Author Interview on The Brian Lehrer Show America is a weight-obsessed nation. Over the last decade, there's been an explosion of concern in the U.S. about people getting fatter. Plaintiffs are now filing lawsuits arguing that discrimination against fat people should be illegal. Fat Rights asks the first provocative questions that need to be raised about adding weight to lists of currently protected traits like race, gender, and disability. Is body fat an indicator of a character flaw or of incompetence on the job? Does it pose risks or costs to employers they should be allowed to evade? Or is it simply a stigmatized difference that does not bear on the ability to perform most jobs? Could we imagine fatness as part of workplace diversity? Considering fat discrimination prompts us to rethink these basic questions that lawyers, judges, and ordinary citizens ask before a new trait begins to look suitable for antidiscrimination coverage. Fat Rights draws on little-known legal cases brought by fat citizens as well as significant lawsuits over other forms of bodily difference (such as transgenderism), asking why the boundaries of our antidiscrimination laws rest where they do. Fatness, argues Kirkland, is both similar to and provocatively different from other protected traits, raising long–standing dilemmas in antidiscrimination law into stark relief. Though options for defending difference may be scarce, Kirkland evaluates the available strategies and proposes new ways of navigating this new legal question. Fat Rights enters the fray of the obesity debate from a new perspective: our inherited civil rights tradition. The scope is broad, covering much more than just weight discrimination and drawing the reader into the larger context of antidiscrimination protections and how they can be justified for a new group.

“In this bold new book, Tovar eviscerates diet culture, proclaims the joyous possibilities of fatness, and shows us that liberation is possible.” —Sarai Walker, author of Dietland Growing up as a fat girl, Virgie Tovar believed that her body was something to be fixed. But after two decades of dieting and constant guilt, she was over it—and gave herself the freedom to trust her own body again. Ever since, she’s been helping others to do the same. Tovar is hungry for a world where bodies are valued equally, food is free from moral judgment, and you can jiggle through life with respect. In concise and candid language, she delves into unlearning fatphobia, dismantling sexist notions of fashion, and how to reject diet culture’s greatest lie: that fat people need to wait before beginning their best lives. “This book feels like spending a margarita-soaked day at the beach with your smartest friend. Virgie Tovar shares juicy secrets and makes revolutionary ideas viscerally accessible. You’ll be left enlightened, inspired, happier, and possibly angrier than when you started.” —Joy Nash, actress “Tovar is a vital voice in contemporary activism, media, and feminism. The joy she takes in her own body and life, combined with the righteous anger she expresses at an oppressive world is a truly radical act. She is deeply thoughtful, but does not equivocate. She confronts bigotry, but does not engage with bullshit.” —Kelsey Miller, author of Big Girl “Long-time body positive writer, speaker and activist Virgie Tovar is gifting brown round girls the book we’ve been hungry for.” —Mitú

It is okay to be fat. This is the basic premise of fat activism, a social movement that has existed in Canada since the early 1970s. This book focuses on the earliest strands of the Canadian movement, which emerged around 1977 and ended around 1997 with the emergence of defiant performance artists Pretty, Porky, and Pissed Off. This twenty-year window loosely correlates with the rise of "second-wave" feminist organizing and thinking in the country. Fat activists were wrestling with issues other feminists of the era were debating: femininity, sexuality, and health. While united by the idea that it is okay to be fat, the movement has taken many different forms. Fat "activism" and the "movement" encompassed a variety of activities. It included groups that held regular meetings and published newsletters, organized events, and elected an executive. Being Fat explores activities like fashion design, self-help groups, plus-size modelling, and dance under the umbrella of fat activism, undertaken in the name of empowering fat women. Together, these activities show that self-identified fat women took up feminist ideas of liberation and applied them to their lives. Their personal experiences became the basis of a powerful movement to challenge beauty and bodily norms.

Winner, 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2020 Sociology of Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association How the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor Black women are particularly stigmatized as “diseased” and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat Black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago. Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals—where fat bodies were once praised—showing that fat phobia, as it relates to Black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of “savagery” and racial inferiority. The author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early twentieth century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity. An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues convincingly that fat phobia isn’t about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.

