The Origins of Fatphobia
Peter Paul Rubens
Rubens may have been fond of plump women, however, when it came to the physiques of men, Rubens abhorred fatness. In a letter to his nephew, Rubens stated that laziness and overindulgence were the causes of fatness. Rubens wasn't the only one who had such strong opinions about fatness.
The Distaste of Men's Fatness
During the 17th century in England, sugar imports increased in frequency and sugar became more widely available. As more people began eating sugar, doctors noticed a rise in both fatness and the disease gout. Gout, a form of arthritis, supposedly affected lazy people and those with a rich diet.
In 1620 the word “obesus” was used for the first time by English Physician Tobias Venner to describe excess fat. Venner offered a treatment that would make people thinner.
Doctors started to believe that there was a connection between fatness with ill health.
The distaste for men's fatness that spread through England was not a distaste based on appearance but on the stupidity associated with fatness.
French philosopher René Descartes claimed that sensual desires, particularly those relating to food or drink, could prevent success. His ideas were very popular throughout England, and he advised royalty such as Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia.
Natural philosopher, Walter Charleton, was not concerned about the impact fatness had on health; rather, he worried about what fatness revealed about the mind.
Robert Boyle, a contemporary of Charleton and a follower of Descartes, was known for his non-indulgent diet and thin physique. Boyle never ate for pleasure, only for survival. He was praised for his willpower and the extent of his knowledge.
Henry More, an English philosopher, viewed fatness as proof of unintelligence. More was known for being incredibly thin, and as a result, people trusted what he had to say about body size.
England's Introduction To Black People
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The first enslaved black Africans arrived in England in 1555. Soon after the Africans' arrival, authors began describing Africans in their books.
In ​​The Fardle of Facions by Joannes Boemus, Africans were described as “animals…[who] would fall upon their women.” and “utterly free from care because they are always sure to have plenty of food.”
Statesman Francis Bacon published a condemnation of Africans. Bacon stated that Africans are "little, foul, and ugly." and that they embody the "Spirit of Fornication."
Counselor for King Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More, described the black female servants of Catherine of Aragon as "hunchbacked, undersized, and barefoot Pygmies of Ethiopia.”
Books like Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia and Edward Long’s History of Jamaica popularized the idea that Black people were by nature gluttonous, overindulgent, lazy, and lacking morals.
As a result of these books, indulging in food was considered evidence of laziness and seen as succumbing to bodily desires at the expense of higher pursuits.
The First Racial Classification System
The first racial classification system was created by French physician, François Bernier, in order to determine the fundamental physical differences between Europeans and non-Europeans as well as to prove European superiority. Bernier explained the details of this system in an essay titled "A New Division of the Earth". Bernier defined race as something that can be identified both by where a person lives and their appearance. For example, Bernier made a distinction between the "black African" and others from Africa by placing them into different "species". ​
Julien Joseph Virey
In Julien Joseph Virey’s book Natural History of Mankind, he described black people as lazy and mild as well as “mindless, self gratifying automatons”. According to Virey, gluttony is inherent to black people due to the nature of their bodies, “ In our white species, the forehead is projecting and the mouth retreating, as if we were rather designed to think than to eat; in the negro species, the forehead is retreating and the mouth projecting, as if he were made to eat rather than to think.”
Virey claimed that the sun caused the body to hold onto fat, so people with a lot of exposure to the sun, like Africans, have a lot of excess fat accumulated in their bodies.
1. Profile of a European and a facial
outline of a black man
2. Skull of a Georgian
3. Skull of a black woman
1. Profile of Apollo
2. Profile of a black man
3. Profile of an Orangutan
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Disclaimer
“ Hottentot” is an offensive term that has historically been used to refer to the Khoisan people, a group of indigenous South Africans. I will be referring to the this group as the Khoisan people.
In Natural History of Mankind, Virey dehumanized Khoisan women, stating “ The derrieres of Hottentot women, he added, resembled those of four-legged creatures, at times growing so large that they could be supported with a small cart, like a domesticated animal.” One of the most famous Khoisan people ​who was also subject to dehumanization was named Saartjie Baartman.
Saartjie Baartman
Towards the end of the 18th century, a Khoisan woman named Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman was born. Sarah was enslaved and in around 1806 she was taken to Europe and displayed to British soldiers who had heard stories of the sexual nature of black women. Dying soldiers would pay to touch her or have sex with her. Sarah was taken to London to be in an “ethnographic freak show.” and was promoted as an “erotic and scientific curiosity”. People expected “something out of the African wild.” and were disappointed when Sarah was “tame”. During shows, Sarah wore fake Khoikhoi garb and was once covered in feathers and dressed as a bird. Sarah was known for her grotesque and exotic nature and “the size and shape of her buttocks.” People viewed her superfluous fat as a sign of primitivity and believed that Sarah's fatness was linked to her blackness. This connection between fatness and blackness became widely accepted.
A poster advertising the display of Sarah.
The Three Races
In 1853 Arthur de Gobineau, a French aristocrat, separated the world into three races: white, yellow, and black. The superior race was white and the most inferior race was black. Gobineau cited black people's gluttonous nature as his reasoning for this order. Essayist, Thomas Carlyle popularized the idea of Anglo-Saxon supremacy. Carlyle believed that the famine in Ireland was caused by a lack of self-control of the "Celtic race.” Carlyle thought the Irish’s greed was proof of racial inferiority and that Celtic people were more closely related to black people than white people.
The United States
The ideas concerning black people and fatness were not limited to Europe. As these concepts gained popularity in the United States, they manifested themselves in various forms, one form being in magazines.
Magazines
Godey’s Lady’s Book was a magazine geared towards teaching girls and young women how to properly behave in a white Christian society. Articles in Godey’s Lady’s Book spoke about the ways in which women should regulate their eating as overeating could destroy their beauty. There were articles about keeping one's appetite in check because excessive eating creates a figure unsuitable for "cultivated white women.” Godey’s Lady’s Book promoted the idea that American women were slender, small, and delicate.
Harper’s Bazar (now spelled Bazaar) is a magazine that was published in 1867. In the early 1870s, there were many articles written about how proper American Women should eat and dress. In an article titled, “The Fixed Facts of Beauty” the author talked about how the laws of beauty cannot possibly be fixed “because the Turk sees beauty only in the obese and certain of the savages in the deformed”. The author stated that although there are no universal laws of beauty, the American ideal of beauty must be accepted because it has “been reduced to a science”. In 1897 an article titled “The Sorrows of the Fat” spoke about how the "crime" of fatness is the fault of the fat woman herself. The articles stated that only uncivilized savages could consider a fat woman beautiful and that a fat woman "will not be a social success unless she burnt-cork herself, don beads, and then go to that burning clime where women, like pigs, are valued at so much a pound."
Women's magazines popularized the notion of race, weight, and beauty being connected. From this notion, “Prominent intellectuals asserted that the slim Nordic/ Aryan Americans were indeed the only group “fit” to reproduce. Their tendency to slimness was seen as an indication of such fitness.”
The Gibson Girl was a fictitious woman drawn by Charles Dana Gibson for Life Magazine and was the picture of "fitness" at the time . She first appeared in the 1890s and captured the picture of American beauty. She was “small”, “tall”, and “trim”, with the “perfect figure” and “of British origin”. Gibson believed that the Gibson Girl's beauty came from her race.