Download or read book Fat Rights written by Anna Kirkland and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book You Have the Right to Remain Fat written by Virgie Tovar and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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

Download or read book Fearing the Black Body written by Sabrina Strings and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Being Fat written by Jenny Ellison and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2020-03-26 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Fat in Four Cultures written by Cindi SturtzSreetharan and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Fat Tactics written by Erec Smith and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Fat Studies Reader written by Esther Rothblum and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Fat Activism written by Charlotte Cooper and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-04 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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"

Download or read book Thickening Fat written by May Friedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-30 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thickening Fat: Fat Bodies, Intersectionality, and Social Justice seeks to explore the multiple, variable, and embodied experiences of fat oppression and fat activisms. Moving beyond an analysis of fat oppression as singular, this book will aim to unpack the volatility of fat—the mutability of fat embodiments as they correlate with other embodied subjectivities, and the threshold where fat begins to be reviled, celebrated, or amended. In addition, Thickening Fat explores the full range of intersectional and liminal analyses that push beyond the simple addition of two or more subjectivities, looking instead at the complex alchemy of layered and unstable markers of difference and privilege. Cognizant that the concept of intersectionality has been filled out in a plurality of ways, Thickening Fat poses critical questions around how to render analysis of fatness intersectional and to thicken up intersectionality, where intersectionality is attenuated to the shifting and composite and material dimensions to identity, rather than reduced to an “add difference and stir” approach. The chapters in this collection ask what happens when we operationalize intersectionality in fat scholarship and politics, and we position difference at the centre and start of inquiry.

Download or read book What s Wrong with Fat written by Abigail Saguy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What's Wrong with Fat? examines the social implications of understanding fatness as a medical health risk, disease, and epidemic. Examining the ways in which debates over fatness have developed, Abigail Saguy argues that the obesity crisis literally makes us fat, intensifies negative body image, and justifies weight-based discrimination.

Download or read book Fat Shame written by Amy Erdman Farrell and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A look at how fatness became a cultural stigma in the United States.

Download or read book Intuitive Eating 2nd Edition written by Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D. and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We've all been there-angry with ourselves for overeating, for our lack of willpower, for failing at yet another diet that was supposed to be the last one. But the problem is not you, it's that dieting, with its emphasis on rules and regulations, has stopped you from listening to your body. Written by two prominent nutritionists, Intuitive Eating focuses on nurturing your body rather than starving it, encourages natural weight loss, and helps you find the weight you were meant to be. Learn: *How to reject diet mentality forever *How our three Eating Personalities define our eating difficulties *How to feel your feelings without using food *How to honor hunger and feel fullness *How to follow the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, step-by-step *How to achieve a new and safe relationship with food and, ultimately, your body With much more compassionate, thoughtful advice on satisfying, healthy living, this newly revised edition also includes a chapter on how the Intuitive Eating philosophy can be a safe and effective model on the path to recovery from an eating disorder.

Download or read book Framing Fat written by Samantha Kwan and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-03 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to public health officials, obesity poses significant health risks and has become a modern-day epidemic. A closer look at this so-called epidemic, however, suggests that there are multiple perspectives on the fat body, not all of which view obesity as a health hazard. Alongside public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are advertisers of the fashion-beauty complex, food industry advocates at the Center for Consumer Freedom, and activists at the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Framing Fat takes a bird’s-eye view of how these multiple actors construct the fat body by identifying the messages these groups put forth, particularly where issues of beauty, health, choice and responsibility, and social justice are concerned. Samantha Kwan and Jennifer Graves examine how laypersons respond to these conflicting messages and illustrate the gendered, raced, and classed implications within them. In doing so, they shed light on how dominant ideas about body fat have led to the moral indictment of body nonconformists, essentially “framing” them for their fat bodies.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Critical Obesity Studies written by Michael Gard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-30 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Critical Obesity Studies is an authoritative and challenging guide to the breadth and depth of critical thinking and theory on obesity. Rather than focusing on obesity as a public health crisis to be solved, this reference work offers divergent and radical strategies alongside biomedical and positivist discourses. Comprised of thirty nine original chapters from internationally recognised academics, as well as emerging scholars, the Handbook engages students, academics, researchers and practitioners in contemporary critical scholarship on obesity; encourages engagement of social science and related disciplines in critical thinking and theorising on obesity; enhances critical theoretical and methodological work in the area, highlighting potential gaps as well as strengths; relates critical scholarship to new and evolving areas of obesity-related practices, policies and research. This multidisciplinary and international collection is designed for a broad audience of academics, researchers, students and practitioners within the social and health sciences, including sociology, obesity science, public health, medicine, sports studies, fat studies, psychology, nutrition science, education and disability studies.

Download or read book Fat written by Christopher E. Forth and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2019-06-15 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fat: such a little word evokes big responses. While ‘fat’ describes the size and shape of bodies, our negative reactions to corpulent bodies also depend on something tangible and tactile; as this book argues, there is more to fat than meets the eye. Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life offers a historical reflection on how fat has been perceived and imagined in the West since antiquity. Featuring fascinating historical accounts, philosophical, religious and cultural arguments, including discussions of status, gender and race, the book digs deep into the past for the roots of our current notions and prejudices. Three central themes emerge: how we have perceived and imagined obesity over the centuries; how fat as a substance has elicited disgust and how it evokes perceptions of animality; but also how it has been associated with vitality and fertility. By exploring the complex ways in which fat, fatness and fattening have been perceived over time, this book provides rich insights into the stuff our stereotypes are made of.

Download or read book What We Don t Talk About When We Talk About Fat written by Aubrey Gordon and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Weight Management written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-12-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The primary purpose of fitness and body composition standards in the U.S. Armed Forces has always been to select individuals best suited to the physical demands of military service, based on the assumption that proper body weight and composition supports good health, physical fitness, and appropriate military appearance. The current epidemic of overweight and obesity in the United States affects the military services. The pool of available recruits is reduced because of failure to meet body composition standards for entry into the services and a high percentage of individuals exceeding military weight-for-height standards at the time of entry into the service leave the military before completing their term of enlistment. To aid in developing strategies for prevention and remediation of overweight in military personnel, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command requested the Committee on Military Nutrition Research to review the scientific evidence for: factors that influence body weight, optimal components of a weight loss and weight maintenance program, and the role of gender, age, and ethnicity in weight management.