The body positivity movement began as an intersectional fight for fat liberation. It’s hard to believe that since the 1960s, it hasn’t always looked like this. This article explores the history of fat activism. It looks at the birth of today’s body positivity and how capitalist exploits have pervasively influenced its evolution. Activists and advocates are taking to the streets and raising their voices online in alarm. They argue the movement has transformed from empowering people to combatting climate change to serving the needs of the beauty and fashion industries.
In 1967, fat activists received national headlines when they threw a “fat-in” in New York’s Central Park. This brought about 500 to participate in the march and protest against fatphobia. On World Fat Liberation Day, they burned diet books and marched with signs calling for respect and recognition for fat bodies. The early demonstrations are considered the birth of today’s fat liberation movement. This movement sought to directly combat social stigma around body aesthetics and fatness.
This activism is steeped in the foundations of the Fat Underground, an activist collective created by feminists. Most of these individuals were queer and women of color, taking the movement to the next level. In 1973, the Fat Underground published their “Fat Liberation Manifesto.” It had the audacity to say out loud that fat people are human beings deserving of respect and dignity. The manifesto demanded full civil rights protections for fat people in all areas of life.
The Shift in Body Positivity
Strip away all the commercialism, appropriation, and sad misunderstandings we’ve been through and what do you find when you fast-forward to today? April Hélène-Horton, an advocate and model, argues that modern body positivity often serves the beauty and fashion industries more than it helps individuals. “Body positivity as most people know it is something that’s being given to us as an antidote to feeling bad about yourself,” Hélène-Horton explained. She thinks her phrase has been “hijacked.” It suggests that people can be unapologetic in their self-acceptance without a level of nuance or serious internal work.
Lots of other activists have argued that commercialization has thoroughly co-opted the movement. They believe it has become more focused on helping “thin white women” find a way to normalize their insecurities rather than really advocating for fat people. Tess Royale Clancy emphasizes, “A fat body becomes political the minute that it stops apologising for itself and experiences joy.” Clancy co-founded Fat Muses, a life-drawing class aimed at celebrating fat bodies through art, and Radically Soft, a plus-size clothing market.
Lizzo, now an immensely influential force in the music world, echoed these worries in 2021. She explained that body positivity had become about celebrating “medium and small girls,” instead of truly accepting all shapes and sizes. Stephanie Yeboah echoed this sentiment in 2023 by asserting that “the mid-size movement has killed body positivity.”
The Impact of Social Media and Research Findings
As public health researcher Jane Williams from the University of Sydney has written, under body positivity self-acceptance becomes an individual’s responsibility. She believes it does a disservice by not addressing the systemic discrimination experienced by fat people. Clancy adds to this critique by stating, “I think body positivity is a very individualised approach to feeling comfortable in our bodies … [It] doesn’t look at the systemic issues that discriminate against fat people.”
Hélène-Horton and other body positivity activists are demanding we move the body positivity movement back to its roots. They underscore the urgent importance of centering fat joy in this discussion. Hélène-Horton shares her understanding of fat joy: “I get to float in the ocean. I’m very good at floating as it turns out, because I am buoyant! My joy is rooted in wearing my favorite clothes, having a black, fat, femme artsy aesthetic that reflects me, being in and with my fantastic community. She argues that embracing our joy as an act of resistance to what the world expects from us is deeply radical.
The Future of Fat Liberation
The dialogue around body positivity and fat liberation has just begun, and we as advocates must continue to raise the conversation towards a better understanding and systemic change. As activists continue to challenge the co-optation of their original message, they remind society that fat bodies deserve respect and recognition without apology.
Unfortunately, there is still a hormone of thought that considers fat people “subhuman,” as Clancy points out, making advocacy and awareness more necessary than ever. The body positivity movement originally sought to address much more than self-acceptance. It sought to abolish all systems of oppression that target fat people.
