Oh to be Young and Alive in the Age of Body Positivity! Unless…

Since 1996, a non-profit organization called ‘The Body Positive’ has promoted the ideal of body positivity (TheBodyPositive.Org, N.D.). The nineties were not the beginnings of the movement towards diverse body acceptance, however. The 1960s bred the Fat Liberation Movement through the founding of organizations such as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance [NAAFA] (FKA the National Association to Aid Fat Americans) (NAAFA.org, N.D.). As early as the 1930s, Black women were publicly fighting against fat-phobic fear mongering cloaked as scientific data (The Joy Project, 2022). Unlike disability liberation movements, whose actions have led to legal protections, social conversations, and concrete change (albeit still lacking and only after decades of fighting)(American Bar Association, N.D.), fat liberation has not received the same advancements over time. These examples also only account for post-colonial, Western, primarily “American”, histories. Taking this limitation into account, how and why are fat people’s voices being silenced, and their liberation stifled?

It’s in the Things You’re Thinking.

Fatness has been socially internalized, normalized between generations, and morally condemned as generally unacceptable (Drinkwater, 2016). That kind of thinking is difficult to overcome. Fatness has been intentionally and closely associated with the medical field as a means to normalize thin, white, and able bodies as desirable (Strings, 2023). It seems almost automatic, then, to want to avoid something that has been so vehemently associated with risk of illness, death, and unhappiness. Even Artificial Intelligence (AI) is learning that thinness is preferable, to its consumer (Warren, et al., 2025). When we “avoid” fatness, what is it that we are actually doing? What are we telling ourselves? Our communities? The fat people around us?

Living a Fat Positive Life.

Fat-phobia exists all around us, infiltrating our settings, relationships, and behaviors, with impacts far and wide (All About Obesity, 2021). Learning where our own biases exist, where we are getting our social messaging surrounding fatness, and how we can communicate our needs without demonizing fatness, are three steps towards a less fat-phobic mind. Not only can these things transform our relationships to ourselves, but also open our minds to the needs and liberation of fat people, far beyond the boundaries of social norms.

When I think about my own internalized fat-phobia, I am called to question the way that I have moved about the world, accepting the isolation of fat people. For example, as I shop for clothing and underwear at a store, why do I not question the general absence of sizes greater than XXL or 2XL? When I go to the doctor’s office, and struggle to fit on the examination table, why do I not question how fat people are supposed to access the room? Have I been presuming and perpetuating that fat people do not deserve to exist in spaces that are not specifically designed to accommodate them?

These are the difficult types of questions that fat people need us to ask ourselves in order to dismantle the chain of fat-phobia, which links body positivity and exclusionary activism. Without conscious action and reflection, fat-phobia will continue to thrive on various levels (Quevedo, 2024).

*Be sure to check out each of the citation links for more resources/exercises!

Beginning your journey to thinking and acting towards a less fat-phobic world doesn’t have to happen alone. Inquire today about how life coaching with Taylor Life Coaching can help you set goals, strategize, and connect to community resources by emailing [email protected]!