Either you look at “all of that” and how they would do on NPR or you don’t, but you can’t have it both ways.
Totally. Also, I don’t really get how book sales work, but she says that those factors might keep her in an auction… which seems to mean that they WOULD pay more for a book by a “hot” author.
Reading it, I think she meant that THIS book was so good that the author being conventionally attractive was really just a bonus, but I got the strong impression that for another book, a book not AS good, those factors might become more important – and affect the price. So yes, for another book, maybe they would pay a fat person less.
Also, isn’t it possible that the author being attractive influences the perception of the book’s quality in this type of system? Like, if you meet an author at a conference and perceive them as very sale-able and then they submit their work to you, wouldn’t that sort of affect how you read the work?
“hard to look at” was exactly how I was described once to a friend by a guy I had a huge crush on, so this whole thing has made me want to curl up in a ball and roll away into the horizon.
What a terrible person this guy is! I’m so sorry. *hugs*
Ugh that is terrible. I’ve also been told that, due to my lovely spider veins. Thank you for posting this, Ms. Ortberg. (I’m new here and unsure of proper form of address for everyone? Best to err on side of overly formal, I am guessing. So helllo to all, and I am totally in love with The Toast.)
Usually people call her MALLORY (all caps only because she has once again hit us *in the feels*)
do you know the musician perfume genius? whenever i hear ‘hard to look at’ i always think of him. it’s not that he’s unattractive or anything; something about his looks and the poignancy he communicates in his music make it difficult for me to look straight (ha) at him, kind of like staring too hard at the sun. if it helps, you could think of being hard to look at in those terms: too great for mere mortal eyes to gaze upon.
Girl, I’m so sorry, but there were at least 12 Perfume Genius looking dudes in each of my college classes. I don’t get “hard to look at” in any sense from him. You might lose the poster on this one.
:shrug: to each their own. his entire being makes me think of sticking a fork into an electrical socket: what are all these feelings, and how did he make them come out of my body?
In high school (a time wherein I had plenty of undiagnosed psychological issues) I had a crush on this one girl with super dark eyes, tough build, way taller than me. Throughout the semester my crush / anxiety built and I tried to avoid eye contact with her, until one day she sat next to me in set design class and I bolted into the makeup room and started crying uncontrollably. She poked her head in, like, “are you okay?” and the only thing I could manage to say was, “How are you here? How are you so beautiful????”
I think I freaked her out. The teacher ended up letting me go home early.
So. Ah. I know the feeling?
I’m with Merripat. Please take this internet hug (or internet thought of kindness if you’re not a hug person).
Ugh. Ugh. A past crush of mine once said something nasty to a friend about my appearance too, and 26 years later the memory still stings. Sorry you had to experience that too.
ugh, I’m so sorry. In middle school, I was once stupid enough to be the silent person on a 3-way conference call and heard the boy I liked tell my best friend that I “looked like an alien.” It sounds so dumb now but when I was 12 it stung like a motherfucker.
It was my mother for me, so, I mean, meet you at that horizon, ever rolling, I guess. Solidarity and love and also to hell with the people who say such things and blunt us with a thousand little wounds.
<3 <3 <3
The “friend” who would repeat this guy’s unkind remark isn’t much of a friend.
What’s particularly disheartening about this attitude is that writing is not a performing art. There’s no need for your audience to see you at all, ever; in the act of consuming the art, you can’t see the artist.
I think one of my biggest breakthroughs in dealing with my own size and the degree to which it was other people’s problem was when I went through a period when I had moved to another state and couldn’t find work. This was on the cusp of the Internet era–nobody there knew me, I was applying for jobs via letter, and I wasn’t even getting interviews.
My mother: “Well, I hate to say this <uh huh> but the reason you’re not getting a job is probably because you’re fat.”
Me <thinking>: Yeah, she’s right, nobody wants me because I’m fat.
LIGHTBULB FLASHES FIGURATIVELY OVER MY HEAD.
Me: Wait a minute! None of these people have ever even seen me! Are you telling me that they can tell I’m fat just by reading my resume?
In some countries, it is the norm to put your height and weight on resumes (and to enclose photos, etc.) That blew my mind when I read about it.
True, but the last time anyone in my family applied for a job in another country was somewhere around 1912, so Mom doesn’t get a pass on that one.
Sorry, I wasn’t meaning to excuse your mom! I just thought of that because I read about it somewhere recently.
That’s okay–I didn’t think you were!
I’m sorry your mom was so cruel to you. I think zero passes are appropriate for parents who undermine their kids confidence and self-worth.
I agree with your intent here but I think that writing is becoming increasingly visible, as well. We expect authors at conventions now, at book fairs and on discussion panels and especially on social media. YA authors especially need to prove that they can connect to their audience, in both their work and their social media presence. Same for sci fi / fantasy authors and conventions. There’s a cultural expectation of visibility for those we admire that extends to authors now as well.
I just disagree so wholeheartedly that the fans care what their favorite author looks like! Have we even SEEN George R R Martin?! I’m generalizing, but someone who is passionate enough to attend book conventions as a fan probably does not give a rat’s ass about authors’ appearances. Or maybe that’s just me.
Well, George R R Martin is a man so being fat is more ok for him. But even then, people are constantly making tasteless jokes about how he’s probably going to die of fat-related maladies before he finishes writing the series so even men aren’t immune!
My partner and I have noticed a similar trend with male comedians – it used to be a thing to be a fat funny guy, but now even your Jonah Hills are having to lose weight to stay viable. This is not to say that there is evening out of general inequality! Just that the black hole of the weight loss industry would rather make it worse for everyone than make it better for women.
I feel like Martin is the exception that proves the rule here, because if it really *wasn’t* an issue he literally wouldn’t be the only fat modern author people always mention.
I don’t think he’s the only one, just the most visible. Hell, his books have been made into an insanely popular TV show! How many other authors have that kind of wide recognition?
