A friend of mine, last night, mentioned that there was an artist working on a series of paintings depicting her having sex with each President of the United States of America, in order of service.
Of course the immediate joke was Taft.
And it bothered me quite a lot. As I looked stuff up online about this artist and her project, called Join or Die, it didn’t surprise me at all to find that, oh look, the consistent joke is Taft.
Because, you know, fat dudes are gross and thinking about them having sex is gross.
*eyeroll*
Justine Lai is only 18 presidents in, so there actually doesn’t exist a Taft painting yet. But, browsing her other examples (it should go without saying that clicking the “works” link on her site will pull up images that are not really safe for work unless the medium of oil painting makes picture of sex okay where ever you might be), when she gets around to our 27th president, I think it will be an interesting work.
Her statement:
In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.
I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that’s strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably “controversial.” One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its “Fuck the Man” symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.
March 2009
William Howard Taft was born in 1857. He was groomed for the presidency by Teddy Roosevelt. I do not think it can be argued that he was a great president but part of that seems to be a failing of personality – Taft was always more interested in the law than in politics and any president coming after Roosevelt was almost guaranteed to be a let-down anyway. He pushed Dollar Diplomacy but he also pushed mediation and arbitration instead of war. Taft is the only person to have held both the office of the presidency and the office of chief justice – a position which suited him far more.
William Howard Taft was also a fat man. No discussion of him, it would seem, is complete without giving his stats – people seem fascinated by them. He was 6 feet tall and averaged between 300 and 340 pounds during the 4 years he was in office.
Taft was always a fat man, always big. He was the butt of fat jokes even when he was president. He dieted, like we all do, and he had limited success (read: none) with keeping off the weight he had lost in the long term (read: like we all do). In fact, after his diet, he gained back what he had lost and then some! QUELLE SURPRISE! Taft weighed around 250 when he graduated college and weighed close to that again when he died. It’s almost like that was the weight his body was comfortable at…. Taft was an active man but became less so as he aged (and lost weight). I think he was 72 (I don’t have my references with me!) when he died – from cerebral arteriosclerosis, if I remember correctly.
When people talk about how gross it is for Justine Lai to paint herself having sex with Taft, the natural implication is that it is disgusting for me to have sex. After all, I weigh 300+ pounds. And Taft was 6 feet tall! I’m only 5′4″! He had 8 inches on me! If it’s gross for Taft to get it on (and he had a wife with a very strong personality and a lot of ambition with whom he had 3 kids so I don’t think it was a marriage in name only by a long shot), then what must people grossed out by Taft think about me?
This is where the waters get difficult to navigate sometimes with friends. Because one person’s preference isn’t the issue. No one has to want to have sex with me or think I’m sexually attractive. The problem is that not only is Taft ridiculed as an object of desire (and I will tell you straight up that I think he was a good looking dude) but so is the concept that ANYONE would find him sexually attractive.
It isn’t just that person x is not attracted to me sexually, it’s that the implication is it’s gross for fat people to have sex across the board.
Some of this is, I think, based on no one being able to accurately guess someone else’s weight. The people around you forget, because they are your friends, that when they are talking in a derogatory fashion about fat people they are also talking about you. And people who don’t have fat friends (or fat friends who are fat positive) don’t even have that little bit of information!
This is one reason why I think visibility is so important. The more I am fat and totally okay with that, the more I am able to challenge people’s unexamined thinking about fat and fat people.
I am interested in watching Justine Lai’s project develop. I don’t know if she is achieving her goals – I haven’t decided yet what I think on a critical level. But her statement moves me – her statement makes me want to see what she does, makes me curious about how she’s going to imagine Taft in her efforts to “make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so.”
And in doing so, I hope, part of the humanizing message that comes through is that, yeah, fat people have sex, just like any other people.
24 Comments
Personally, I think it is gross for her to paint herself having sex with any of the presidents. I looked at the link you gave, and I just think it is wrong to paint yourself going down on Abe Lincoln. Seriously. What is wrong with this chick?
I think that is part of her challenge, Sara – the presidents – Abe Lincoln included – all had sex. Her goal is, in large part, to humanize these icons.
I’m so sick of the idea that only young, pretty people have sex. Old people have sex. Ugly people have sex. Differently-abled people have sex. And yes, FAT people have sex! And unfortunately, even if the fat person IS young and pretty, that just doesn’t count. I think we should have a sex-in…..all sorts of people having sex. An orgy of good sex! And I agree, Taft was a handsome man.
