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Fat Activism

This page contains archived content from our discontinued Social Movement Analysis project.

We no longer feel that this project represents the quality of our most current research. For more information, see our blog post.

This is the second case study in our series on social movements. It was prepared by ACE intern Amanda Lueke primarily during summer 2014 as a summary of the fat activism movement and its relevance to animal activists. Ultimately, we intend to prepare many similar case studies and compare them to form more firmly grounded conclusions about the uses of particular activist approaches and tactics.

What are the Historical Roots of Fat Activism?

Fat activism (FA) has existed in some form since the 1960s, but it’s not until recently that fat activism has become a social movement with mainstream recognition. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) is the largest FA organization in the country, and was founded in 1969.1 NAAFA is currently organized into city or county-based chapters all over the country. A now-defunct radical group called Fat Underground was also active around the same time,2 but the general social turmoil of the time overshadowed fat activism and it didn’t really take off until reports of an alleged obesity epidemic started coming out in the late 90s, and increasingly mainstream fad diets gained more and more success around the same time.3

Obesity was declared an ‘epidemic’ by the World Health Organization in the late 1990s, and public interest in obesity peaked in the early 2000s.4 As more news reports came out supporting the idea of an obesity epidemic, the use of the ‘headless fatty’ became more common. The headless fatty is an image or short video clip taken of a fat person from the neck down (generally taken in public without consent) used to illustrate stories about obesity.5 Between 1996 and 2006, the number of adults reporting size discrimination doubled, and most fat activists attribute that jump to dehumanization of fat people in the media. However, it is possible that increasing awareness of discrimination might have contributed to the increase in reports as well.6

The correlation between childhood bullying and fatness has been extensively studied and being fat is consistently found to increase a child’s risk for being bullied with no other status having a protective effect on the child.7 Bullying of fat children has also shown to be harsher and to have very far reaching psychological and social consequences.8 Fat children report being discriminated against by both teachers and other children.9,10

Accessibility is a large concern for fat activists, as places like airplanes and public transportation generally cannot accommodate very fat people.11 Parallels between these problems and the accessibility problems people with disabilities face have been drawn by some fat activists.12,13

Medical discrimination is also a large concern for fat activists. In a 1982 study, a third of doctors polled associated fat patients with “noncompliance, hostility, dishonesty, and poor hygiene.”14 A 1992 study found that a third of nurses polled would prefer to not treat a fat patient.15 Patients perceive and react to the discrimination; a 2006 study found that 68% of women in the highest BMI group delayed seeking health care because of weight and 83% said weight impeded them from receiving appropriate care.16 Anecdotally, there is evidence that fat people have been denied proper care because of their weight.17 Malpractice has occurred when doctors have refused to examine a fat patient further because they believe the problem they are experiencing could be solved with weight loss, potentially leading to treatable conditions unrelated to weight going untreated.18,19 Fat activists have criticized the pathologizing of being fat. Since the 2000s the medical industry has used the word ‘overweight’ (as opposed to morbid obesity, which has been a diagnosis for quite some time) as a diagnosis in and of itself as opposed to a symptom.20

On the cultural end, increasing fat visibility in fashion and the media and reducing the ‘unattractive’ stigma around fat people is a main goal for FA. The disgust around fat bodies is essentially cultural, and some fat activists believe that cultural disgust is the reason why fatness is so stigmatized compared to other unhealthy characteristics or behaviors.21 There is also a strong push against diet culture, as many studies have shown that people who try losing weight through dieting tend to not maintain their weight loss.22 However, extreme weight loss is seen as desirable for fat people.23 Shows like The Biggest Loser promote this,24 and the diet and weight loss industry is worth about $49 billion a year.25

Who Supports Fat Activism?

