Feminist Fat Acceptance Movement

Feminist and Fat Acceptance Movement

Women involved in fat activist movements in Canada emerged as a response to anti-fat narratives in 1950s (Afful, & Ricciardelli, 2015). Other social justice movements such as feminist, gay and African American civil rights movements influenced the feminist fat acceptance group (Afful, & Ricciardelli, 2015). This movement critics and challenges the dominant discourse of visual gender representation and the normative notion of body image (Afful, & Ricciardelli, 2015). The mission of this movement was in the beginning to change the negative perception around fat women in the Canadian context and to raise women self-image and self-esteem (Cooper, 1998). However, later (1973) this movement concentrate its efforts

If fat women loss weight they will be “normal” women, and then will be part of the society (Kirkland, 2008). However, the feminist acceptance movement attempts to disrupt body-normalized standards and claims gender inclusion. By doing this, the feminist fat acceptance group has been questioned and criticised because of its nature. For instance, many discussions have been around the following questions: Can fat women claim justice? How would large bodies make arguments for rights? Is resistance to the experience about fatness possible? What are the civil right protections of fat

Personal choice or individual responsibility is key to political and economic approaches as it suggests weakness, blame and inadequate Canadian government efforts (Mello, 2008). The dominant Canadian political ideology about personal choice (fatness) is the notion that the government provides individual freedom to “make wrong choices”. Aligning this idea with neoliberalism, fat individuals make choices within the market and accept responsibility for consequences (Mello, 2008). It means fatness is caused by the irresponsibility of individuals and could be avoided by making healthy life