Module 1 Post 3
In my third blog post for module 1, it gets personal.
I was drawn to the story “Fatty Legs” by Christy-Jordan Fenton. Christy-Jordan Fenton reads the first chapter of Fatty Legs – YouTube. While this link is for the first chapter read by the author, subsequent chapters are asked to be paid for. This is a fair exchange. It is a story about a young Inuit girl who felt embarrassed about her legs for 60 years after being forced to wear a pair of red stockings as a child. The story goes on to describe how she made those stockings disappear. This resonated with me due to my own inner rebel. But I had a major complex about my legs after a boy had told me I had “tree trunk” legs after a soccer game (when really the focus ought to have been on the fact that I was a good enough player to be the only girl on the team!) So, here I was, personal self-consciousness as a girl growing up in western educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, white, anglo saxon, protestant (WEIRDWASP) society; full privilege and talented and being knocked down by a white boy. Imagine I had been a minority? Or disabled? I am honestly not sure that I would have been able to handle it. At that point in my life, I was able to see how much privilege I have always had on my journey in life. I fell victim of a western depression that is not common in other parts of the world where survival is more acute.