Fat Lip Readers Theatre: A recollection in two voices

ABSTRACT

Fat Lip Readers Theatre (1981–1999) was a collective of fat women from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their mission was exposing discrimination in our fat-phobic society and offering an alternative paradigm by using theater to present stories of their lives with a fat feminist political agenda. They wrote, spoke, sang, and danced on stages far and wide. Utilizing a Q&A format, Laura Bock and Carol Squires share their experiences in Fat Lip Readers Theatre, their personal journeys, and the challenges the group faced as they struggled to do the work and address issues of diversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Fat Lip Readers Theatre
• fat politics
• feminist theater
• Bay Area political theater
• body positivity
• fat shaming
• size acceptance

Acknowledgments

First, thank you to all the incredible women who have been a part of Fat Lip over the many years. You generously shared a part of yourself in the service of destroying fat hatred and spreading body liberation. Second, a very grateful thank you to Serene Vannoy, our wonderful copyeditor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Bock

Laura Bock is 73, a native San Franciscan, a lesbian, feminist, and cofounder of Fat Lip Readers Theatre. She’s been active in movements dear to her heart: fat politics, peace and justice, and disability rights. She is author of Red Diaper Daughter: Three Generations of Rebels and Revolutionaries and was cochair of “2010: A Year Celebrating Bay Area Lesbians with Disabilities.”

Carol Squires

Carol Squires is a Midwest-born baby boomer. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Photography and in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. After graduation she worked as a portrait photographer for a few years in her hometown. Then in 1981 her life took an exciting turn when she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and never looked back. Quickly she found herself drawn to the Bay Area fat community and was introduced to the radical concept of loving her fat body. The once shy fat girl soon found herself on stage with Fat Lip Readers Theatre and later Big Moves, a size-diverse dance troupe.