Rad Fatties and 'The Obese':Activism, Fat Studies and Paradigm Shifts in the UK

Charlotte Cooper

What I'm going to do today

•How I got into fat•What I mean by fat activism•How straight obesity research cannot recognise

the richness of (my) fat experience•How Fat Studies and HAES offer a different

paradigm that can•Possible challenges•Some comments about the seminar series

This is how it started…

http://www.obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com/

What fat activism means to me

• Interpretive framework• Citizenship• Structural change great, but not essential• Survival• Wellbeing• Radical potential of hope• Fun• …

Dominant obesity discourse

• Out of touch• Reductionist• Methodologically suspect• Stale model• Abstracts, absents and abjects 'the obese'• Stifles dissent• Utterly ill-equipped to understand me and my kind• Does not contribute to my quality of life as a fat

person, it diminishes it

Shifting the paradigm• Fat people are central as protagonists and producers of

the discourse• Fat people are people with agency, context, community,

resources, etc• Fat people are less likely to be abjected• There is a relationship between activism and scholarship• Fat people are more likely to be regarded as people rather

than objects for intervention• Multi-disciplinary: includes health and medicalisation but

also moves far beyond it• Values fat experience• Critical, celebratory, questioning• …

Possible challenges

• Needs broader/international research networks

• Managing criticism• Bunker mentality, bullying and

demonising• Same old same old• Recognising broader historical and

cultural contexts

Thanks

Charlotte.Cooper@ul.ie

www.obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com

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