ABSTRACT
Despite being a nascent field, Fat Studies already has an origin story, repeated frequently and providing evidence of strong historical roots. This origin story generally outlines the work of white US fat activists in the 1970s and ’80s who challenged both the sizeism of the feminist movement and the sexism of the early fat acceptance movement. While an important history, its continual reiteration constrains what we mean by and what we imagine as Fat Studies. In particular, it delineates a field that is inherently white, yet it generally does not explore the significance of that whiteness. It excludes the complexities of race and ethnicity, age and (dis)ability. In order to challenge this limiting vision, this paper outlines a different genealogy, one of Black fat activisms, in order to challenge the dominant origin story and to offer at least one other origin story of Fat Studies. The article concludes with a note of caution, however, urging scholars and activists to be wary of setting up any particular group as the sine qua non of “intersectional” fat activism. Instead, I argue, scholars and activists need to connect fat activism to the broader project of ending body oppression wherever it emerges.