I have *such* issues with Taft jokes. I’ve got three kids, and every *single* book on the Presidents inevitably has an entry on Taft and his bathtub.
I had to point out to my kids that, at 5′7″ tall, I can’t lay down in the bathtub we have upstairs, nor can my 6″ husband. And I pointed out that the grandparents have a jacuzzi tub that’s big enough for two people. I also pointed out that every President has made changes to the White House to be more comfortable there, and a lot of that has been living in luxury.
But the sheer number of fat jokes built into books for kids just… gah.
I pointed out to my kids that Taft, at 300lbs, is only 50lbs more than me, and that really made it clear that the books were exaggerating his size.
Anyway, this makes me very grr. So sorry for venting.
Miriam, that is so totally exactly it! Like, fat jokes would be way funnier if they weren’t all summed up as “hur, that person is fat.” Yes, we get it, he had a new bathtub installed. COME ON, TEXTBOOK, TELL ME SOMETHING I DIDN”T KNOW!
That’s really what stung when my friends made the initial Taft fat joke about the series of paintings. I sat there and was kind of “um, hi.”
Great post, TR.
Being almost to the inch and pound the exact same size as you, I relate to, well, pretty much everything you write in a very intimate way, lol, but this one really hits home, not least of which because I recently saw an old friend who spent the entire time we were together talking about people who had gotten fat since high school, as if I weren’t sitting there ‘fat since high school’ myself, and every gentle hint that I didn’t appreciate the conversation was ignored.
(Eventually, I just said, “Aaaaand that’s my cue to leave.” And I left. I have no idea nor do I care if she figured out why.)
And, as an aside, I straight up share your opinion that Taft was a good looking dude.
This, for me, goes back to the mindset a lot of people have that 300 lbs mean you are bedridden and can’t do anything or fit anywhere, and sex is part of that. It is important for us to shatter the warped perception of fat in this society.
So, I only had a quick look at the paintings since I’m at work, but I think they are kinda hot. Lai is not only having sex with the Presidents but she appears to be enjoying it immensely. I’m sure the Taft picture will be hot as well.
And yeah, as a fat person I am not supposed to be having sex, and for a long time I abided by that rule and in fact did not have sex. But now I do and anyone who is disturbed to imagine it can go jump in a hole. Those who are turned on, can go ahead and be turned on; just don’t tell me the details.
I’m actually related to President Taft- his great-great-whatever grandniece. And guess what? I’m fat, too! How’s that for genetics? I just wanted to thank you for addressing this issue that quite frankly, is upsetting to me as a fat person but also since we are related.
OK, perhaps this is beside the point of the post (not to mention the art itself), but I think those paintings are hot. I can’t wait to see the Taft one, both because I agree with you that it will be a tiny step toward humanizing fat men, but also because (I hope) it will be a tender, erotic depiction of a fat man. This is not something we usually get to see (thank goodness for men_in_full!)
I was reading this book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Intimacy on my Kindle, and one of the interesting things it helped me realize, is we’ve taken love almost if not completely out of the sex act.
It’s all about the mechanics now, step 1 step 2 ect. There’s no room for playfulness or variation, it’s no wonder we have so many relationship problems. It should be nobody’s buisness who’s sleeping with who, or how they’d look in bed. There are more important things happening.
The main concept in the book, is teaching people there are forms of intimacy outside of sex. Given how sex obssessed our society is, I’m not at all surprised there would need to be a book written stating just that. When’s the last time you’ve seen a current romantic movie when the couple doesn’t seemingly inevitably end up in bed?
It’s movies like Casablanca that are considered the most romantic, and they don’t involve one overt sex scene. Now everything is pratically soft core porn, all people are doing is acting like high schoolers who are like OMG Sex! all the time. A relationship should stop at the bedroom door. Nor should it be seen as so inconceivable that non-perfect looking people do the deed.
Perhaps someone should sit all these haters down, let them write a list about things they feel insecure about themselves. Then give a good thought as to how they would feel, if someone confirmed that they not only had a right to feel insecure about those things, but they’d be an idiot if they weren’t.
That’s how it is living as a fat person every day, and being constantly confronted with the notion that you must be a moron, if you think your fat isn’t something to be dispised 24/7.
I really like it (Join or Die) so far, both in concept and execution. I’ll be interested to see how well it works as the series continues since it seems like there are only so many variations on the theme. I’m already curious about if there are historical reasons for her choices.
Anyway, thoughtful post and neat link.