(I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading author blogs, so I could easily point to a bunch who have talked about struggling with their weight. I don’t expect most people would have this kind of knowledge, though.)
I only know what like 4 of my favorite writers look like. George RR Martin is someone most geeky/book people know the face of, at least kind of, by now.
Most of the people who put a large photo of themselves on a book jacket are “pretty people.” Except for an old paperback I have of Dune with Frank Herbert looking like a crazy moutain man on the back, but I can’t remember his weight, just that beard.
If I ever have to have an author photo taken, I think I’ll add a fake beard.
I agree that passionate fans don’t care – they’re already won over! I see the statement as being more about potential fans, or just potential buyers. The kind of people who [a publishing decision-maker thinks] might be turned on or off by an author photo on PR materials or on her social media account. If a publisher is thinking, “I need to sell this author’s public persona to sell her books,” they probably also have a mental image of what a good public persona looks like (conventionally attractive). It’s more about the hiring bias – the biases of the person has to gamble on whether appearance will affect the author’s ability to do their job.
And George R R Martin may not be conventionally attractive, but he looks like a big ol’ nerd who writes about dragons, right? The author of, say, a literary comedy of manners set in Manhattan probably doesn’t get to look like that.
“The kind of people who [a publishing decision-maker thinks] might be turned on or off by an author photo on PR materials or on her social media account. If a publisher is thinking, “I need to sell this author’s public persona to sell her books,” they probably also have a mental image of what a good public persona looks like (conventionally attractive).”
Ah, memories of more innocent times–my father was an outdoors writer, whose persona (and person) was based on being a macho hunter. On one of his novels, in the late 70s/early 80s, the author photo on the back showed him proudly displaying a woodcock he had shot. Now, woodcock are difficult to shoot, so it was something for a hunter to be proud of, but woodcock are also small, small birds and my father was a tall man–here grinning fiendishly (as was his wont) over the corpse of a tiny birdie. The blowback on that picture was something, let me tell you. I can’t imagine, even then, who approved it.
Although I know what you mean, I don’t think female fantasy writers who look like “big ol’ nerds who write about dragons” get any kind of pass from gendered appearance policing.
So true about the cultural expectation of visibility. And if anything, that’s honestly even more a reason why there should be diversity in author appearance. Audiences (especially, ESPECIALLY young audiences since we’re talking YA) should be able to see that authors (like characters, ideally) don’t have to look any one way. Plus, just because an author (or anyone, really) isn’t conventionally attractive doesn’t mean that they can’t connect to an audience! Whaaaaat even is that argument.
(Disclaimer: the parts I’m having issue with are from the original article, not from your comment! Just wanted to clarify so that my sarcasm doesn’t come across as directed toward you)
This actually reminds me: Basically, every publisher passed on WONDER, and eventually Random House Children’s came around. And of course, audiences just went nuts for it. There was a hunger in the marketplace for a YA book about a kid being “hard to look at” and what his experiences are and how kindness matters. Lots of people said, “I don’t think this will sell.” And BOY were they wrong. And now the same industry is showing the same bias IRL that prompted them to pass on a phenomenal book.
WELL GEEZ IT IS SO CRAZY THAT SELF-PUBLISHING IS A THING
Yes, but visible and engaging =/= conventionally attractive.
When I think about the writers whom I am fans of who are social-media-masters and very convention savvy, the first person who comes to mind is Spike Trotman. She’s black, queer, and has piercings; she’s also VERY funny, engages with her fans of social media, asks questions, let me interview her for a magazine I wrote for in *college*, and creates free how-to-comics tutorials available for everyone.
Any convention that attracts an indie or geeky crowd, she’s there.
Anyway, in my mind I contrast that with, say, Dave McKean, who is SO awkward and socially strange and shy that he makes convention appearances super weird, and his social media / tumblr is not super audience-oriented? So, I mean, I stopped following him on social media platforms, even though he’s a reasonably attractive swm.
It doesn’t effect him personally all that much, since he built up his audience and fanbase pre-internet, but is publishers think they know who’ll connect with audiences nowadays based on appearance, they’re going to run into some issues.
Right, it’s particularly weird that she calls this out in terms of an NPR interview, a radio interview, which is one of the few public media now that wouldn’t require someone to look at your body!
Yeah, that stuck out at me as well. Like, those are two very different things. You have one publisher saying “My perception of their ability to hold their own in an interview setting where the audience expects a certain level of discourse will decide how long I hang in the bidding war” and another saying “Oh yeah, we take all that into consideration, even body stuff but definitely not body stuff.”
Right! “My desire to contract with this artist depends to a certain extent on her ability to engage with people in the world” is not the same as “We would maybe hire people who exceed what we deem an acceptable weight.”
I’m not sure that “we pay people with autism spectrum disorders, anxiety disorders, or speech disorders less” is any better than “we pay fat people less.”
Actually, I’m quite sure it isn’t any better.
Without endorsing Herr’s attitude, it’s unquestionably the case that in the present environment, personal authorial promotion is a big part of publicity strategies. Conventionally-attractive authors, especially women, thus have an easier time of it.
And here’s an apropos piece on Slate today: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/05/03/t…
I felt relieved at how much less alone I feel, then then horrified at my relief.
And now all that is over. The expectation that you will have a LinkedIn and you will have a picture on it has given full allowance to initial-screening level bias on weight and race and visible disabilities (and, to a lesser extent, just not being conventionally attractive.) And you will never know how many interviews you would have gotten if you were a white, slim, able-bodied pretty woman. There’s no possible way to know, since most hiring panel members aren’t even aware that they’re being influenced by those factors. Sigh.
Wow, you just made me want to delete my picture on LinkedIn because of COURSE you are right about it being a tool to pre-screen appearance! For better or worse, I don’t want to play a part in that game! Burn it all down.
