{"id":635,"date":"2021-04-11T19:59:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T23:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/?p=635"},"modified":"2021-04-11T19:59:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T23:59:20","slug":"susan-stinson-refuses-to-be-malleable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/2021\/04\/11\/susan-stinson-refuses-to-be-malleable\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Stinson refuses to be malleable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Susan Stinson\u2019s poem \u201cA Practical Guide to Successful Living\u201d is very brief: \u201cFat girls let your shorts ride up \/ Lie down on the cold spring dirt \/ and get mud on your fat backs\u201d (Stinson 1). Although Stinson\u2019s poem is quite short, it is incredibly meaningful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am taking a Fat Studies course with Prof. Farrell, and recently we read an essay written by Joyce L. Huff about how fat bodies fit into space. In her essay, Huff unpacks and analyzes Southwest\u2019s fatphobic decision to make fat travelers purchase two airplane seats, therefore paying double the amount their slender peers have to. Huff argues that \u201c… this body has come increasingly to be seen as capable of adapting itself to spaces constructed to meet the needs of corporations rather than those of individuals\u201d. I agree wholeheartedly. Our society pushes limited, standardized items, such as clothing sizes, and people are expected to figure out ways to squeeze in. When Stinson commands girls to let their shorts ride up and their bodies spill out, she is rejecting society\u2019s want for malleable bodies that fit in. Women should not need to lose enough weight to fit into provided clothes, nor should they have to shroud their bodies in clothes that cover up what society deems unsightly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also think that Stinson is equating rejecting clothes that don\u2019t fit to embracing queer identities. Much like the way fat girls spill out of restrictive clothes, queer women \u2018come out\u2019 of restrictive spaces that value heteronormativity. Moreover, Stinson also writes to \u201cLie down on the cold spring dirt \/ and get mud on your fat backs\u201d (Stinson 1). By directly connecting naked skin and earth, Stinson is writing about retreating to nature to live a truer identity. This implies that queer, fat women will be happiest when living as outlaws from society\u2019s heteronormative, slender values. Stinson\u2019s beleif of finding refuge in nature reminds me of queer poems such as <\/span>Song of Myself<\/span><\/i>, and queer communities such as the Radical Faeries, as both urge queer individuals to grow comfortable with their identities in natural environments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Stinson\u2019s message is important: she encourages women to find happiness through embracing unique identities and refuting society\u2019s hopes to jam everyone into a uniform space. Additionally, instead of expanding standardization, Stinson healthily encourages queer, fat women to start with identities that are closest to nature- and to accept true identities through escaping societal norms. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan Stinson\u2019s poem \u201cA Practical Guide to Successful Living\u201d is very brief: \u201cFat girls let your shorts ride up \/ Lie down on the cold spring dirt \/ and get mud on your fat backs\u201d (Stinson 1). Although Stinson\u2019s poem is quite short, it is incredibly meaningful.\u00a0 I am taking a Fat Studies course with … Continue reading Susan Stinson refuses to be malleable<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}