History of the fat acceptance movement

The history of the fat acceptance movement dates back to 1967 when 500 people met in New York's Central Park to protest against anti-fat bias. Author Charlotte Cooper has argued that the history of the fat activist movement is best understood in waves, similar to the feminist movement, with which she believes it is closely tied. Cooper believes that fat activists have suffered similar waves of activism followed by burnout, with activists in a following wave often unaware of the history of the movement, resulting in a lack of continuity.^[1]

First wave

First wave activities consisted of isolated activists drawing attention to the dominant model of obesity and challenging it as only one of a number of possible models.

There are many possible reasons for the development of weight discrimination.^[2] During the early part of the 20th century, obesity was seen as detrimental to the community, by means of decreasing human efficiency, and that obese people interfere with labor productivity in the coastal areas of the United States.^[3] This kind of history and visibility gave rise to the fat acceptance movement which originated in the late 1960s, although its grassroots nature makes it difficult to precisely chart its milestones. Like other social movements from this time period, the fat acceptance movement, initially known as "Fat Pride", "Fat Power", or "Fat Liberation", often consisted of people acting in an impromptu fashion. A "fat-in" was staged in New York's Central Park in 1967.^[4] Called by radio personality Steve Post, the "Fat-in" consisted of a group of 500 people eating, carrying signs and photographs of Sophia Loren (an actress famous for her figure), and burning diet books.^[5]

The first organisation for fat people and their supporters, originally named the 'National Association to Aid Fat Americans' and currently called NAAFA ('National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance'), was founded in America, in 1969, by Bill Fabrey in response to discrimination against his wife. He primarily intended it to campaign for fat rights, however a reporter attending the 2001 NAAFA conference notes that few attendees were active in fat rights politics and that most women came to shop for fashion, wear it on the conference catwalk or to meet a potential partner.^[6] Fabrey currently works with the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, specialising in the history of the size acceptance movement.^[7]

In 1973 the feminist group The Fat Underground was formed. It began as a radical chapter of NAAFA and spun off to become independent when NAAFA expressed concerns about its promotion of a stronger activist philosophy.^[8] The FU were inspired by and, in some cases, members of the Radical Therapy Collective, a feminist group that believed that many psychological problems were caused by oppressive social institutions and practices. Founded by Sara Fishman (then Sara Aldebaran) and Judy Freespirit, the Fat Underground took issue with what they saw as a growing bias against obesity in the scientific community. They coined the saying, "a diet is a cure that doesn't work, for a disease that doesn't exist".^[9] Shortly afterwards, Fishman moved to Connecticut, where, along with Karen Scott-Jones, she founded the New Haven Fat Liberation Front, an organization similar to the Fat Underground in its scope and focus. In 1983, the two groups collaborated to publish a seminal book in the field of fat activism, Shadow on a Tightrope.^[10] The book collected several fat activist position papers initially distributed by the Fat Underground, as well as poems and essays from other writers.

In 1979 Carole Shaw coined the term Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) and launches a fashion and lifestyle magazine of the same name aimed at plus-sized women.^[11] The original print magazine closed in the late 1990s but the term BBW has become widely used to refer to any fat woman.

Other first wave activities included the productions of zines such as Figure 8 and Fat!So?, by Marilyn Wann which later became a book of the same name.

Second wave

In the second wave, the fat acceptance movement became more widespread in the USA and started to spread to other countries. Ideas from the movement began to appear in the mainstream. Publishers became more willing to publish fat acceptance themed literature.

By the 1990s, input from the fat acceptance movement began to be incorporated into research papers by some members of the medical professions such as new anti-dieting programs and models of obesity management.^[12]

The 1980s witnessed an increase in activist organizations, publications, and conferences. Some of the most influential books within the fat acceptance movement during this period were Don't Diet (1988) by Dale Atrens, Fat!So? Because You Don’t Have To Apologize For Your Size (1998) by Marilyn Wann, Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination (2000) by Sondra Solovay and New Zealand's Largely Happy: Changing your Mind about Your Body (2009) by Lynda Finn.

This wave also saw the greatest influence of the 'fatosphere', as fat activists renamed the blogging community known online as the 'blogoshphere'. Influential blogs included 'Big Fat Blog',^[13] 'The F Word',^[14] in 2009 Kate Harding of the blog 'Shapely Prose' and Marianne Kirby of 'Fatshionista' compiled themes from the fat activist bloggers into a book entitled Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere.^[15]

Organisations began holding conferences and conventions, including: "NAAFA",^[16] the "Association for Size Diversity and Health",^[17] the "No Lose Annual Conference",^[18] and "FatGirl Speaks".^[19]

In 1989 a group of people including actress Anne Zamberlan formed the first French organisation for fat acceptance, Allegro fortissimo.^[20] With a general idea that French women simply didn't get fat, although the fat acceptance movement was well underway in America and the UK at this time, it was a totally new concept in France. Its approach to fighting for fat rights was also uniquely French; whilst fighting against discrimination and working to enable fat people to improve their self-esteem through activities like fashion shows, the group also takes a pro-acceptance not pro-obesity stance.^[21] Other French groups such as the Groupe de Reflexion sur l'Obesite et les Surpoids (GROS) or, in English, 'Obesity and Overweight Reflection Group' (Fat), have since formed, as well as many Internet sites such as Vive les rondes! or 'Long Live the Plump'.

Third wave

The fat acceptance movement has seen a diversification of projects during the third wave. In 2004 a Puerto Rican woman working as a squasher for fat fetishists under the name Queen Raqui started a newsletter for plus-sized people; it grew into LargeInCharge, an online magazine with a million hits a month and 1160 Facebook fans.^[22] In 2008 the organization expanded to include a radio show via blogtalkradio and in 2010 a television show via YouTube.

The individual blogs of the second wave have mainly been overtaken by larger scale social networking sites such as PeopleOfSize.com,^[23] whilst several websites have sprung up to help connect fat people with fat-friendly service providers and products, such as fatshionista.^[24] Size discrimination has been increasingly addressed in the arts, as well. Performance art groups such as The Padded Lilies and Heather MacAllister's Big Burlesque troupe and its touring show the Fat Bottom Revue, among others, intentionally feature fat people in their shows.

See also

Fat acceptance movement

References