My Friend's Body ≠ Your Business

My friend, the poet/editor Kristy Bowen, runs an online calendar that lists poetry readings/events that take place in the Chicago area. This has upset a poet named C.J. Laity, who also runs an online calendar that lists poetry readings/events that take place in the Chicago area. To the best of my understanding, C.J.'s complaint is that he was running his poetry calendar first and that Kristy's calendar constitutes something of an intellectual property theft situation. Here is Kristy's calendar. Here is C.J.'s calendar.

Now, until a couple of days ago, my level of interest in this fight could best be described as less than minimal. But then C.J. started bringing weight/appearance into the argument. The implication was that Kristy is in the wrong because she weighs more than C.J. thinks she ought and/or that Kristy weighs more than C.J. thinks she ought because she's in the wrong.

At first, I was reluctant to post about this. My reading of the situation is that this man just writes inflammatory things about other poets in order to get more site hits. And I hate giving speech like this the pleasure of my attention. But I feel that I have to speak (write) out. I'm not angry because he's being mean to my friend; I'm angry about the way he's being mean to my friend.

Fat-bashing (like gay-bashing, like racism) doesn't just hurt the individual who's being bashed. It hurts all members of that community. Fat-bashing is an especially insidious form of hate speech because it doesn't even "just" affect people who are perceived to be overweight. It affects all people in possession of a body because it serves as a threat to what awaits those who dare to commit the sin of not being perceived as thin. While a person can't become gay or become black; they can, if they're not "careful," become fat. The dynamics of this situation - an older male poet publicly denigrating the body of a younger female poet - serve as yet another reminder to all the young female poets out there that even in the (purportedly liberal and women-friendly) poetry community, even on the (purportedly flesh-less) Internet, their bodies are somebody else's (everybody else's?) business.


A few people that I've talked to about this have expressed that they would like to do something to express their displeasure. I'm not entirely sure what the best course of action is. It seems unlikely that sending this guy an e-mail explaining why his speech is offensive is going to lead to anything along the lines of a healthy dialogue about feminism and body image in the world of poetry blogs. But, if you want to send C.J. an e-mail, he can be reached at ChicagoPoetry@ChicagoPoetry.com. A few other suggestions for those of you who want to fight back:


1. Give Kristy your money. Buy Kristy's books. Buy some of the chapbooks Kristy publishes. She runs dancing girl press, a press dedicated to publishing female poets, out of her own pocket. Also, she manages an online shop that specializes in pretty paper products and vintage clothes.

2. Give Kristy your poetry. Kristy edits a journal called wicked alice. Send a few of your A-game poems her way.

3. Use Kristy's calendar. If you're a Chicago poet, use Kristy's online calendar instead of C.J.'s. Get your friends to do the same.

4. Make a donation to About-Face or The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Or, at the very least, browse through their websites.

5. Evaluate your own body snarking practices. After a few post-reading beers, do you find yourself commenting about how so-and-so is looking a bit chubby lately? Cut that shit out. By making comments like those, you're causing the world I live in to become a crappier place.






See also:


Chicago Poetry (Jenny Boully)

Boycott CJ Laity and Chicagopoetry.com (Kate Durbin)

Just in case you thought sexism and discrimination in poetry were things of the past (Becca Klaver)