Using Anthony Giddens' Structuration theory and rhetorical theory, this book identifies fat acceptance activists' tactics to end fat stigma. The book covers the benefits and detriments of social media in fat acceptance activism, the importance of symbolism and rhetorical savvy, and the use of narrative in fat activism.

Traits that signal belonging dictate our daily routines, including how we eat, move, and connect to others. In recent years, "fat" has emerged as a shared anchor in defining who belongs and is valued versus who does not and is not. The stigma surrounding weight transcends many social, cultural, political, and economic divides. The concern over body image shapes not only how we see ourselves, but also how we talk, interact, and fit into our social networks, communities, and broader society. Fat in Four Cultures is a co-authored comparative ethnography that reveals the shared struggles and local distinctions of how people across the globe are coping with a bombardment of anti-fat messages. Highlighting important differences in how people experience "being fat," the cases in this book are based on fieldwork by five anthropologists working together simultaneously in four different sites across the globe: Japan, the United States, Paraguay, and Samoa. Through these cases, Fat in Four Cultures considers what insights can be gained through systematic, cross-cultural comparison. Written in an eye-opening and narrative-driven style, with clearly defined and consistently used key terms, this book effectively explores a series of fundamental questions about the present and future of fat and obesity.

What is Fat Activism and why is it important? Charlotte Cooper, a fat activist with around 30 years experience, answers this question by lifting the lid on a previously unexplored social movement and offering a fresh perspective on one of the major problems of our times. In her expansive grassroots study she: Reveals details of fat activist methods and approaches and explodes myths Charts extensive accounts of international fat activist historical roots going back over four decades Explores controversies and tensions in the movement Shows that fat activism is an undeniably feminist and queer phenomenon Explains why fat activism presents exciting possibilities for anyone interested in social justice Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement is a rare insider's view of fat people speaking about their lives and politics on their own terms. It is part of a new wave of accessible, accountable and rigorous work emerging through Research Justice and the Para-Academy. This is the book you have been waiting for. Charlotte Cooper is a psychotherapist, cultural worker and para-academic living and working in London. She is a founding proponent of Fat Studies. 'Charlotte Cooper's fierce new book Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement should be required reading for scholars and activists. Cooper draws on extensive interviews with fat activists to render a trenchant analysis of our field of motion. She takes a penetrating look at activist efforts and self-understandings, eschewing easy praise in favor of discernment that ultimately promises to invigorate the movement.' Kathleen LeBesco / Marymount Manhattan College (Associate Dean) 'Charlotte Cooper is once again in the vanguard of radical social change with this book about fat activism. She has captured the history of the fat rights movements, interviewed fat activists, and demonstrated the extensive and exciting breadth of fat activism in a global setting. Fat activism is often portrayed as ineffective when in fact its lack of conformity and interdisciplinarity can serve as a model for other social movements.' Esther Rothblum / Editor / Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society For any civil rights movement to succeed, it must know its history; to build on its strengths and learn from its mistakes. With the ubiquity of the Internet, the historical knowledge and record of activism can be rewritten with 140 characters. That is one of the many reasons that Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement is important. Anyone interested in the epistemology, ontology, and methodology, (not to mention history) of fat activism should make this a central text of their library. Cat Pause / Massey University / Co-Editor of Queering Fat Embodiment It is in the interest of the ethically and intellectually dubious field of "Obesity Research" to flatten fat subjects; rendering our voices narrowly defined by punchy rhetoric, our activist interventions reduced to child-like flailing against the big bad thin-dominated world. Charlotte Cooper's book resists this myopic view of resistance to fat oppression in form and content. Fat Activists need more researchers and writers examining and reflecting on our work from within, and this book stands as an offering and opening in that vein. Naima Lowe / Artist and Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College Contents: Acknowledgements / Introduction / 1. Undoing / 2. Doing / 3. Locating / 4. Travelling / 5. Accessing / 6. Queering / Bibliography / Index"