Notreallydorine below is right though – if you don’t have a picture on your profile you will get less attention, it makes people feel like maybe you’re shady, maybe this you’re using this as some sort of scam and what do you have to hide anyway? And again, they may not be consciously thinking this, but it’s very ingrained in social media culture – do you pay attention to the eggs on twitter? At least there it’s ok to have a cartoon or meme as your pic, but no one trusts an egg. People are much less likely to accept a friend request on Facebook if there’s no pic, even if they recognize the name, because again, could be an imposter/scammer. And on dating sites of course profiles without pictures get ignored.
I work in HR and this aspect of LinkedIn irritates me so much. I’m also fat and whenever I have a job interview I can’t help but remember all the studies that say we’re less likely to get hired because people assume without consciously thinking it that fat people are inherently lazy.
Oh, i hadn’t thought of that. I hated having to add a photo to my LinkedIn account, but let’s face it, I’m looking for a job and all the advice thingies said that accounts without pictures get less attention, regardless of the skills/achievements listed. I didn’t think to question why it was that this “requirement” bothered me so much.
The company that I work for wanted photos on our internal webpage “to put a name to a face” despite the fact that they are in a different center and will never see us, and we only ever deal with people via phone and email, and it creeped me out so much I considered quitting even though it was day 2.
Yeah, many of my coworkers have uploaded pictures to their Outlook accounts, but it isn’t a requirement, so I can shrug it off. If it were a requirement. . . ugh.
I wrote about this at the Guardian!
http://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/s…
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. At one point as a little girl I gave up the idea of becoming an performer because I was fat, then turned out to enjoy writing better.
I know what maybe a handful of my favorite writers even look like, and none of that is from seeking out photos, it’s just because their pictures were on their dust jackets or websites. And some writers who are famous are not exactly good looking, although most of the ones I can think of that I see photos of a lot who aren’t considered attractive by most people are old white dudes, though.
Thanks for thinking and writing about this in a public way, Mallory.
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (cont’d. on pg. 120)
RIGHT? I’m having a difficult time picking just one gif. Going with this one for now.
Yes. Well said, Mallory.
Only one name is needed to mention here: George R. R. Martin.
Yes, but he’s a man.
I was editing my comment just as your reply popped up:
I think it’s possible that by now the nastiness of judging appearances has crossed over to men enough that it might have made it harder for him to start his career in this era than in the one he was born into, which is not progress. We still judge men so much more leniently on appearances that it doesn’t do a darn thing to hurt his career, it’s not like much of anyone who started reading the books stopped because they didn’t like how he looks, but for a new author it might be enough.
I’m writing this all wrong- I’m not responding to say that there isn’t a problem for women of non-conventionally attractive looks to get publishing deals because of their looks I’m trying to say that the idea that large people can’t write is immediately disproven by the currently most-successful author of our time. If publishers want to take the risk of not signing the next George R.R. Martin they need to leave looks out of it.
I definitely think that there is more judgement about looks now, though I still think that in general men are getting less of it — but there are fewer main roles for schlubby men (and their hot wives/girlfriends).
And I know that the editors didn’t mention this, but the entire article was about women, and the implication is that it was about a fat woman; I wonder what they would have said had it been about big advances for male first time novelists.
It was interesting that it was only about women- that feels so rare that it’s just women talking about women without explicitly being About Woman Stuff. Especially since I’m pretty sure the “how social media savvy is this author?” thing has had an effect on male authors too. (It even was the somewhat-legit complaint about the Hugos that because the internet has made supporting membership so much easier it’s weighting the awards towards authors who are good on the internet. Nevermind that they were loaded towards the authors who were good at the newsletter/zine scene before that, but it’s worth considering that an author with a major barrier to being involved in that scene is going to suffer some.)
Oh, excellent point. I can think of five male writers of size without trying hard (admittedly all fantasy writers, where it’s…something of a stereotype, but still), but no female writers, without doing a little research.
I can think of one, and she gets an endless amount of crap for it. (And I can think of another, except she’s not and she still gets crap for it, SO.)
I mean, there is the marvelous Tamora Pierce. She is not thin, and she makes all our dreams come true.
I’m a week late but both EL James and Cassandra Clare are fat women – and it’s notable that both of them found success through self-pubishing and had established fan bases before they were offered contracts.
I have to admit, that one of the things that holds me back from really focusing on writing the non fiction thing I want to write is my weight. I’m not skinny enough to be the next Nate Silver.
(Obviously, the rest of it is things like writing is HAAARD but you know, that’s not helping.)
You could totally be the next Nate Silver (who, while he is totally my type, is not exactly Ryan Gosling.) But even better, you can be you, writing the thing that only you can write so well, nailing your passion for the subject onto the page.
And it’s SO gendered! Perhaps unfairly, Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss sprang to mind as soon as I read those words – even though neither are obese, I would also not consider either of them to be conventionally attractive, and they are doing GREAT in their corner of the publishing world. (Mostly I’m just obsessed with both of their bodies… OF WORK… and desperately need the next in their respective series to come out, like, yesterday.)
Brandon Sanderson somehow taught me what high fantasy really means, and I’d never even thought about it before.
Both of those artists don’t receive criticism for it. Seanan McGuire is successful and an excellent writer, but she has to deal with crap like Jonathan Ross and then people being awful to her, http://tempest.fluidartist.com/community-response…
I’m in the middle of reading The Wise Man’s Fear (after devouring The Name of the Wind last week – a friend recently convinced me to break my no-male-authors stance just this once) so your comment made it necessary for me to GIS Rothfuss. I thought “yep, that seems about right” and now my reading experience is even better, because he looks exactly right for the job.
ETA: I realized didn’t even touch on the actual content of the article, but agree wholeheartedly with what Mallory and other commenters are saying – it’s too depressing to get into!
