THICK

[Trey]

THICK contains several essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom that span a variety of topics from beauty politics to Black identity to misogynoir to public authority and more. This quickly became one of my favorite reads of the year as Tressie manages to write in a way that feels familiar and accessible AND extremely informative, despite her background in academia, which can sometimes feel a bit lofty to me.

Of all the essays in THICK, which one was most impactful to you and why?

Without question, Chapter 2, "In the Name of Beauty" settled deep in my bones for a week after reading it. This was a re-write of an essay on Miley Cyrus and desirability politics in which Tressie calls herself "unattractive." She explains that this is not internalized self-hatred but naming what has been done *to* her, and naming who done it, i.e., "Ugly is everything done to you in the name of beauty."

In this chapter she explains how beauty is about capital, which I feel is something we all have a cursory understanding of, but not in the way that Tressie details. She explains that beauty is a system that positions whiteness at the top to the exclusion of everyone else. In her words, "Capital demands that beauty be coercive," and "to coerce, beauty must exclude."

Beauty can never be about preferences as long as it influences "how people perceive you, how institutions treat you, which rules are applied to you, and what choices you can make, then Beaty must also be a structure of patterns, institutions, and exchanges."
Even when we try to subvert this idea of beauty, our resistance is commodified and then stratified, and we end up replacing one hierarchy for another. The entire concept of beauty is full of contradictions.

I could read this chapter over and over and over again, because the idea of desirability politics is relatively new to me, but it makes so much more sense to me than what I've always believed. Preferences can never be benign when we are socialized to believe that certain aesthetics are right and good, and others are not. That's something we all could benefit from examining more. Like Tressie explains in the end of this amazing chapter, she doesn't care whether people perceive her as beautiful or not. But would rather be around good people with good politics who value her and uphold her humanity regardless. A. word.

[Belinda]

Personally, I loved the chapter "Know your Whites". I found this one especially intriguing, as her opinions on Obama vastly differ to some of the other authors that we have read.
The authors that are more focused in politics see the man very differently to the way that Tressie sees him (and her mother). But it was also interesting that opinions can be simply formed by the white people they associate with and how they will react to a situation, will in fact limit their potential.
I find the way they are resigned to a given fate so incredibly sad, and yet I get it too. They have lived this life that has been dictated by a white agenda, it makes sense. But kudos for her to actually go to a Trump rally. It is a situation I know I would personally avoid.