On Fat Studies
Abigail Alger at Reformer’s Blog has a good article on “Why Fat Studies (and All Identity Studies) Hurt Higher Education“:
But Fat Studies, like all identity studies, begins with the end in mind. The conclusions have already been determined: fat people are oppressed and down-trodden, victims of an insert-terrible-adjective-here system and insert-another-terrible-adjective-here society.
In a closed system like this, there can be no debate or disagreement.
NAS’s own Glenn Ricketts is quoted on the emergence of fat studies here.
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Categories: Political Correctness
identity studies, Reformer's Blog
Thank you for the kind words and the link to the article. We found the Fat Studies article on Friday and thought it had to be a joke. But when it comes to issues of silliness in higher education, you can’t even parody the other side. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
I’m looking forward to Blonde Studies (blondes suffer debilitating intellectual discrimination), People Who Wear Crocs Studies (these unfortunate souls are mocked for their underdeveloped fashion sense), and SUV Drivers Studies (if environmentalists have their way, this group will be extinct soon — better preserve their culture now).
How about redhead studies? I’d be interested in that one.
How about Students Who Just Want To Learn Unbiased Knowledge And Skills Studies? They are being increasingly oppressed it seems to me.
More on fat studies from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/No-Fear-of-Fat/49041/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
“fat oppression” is apparently “allied with the struggles of other oppressed groups against classism, racism, sexism, ageism, financial exploitation, imperialism, and the like.” Wow.