So, I have a graduate degree in publishing but have never had so much as an internship in the field. That comes down to mistakes I made, choices I made, and ultimately I understand that any and all “failures” in that area of my life are mine to own. HOWEVER. This hits it SO HARD. I am a fat lady and from the minute I stepped into school I felt like I didn’t belong there, and yes, there were lots of reasons for that, but I feel like so much of why I didn’t fit was because of how I looked/how I presented myself at that time of my life. [The other part of this being that I dressed terrible/ate terrible/felt terrible because I was *poor*, and that is another thing publishing doesn’t forgive, even though so much of their entry level work is literally not paid.]
People have been saying since I was seven years old (the year I Got Fat) that I need to have confidence, that I just need to prove myself to break through the bullshit, but when the world repeatedly tells you that you have less worth than the Skinny Girl, not in words necessarily but in everything else, every day, is it any wonder that you start to feel like you are literally worth less? And then it cycles around and around.
From a writer’s perspective, also, it feels like you have to know people to get a foot in the door, (yeah, no big, I’m just casual friends with Amy Poehler, right), and to do that you have to network, and to do that successfully you can’t possibly be fat. [again, not necessarily factually true, but this is the shit the world feeds us.]
“The other part of this being that I dressed terrible/ate terrible/felt terrible because I was *poor*, and that is another thing publishing doesn’t forgive, even though so much of their entry level work is literally not paid.”
Not “even though”–BECAUSE! Publishing is still, at some level, a nice little job for women with money who need something to occupy themselves.
True.
Right? On one side are people scolding me for not being confident, and on the other are people screaming at me for having what confidence I do have. It’s hard to know which shrieking to heed even though I know neither of them are quite right.
Seconding that body image issues are SO closely tied to class issues. When we talk about “people who are hard to look at,” we also mean teeth, skin, hair, clothes, and a whole host of other things that are directly impacted by money, or a lack of it. It’s hard to compete when your teeth are crooked because your family couldn’t afford braces, or you bought your suit at Ross instead of Nordstrom, or your shoes at Payless, and you eat off the dollar menu at fast food joints every night because that is all you can afford. The system is broken on so. many. levels.
It’s something I really wasn’t prepared for. I came from a comfortable middle-class background, and was straight out of an undergrad where I had an (almost) full scholarship and very little loans. Suddenly I was in a huge, expensive city and realizing the kind of resources you need to maintain even a façade of a lifestyle that I just couldn’t keep up with. There’s definitely *so many* systematic reasons why voices disappear. And then you hear about yet another twenty something white MFA literati getting a six figure advance and it’s just like…obviously someone felt this specific work/person deserved that for their efforts, and maybe she does, but is anyone taking the time to examine *why*?
Add the fact that it’s so much harder to find “professional”-looking clothes in plus sizes at a low-medium price point–I Have Feelings on this matter, so many feelings–and people who are fat, poor (or working-class or lower middle class), and upwardly mobile are doubly fucked.
Oof, this is especially hard to read in an article that contains only women’s names, unequivocally celebrates their success, and depicts them as helping one another make it. Like, it’s a wonderful warm feeling packed into just a few paragraphs, and then one throwaway line shows you the limit.
My favorite part of this essay is the way you broke down the semantic absurdity of that statement. People aren’t often forced to get up in a sentence’s face that way. Speaking as a person that Herr would probably find hard to look at, but who also wants to get her novel published, I don’t especially care if she apologizes, but I would love to sentence her to reading your essay. It’s a come-to-Jesus moment that somehow manages not to be judgmental. Best thing for someone who needs to get their mind right.
Exactly. Like, the headline wasn’t great, but then I got to that part of the article and RAGE.
Agreed, Mallory killed it. I think when people complain about our culture being “too P.C.” (insert rage face), it’s because… well, primarily because they are never the object of the non-P.C. statement being bandied about, are they? But secondly, because they don’t take the time to dissect the ideas behind these little throwaway statements like the one made by Herr. “… 500 pounds and really hard to look at,” seems innocent, but as Mallory shows, it means soooooo much.
I’m heartened by the responses to that quote from so many people who push back on the sentiment that there are bodies that are hard to look at or worth less, but, uh, fat people are paid less. Now. For real. Women especially. Women of color especially especially. In all kinds of industries. They get fewer jobs. They get fewer promotions. I would assume they get fewer offers of all kinds, including book deals, big advances or no, because I certainly don’t see as many out there pushing their work as I see every day in person. It’s honestly kind of refreshing to see someone actually admit it out loud, even if this one thought she was doing the opposite.
Yeah, I’m at the point in my life where I’d rather have someone just flat-out say shit. I want to know that a person’s an ignorant fucking jagload – I want to know what I’m up against.
This sort of stuff (because of COURSE I used to write, then stopped, and am trying to start up again) makes me want to just chuck everything out the window because I would decidedly fall into the “Hard To Look At” category held by these women. Which is an opinion held by seemingly most of the universe. I’m generally a pretty defiant fat woman but lately, shit like this just takes me out at the knees. And it’s pissing me off.
Yes. While I’m not fat, per se, I am very visibly disabled, and very well aware of the ways that appearance-related biases have limited the range of professional opportunities people are willing to offer me and the rates they’re willing to pay. I’ve watched numerous friends who also happen to be disabled, and/or overweight, and/or of colour, struggle against those same biases every day of their lives. It’s actually a relief when the culture forgets to pretend this isn’t a thing.
I know these feelz. In the rush to affirm worth, there can be a trampling-over of hard realities.
Thank you for this article. I’ve worked in the book sales industry, with publishers, and I’m now entering a career that runs adjacent to publishing, and the world of publishing is infuriating and maddening (like all the world, but… yeah).
Maybe THAT’s the real secret of Elena Ferrante! Maybe she’s….. (whispers) fat.
Burn them all to the ground.
Well, that certainly explains why the books (and I use the word “book” loosely) I translate for a living are mostly such unadulterated, badly-written, trite bilge, chock-full of vacuous cliches and Neanderthal mentality (albeit, mind-bogglingly – at least to me – popular bilge). It’s not the (not even adequate) writing that matters, it’s the writers’ looks. What a load of unadulterated BOLLOCKS.
