“They didn’t know fat was awesome”: fat activism and fat community in Toronto, Canada

Abstract

My project focuses on fat activism as a direct challenge to the discourses of the so-called “obesity epidemic.” Looking at the embodied experiences of fat activists, including my own, I look at the multiple ways fat activism is carried out in the Toronto area. I situate these experiences of fat activism in two ways. One, I look to examine both individual and group activisms within and against the negative stereotypes of fatness that come from obesity epidemic discourse. Using food, fitness, and fashion, I explore how our experiences as activists work to reinscribe fatness in more positive and celebratory ways. Secondly, I investigate the individualizing discourses of obesity and the loneliness and shame these create for fat individuals. As a response to this, I examine fat community creation as a fat activist project. Within this, I explore counter-discourses of fat activism and how they work both to support fat people and revalue fatness as an embodied experience. Finally, I look at these counter-discourses to investigate issues of inclusion and exclusion within fat community.