Liberation from thinness culture: Motivations for joining fat acceptance movements

ABSTRACT

Thinness culture stigmatizes people of size. Both interpersonal and systemic discrimination are daily experiences for fat people. However, some people of size find acceptance in varieties of fat acceptance movements (FAMs), human rights movements seeking to eliminate fat discrimination. Modern FAMs are less radical than early versions, and emphasize aesthetics, body positivity, and everyday talk, rather than systemic activism. The current article seeks to understand motivations for joining FAMs because involvement in these movements enables people of size to resist toxic thin culture messages while finding others with similar experiences, needs, and identities. We conducted surveys with 217 fat-identifying individuals to ask their reasons for joining FAMs. Findings indicate participants joined for both intra/interpersonal reasons, such as finding self-love and supportive communities, and systemic reasons, such as fighting for social justice and equality for people of size. As a result of findings, we suggest FAMs adopt a both/and approach to fat stigma: continuing to support members’ intra/interpersonal needs and systemically fighting size discrimination in thinness cultures.

KEYWORDS:

• Thinness culture
• fat acceptance movements
• size discrimination
• body positivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katie Margavio Striley

Katie Margavio Striley is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. Her primary research interest is social rejection. Through a critical/interpretive lens, her research examines the discursive construction of exclusive realities and systems of privilege, the myriad ways communication enables, constrains, resists, and transforms our sense of the possible, and the transformative potential of communication to make better social worlds.

Sophia Hutchens

Sophia Hutchens is an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. Her experience working in public history has cemented her interest in the influence of social movements on personal identity. As a queer, fat identifying person, Sophia is personally invested in exploring and uplifting the understudied experiences of members of marginalized identities.