Women’s public performance is always political, the fat black woman’s even more so. There mere fact that this video* is circulating so widely is because people view the fat black woman’s performing body as disruptive and “unruly” (to draw on the work of Jamaican literary scholar Andrea Shaw.)

Some people argued that images of this woman would deter tourists from visiting Trinidad and Tobago for carnival. This calls up how women’s bodies are used to signify the nation, in ways that are ultimately harmful for women. Despite this nation being one where “every creed and race find an equal place” the fat black woman’s unruly political body is out of place, especially at carnival which itself has become a more commodified, commercially driven enterprise which re-inscribes class divisions rather than turning them on their heads as carnival has been expected to do.

(via Carnival is woman…but not just any woman « CODE RED for Caribbean freedom!)