And yeah, most of them are YA or paranormal crap, sorry, I meant paranormal romance. Strangely enough, with all that “increased visibility” (FFS!), the most popular of “my” authors (and, incidentally, the only one who can actually write *and* create a decent story) is rather overweight, yet her books have been made into movies and TV series. I guess someone forgot to tell her she has problems in the visibility department. For crying out loud!
And here I was, thinking that the only thing a writer needed was imagination, a gift for words and something interesting and original to say. Stupid, stupid me.
Yeah, but Cassie Cla(i)re had a lot of contacts in the publishing and entertainment industry that got her where she is now as well as her judicious use of pop culture quotes and passages from Pamela Dean novels she wrote down in her notebook and forgot they weren’t hers.
Assuming that’s who you’re talking about.
I also instantly jumped to that person’s name from the description, and I endorse your strikethrough section.
Thank you for this Mallory (knowing you’re an ally makes me so happy). This text is so incredibly relevant because people often think weight discrimination is all about owning your body and being confident (although those are of course important). However fat people face discrimination in the workplace (they are often underpaid and not hired because of their looks), when they try to seek medical help, etc. What future do I have as a writer or an academic and writer if I’m so “hard to look at”? I feel at times so frustrated and afraid.
I hear “a body that is hard to look at” and all I can think of is Stand By Me
(Corey Feldman voice): PSSSSSST you guys wanna see some widespread bias in the publishing industry??
Maybe this was taken out of context and he was saying “this book on how to be skinny and stay skinny always and what it’s like to exist in society as a very very skinny person was so good, I would have paid top dollar for it even if the author weighed 500 pounds” but probably not.
The concept of tolerance as a goal just needs to die already. An embarrassingly short time ago, I was merrily going along mirroring “A More Tolerant World for Everyone!” and my husband was all, “Yeahhhhh. We should aim higher. Dick move saying you’re going to tolerate someone. Come on.” Anyway, thought this applied to this lady’s quote.
This vaguely reminds me of that awful obituary for Colleen McCullough where the guy was basically like, “She was fat, but people still liked to read her books.”
I still wtf about that from time to time.
I see red whenever I think of that.
People used to (still?) talk about Shirley Jackson that way! Like, when bb me picked up The Lottery on a whim in HS and had my socks just blown completely off and wanted to read EVERYTHING and know EVERYTHING, I remember one of my main takeaways from biographical pieces was, “Yo, this lady was fat.”
Okay?
Especially since she used the same two publicity photos for years and years, and then when people met her or went to her lectures they were SHOCKED, SHOCKED that she had aged. Gee, can’t imagine why she was reluctant to get more photos done.
Great essay.
Small note: Over/underweight people aren’t a protected class, so it’s actually legal to pay people of one weight group less than another.
(Note 1: This is true at the federal level; there may be states in which weight groups are protected classes. Note 2: It would *not* be legal to pay overweight women less than women of normal weight, but not vary pay for men based on weight, since that would be sex discrimination. I think. IANAL.)
Broadly true (although this maaaaay be changing, slowly), but over/underweight people *are* a protected class in New York City, where the Knopf offices are and where, presumably, Herr works.
And there was also that piece on The Biggest Loser about how dieting doesn’t work and wrecks your metabolism. Yesterday was a bad day to be fat.
As someone whose 2 main leisure activities are writing and distance running, let me also say that, assuming that writing is a side hustle/hobby for many of us, it’s pretty difficult to balance serious artistry with serious body maintenance while working full time (to say nothing of also trying to make family, social, and romantic time work out). It’s like the old analogy of the stove with a broken burner; which pot, so to speak, doesn’t get cooked? I love running, but if I’m in a good writing groove, I typically want to keep that going, so I might skip a workout in favor of writing. And, tbh, it’s pretty easy for one peanut butter cup to turn into 20 if the words are really flowing.
I am not naturally thin; my normal body state is small-boned but, let’s say, cuddly. So the trade off is quite real if I’d rather write a few days a week than hit the gym.
I am not a writer and 1 PB cup can easily turn into 20. 🙂 (You’re making an excellent point here.)
Oof. This hit me in the gut with how true it is. Solidarity, friend. I work full time, I row crew, and I make textile art*. I feel like one of those things is always coming up short. Right now it’s crew — my body feels so round and out of shape, even though the inside of me feels so lively and engaged and full of love and desire to make art.
And of course, I have an instinct of “if only I were sooooo wealthy as to not have to work” but when I was offered that opportunity by a now-former girlfriend whose career will take off very quickly, I realized how much I love my work-work. I don’t want to be a stay-at-home full-time artist; I just want more energy or something. Or more hours in the day. Sleep gets in the way of this, but as I rapidly approach age 30, I’m realizing that sleep is the difference between feeling okay and getting sick.
My build is “sturdy,” which turns into “chubby” if I don’t eat a high-protein low-carb diet and do a fuck ton of working out.
So right now I’m chubby, in the middle of a modern-leaning art quilt, and working on fraud cases. Hellooooo, adulthood.
*Yeah I have no idea when I’m going to be able to say “I’m a textile artist.” I have a law degree not an MFA.
I was going to ask if you were me, but you are too young, and I am not a lawyer, so no, but hi!
I AM a textile artist, and a parent, and I work in a high school and row (but only in nice weather) and the tradeoffs are what make me individual and also make me crazy.
Factor children into this mix and all hell breaks loose: partner, children, house, full-time job, hobbies-gathering-dust, *and* you want me to exercise and sleep 8 hours per night?
brb, having a nervous breakdown on my ten-minute work break.
Oomph, your comment just reminded me I forgot to pack my yoga clothes when I was running out of the house early for a meeting for a really awesome research collaboration. And now I can’t decide whether to leave to go get my things, or to just stay on campus and think/read some more…
(So, so much solidarity.)