Most fat activists are women, as fatphobia seems to disproportionately affect women.26 There is evidence of a ‘fat pay gap’ between thin women and fat women that does not appear for men.27 Harsher beauty standards for women have also been cited as a possible reason why fat women would be more passionate about fighting fatphobia. The plus-size fashion blogosphere is often considered a common ‘gateway’ to fat activism, and since most of these blogs are run by feminine women for feminine people, it is possible that women have just had more opportunities to be exposed to fat activism, and thus more women have become fat activists.28

Solidarity with several other social justice movements has also been a large part of fat activism. There is a lot of crossover between the feminist and FA communities, as many concerns feminists have about women’s beauty standards intersect with FA’s concerns about discrimination. Many feminist academics have written about body politics long before fat activism came into being.29 The fat community and disabled community also share concerns about accessibility in public spaces for different types of bodies. Some have argued that fatness should be viewed as a disability, as both being fat and being disabled have been stigmatized as medical problems that need to be fixed. Critical disability theory rejects the idea that disabled bodies need to be ‘fixed’ to look and function like non-disabled bodies, and fat activists have borrowed heavily from critical disability studies.30

What Current Legislation Protects Fat People from Discrimination?

There is no legislation on the federal level that protects people from discrimination on the basis of body size, and Michigan is the only state that has state-wide legislation against it. The Elliot Larson Civil Rights Act was passed in Michigan in 1977 and included weight as one of the factors that cannot be discriminated against.31 Getting legislation passed to protect fat people from discrimination is one of the major goals of fat activists. Some cities do have anti-fat discrimination legislation; generally this legislation was already included in accessibility or anti-discrimination legislation.

  • Washington, D.C., includes “personal appearance” in protected categories.32
  • San Fransisco, CA, includes “height and weight” to its accessibility laws.33
  • Santa Cruz, CA, Binghamton, NY, Urbana, IL, and Madison, WI include “height, weight, and physical characteristics” as categories protected against discrimination.34
  • Nevada Bill AB166 awaiting action, includes “height, weight, and physical mannerisms beyond the control of the person”.35

What Kinds of Tactics Do Fat Activists Use?

One of the more influential recent fat activist groups was Pretty, Porky, and Pissed Off (PPPO). PPPO represented a more radical and social justice focused activism, and had ties to queer feminist and riot grrrl art scenes. Performance art was heavily integrated into their activism, and many of their public protests incorporated staged scenes to gain attention.36 They also held fundraisers and outreach programs.37 Although the group disbanded in 2003, performance art and connections to feminism remain in the fat activist movement.38

The fat activist blogosphere is extremely active. One particularly active segment of fat activism is made of plus-size fashion (or ‘fatshion’) bloggers who integrate fat acceptance ideals with their fashion blogging.39 Gabifresh,40 Nadia Aboulhosn,41 and Tess Munster42 are all prominent fatshion bloggers. Blogging has been one of the most common ways for fat activists to spread their message and to reach each other. As fat activism is a relatively new movement and has only recently started to break into more mainstream activist circles, blogging has allowed fat activists to share their ideas with each other remotely.43 Using the internet can also help some fat activists avoid stigma and discrimination in public spaces while fat activism ideals haven’t taken hold within the mainstream. However, using the internet also opens fat activists up to vitriol from anonymous posters on the internet. Anonymous commenting sections on blogs, and messaging applications on blogging sites that allow anonymity have created a platform for some to send rude or threatening messages without repercussions.44

Based on anecdotal evidence, plus-size fashion blogging has been extremely successful in introducing people to fat activism. Even blogs that simply post photos submitted by fat people have had success in creating positive spaces to build a community and introduce people to the basic goals of fat activists.45 Fatshion blogs have also become a space to deconstruct the language used to describe the clothes people wear in relation to their body size. Rejecting the concept of ‘flattering’ clothing is part of this.46 Because the fat activist movement is so new, this very basic de-stigmatization of fat bodies is still a needed goal for the movement, and using attractive imagery for that seems to be successful. As fat activism picks up more as a social movement, it will be interesting to see how much influence blogging truly has on its success.

