‘Nothing about us without us’: Fat people speak

ABSTRACT

The production of knowledge within the social sciences has contributed both to the oppression and liberation of fat people. In this piece, four fat activists review the role that social science could play in the science of fatness, highlighting key considerations for scholars to keep at the front of their mind if they want to be allies to fat people in this scholarship. We propose a range of qualitative research questions that are ripe for scientific exploration. And we argue that a fat ethic is imperative to any scholar interested in engaging with the study of fatness, the fat body, and the fat experience. We conclude with suggestions for allied scholars who are committed to ethical practice in the study of fatness, and a recognition of the value that a Fat Studies framework may add in this scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• Fat activism
• fat studies
• allyship
• fat ethic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ratnadevi Manokaran

Ratnadevi Manokaran is a fat activist and owner of The Curve Cult & Adevi clothing a plus size fashion label/store that celebrates and empowers women through Body positivity using social media, and have created campaigns like #justwearlah and #womenlikeus to show women that they can be happy no matter what size they wear and they are important. We celebrate diversity and inclusivity in all our work.

Cat Pausé

Cat Pausé is an expert in fat stigma, fat identity, and fat ethics. Her work explores the impact of fat stigma on the health and well-being of fat people, and how fat people negotiate their spoiled identities through social media. She has called for a new fat ethics, acknowledging the role that science has played in the oppression of fat people. Her work appears in many scholarly edited collections and journals, such as the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, Narrative Inquiries in Bioethics, Fat Studies, and Feminist Review. Dr. Pausé hosts the international Fat Studies conference, and a regular Fat Studies MOOO (an online course open to anyone interested in learning more about the discipline). She edited Queering Fat Embodiment (Ashgate, 2014) and the forthcoming International Handbook of Fat Studies (Routledge).

Mäks Roßmöller

Mäks Roβmöller is a true fat tissue enthusiast with a passion for bodies, travelling the world to share knowledge and embodiment, but is based in Berlin, Germany. They are a triple threat to diet culture industry: radical somatics practitioner, systematic antihierarchical therapist in training and artist (interactive multisensory installations about fat tissue, Drag, author). Their research/art centers fat tissue and the fat body in movement as a gateway to an inclusive concept of health. They regularly host sensitization workshops (radical health, nonbinary gender and fat bodies f.e. in therapy) and somatic fat empowerment workshops in Europe and the US called “Refraiming Fat!”. In these four-day workshop series they bring all of their expertise into their very own sensing methods created to reframe, integrate and transform the narratives about fat tissue and the traces diet culture left in our bodies. Currently they are planning a fat queer conference in Berlin, Germany (WOBBLE). When it comes to power dynamics they are queer, nonbinary transgender, had a middleclass upbringing, are mildly invisible disabled, have intense experiences with mental crises, trauma and mourning. They are fat and white with the intent to contradict racism with their actions.

Tara Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir

Tara Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir is a 30 year old social worker and an intersectional fat acceptance activist. She is a founding member and current president of the Icelandic Association for Body Respect. She lives in Reykjavík with her husband.