I love when people reveal their prejudice right at the very moment they believe they are saying something charitable or inclusive. It’s awful to read yet it unveils a horrible reality that is so rarely acknowledged.
“You’re so beautiful, it hurts to look at you.” “Where would it hurt?”
I think of “hard to look at” in an Angela Chase, deep longing felt by an emotional teenager, overwhelmed by the possibility of one’s own emotions kind of way.
I’ve only ever used that description about impossibly beautiful men. If you’re not Gregory Peck or Tom Hiddleston, then I can look at you just fine.
I feel that way about Lupita Nyong’o. She’s so fucking stunning that my first reaction to her is “I quit, I give up…nothing’s good enough for anybody else, it seems.” I mean, she’s not the champion of just one thing, she’s the Olympic Goddess of physical beauty and talent. Rather than inspire me (not that it’s her job to inspire me, this is all just personal) I want to throw on a sweatsuit and eat pie for days.
Thank you for writing this. I love the Toast but I rarely see anything here about weight among the many thoughtful personal essays that are published here. It means a lot to me to see this, as a fat woman who constantly has to wonder if: I would have gotten that honor, into that grad program, a letter back from that literary agent, if things were different.
In a world where writers like Roxane Gay and (soon) Lindy West are/will be reaping accolades for their work, Herr just seems a bit out of touch, too. Like, have fun at Carrie Bradshaw’s book launch party, giiiirl.
Two more fat authors still isn’t enough, tho. Especially when one of them writes about primarily about fat prejudice. -_-
I’m not saying they’re enough. It seems obvious that due to the overwhelmingly positive response to their work (not to overlook the harassment they receive from trolls), readers are quite a bit more openminded than publishing gatekeepers, and Herr and co. should be paying attention.
I am hard to look at bc I’m as bright as a faceted diamond containing the sun.
I am hard to look at bc I’m a whirling vortex of fire, lightning, darkness, eyes, and teeth.
I am hard to look at bc I exist in several planes simultaneously.
I am hard to look at bc I am all teeth, claws, and photoluminescence in the darkest depths of the ocean.
I am hard to look at bc I fold like a vorpal sword, from 1 dimension to 4 dimensions.
I’m also fat, which has no bearing on how easy or hard it is to see my physical form although it is a handy excuse to ignore me, discount me, & deny my humanity.
+ 1,000,000 <3 <3 <3
APPLAUSE
THANK YOU
you have won this thread, where shall I send your internet?
This seems a fitting tribute painting.
More thumbs up. All the thumbs up. So many multitudes of thumbs, right the hell up. Also, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter and send you mysterious love notes from time to time. Yes, all of the yes.
Is it weird that I want to hang this on my wall? Or have it cross stitched onto a pillow? Because I really do.
Since I’m unlikely to actually do these things but want to read this over and over again, I’ve send myself an email.
I can’t even express how many times I’ve been on the receiving end of that intellectual exercise and they were, unknowingly, talking about me. “It’s not like you weigh xxx pounds or something!”
But I do. What does that mean, if I do?
You’re me. People will sit there and tell me I’m not THAT fat because it’s not like I weight x, when I weight y, and y is nearly double x. It’s so awful.
Oooh, I have been there. I have been 1.25xxx, when xxx is some number the speaker clearly thinks is unreasonably huge. It makes me think that they have no idea what xxx looks like (or could look like, since lots of people carry weight differently) but it also hurts.
Someone once described someone to me as “at least 5’10”, and like, probably 150 pounds” and I was sitting there thinking “wow, what a thin person, and smaller than me in every way” when I realized the point she was trying to make was that this person was gigantic. People are so weird, and wrong, and hurtful (although in this case my #1 feeling is still that the speaker was literally bananas)
that, or she had never seen an actually large woman (I’m assuming she was talking about a woman, because sexism). fairly tall, smack dab in the middle of the healthy* bmi range? “but i thought our job was to be DAINTY what even IS girls? I must relay this aberration to cornpancake post haste”
*i know bmi has its problems, my point is there’s no WAY a someone with those stats would look “gigantic”
some people have noooooo sense of scale when it comes to the variety of height/weight/build/tissue distributions humans can have.
Many, many people. Too many people. Too many people who also think that their visual judgement of how much a person weighs/how healthy they are is reliable in any way.
Visual judgement of a person’s weight/health are INVALID, period. The human body’s functions and systems are way too complex to judge visually.
My grandmother-in-law was telling me about her various pregnancies and said, “My worst one, I got up to xxx pounds!” in a horrified tone.
Of course, xxx pounds was my starting weight. :/
Ugg. This reminds of how all the author photos I see these days (with women authors of more “literary” books) look so homogeneous and airbrushed. Straight hair, neutral makeup, friendly, approachable smile. Like , you are advertising yourself as an artist, an author, a creative genius hopefully. Why do you have to look “normal” and approachable? The photos look more similar because so many of these authors are youngish, thinnish white women, but I’ve seen writers of color and women of other shapes and ages shoved in the mold of these photos, too.
Yes! The author photo smile! It is the worst and I always feel terrible for the brilliant women forced to represent themselves that way!
I often dream about the day that I am in negotiations to publish my first novel, and I INSIST on using a very non-conforming author photo of myself. I’d like to be wearing a black turtleneck and very large sunglasses, sipping a martini, and staring into a ball of fire.
I actually encourage my authors to submit “non-traditional” author photos when they ask me about it. As long as it’s not obscene (knock on wood, never had a problem with this yet) and it’s legible at postage stamp size (so no tiny, intricate details), I am fine with it. The right slightly offbeat photo, especially if it’s related to the subject of the book (I work in nonfiction), can really liven things up and make the book feel friendlier and more approachable. I’ve had people on mountaintops, on boats, in castles, etc.