NAAFA holds an annual conference in Washington DC. The conference covers two days and focuses on networking between activists.47 NAAFA is also currently working on a campaign called End Bullying Now, dedicated to creating anti-bullying educational programs at all age levels.48 The Clark County, Nevada chapter of NAAFA has also recently started the Size Savvy Project. This project has compiled a list of “size savvy” businesses and health care providers that have been deemed accommodating of fat people by NAAFA.49

How Does the General Public Receive Fat Activism?

As fat activism is not completely mainstream yet and many people have only a vague idea of what it’s about, there have not been many studies on how non-activists perceive FA. There has been one study done by Julie Guthman at the University of California at Santa Cruz, based on comments she received from students during her course on the politics of obesity.50 Guthman found that even though the students were regularly being exposed to criticisms of the obesity epidemic and diet culture, the comments and writings of many did not deviate at all from mainstream views on fatness.51 Some students even went as far as to use derogatory language about guest speakers and question the speaker’s dedication to what she was discussing.52 It would be interesting to see a follow-up to a study like this, to see if there was any change among student opinions over the time of the course and in the time after the course was completed.

What Can Animal Activists Learn?

Fat activists seem to have been particularly successful at building support and movement via the internet and blogosphere. Although there are not many formal studies on how people are introduced to fat activism, one study of fat activists looked specifically at how the activists came to fat acceptance through the blogosphere, indicating that the internet has been a significant factor in growing the fat acceptance movement.53 The study found that those interviewed described a supportive online community that the interviewees believed to have a significant positive effect on their reactions to weight-based stigma and willingness to discuss weight stigma with others. Online plus size fashion bloggers have also filled a void for plus size fashion, and this has translated to those who wear plus size clothing meeting up in person for clothing swaps.54 In general, the animal rights movement could learn to use the internet effectively to gain supporters and to build communities among animal rights activists, as the support of a community is important for dealing with the stigma associated with social movements.

This success could be due to the fat acceptance community’s focus on creating a supportive space for activists. The previously mentioned study found that “participants described three key benefits in belonging to the Fatosphere: empowerment, an increased sense of social connectedness, and a perceived improvement in both mental and physical health and well-being.”55 The study did not extrapolate on what factors of the FA blogging community were believed to have led to these benefits, but the FA community does prioritize support. One fat acceptance workshop encouraged those attending to meet with other fat people in public spaces.56 As previously mentioned, plus size clothing swaps double as events to build social connections. Many in the fat activist community also promote a diversity of voices within fat activism, and are conscious of ‘signal boosting’ other bloggers with a wider variety of experiences.57 Fat activism has also pulled from other social movements in a way that has allied fat positivity with disabled rights and feminism. Perhaps animal activism could make the intersections between animal rights and other social issues like workers’ rights and environmental issues even more apparent and central to the animal rights movement than it already has.58,59

Fat activism differs from animal activism in that it has existed in the mainstream for a much shorter amount of time than animal activism. However, both movements are advocating around issues that have had very little legislation passed already: there is no federal legislation protecting people from discrimination on the basis of body size, and the federal legislation protecting livestock from abuse only minimally protects mammals. In this respect, the movements are quite similar as there is a lot of legislative low hanging fruit. Similarly, both are small in size compared to the general population. Fat activism is a small movement growing in the same society as animal advocacy, making observations of its successes and failures especially relevant for contemporary animal advocates.

  1. “Founded in 1969, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) is a non-profit, all volunteer, civil rights organization dedicated to protecting the rights and quality of life for fat people.” – NAAFA. About Us. 

  2. The 1970s… the Fat Underground formed… they published a brochure, ‘Before You Go on a Diet, Read This.’” – Altman Bruno, B. (2013). The HAES Files: History of the Health at Every Size Movement (Part 2). 

  3. “The early 1990s looked bad for diet programs and products, and good for the anti-dieting movement… in 1990, a small group including members from the Fat Underground, the Fat Feminist Caucus, and NAAFA, formed the Council on Size & Weight Discrimination.” – Altman Bruno, B. (2013). The HAES Files: History of the Health at Every Size Movement (Part 3). 

