ABSTRACT
This chapter asks critical questions about the effects of photographic representation for fat activism, which is not always liberating from an intersectional perspective. Beginning with an overview of visual culture analyses in Fat Studies, I provide an in-depth inquiry into two fat activist calendars, separated by almost 35 years – the Seattle Fat Avengers’ Images of Our Flesh: 1983 Calendar for Lesbians Only and Substantia Jones’ The Adipositivity Project 2017 calendar. A comparative analysis of these calendars is valuable for intersectional Fat Studies because it can reveal the pitfalls and the possibilities of deploying photography as a medium to combat fat oppression. Through an examination of the calendars, I argue that radical possibilities exist in fat activist photographic work that endeavours to dislodge the viewer’s identifications based on cultural ideals and their own image of their body by facilitating a look that originates from a position other than the viewer.
