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Anti-Oppression: Anti-Fatmisia

The word “fat” is not inherently bad... It is a benign descriptor of size. The only negativity the word carries is that which has been socially constructed around it; our aversion is completely learned.



What does fatmisia look like?

Support Resources for Fat People

Informational Resources for Allies

Wondering about the use of "Fatmisia" instead of "Fatphobia?" Check out information about the change HERE.

A note on the scope of this guide:




Fatmisia stems from three incorrect cultural assumptions:

  1. There is, with minimal physical divergence, a "right" or "normal" body type and it is a thin one.
  2. There is an automatic correlation between thinness and physical health (and in turn, that health is an indicator of value).
  3. Fatness or a fat body type is "abnormal" and therefore a (social) disadvantage and/or a health risk.

Fat folks can be agents of fatmisia as well (particularly when acting as representatives of fatmisic systems, such as higher education or the healthcare systemby perpetuating the notion of thin superiority and using it to discriminate against other fat people. For example, a plus-size nurse pracitioner may repeatedly recommend that a fat patient lose weight rather than addressing the patient's actual health concerns.

Anti-Fatmisia is strategies, theories, actions, and practices that challenge and counter fatmisia, inequalities, prejudices, and discrimination based on size.


What does fatmisia look like?

Fatmisic Microaggressions are commonplace verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults in relation to size or fatness. They are structurally based and invoke oppressive systems of size hierarchy. Fatmisic MicroinvalidationsMicroinsultsMicroassaults are specific types of microaggressions.

Note: The prefix “micro” is used because these are invocations of racial hierarchy at the individual level (person to person), where as the "macro" level refers to aggressions committed by structures as a whole (e.g. an organizational policy). "Micro" in no way minimalizes or otherwise evaluates the impact or seriousness of the aggressions.

Further Reading: 

White woman wearing glasses and Ghostbusters t-shirt has a beam of wood running straight through her. Beside her, a white male doctor looking down at his clipboard. Woman: "Doctor! I've been impaled!" Doctor: "Well maybe you'll feel better if you lose some weight."

Body Policing or specifically the policing of fat bodies is a pervasive and often normalized method of controlling bodies that do not conform to the social hierarchy, and it often involves or overlaps with fat-shaming. Body policing as a practice can range from making negative comments ("She's too big to wear a crop top") to humiliating or penalizing fatness (plus-size folks are often required to purchase two seats on an airplane). Even our healthcare systems police fat people's bodies and regularly risks fat people’s health by constantly recommending weight loss no matter a fat patient's actual health concerns. No matter how it occurs, body policing amounts to discrimination and intolerance of bodies deemed inappropriate or unacceptable by a power structure rooted in misogyny and racism that values thinness as both status quo and a pinnacle of health. 

Further reading: 

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Support Resources for Fat People

Community Education & Support

Local & National Support Organizations

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Informational Resources for Allies

Thin Privilege

Post from @yrfatfriend "Thing privilege isn't contingent on 'feeling thin.'"

Thin privilege refers to the unearned benefits that American society and many other societies and cultures accord to thin people. This privilege is rooted in three cultural beliefs: 1) that a "normal" body type is a thin one with some variation but no significant physical divergence, 2) that thinness automatically correlates to physical health (and in turn, that health is an indicator of value), and 3) that fatness or a fat body type is "abnormal" and therefore a (social) disadvantage and health risk. These beliefs or societal models mean that many cultures, including the US, have set up social expectations, structures, cultural mores, and institutions to accommodate thin people by default and that dismiss and/or marginalize the needs and experiences of fat people. 

Thin Fragility

Thin fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of privilege stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as tears, argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate thin-normative equilibrium. (adapted from "White Fragility")

The dominant association between "normal" or "health" with "thinness" allows most thin people to live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from challenging encounters with fatness, fat positivity perspectives, or body types that differ from their own. Within this dominant social environment, thin people come to expect social comfort and a sense of belonging and that their perspective of "normal" is correct by default. When this comfort is disrupted, thin people are often at a loss because they have not had to build skills for constructive engagement with empowered fat people and their social perspectives. They may become defensive, positioning themselves as victims of anti-fatmisic work and co-opting the rhetoric of violence to describe their experiences of being challenged on thin privilege. (adapted from "Christian Fragility")

Being a Supportive Ally


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