  4. “The mid 2000s appear to be the pivotal point at which intense concern about the ‘obesity epidemic’ intensified and peaked. Time magazine named 2004 the ‘Year of Obesity.’” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  5. “Cooper has used the term ‘headless fatties’ to describe the common phenomenon… there to provide a visual a vivid literal lesson on what can happen if if people allow themselves to become fat.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  6. “The prevalence of weight/height discrimination increased from 7% in 1995–1996 to 12% in 2004–2006, affecting all population groups but the elderly. This growth is unlikely to be explained by changes in obesity rates.” – Andreyeva, T., Puhl, R. and Brownell, K. (2008). Changes in Perceived Weight Discrimination Among Americans, 1995–1996 Through 2004–2006. Obesity, 16: 1129–1134.  

  7. “Children who are obese are more likely to be bullied, regardless of a number of potential sociodemographic, social, and academic confounders. No protective factors were identified.” – Lumeng, J., Forrest, P., Appugliese, D., Kaciroti, N., Corwyn, R., and Bradley, R. (2010). Weight Status as a Predictor of Being Bullied in Third through Sixth Grades. Pediatrics, 125(6), e1301-e1307. 

  8. “Research to date shows that weight stigmatization can increase vulnerability to a range of adverse outcomes for children and adults, including impaired psychological wellbeing, social isolation, academic consequences, economic inequalities, and unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors that can ultimately reinforce weight gain and impair weight loss efforts.” – Puhl, R., and King, K. (2013). Weight Discrimination and Bullying. Best Practice & Research. Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 27(2), 117-127. Chicago. 

  9. “Bauer and colleagues (2004) conducted focus groups and interviews with overweight middle school students, who reported occasionally receiving negative comments from teachers about their athletic abilities that led them to feel upset and avoid participating in PE classes. In addition, overweight students reported being teased by peers (often during the lunch period at school), and despite school policies prohibiting teasing and harassment, they felt school rules were not enforced (Bauer et al., 2004).” – Puhl, R., and Latner, J. (2007). Stigma, Obesity, and the Health of the Nation’s Children. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 557. 

  10. “For example, Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues (2002) examined the prevalence of weight-based teasing among middle and high school students (N  4,746) and found that 30% of girls and 24% of boys reported weight-based teasing from peers. However, among students with the highest BMI (at or above the 95th percentile), prevalence rates of teasing jumped to 63% of girls and 58% of boys. More recent prospective research assessing 8,210 children documented that 36% of obese boys and 34% of obese girls reported being victims of weight-based teasing and various forms of bullying (Griffiths et al., 2006). – Puhl, R., and Latner, J. (2007). Stigma, Obesity, and the Health of the Nation’s Children. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 557. 

  11. “Fat people are discriminated against in all facets of public life, from employment to education to access to public accomodations” – NAAFA. About Us. 

  12. “Thus, while understanding that there are fat people who suffer impairments due to size, I choose to focus on disability studies in terms of Linton’s use of the concept. While physical impairments surely cause personal struggles, the treatment of fat/disabled people as social pariahs must be addressed first and foremost.” – Herndon, A. (2003). Disparate but Disabled: Fat Embodiment and Disability Studies. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 120-137. 

  13. “I also like the way that the seats ally fatness, disability and accessibility. Firstly it shows that accessibility is more than disability, and secondly, although the relationship between fat and disability can be filled with tension (see my paper from 1997 Can A Fat Woman Call Herself Disabled?) I see them as very much intertwined.” – Cooper, C. (April 22, 2011). Fat Accessibility on São Paulo’s Metro. 

  14. “In a study of 400 doctors, one of every three listed obesity as a condition to which they respond negatively. They ranked it behind only drug addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness. They associated obesity with noncompliance, hostility, dishonesty, and poor hygiene.” – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. Referring to Klein, D., Najman, J., Kohrman, A., and Munro, C. (1982). Patient Characteristics that Elicit Negative Responses from Family Physicians. The Journal of Family Practice. 