Just temporarily de-lurking to respond to one of the comments about how Taft is portrayed in schoolbooks. The comment reminded me that in mine, there weren’t even any actual photos of the dude, just CARTOONS. CAR-FUCKING-TOONS. You know, the things that tend to characature-ize people in order to make a funneh? Yeah, I just realized now that that’s all we got. A cartoon picture of the guy and the “hur, he’s so fat he got stuck in his bathtub” story. Gah. Most of the other mentioned presidents at least got a well painted portrait.
I find the project disturbing for similar reasons as Sara, however I also understand the point made by that – it’s disturbing to think about but those presidents were people and people have sex. I fully appreciate my own ironic view point of it.
Mostly what bothers me, though, is that she’s painting herself. It comes very strongly across like she’s got some underlying obsession with herself (or deep-seated insecurities that she’s hoping to have validated). I’d be much more comfortable were she painting the presidents with their wives (or lovers).
I too think Taft was a good-looking man. I’m squicked by the painting series, but hey, more power to the artist.
I just had to delurk and comment…I am so glad I’m not the only person who noticed this trend. Everywhere I read about this it seems like the FIRST comment is always about “lolomg what about Taft hahahaha.”
Thank you for writing this.
This reminds me of the entry in “America: The Book” about Taft which went something like,
Taft, once governor of the Philippines, Trust Buster, and the only man to ever serve both as a President of the United States and a Supreme Court Justice. He was also too fat for his bathtub. Guess which one people will remember?
Truthfully I never knew much about Taft OTHER than he was some kind of OMG fatz! man. The image conjured up was like Fat Albert who had to be carried around on the back of a truck. When you said he floated between 300 and 340 I was like, pfft that’s nothing and it certainly ain’t unattractive in my POV. Just goes to show you how pervasive these hateful rumors are over time and how we perceive fat.
So…. what about Roosevelt? Wasn’t he more or less wheelchair bound? I’d be more curious as to the sexual acts she’d be portraying with Franklin himself rather than Taft. I’ve been with skinny, buff & fat guys in my life and I’ve never cum with any of the skinny or toned guys. Fat men just know how to love better. That and I’m not self conscious about this roll here or whether or not my ass is dimply when I’m with them. That said, I’d do Taft. Sideways & backwards.
Taft? Psh. Taft was awesome. That mustache alone renders him a fox and a half.
Truthfully, I’d be more grossed-out to have to paint a picture of myself having sex with either Dubya or Daddy Bush. D:
Seeing as my husband is 2″ shorter, and about the same weight as Taft, I’m not surprised that I find Taft pretty HOT. Also, he was the president and chief justice. His mind alone is amazing and something we should have appreciated more.
The only thing i knew about Taft before now was that he had a bathtub in the White House, not that it was large, though I’d LOVE to take a bath in that tub.
I think the paintings are interesting, and it does remind everyone that presidents, (and OMG! fat people) have sex. I can’t wait to see Taft, and Teddy Rosevelt actually.
See, my brain immediately went to Bill Clinton. I have to wonder if a blue dress and/or a cigar would be involved. When I think presidential sex, I think Bill! Maybe that’s just because I don’t think fat jokes are funny, or that Taft was in any way icky. He’s just a fat guy. But not sexy to me, because he looks so exactly like my dad.
The fat jokes always bothered me a bit, too. Dude was a damn good Chief Justice, even if a rather lackluster President; why reduce him to a cartoon?
For that matter, he totally isn’t even that big by normal standards. Then again, most people didn’t get that big back then, so it’s possible that the White House facilities weren’t built to a modern-sized dude like that…
(Also, for the record, Taft’s not my style at all, nor were most of the other presidents, but I’d totally do James Madison.)
This is a good post, with crunchy nuggets of important points.
Taft definitely had an extra-large bathtub installed in the White House. And why not? (He was probably a beautiful sight in that tub – hope he and his wife got to enjoy it together!) Then, when Taft left the WH, they tried to move the tub out, and it cracked beyond repair. Perhaps these two things got conflated into “Taft got stuck in the tub?”
Another story which might have got merged in comes from this 1915 New York Times story, where Taft apparently made a hotel resort bathtub overflow. That was two years *after* he’d left the White House, though.
But you’re right to point out the judgmentalism involved.
P.S. Thanks, spacedcowgirl, for the vote of confidence!
Not a very substantive comment, but I’m not sorry!! (ah, you have inspired me!): You are awesome!!!