Disparate But Disabled: Fat Embodiment and Disability Studies

Abstract

At a recent conference on race, a prominent but controversial white male academic presented a paper on buckshot skull studies, noting comparisons between Caucasian and African skulls. Well-known for his race/ist scholarship, this scholar concluded that such studies represent facts that cannot be ignored, implying that racism, at least on some levels, can be biologically and scientifically justified. During the discussion of his paper, I posed a question about feminist standpoint epistemology, his obvious belief in science as purely objective, and his recalcitrance to situate himself, as a white male, within the context of his own study and scientific epistemology. After replying with the tiresome argument that only scientists can criticize science and stating that feminist standpoint epistemologists needed to build a rocket that made it to the moon before he would take their criticisms seriously, he continued to argue for pure objectivity, stating he could show me studies that empirically prove women's hips are wider than men's. Unpacking his choice of example exposes the liability I faced as a woman of size in a culture that values thinness. First, his example reminded me of my body size (while I was standing in the front of a