  15. “In one study of nurses 31 percent said they would prefer not to care for obese patients.” – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. Referring to Maroney, D., and Golub, S. (1992). Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Obese Persons and Certain Ethnic Groups. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 

  16. “In women with BMI>55 kg/m2, 68% reported that they delayed seeking health care because of their weight, and 83% reported that their weight was a barrier to getting appropriate health care. These figures should be viewed in light of the fact that greater than 90% of the women had health insurance (Table 1). Thus, the reported delay was not a result of lack of available health care.” – Amy, N., Aalborg, A., Lyons, P., and Keranen, L. (2006). Barriers to Routine Gynecological Cancer Screening for White and African-American Obese Women. International Journal of Obesity, 30(1), 147-155. 

  17. “Based on anecdotal evidence – patients who’ve told her that their doctors are often too quick to blame symptoms on weight – Rebecca Puhl, Ph.D., Director of Research and Weight Stigma Initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, suspects that being heavy could further increase the odds of being misdiagnosed.” – Graves, G. (January 21, 2010). The Surprising Reason Why Being Overweight Isn’t Healthy. Health Magazine. 

  18. “Overweight men, who may comprise the most at-risk population, indicate that less time is spent with them than that indicated by average weight men. While this may be alarming, overweight women do not report reductions in care. We propose that not only might physicians respond to them differently, but overweight female patients may also be engaging in denial strategies or compensatory behaviors that assure them of quality care.” – Hebl, M., Xu, J., and Mason, M. (2003). Weighing the Care: Patients’ Perceptions of Physician Care as a Function of Gender and Weight. International Journal of Obesity, 27(2), 269-275. 

  19. “Doctors seeing overweight patients

    • spend less time with the patient
    • engage in less discussion
    • are reluctant to perform preventive health screenings such as pelvic exams, cancer screenings, and mammograms
    • do less intervention”

    – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. 

  20. “Where once the term ‘overweight’ was used predominantly as an adjective to refer to a sign or symptom, by the 2000s it appeared more frequently to describe a condition or a disease in itself with with its own set of symptoms and treatment strategies and requirements for prevention.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  21. “Disgust is often used in educational strategies in the classroom, media reports, and public health campaigns… disgust is associated with moral meaning: it is evoked by the sense that ‘something is wrong’ and that this anomaly must be put to rights. – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  22. “Many years of scientific evidence show that significant weight loss is difficult to achieve and sustain over time. Only a very small percentage of people can achieve this goal. The vast majority cannot.” – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. 

  23. “The prime minister said last month that people who cannot work because they are overweight or suffering addiction problems could be compelled to go for treatment if they wanted to receive benefits.” – Boseley, S. (March 18, 2015). David Cameron’s Plans for Obese Benefit Claimants Questionable, Says the Lancet. The Guardian. 

  24. “The underlying meanings of [The Biggest Loser] are all too clear. Fat people are lonely, unloved, emotionally volatile and sad; they deserve punishing exercise routines and stringent diets as part their weight-loss efforts; they are childish and need a stern authority figure to force them into proper weight-loss habits.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  25. “NAAFA’s message of size acceptance… is often overshadowed by a $49 billion-a-year diet industry that has a vested economic interest in perpetuating discrimination against fat people.” – NAAFA. About Us. 

  26. “Fat activists are overwhelmingly women who adopt a feminist perspective of fat embodiment and who themselves identify as fat.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  27. “Female adolescents who were in the top 10% of the body mass index at age 16 years earned 7.4% less (95% confidence interval, -11% to -3.8%) than their nonobese peers; those in the top 1% earned 11.4% less (-21% to -1.5%). The inverse relationship between obesity at 16 years of age and earnings persisted whether the adolescent female remained obese (-6.4% [-12.3% to -4.7%]) or moved into the nonobese category by age 23 years (-7.5% [-12.5% to -2.4%]). A positive relationship was found between height at age 16 years and earnings at age 23 years for men (but not for women) after controlling for social class and IQ.” – Sargent, J., & Blanchflower, D. (1994). Obesity and Stature in Adolescence and Earnings in Young Adulthood: Analysis of a British Birth Cohort. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 148(7), 681-687. 

