Fat Activism

Fat Activism PDF Author: Charlotte Cooper
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910849019
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
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"

Fat Activism

Fat Activism PDF Author: Charlotte Cooper
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910849019
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book

Book Description
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"

Being Fat

Being Fat PDF Author: Jenny Ellison
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487523475
Category : Body weight
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
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.

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat PDF Author: Aubrey Gordon
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807041300
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
From the creator of Your Fat Friend and co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast, an explosive indictment of the systemic and cultural bias facing plus-size people. Anti-fatness is everywhere. In What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat, Aubrey Gordon unearths the cultural attitudes and social systems that have led to people being denied basic needs because they are fat and calls for social justice movements to be inclusive of plus-sized people’s experiences. Unlike the recent wave of memoirs and quasi self-help books that encourage readers to love and accept themselves, Gordon pushes the discussion further towards authentic fat activism, which includes ending legal weight discrimination, giving equal access to health care for large people, increased access to public spaces, and ending anti-fat violence. As she argues, “I did not come to body positivity for self-esteem. I came to it for social justice.” By sharing her experiences as well as those of others—from smaller fat to very fat people—she concludes that to be fat in our society is to be seen as an undeniable failure, unlovable, unforgivable, and morally condemnable. Fatness is an open invitation for others to express disgust, fear, and insidious concern. To be fat is to be denied humanity and empathy. Studies show that fat survivors of sexual assault are less likely to be believed and less likely than their thin counterparts to report various crimes; 27% of very fat women and 13% of very fat men attempt suicide; over 50% of doctors describe their fat patients as “awkward, unattractive, ugly and noncompliant”; and in 48 states, it’s legal—even routine—to deny employment because of an applicant’s size. Advancing fat justice and changing prejudicial structures and attitudes will require work from all people. What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat is a crucial tool to create a tectonic shift in the way we see, talk about, and treat our bodies, fat and thin alike.

Fat Tactics

Fat Tactics PDF Author: Erec Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781498531184
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
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.

Female Bodies on the American Stage

Female Bodies on the American Stage PDF Author: J. Mobley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137428945
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The fat female body is a unique construction in American culture that has been understood in various ways during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Analyzing post-WWII stage and screen performances, Mobley argues that the fat actress's body signals myriad cultural assumptions and suggests new ways of reading the body in performance.

Body Love

Body Love PDF Author: Allison Tunis
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781523352777
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Body Love: A Fat Activism Colouring Book is a book that combines art therapy, the current trend for adult colouring books, and the growing Body Positivity movement. Body Positivity and Fat Activism are based on the notion that respect for other people should not be given out based on perceived notions of health, outdated standards of beauty, or any other aesthetic considerations of someone's body. Everyone deserves respect. This colouring book features icons and activists from the Body Positivity movement and shows the talent, beauty, and overall fabulousness of fat bodies and the souls. A portion of the profits from this book go to each of the personalities represented, or will be donated on their behalf to the Canadian Mental Health Organization.

The Politics of Size

The Politics of Size PDF Author: Ragen Chastain
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
This book presents an unprecedented opportunity for people to hear from a simultaneously ostracized, ridiculed, and ignored group: fat Americans. Find out how the members of this very diverse group of people describe their actual lived experiences, quality of life, hopes and dreams, and demands. Our society is body-size obsessed. The result? An environment where "fat people" are consistently shunned and discussed disparagingly behind their backs. Although fat people typically bear the brunt of the institutionalized oppression around being oversized, pervasive closeminded attitudes about body size in America affect everyone of all sizes—from people who are shamed for being too thin to those whose lives revolve around the fear of becoming fat. This book talks about a topic that is important to all readers, regardless of their physical size, providing an anthology of first-person accounts of what it's like to be part of the fat-acceptance movement and on the front lines of activism in the "war on obesity." The Politics of Size: Perspectives from the Fat Acceptance Movement supplies a frank discussion of the issues surrounding being fat and the associated health concerns—both physical and mental—and reframes the discussion about obesity from a medical issue to a social one. The essays serve to correct misinformation about obesity and fat people that is commonly accepted by the general public, such as the idea that "fat" and "healthy" are mutually exclusive. Subject matter covered includes fat-friendly workplace policies; fat dating experiences; and the intersections of being fat and also a person of color, a person with disabilities, a transgender person, or a member of another sub-group of society.

The Fat Studies Reader

The Fat Studies Reader PDF Author: Esther Rothblum
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 081477640X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology Winner of the 2010 Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Edited Volume in Women’s Studies from the Popular Culture Association A milestone anthology of fifty-three voices on the burgeoning scholarly movement—fat studies We have all seen the segments on television news shows: A fat person walking on the sidewalk, her face out of frame so she can't be identified, as some disconcerting findings about the "obesity epidemic" stalking the nation are read by a disembodied voice. And we have seen the movies—their obvious lack of large leading actors silently speaking volumes. From the government, health industry, diet industry, news media, and popular culture we hear that we should all be focused on our weight. But is this national obsession with weight and thinness good for us? Or is it just another form of prejudice—one with especially dire consequences for many already disenfranchised groups? For decades a growing cadre of scholars has been examining the role of body weight in society, critiquing the underlying assumptions, prejudices, and effects of how people perceive and relate to fatness. This burgeoning movement, known as fat studies, includes scholars from every field, as well as activists, artists, and intellectuals. The Fat Studies Reader is a milestone achievement, bringing together fifty-three diverse voices to explore a wide range of topics related to body weight. From the historical construction of fatness to public health policy, from job discrimination to social class disparities, from chick-lit to airline seats, this collection covers it all. Edited by two leaders in the field, The Fat Studies Reader is an invaluable resource that provides a historical overview of fat studies, an in-depth examination of the movement’s fundamental concerns, and an up-to-date look at its innovative research.

Dietland

Dietland PDF Author: Sarai Walker
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 054437343X
Category : FICTION
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
A fresh and provocative debut novel about a reclusive young woman saving up for weight loss surgery when she gets drawn into a shadowy feminist guerilla group called "Jennifer"--equal parts Bridget Jones's Diary and Fight Club

Fat Oppression Around the World

Fat Oppression Around the World PDF Author: Ariane Prohaska
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780367746650
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book offers cutting-edge, intersectional, and interdisciplinary research in the blossoming field of fat studies. The aim is to generate discussion about the complexity of fat oppression as a phenomenon and social force that permeates interactions both at an institutional and interpersonal level, impacting the lived experiences of fat people. Each chapter has been carefully selected to create a space to showcase the engaging intersectional and interdisciplinary fat studies scholarship that is taking place globally. This engaging book will take the reader around the world by examining: weight-loss classes in Ireland, Jamaican women's views of health and fatness, the difficulties of immigrating while fat to New Zealand, fat activism in Finnish media, being fat and pregnant in Australia, a girls' camp in the United States, and the experiences of fat hatred felt by queer fat women in Canada. This book will inspire fat-studies scholars globally to incorporate intersectional approaches and qualitative methods in future work. The chapters in this book were originally published in Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society.