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 problem. Most of us aren’t quite sure: Is it really OK to be fat? This book argues that it is.
In Why It’s OK to Be Fat, Rekha Nath convincingly argues conventional views of fatness in Western societies—as a pathology to be fixed or as a moral failing—are ill-conceived. Combining careful empirical investigation with rigorous moral argumentation, this book debunks popular narratives about weight, health, and lifestyle choices that underlie the dominant cultural aversion to fatness. It argues that we should view fatness through the lens of social equality, examining the wide-ranging ways that fat individuals fail to be treated as equals. According to Nath, it is high time that we recognize sizeism—the systematic ways that our society penalizes fat individuals for their size—as a serious injustice, akin to racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Key Features
- The first book-length philosophical exploration of how our society views and treats fatness
- Ideal for undergraduates and a general readership, this book provides an engaging and accessible introduction to thinking about body size from a social justice perspective
- Adds rigor and clarity to the debate over fat acceptance by applying philosophical insights concerning responsibility, justice, and equality
- Critically engages with popular anti-fat narratives
- Synthesizes relevant empirical evidence on weight, health, diet, fitness, and weight stigma.
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