  28. “Much of fat activism takes place in the ‘fatosphere’- a loosely interconnected network of online resources aimed at creating a safe space where individuals can counter fat prejudice… a central component of the fatosphere are fashion blogs” – Gurrieri, L., & Cherrier, H. (2013). Queering Beauty: Fatshionistas in the Fatosphere. Qualitative Market Research, 16(3), 276-295. 

  29. “Feminist philosophers have also proven extremely influential in fat scholarship, particularly given the dominance of feminist writers on the body in general.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  30. “Some writers on fat embodiment have contended that fatness should be viewed as a disability, and employed some of the theoretical arguments from critical disability studies to make this claim.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  31. “Michigan has the only state law prohibiting discrimination against overweight people, enacted in 1977. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination practices based on 10 categories, including weight.” – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. 

  32. “the Human Rights Law includes ‘personal appearance’ in its protected categories.” – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. 

  33. “The Human Rights Commission added ‘weight and height’ to the municipal code to ensure that programs, services, and facilities would be accessible.” – Friedman, R. (2008). Weight Bias: The Need for Public Policy. Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University. 

  34. “The municipal [codes for these cities] on discrimination includes ‘height, weight, or physical characteristics’ as protected categories.” – NAAFA. Weight Discrimination Laws. 

  35. “Awaiting action adds ‘physical characteristic’ which means any bodily condition or physical attribute of a person that is a result of birth, injury, disease, or natural biological development, including, without limitation: height; weight; and physical mannerisms beyond the control of the person.”– NAAFA. Weight Discrimination Laws. 

  36. “They planned an action for the following weekend in a trendy shopping district… dressed in campy polyester dresses and feather boas, danced to electronic music… as shoppers passed by, they gave them stickers and flyers and asked, ‘do you think I’m fat?’ One PPPO member was rendered speechless when told ‘move it, fatty’ by a man getting off a streetcar. This experience was catalyst for a piece called ‘Move it, Fatty’ in which the girl gang comes to the rescue.” – Johnston, J., & Taylor, J. (2008). Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Signs, 33(4), 941-966. 

  37. “In addition to cabaret-style shows, PPPO members held fundraisers for fat activism causes, such as… clothing swaps in working-class neighborhoods, where women paid five dollars for a bag of clothes that fit them… PPPO activists… also wanted to create opportunities to resist consumerism.” – Johnston, J., & Taylor, J. (2008). Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Signs, 33(4), 941-966. 

  38. There are many body positive burlesque and dance troupes that intentionally include diverse bodies. These troupes often have connections to the LGBTQ community. 

  39. “Much of fat activism takes place in the ‘fatosphere’- a loosely interconnected network of online resources aimed at creating a safe space where individuals can counter fat prejudice… a central component of the fatosphere are fashion blogs” – Gurrieri, L., & Cherrier, H. (2013). Queering Beauty: Fatshionistas in the Fatosphere. Qualitative Market Research, 16(3), 276-295. 

  40. http://gabifresh.com/ 

  41. http://www.nadiaaboulhosn.com/ 

  42. http://tessmunster.com/ 

  43. “The internet allows fat activists to easily disseminate information about their cause and assists their mobilization for social action… many such blogs include updates of debates in the expert literature on the health effects of obesity or critiques of public health campaigns about obesity or media news reporting.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  44. “For a study published in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine, the Researchers Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, Abby Prestin, and Stephen Kunath analyzed a variety of social-media messages — tweets, Facebook posts, and comments on blogs and forums — that contained words like “obese,” “overweight,” and “fat.” “The most prevalent theme” throughout these messages, they write, “is derogation and stigma against overweight individuals.”” – North, A. (October 3, 2014). Shamed, Flamed, Harassed: What It’s Like To Be Called Fat Online. The New York Times. 

  45. “‘I came across the livejournal community fatshionista. I was stunned. There were these beautiful women, who felt absolutely no shame in being their… fat and fabulous selves. It sounds ridiculous now, but it was absolutely revolutionary to me.’” – Gurrieri, L., & Cherrier, H. (2013). Queering Beauty: Fatshionistas in the Fatosphere. Qualitative Market Research, 16(3), 276-295. 

