Why does Rachel Moss hate your fat (/trans/disabled) body?
I have no idea why, but she does.
Amp has a great summary of the fatphobic, ableist, transphobic rant posted by Rachel Moss (a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s Department of Environmental Chemistry and Technology program, or maybe their Inorganic Chemistry program [I’m not entirely sure which] - hardly one of those anonymous, idiotic internet trolls) at the Something Awful forums just following WisCon, a feminist science fiction convention. Apparently Moss - a former commenter here at Seeworthy, surprisingly* - went to the conference, covertly took photos of conference-goers, and then posted the photos - often including the individual’s names and locations - at the SA forums, complete with some old-time misogynist raving. She posted a quasi-apology to her blog yesterday, but today she’s backpeddling, essentially giving a hearty “Fuck you!” to all of the people whose photos she posted. No substantive response, of course, to her obvious misogyny, ableism, fatphobia or transphobia, and the only thing she apologizes for? Hurting the kids. How thoughtful.
What really gets me about this situation is that Rachel has, in the past, self-identified as a feminist. She’s a member of various feminist communities, and has asserted - at least here at Seeworthy - that she is a feminist, and finds harassment of fat people to be not such an awesome thing. The question which emerges for me from all of this is what kind of feminism Rachel has grown up with, what branch of feminism it is that’s told her attacking and harassing fat people (/trans people/people with disabilities) is an okay thing to do. Certainly, I’ve encountered plenty of feminists in my research and activism who weren’t exactly ready to embrace fat feminism, but I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone who really identified as a feminist who simultaneously loathed, seemed to be repulsed by the concept of fat people being treated like human beings and being happy with their bodies. In a movement where we have things like National Love Your Body Day, where there’s tremendous research and activism around eating disorders and beauty standards, are so many supposedly radical people still struggling to get it? And, furthermore, what are some of the less obvious ways that fatphobia gets disseminated - both inside and outside of the academy? Let’s have a dialogue. Let’s talk about it. Because I still don’t understand why this keeps emerging from squarely within “feminist” or progressive communities/individuals. Maybe I want to believe we’re more on top of our shit than we are, that the feminist movements are better with body image than general society.
What’s going on here?
* Full disclosure - Rachel used to be a friend on Livejournal, and I celebrated what I saw as her efforts to work through her internalized fatphobia/sizeism. Looks like I was duped!
** It seems folks are having trouble getting ahold of Rachel - she’s blocked comments on her Livejournal, and there isn’t any other way to get ahold of her. She did, however, leave her email here at Seeworthy a while back, so if folks want to jot her a line to express their disappointment or just ask what’s up, I believe you can get in touch with her at zathlazip@yahoo.com. And Rachel, if you’re reading this, I’d love to hear from you - as someone who was once sorta friendly with you, I’m genuinely curious about the decisions you’ve made.
*** Other good posts on this: What Rachel Moss Did, Rachel Moss and the Situation She Created, Two Quotes on the WisCon Drama, and A Modest Invitation
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The criticisms of my students would serve as a good warning to visitors of Seeworthy: she talks too fast, she's too hard on us, she assigns too much work, and you have to be a dyke to get a good grade.
In other words, I'm a big, fat, queer, feminist meanie, and I am totally out to get you. Graaagh!
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So she makes a post you find upsetting on a public forum, making fun of fat people, such an unforgivable sin, and you give out her email address? Seems like you’re the one engaging in harassment. What she did may have been ill-advised and mean-spirited, but what you’re doing, basically encouraging hate mail, is completely unethical.
Are you not ashamed of doing this? It’s so petty.
Because I still don’t understand why this keeps emerging from squarely within “feminist” or progressive communities/individuals. Maybe I want to believe we’re more on top of our shit than we are, that the feminist movements are better with body image than general society.
Yes, thank you, EXACTLY. This is what I want to know. This is about so much more than one clearly disturbed woman. This entire situation is yet another example of being marginalized and othered by people who should be our political allies, and the willful ignorance of people who would rather die than treat most of humanity the way they do fat people. These are people who would never let a major news story go by without rigorous scrutiny and yet swallow every new obesity epi-panic story whole.
Nope, I don’t find it unethical at all. I didn’t encourage hate mail, I’m encouraging folks to communicate with her how fucked up this is, and how harmful her hate speech is, and to figure out why she did this horrible thing. Rachel Moss is a troll, a hate-mongering, misogynist, ableist, transphobic troll. Since she refuses to let herself be contacted any other way - you can’t send messages via LJ’s profile, can’t leave comments (anonymous or logged in) on her entries - I think it’s only fair that folks have some way to get in touch with this woman who manipulated and abused so many people. And, furthermore, when she commented here at Seeworthy she implicitly agreed to the Troll Policy. I see her as a Troll (with a capital T), and am acting accordingly.
