I’ve been sitting on this story for a few
weeks now; still riding out the wave of the QSOCC conference and all the
momentum it has given me. The night after the conference an incident happened
to me, and that got me thinking about the commodification of my body. It
happens to many of us, especially if we’re queer, fat or POC. I happen to be
all three.
The night in question was spent dancing
until two in the morning at Berbati’s with my cousins, my bf and other friends.
We had a great time. However, after we left the club I was walking down the
alley and this White woman started hollering at me, “OH MY GOD I LOVE YOUR
HOODIE! I LOVE YOUR HOOPS” and THEN she grabbed at me. I didn’t even react; I
kept walking. It’s become so
normalized to me.
The next day however, I started thinking
about the incident and how used to that kind of interaction I have become. This
woman saw me, a queer fat person (probably not brown because I pass) walking
down the street and thought she had a right to touch me. I don’t care if she
liked how I dressed, she had NO right to touch me and get into my
personal space.
The commodification of our bodies is
commonplace in U.S. culture: our fashion, our music, our androgyny, and our
bodies. Everyone wants a piece when it’s popular and new. We become nonentities:
the fat and sassy gay person, the exotic brown other. bell hooks called this, “eating
the other”. We become exploitable by the majority.
This commodification becomes especially
salient and dangerous when intersected by street harassment. When people start
seeing us as nonentities available for their consumption our identities are
erased and we are open to violence. This is a dangerous place to be, walking
down the street, as we are navigating White space or heterosexual space.
Fabian Romero said that it is revolutionary to love our queer, fat, immigrant, brown, disabled, non-cisgendered bodies. I believe we should also take this revolution to
the streets and push back against the commodification of our bodies. We ought
to push back against street harassment. We are not the exotic object! We are
PEOPLE. And we deserve our body sovereignty.