  46. “Underlying this is a resistance to the notion of the “flattering outfit”, which the fatshionistas consider a form of body shaming and judgement.” – Gurrieri, L., & Cherrier, H. (2013). Queering Beauty: Fatshionistas in the Fatosphere. Qualitative Market Research, 16(3), 276-295. 

  47. NAAFA. Conference. 

  48. “The mission of NAAFA’s End Bullying Now campaign is to empower society with the skills to promote positive relationships, to end bullying and embrace diversity in the world. Our purpose is to promote the message of acceptance and diversity through educational programs that change attitudes and actions of adults and children alike.” – NAAFA Clark County Chapter. End Bullying Now Campaign. 

  49. “The NAAFA-Clark County Chapter is pleased to introduce their Size Savvy Project. This project makes information available to the public regarding business owners and healthcare providers who have made their business or practice welcoming to people of all sizes.” – NAAFA Clark County Chapter. (April 7, 2014). NAAFA-CC Introduces the Size Savvy Project. [Press release]. 

  50. “The comments which Julie Guthman, an academic at the University of California at Santa Cruz, received from students who took her course on the politics of obesity are evidence of the ways in which fat people are negatively viewed by others.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  51. “Despite the course focusing in detail on the skeptical position on the ‘obesity epidemic’… Guthman found that many of the students still articulated the dominant orthodox views that fatness is a negative and pathological state to be avoided at all costs and was evidence of an inability to take responsibility for one’s health and appearance.” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  52. “‘…she gave up on getting leaner and chose to embrace her blubbery self… I think deep down she would have loved to lose some weight.’” – Lupton, D. (2013). Fat (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. 

  53. “Using a gounded theory aproach, we explored the experiences of 44 bloggers within the Fatosphere- an online fat-acceptance community. We investigated participants’ pathways into the Fatosphere, how they responded to and interacted with stigma, and how they described the impact of fat acceptance on their health and well-being… Participants percieved that blogging within the Fatosphere led them to feel more empowered.” – Dickins, Marissa, Samantha L. Thomas, Bri King, Sophie Lewis, and Kate Holland. 2011. The Role of the Fatosphere in Fat Adults’ Responses to Obesity Stigma: A Model of Empowerment Without a Focus on Weight Loss. Qualitative Health Research 21, no. 12: 1679-1691. 

  54. “Plus size fashion blog xoxonettaP and personal image agency Honor You will host the fifth NYC Plus Size Clothing Swap on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 from 6:00PM – 8:30PM at Katra Lounge, 217 Bowery St., NY, NY.” – Plus Size Clothing Swap NYC Event Page. 

  55. Dickins, Marissa, Samantha L. Thomas, Bri King, Sophie Lewis, and Kate Holland. 2011. The Role of the Fatosphere in Fat Adults’ Responses to Obesity Stigma: A Model of Empowerment Without a Focus on Weight Loss. Qualitative Health Research 21, no. 12: 1679-1691. 

  56. Five College Queer Conference, 2013. Workshop on fatphobia within the LGBTQ community. 

  57. “What I can, will and already do is signal boost those activists who are speaking up… I want to promote those who are standing up and speaking out as best I can… I personally prefer to hear the perspectives of people outside the median.” – Kath. (January 11, 2015). The Realities of Fat Activism. 

  58. “The meatpacking industry not only has the highest injury rate, but also has by far the highest rate of serious injury– more than five times the national average, as measured in lost workdays. If you accept the official figures, about 40,000 meatpacking workers are injured on the job every year.” – Schlosser, E. (July 2001). The Chain Never Stops. Mother Jones. 

  59. “About 30% of the world’s total ice-free surface is used not to raise grains, fruits, and vegetables that are directly fed to human beings, but to support the chickens, pigs, and cattle that we eventually eat.” – Walsh, B. (December 16, 2013). The Triple Whopper Environmental Impact of Global Meat Production. Time.