ETA: Someone just got in touch to mention that Rachel herself makes her email publicly available on this post from her own Livejournal. Apparently I’m not the first (or only) person to put it out there.
There’s nothing petty about posting this troller’s e-mail address, and I applaud you for doing so.
I was saying to my partner last night that I was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Usually on Slashdot if someone’s an incontrovertible ass, it only takes hours for all of their personal information and contact information to be posted. It’s completely acceptible geek ethics.
If the troller is upset about the results of the shit she started, maybe she should think about consequences in the future.
What the fuck is UP with these people (here and at ABW) acting outraged on Rachel Moss’s behalf?! NOBODY should be outraged on Rachel Moss’s behalf, except if anyone in the fatosphere/feminist blogosphere were actually encouraging anyone to physically threaten her, harass her, or otherwise behave in an unethical manner. Which… let me check… not one single person around here has, as far as I know. (And I would bet money that whoever is threatening or harassing her is from her very own group of buddies at SA. I know if I were her I would be absolutely SHOCKED if people that cruel and petty turned on me. Who could possibly have predicted that?)
In my opinion if your first reaction to someone who did what Rachel Moss did is not outrage at her cruelty but instead to think “poor, poor Rachel Moss,” then there is something wrong with you.
Sorry… since I didn’t address that to anyone, I should clarify that I was responding to C-town, not Malcolm, of course. I just got mad.
@spacedcowgirl, It’s cool. I figured you weren’t talking to me.
I’m sorry, publicly ridiculing and insulting people is merely “ill advised” but posting freemail contact information is unethical? Funny definition of ethics, there. I’ll grant that someone can validly object to posting that email address, though I don’t personally. But a person cannot validly object to that while excusing and minimizing the hate speech that precipitated it. One of those two things is worse than the other, but it sure as all heck isn’t posting an email address.
As to the coexistance of fat hatred and feminism, its important to remember how overwhelmingly dominant fat hatred is in our culture. It is so privileged that one can easily retain it while holding seemingly incongruous progressive positions. Its the same way a person can simultaniously hold racist and feminist beliefs or be a civil rights activist and sexist. It isn’t consistent, but the cultural force of the bigotry can obscure that inconsistency. If anything, I find the base prejudice expressed by Rachel Moss refreshing because it is so plain to see. Most who harbor fat hatred as progressive do make an effort to rationalize that hatred within their political beliefs which tends to upset me more. “High minded” fat hatred is a far more insidious threat that blunt name-calling, though this is obviously more directly hurtful.
I’m reminded of an incident back in high school when a lab partner went on a real bile-filled rant about fat people and how ugly, disgusting, and unkempt they were. This rant was made in front of a young woman who while not fat was “not thin” enough for the purposes of high school to self-identify as such. And myself, who was outspokenly pro-FA and openly date fat women and whose circle of friends was roughly 75% fat. The casualness of her hatefulness really reminds me of what I saw of Rachel’s archived post. A couple years later as myself and the young woman who went on the rant were headed towards graduation, she sought me out to apologize for that. And it was a genuine apology, not “I’m sorry I said it in front of you.” She explained that she had struggled with body issues and hinted at an ED. Her remarks were not as much about hating those classmates for being fat but resenting it and hating herself. She recognized that she was putting down other people to make herself feel, not better but I guess less bad. She was actually glad that I publicly called her out for her fat hatred, because it was something she eventually had to deal with herself and she did deal with it.
Now, I’ll grant that this kind of behavior is more forgivable from a 16-year old, but if that 16 year old was able to gain the self-awareness to understand her actions, I hope Rachel Moss can do the same. If fat hatred is a crutch for her, she needs to see that and take responsibility for its consequences and for changing the way she looks at fat people. I hope she takes the backlash as instructive and doesn’t see it the way her “defenders” do. I hope she can become as disgusted with those defenders as I am because they aren’t defending her. They are defending their “right” to be publicly and aggressively hateful of fat people.
[…] is) space. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, my Smith bud Sheana has a decent synopsis and links from an outside […]
[…] wrong. Ask others to do so. Use her name. (After all, she used other people’s.) Write to her. This post has an email for her at the bottom. No threats of violence, obviously. But she needs to know just how many people know what she […]
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