Ditto! You can pick whatever author photo you want! Literally, we just ask for you to send us a picture of yourself. The only complaints I’ve ever had is that the file authors submit is low resolution–never about the nature of the photo itself.
I saw one taken in a foggy graveyard once. It was for a teen vampire novel back in the late 90’s when vampires were still sort of spooky, so it really worked.
One of the only author photos that stick in my mind is for Kim Harrison’s Hollows series, which is a very sexy-dark urban fantasy series… and her photos are always of her, wearing dark clothes, facing away from the viewer. Often she was walking away in some kind of melancholic scenery.
I always loved them because they a) fit the feel of the books, and b) always made me wonder if she liked the anonymity of not having her face plastered on all her books.
Those sound wonderful! I will have to check her out.
This reminds me of when I started learning about Truman Capote and all the drama he caused with the author picture on his first book…oh Truman.
I would also like to say: Elena Ferrante! For all we know, she is 555 pounds. Or 55 pounds. Or made entirely of starlight and thus impossible to gaze upon. This doesn’t seem to have affected her readers, book sales or her (non existent) NPR interviews. I know, I know, #preachingtothechoir, but — their foolishness is so easily provable as wrong! That’s what makes me most mad of all. If you’re going to be prejudiced, at least come up with something half-baked.
Now *there’s* an author who’s hard to look at.
Public Service Announcement: If you find human beings hard to look at please make an appointment with an ophthalmologist.
When discussing (way, way too big) advances, an awesome editor friend said, “Publishing keeps thinking its Hollywood, but we forget that we don’t have built-in popcorn sales.” Big advances by (often) young, female debut authors is an extension of “ingénue” in every Hollywood sense. When we’re talking about these books, though, it’s important to see publishing in terms of other Lamestream Media. The Big 5 publishers are just divisions of multinational media conglomerates. Megan Lynch works for Ecco which is an imprint of Harper Collins with is a division of Newscorp. Megyn Kelly hosts a TV show which is aired on Fox News which is a division of Newscorp. (My point is only to compare that the Mega/yns ultimately work for the same company, and imply nothing more). Publishing is not a moral enterprise–it’s a capitalist one.
Then there is Elana Ferrante, whose work is so good, *we don’t even know who she is or if she’s “hard to look at” or purple or good at NPR interviews because she doesn’t give interviews.* We have release parties. Her sales are AWESOME (which I add for the financially-minded supervisor approving how much I’m allowed to bid in the auction). And the whole Ferrante phenomenon, to me, proves that the investment we put into the mediagenic stuff should be taken with a grain of salt & scaled back about that much. I’ll also point out that Ferrante is published by the beloved indie Europa, so it isn’t answering to the same corporate media bosses. One day, my colleagues will (hopefully) understand that: It’s About the Book.
I agree with you to a point (about Ferrante) but it’s not about being invisible, it’s about being seen and accepted and able to work. My goal is never to be invisible. If someone can sell books that way more power to her, but I want a world where my fat ass fills up the inside flap.
In addition to what’s already been said, this is a particular slap in the face to this editor’s other authors, some of whom are likely to be quote-unquote hard to look at. I would say… bordering on professional malpractice, actually. Not cool.
My friend Lucia Berlin was pretty much ignored by the mainstream publishing industry during her lifetime while she was cranking out amazing, artful short stories. (She published with Black Sparrow, a small press in California.) She was elderly and disabled and depended on an oxygen tank and a walker to get around. She lived in a trailer near the end of her life, and died in 2004. I’m really gratified that a posthumous collection came out last year, “A Manual for Cleaning Women,” published by FS&G, and it was celebrated by everyone, really–it hit all the best-of-2015 lists and is being translated all over the world. But this thoughtful essay makes me think about how they promoted it with photos of Lucia in her 20’s and 30’s, taken before she’d started writing most of the stories included in the collection. She was fabulously glamorous–Vogue named her as a “beauty icon” for 2016. Even when her body was broken down, she was never “hard to look at,” but more importantly, she had a voice that everybody should have paid attention to, during her lifetime. I wonder how many world-class writers like Lucia are being ignored for these spurious reasons.
And I’m sure she would much rather have been celebrated during her lifetime! Thank you for posting about your friend. I will look (mindfully) for her work.
I remember buying a really beautifully bound collection of hers (it’s an illustration of a sun over water in a really bold graphic style?) just before the new collection came out and she became more widely discussed (in the UK at least). It’s such an important collection, and I was really touched by your comment, so thank you.
Yes, she was so proud of an overview of her career the London Review of Books published in maybe 1999 or 2000. I remember her holding up the magazine in a class she was teaching, taking well-deserved pride that someone had noticed her work.
thank you for writing this.
the pressure to be a good writer is bad enough, but now i also have to look good and be social media savvy and be a good interview and be a “culture fit” and and and
plus add in the emotional labor of “am i being fairly compensated and treated since i’m not a slim white woman with a (an?) MFA pedigree or a famous connection to blurb my work?” it’s effin’ exhausting.
i can’t lie. when i saw that quote, i stopped for a minute and let the discouragement sit on me. then i brushed it off and kept pushing. i’m going to do my part to change this industry. i don’t know how, but it’ll get done. so say we all!
One correction to this excellent article: “I imagine reading a prospective employer proudly promising not to pay fat employees less money than their thin counterparts: ‘We promise not to violate the law when compensating people for their work’.” Sadly, it is entirely legal in most parts of the US to pay fat employees less money than thin ones. There is no protection against discrimination on the basis of size or appearance.
I mentioned this upthread, but it’s not legal in NYC, where the Knopf offices are, so the specific discrimination suggested here probably *is* illegal, but yes, such protections are incredibly thin on the ground across the US. Even where they exist, few people pursue discrimination cases and fewer win them.
