1st Edition

Why It’s OK to Be Fat

By Rekha Nath Copyright 2024
294 Pages
by Routledge

294 Pages
by Routledge

294 Pages
by Routledge

Officially, Western societies are waging a war on obesity. Unofficially, we are waging a war on fat people. Anti-fat sentiment is pervasive, and fat people suffer a host of harms as a result: workforce discrimination, inferior medical care, relentless teasing, and internalized shame. A significant proportion of the population endures such harms. Yet, that is not typically regarded as a serious... Read more

1. Introduction

2. Against Fat Stigma

3. Weight and Health

4. Is it Wrong to be Fat?

5. Weakness of Will

6. Ignorance, Gluttony, and Pride

7. Size-based Oppression

8. What does Fat Acceptance Entail?

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Biography

Rekha Nath is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama, USA. She works in moral and political philosophy.

"If you recognize Da'Vine Joy Randolph’s Golden Globe award as a cultural milestone—but especially if you don’t—you need to read this book. Nath wields the tools of political and moral philosophy to analyze the goals of both the body positivity and fat acceptance movements. Her book offers revelatory and insightful analyses of the cultural ideologies that these social movements address. Why It’s OK to Be Fat shows readers the extent to which our lives have been shaped by pernicious attitudes and beliefs about fatness, and what we need to do about it. Having grown up in a family in which Yom Kippur marked the day one was supposed to start dieting, I can appreciate how Nath’s book identifies the way ideas about body size transform knowledge and meaning."Laurie J. Shrage, Florida International University, USA