What You Mean When You Say Lady Gaga Has a Belly

BY LISA MARIE BASILE

When you say that "Lady Gaga has a tummy," you're saying so much more than that. And I think you know it. First, let's just get the obvious out of the way: she's not overweight and she doesn't have a tummy. (Also, it would be 100% OK if she did). Bear in mind we did this with Beyoncé as well, whose body seems very much to be something people continuously feel they have a right to comment on. If we're holding legitimately straight-sized women to such an impossible standard — what does it mean for women who are a size 6, 8, 12,  16, 22 or so forth? According to Refinery 29, the average woman or 67% of the population, is size 14 or larger.  And what's more is that we're doing it to ourselves. #MindBlown. 

So, when you say these things, you're actually saying:

1. I am disregarding the millions of people who are considered plus-size or "fat," and who are shamed day in and out because of it. You are disregarding the struggle that millions of people face by using language that encourages hate. Especially when you target someone who very literally benefits from the privilege of being considered thin and beautiful 99% of the time (except, apparently, during the Superbowl or when she happens to gain a few pounds, as humans do). Not to mention, you're disregarding the many people (including Gaga) who have developed disordered eating as a result of this social shaming. 

2. I am assuming that having fat or being a plus size person is bad. When you ridicule someone for having a tummy, you're assuming that tummies automatically bad. Guess what? Skin is skin. A tummy is a tummy. You can be big or small, fit or unhealthy, tall or short — and still have a belly. 

3. I am alienating the millions of women who are mothers or who have a post-baby body. News alert. Having a baby stretches your skin! What do you think women are dealing with post-partum body changes think and feel when this detritis gets published all over the Internet? Most of the people attacking Gaga's body are women, including mothers. What do you think your message sounds like to them? Regardless of whether or not Gaga has a belly (she doesn't, it's called skin and tight shorts), you're basically saying, "anyone who has THAT isn't good enough." 

4. I am commenting on her appearance rather than commenting on her work as an artist, which means that I am furthering the idea that women are just objects. Whether or not you thought Gaga's performance at the Superbowl was political enough or not doesn't matter. She's an award-winning artist who trains and works hard to put on her stage shows, she actually can sing, and she's taken a lot of risks in her career. Whatever you think about her, at least acknowledge the foundational facts before jumping right ahead with your vapid opinions. You may struggle with ridding yourself of the ideological garbage Patriarchal society has pumped straight into your veins, so it might be hard not to judge a woman by her looks. After all, you've been conditioned to do so. But if you think it and then correct yourself — and then take the time to figure out why you're thinking these things, that's very different from posting a status that says, "Just watched Lady Gaga's performance. She has a belly!" Keep that shit to yourself. 

5. I am disregarding the power of fitness. Your size doesn't always indicate your ability to dance, move, stretch or perform crazy stage shows that require insane amounts of strength or cardio ability. So when you judge someone on their non-existent tummy while they're dancing and running and jumping, you're choosing to disregard the amazing feat that is happening so you can comment on something so completely inconsequential. 

6. I am contributing to social illness. Look, you're part of the problem. I know it hurts to hear it, but women — especially minority women, like Beyoncé, who dealt with this before Gaga — are constantly at a disadvantage. They are consistently questioned about their bodies, confronted about weight gain and reduced to slabs of meat. Don't contribute to that. Women have it hard enough. Be an ally. 

7. I am judging myself. When we spread hate about other people, we are usually doing so from a center of internalized pain. That isn't the sort of pain that wins you sympathy. That's a sickness, and it needs to be eliminated. Whatever your fears, failings or self-esteem issues are, you don't need to project them onto others. You can deal with that on your own time. It's not always easy, and no one is perfect — but you have to start somewhere. 

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Lisa Marie Basile is the author of Apocryphal (Noctuary Press) and a few chapbooks, including Andalucia (Poetry Society of New York) and war/lock (Hyacinth Girl Press). She’s the editor-in-chief of Luna Luna Magazine. Her work has been published in Best Small Fictions, Tarpaulin Sky, Spork Press, The Atlas Review, PANK, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, the Tin House blog and Ampersand Review. Some of her work can be seen in Greatist, Marie Claire, Hello Giggles, Bustle and more.

