fat acceptance
Activist Toolkit weekly roundup: HIV workshops, fat activism, the Canadian fruit machine, composting, supporting prisoners
| February 9, 2012Fat Activism
Along with other social movements that started organizing in the 1960s and 1970s, the fat acceptance movement developed and began to gain support. Fat activists fight to change social, personal and medical perceptions of fat people. Much like the disabilities rights movement, fat activism works with the belief that the problem isn't with the bodies of fat people but society's views, lack of accommodation and prejudice against them.
Currently, fat Canadians are still shamed and oppressed. Institutions have medicalized fatness, creating people's bodies as disorders which indicate a lack of self-control. This has fostered myths and stereotypes about fat people: that they are lazy, poor workers, out of control and unintelligent.
Fat for thought
Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body
(Perigree,
2009;
$17.50)
In a perfect world, this book wouldn't exist. Not because Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere isn't engaging or informative -- on the contrary, it's a quick and often eye-opening read -- but because it reaffirms that we are still a society at war with our bodies.
From breast implants and Botox to skin bleaching and anti-aging creams, a woman's physical appearance is seen as something to alter and improve upon. Witness the plight of Hollywood starlet Mary-Kate Olsen: For years, fashion magazines maligned her for being too thin. Now that she's sporting a fuller figure, she stands accused of letting herself go.