I have definitely not pitched to tons and tons of places because as a fat, non-abled bodied woman, I know they don’t really want my voice there. It’s especially true when you write about male-dominated topics. Like I would love to, but I also don’t want people calling me fatty and harassing me because I’m not hot and they don’t like my opinion, you know? Because you see what they say to the socially accepted “hot” girls and I’m like, “NO THANKS!” And it’s like, this invisible unspoken force, but you bet your ass it’s there.
I am in a research field where journals and conference proceedings occasionally put author photos at the end of articles. Why do we need to know what the writer of a scientific article looked like? Honestly, in my field, there’s a 90+% chance of male, 50% chance of glasses; it’s just not that exciting.
(I haven’t published in any of these venues, but now I’m thinking of what would be the kookiest photo my boss would let me use.)
X-ray? Fingerprint? MRI scan? Really, they’re all images of you.
Thank you.
It is sad that I have to love you for saying this but I do. It’s so rare that a thin person acknowledges our humanity without condescending or concern-trolling or pretending not to notice that we’re fat.
Thank you for writing about this. It’s such a difficult topic and… seeing it so thoughtfully explicated made me feel less alone/crazy.
I also simply and fundamentally disagree that a body can be hard to look at. You may or may not like someone else’s body; someone else’s body may elicit a sense of discomfort within you, but that does not make them hard to look at. You’re not hard to look at.
No one is hard to look at.
Thank you, Mallory.
ETA haha I’m crying now life is a rich tapestry
It can be a cruel world out there and with social media it’s become in-comprehendable how some people take it upon themselves to make such comments. Learn to love yourself within, respect your body and your mind and build a fortress around yourself to protect you from unkind people and words. What someone says about someone else, is a reflection of themselves.
It’s important to note that this prejudice applies almost entirely to women.
I’m 400lbs, I don’t mind saying, and an editor. I have made it a point to represent and reach out to fat authors precisely because of this issue. We have stories to tell and a unique perspective, and representation in media matters. If I had known even one successful fat author, heck even one successful fat person, as a teenager it would have changed a lot for me. As an adult, I’m determined to be that person for the girls who are teens now.
I apologize in advance if this is a bit rant-y. While I agree with the overall message of this article, a few lines touched a nerve.
Lynch said a terrible thing. It was cruel to fat people, who are no better or worse as writers (or as people) than their thin counterparts, and who deserve as many opportunities as anyone else. I’m a (thin) black woman. Lynch did not mention people of color, and yet Mallory was kind enough to share this insult with us too, because dark-skinned women are widely considered hard to look at too, right? Black women probably don’t have enough discouragement as it is. Let’s make it clear that if editors are shallow enough to discriminate against fat people, they certainly can’t stand blacks. Obviously Mallory wants to make it clear that SHE doesn’t consider us ugly. (She doesn’t consider anyone ugly!) She’s just pointing out that mostly everyone else does.
I have the feeling that while your average white feminist seems to want to be helpful, a part of them would just like to reaffirm that someone else is below them on the social ladder. This can be as discouraging as discourse from outright racists. An outright racist might say: black women, you’ll probably never achieve anything because you’re biologically inferior. An average white feminist might say: black women, you’ll probably never achieve anything because everyone hates and devalues you.
As a black woman I encounter a lot of little race-related zingers, many completely unintentional. Lately, a good deal of them come from white women lamenting that women of color are way outside the accepted standard of beauty; how terrible it is that women of color are denied opportunities just because society considers them ugly. In fact, “society” does not consider black women ugly. Black super models and singers and actresses exist, and have massive, mainstream aesthetic appeal. They also contribute to shaping a standard of beauty, and yes, it’s still pretty narrow and problematic, but that you think dark-skinned writers must know their bodies don’t fit into the category of “easy to look at” says at least as much about you as it does about the society you’re supposedly critiquing. Sometimes it feels like racists and white feminists are coming from the same place: insisting on their own superiority. The only difference is that white feminists claim to WISH we lived in a world where we were all equal. The more white feminists put me down and call me ugly (just in everyone else’s eyes, of course), the more I suspect that wish is in fact a bit hollow.
To be clear, high profile/powerful people do sometimes say cruel things against dark-skinned people. In that case, sure, call them out. In this case, it’s good of you to call someone out for saying something cruel against fat people. No one should be called “hard-to-look-at.” But in this case you read the words “hard to look at” and thought, “Oh! I should also defend dark-skinned people (and a whole host of other people “society” thinks I’m better than), who are obviously considered hard to look at too.” Can you see why this might be hurtful?
This is a really powerful point. Thanks for posting it.
Thank you for pointing this out. I can see how that happens with good intentions — yes, let’s pull in all our sisters who aren’t white, slim, cisgendered, etc. and support them too — but I can also see that it’s rather a terrible thing to say, “and all you folks over there who are also considered unattractive.”
I particularly appreciate the kind way in which you shared this lesson. We have much to learn, all of us.
You should have seen me huddled over my vaporizer, wheezing and miserable this morning. I had to avert my eyes from my reflection in the cold medicine bottle.
“You’re not hard to look at. No one is hard to look at.”
Thanks Mallory xxx
This is why I self-publish. I got tired of trying to convince skinny young things and skinny older things to look past my age and girth and focus on the reality–which they already know–that most avid book readers are middle-aged and fat, so why not buy a manuscript from someone like those readers, a story that was in fact written for those same readers?
Fellow middle-aged fat person here. Thank you for doing the good work.
Well, that’s one publisher I will not be submitting anything to….
Is it weird that I want to hang this on my wall? Or have it cross stitched onto a pillow? Because I really do.
Since I'm unlikely to actually do these things but want to read this over and over again, I've send myself an email.
And why bring up physical differences in the first place if they don’t matter (which they don’t)? Bringing up something as irrelevant as physical attributes shows that these editors are more obsessed with authors’ appearances than with their creativity and intellect.
And why bring up physical differences in the first place if they don't matter (which they don't)? Bringing up something as irrelevant as physical attributes shows that these editors are more obsessed with authors' appearances than with their creativity and intellect.