Witchy World Roundup: February 2016

BY JOANNA C. VALENTE

Edward Gorey made a Tarot deck and it's basically the best thing ever. I have it, so I can vouch. Here's a preview:

Kelly Davio has a piece up at Change Seven called "Kylie Jenner and Her Golden Wheels:"

"Yet we don’t have to buy it. Most considerate people recognize that popular culture has a body image problem, and that we do women and girls serious harm when we celebrate certain body shapes while devaluing others. Unfortunately, that realization has given us a new obsession: looking 'healthy' is our new substitute for looking thin. For those of us for whom looking well or able is just as unattainable as, say, heaving our way into a pair of size-zero jeans, that supposedly positive message isn’t positive at all."

Lady Gaga released a powerful music video about sexual assault:

After Texas cut Planned Parenthood funding, birth rates went up, according to Los Angeles Times:

"Though only 23 of the 254 counties in Texas had a Planned Parenthood clinic before 2013, they served 60% of the state’s low-income women of childbearing age, according to the study."

Beth Ditto on makeup and feminism at Vogue:

"… I discovered the Riot Grrrl movement, and that really changed everything for me. Girls were picking and choosing pieces of 'female' fashion and twisting them: lipstick and baby doll dresses paired with dirty Converse and a skateboard; a cute pageboy haircut and a child’s barrette with hairy armpits and a guitar. I stopped seeing makeup, shaved legs, and dresses as the enemy. They aren’t imperatives of being female; they’re part of a costume that people of any gender can choose to wear or not."

The CDC "recommended" that women of child-bearing age who are not on birth control SHOULD NOT drink, according to The Washington Post. Uhhh, OK. Policing women's bodies much?

Mukundo Angulo on how his imagination set him free at TEDxTeens. He was one of the six brothers in the documentary "The Wolfpack," which focused on Mukunda and his brothers being raised in a New York public housing apartment isolated from society by their paranoid, overbearing father. 

Hannah Lee Jones has a poem over at Apogee:

"And so I was born not of my parents but a welter of syllables, none of which I remember at the Kung Fu demonstration where I spot the little brother of mine, the soup gone from his face, beaming in the crowd and who could no more be my brother than that black kid splitting a cinder block could be Chinese. Oh me, oh life, here’s to another year of pride in whatever you are under the scarlet lights of a holiday that is and isn’t yours, mouthing verses in a play where your teacher calls you by the name of your Filipino classmate, and you feel alike, and different, and lonely, and no longer lonely all at once."

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Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015) & Marys of the Sea (forthcoming 2016, ELJ Publications). She received her MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the chief editor for Luna Luna Magazine. 

The Oscars Ought To Look In The Mirror

If the Oscars looked in the mirror--and the Oscars really, really need to--the Oscars would see white men. Haven't they learned anything from last year's diversity gap (and that's putting it nicely)? 

This year, the committee pulled the same nonsense. 

While the racial breakdowns are SCARY problematic, here's a tiny, tiny glimpse into just how bad it is: Creed (written AND directed by a black man) and Straight Outta Compton (starring black actors) were recognized. But it was the white men in the mix that were nominated. The white men. 

This is not a test.

It's hard to understand the bias against people of color and women that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has--considering all of the amazing art being made--but one thing is certain: they're not too concerned with changing it. 

In 2015, the Academy welcomed 322 new members to counter its diversity problem (overwhelmingly made up white males over the age of 50; in 2013, it was 93% male.) 

Are these new members making a dent?

The problem is with all of Hollywood and all of America; it's sexist. When it comes to women, the numbers are awful: 22% of the Academy are made up of women--women who are underpaid and undervalued (props to J-Law for speaking up). The Academy is blind to the fact that people of color need to be represented more (watch this excellent Hollywood Reporter roundtable with Amy Schumer, Gina Roridguez, Tracee Ellis-Ross, and more) and too propped up by its own systemic privilege to make change. So when you're looking at what happens on the outside (like the Oscars whitewash) it's a good indicator that the problem is from the inside.  

When are we going to stop letting people in positions of power make the wrong decisions? We've got another #OscarsSoWhite situation. Keep speaking up.