As I mentioned in an earlier post this week, anti-fat bias runs rampant in performance spaces.
In Western culture, we tend to consider the voices of folks who we perceive to have more positive characteristics as being more valuable or having higher worth.
In the voice studio, when we believe that folks have positive character traits (such as discipline, industriousness, ambition, or conscientiousness) simply because of their thinness, we tend to place more value on the quality of their voice and on what they would like to say when they use their voice. We tend to extend more grace to those students when they have challenges and we tend to support them because we believe they’ve earned the right to have our attention and engagement. We also tend to work a little harder to find the best way to work with those students because we believe they deserve it. And we tend to believe that the technical challenges (or miscoordinations) of thin singers are not of their own making.
The opposite is also true.
In the voice studio, when we believe that folks have negative character traits (such as laziness, lack of ambition, entitlement, or irresponsibility) simply because of their fatness, we tend to place less value on the quality of their voice and on what they would like to say when they use their voice. We tend to view those students’ challenges as the inevitable outcome of their choices and do not extend grace or support because we believe that pulling our engagement and attention will teach them to make better choices next time. We also tend to expect those students to conform to our rules because, if they won’t put in the effort then why should we? And we tend to believe that the technical challenges (or miscoordinations) of fat singers are their fault.
One of the things I’ve been coming to terms with in the past few years, is the amount of leeway and grace (aka privilege) that I enjoy/enjoyed as a thin person moving through performance spaces. (There are, of course, so many other intersections of privilege that I enjoy – this is not the only one; it just happens to be the one we’re talking about today.) AND how not examining that privilege has impacted how I move through teaching spaces as well. These things are sobering to say the least.
If aaaany of this rings true for you, I hope you’ll consider taking a closer look at some (or all!) of the anti-fat bias resources in this post.
What have I missed? What other resources have spoken to you?
Elizabeth Benson & Kate Rosen’s column in JOS: Anti-Fat Bias in the Singing Voice Studio.
The Maintenance Phase Podcast with Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes.
Aubrey Gordon’s blog and/or book.
Follow The Association for Size Diversity and Health on all the platforms.
Follow Shana Minei Spence (The Nutrition Tea)
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