Fat One, but Pleasant to …
Fat One, but Pleasant to …
2022
Why Should Not People Show one Profile at a Time?
Trafo/Level 4 Gallery at Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin
2021
The Tower of Women 2, Biala Gallery, Lublin
FAT GIRLS
Excess body has not always been treated as a problem. In the past centuries, it was associated with health, wealth, abundance, taking life in full hands. “Eating the world as an illusion of being full (…) Imagination chokes with accumulation. Health requires a full stomachy. Vital strength is provided by a robust body”, writes Georges Vigarello in „The Metamporphoses of Fat: A History of Obesity”.
Overweight and obesity have become the subject of moralizing today, the aim of which is personal condemnation. „Corpulence is considered a failure of a person, an expression of ignoring social rules, or even a symptom of a mental defect” – describes Dorota Podlaska. The artist created a series of works Fat One, but Pleasantly… devoted to fat shaming and the pornography of obese women.
Embarrasment does not always in the form of insulting remarks, but it is also often an unwanted concern. The colours are strong, jus as fat girls are too visible. A body considered non-normative attracts inbtrusive glances; it belongs to everyone, because everyone has the right to stare at them and comment on them. Devoured by unfavourable eyesight, sliced and diced, it becomes pornographic. The obese woman in our society is judged twice, not only as fat woman, but also as a non-woman who does not take care of herself. She is subjected to constant vivisection. When she is walking down the street, she is scanned by a social X-ray, which examines how much she has eaten, what she hasn’t eaaten, how many times… Her sex life is reduced to a fetish. Dorota Podlaska touches on an extremely important problem, where she puts to the margins of society the possession of undesirable physical features.
Sylwia Hejno, 2021, text from the exhibition catalogue
FAT, BUT PLEASANT TO SQUEEZE
Fat cow! You will never find a boyfriend [Mom]
Do you have the ass of a sperm whale or elephant? (friends in the yard)
Don’t sit here, you take tao much space [commuter on the subway]
Don’t try it on, the seams will stretch [shop assistant]
You can’t fit in? l’ll get you a seat bełt extender [stewardessa)
Your ass could serve as a beer buffet (,,nice” friend]
You need to eat less, not to take offense [pudelek]
We are all beautiful, young and great here – what are YOU doing here? [opening at Raster gallery]
You are not suitable for an outpatient surgical procedure,
obesity is a contraindication [anesthesiologistl
We are all beautiful, young and great here – what are YOU doing here? [opening at Raster gallery]
You are not suitable for an outpatient surgical procedure,
obesity is a contraindication [anesthesiologistl
n the end, wouldn’t it really be easier to ask a dietitian to arrange an appropriate diet for you and lose weight? [gazeta.pl, comments)
I love you, but the way you look naw … When you turn 70, you wan’t even be able to get an a tram … [partner]
I have heard similar lines since childhood. I didn’t lose any weight
from listening to them. l’ve always been fat and on a diet. Each diet has one name – yo-yo. I starved myself, I lost 9 kilos, I went back to normal food and gained 16. I lost 10 weight, 20 carne back, I lost 30, 40 carne back. Skin ny or fat, after all, I was always the same person inside. Cool, nevertheless defective.
Every conversation with somebody l’ve just met switched on the radar – how will they react to me? Do they pay attention to my body, do they despise me, do they think l’m neglected, stupid and sweaty? Will I be humiliated and ridiculed again? Every trip to the swimming pool or beach is associated with excruciating stress and anxiety. I have wasted my whole life worrying about my appearance, self-flagellation, being fat shamed. I was unlucky I had been barn in such times. lf I had been barn in the Rubens era, my portraits would be hanging on the walls of museums naw.
The lack of acceptance from the boys was particularly painful. High beauty standards apply only to women, they do not affect men. A stout boy can still be attractive, but if she is fatter than him, the couple is exposed to ridicule and disbelief. Blimps do not find partners, they do not go on dates, they are less successful. And apparently BBW porn is an extremely popular genre …
Is anything wrong with me or with this society? Are they offended by my sight? Let them look away. Too f at for sex? Get out of bed.
Kiss my ass, everyone!