How Do We Feel About Fat?

Update: 2023-03-23

Description

It's time for another community episode! This month, Virginia and Corinne are exploring how we feel about the word fat: Who gets to use it? What if you just don't want to use it? What is the power of reclaiming it? Thank you to everyone who contributed today.

If you want more conversations like this one, please rate and review us in your podcast player! And become a paid Burnt Toast subscriber to get all of Virginia's reporting and bonus subscriber-only episodes.

And don't forget to preorder! Fat Talk: Parenting In the Age of Diet Culture comes out April 25, 2023 from Henry Holt. You can preorder your signed copy from Virginia's favorite independent bookstore, Split Rock Books (they ship anywhere in the US!). Or order it from your independent bookstore, or from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, or Kobo or anywhere else you like to buy books. And! You can now preorder the audio book from Libro.fm or Audible.

Disclaimer: Virginia is a journalist and human with a lot of informed opinions. Virginia is not a nutritionist, therapist, doctor, or any kind of health care provider. The conversation you're about to hear and all of the advice and opinions she gives are just for entertainment, information, and education purposes only. None of this is a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice.

CW: In this episode we do mention some specific weights and sizes. If numbers are triggering to you, you might want to skip this episode.

BUTTER

When Whales Fly

Girlfriend Collective high waist compression leggings

Paloma bra

Superfit Hero

BOOKS

Order any of these from the Burnt Toast Bookshop for 10 percent off if you also preorder (or have already preordered!) Fat Talk! (Just use the code FATTALK at checkout.)

Fat! So? by Marilyn Wann

Shrill by Lindy West

Little Witch Hazel by Phoebe Wahl

OTHER LINKS

Tuesday’s newsletter

SellTradePlus

Our March mailbag episode

Who gets to call themselves fat?

What if you just don't want to use the word fat?

What if you just don’t want to be fat?

I had a huge ribcage

that This American Life episode

CREDITS

The Burnt Toast Podcast is produced and hosted by Virginia Sole-Smith. Follow Virginia on Instagram or Twitter. Burnt Toast transcripts and essays are edited and formatted by Corinne Fay, who runs @SellTradePlus, an Instagram account where you can buy and sell plus size clothing. The Burnt Toast logo is by Deanna Lowe. Our theme music is by Jeff Bailey and Chris Maxwell. Tommy Harron is our audio engineer. Thanks for listening and for supporting independent anti-diet journalism.

Virginia

You're listening to Burnt Toast! This is the podcast about diet culture, fatphobia, parenting and health. I'm Virginia Sole-Smith. I also write the Burnt Toast newsletter.

Corinne

And I'm Corinne Fay. I work on Burnt Toast and run @SellTradePlus, an Instagram account where you can buy and sell plus sized clothing.

Virginia

So you are all very lucky because you are getting two Corinne episodes this month. We had our regular March mailbag episode, and I asked her to join me for today's community episode. Thank you, Corinne!

Corinne

Thanks for having me. The theme of today's episode is, “How do we feel about the word fat?”

Virginia

This is something we've been talking about because, as we're going to get into, there's stuff in the—well I was going to say news, but it doesn't exactly make the news.

Corinne

It’s news for us.

Virginia

It’s news for us. It's not on the evening news. But there's a lot of stuff happening in fat activism circles right now, which got us thinking about this question again. Because it's an evergreen question, right? We've covered it on the newsletter before: Who gets to call themselves fat? What if you just don't want to use the word fat? What if you just don’t want to be fat? And it feels like time to get into these questions again.

So, Corinne, tell us your story. When did you start using the word fat? And specifically, when did you reclaim the word fat for yourself?

Corinne

I have this core memory of reading a teen magazine with one of my friends in middle school. The magazine said something about, like, plus size models or something. And I remember just being like, “But what is plus size?” Like, I don't know what that means and I know that I’m on the edge. And I just remember my friend being like, “Oh my God, Corinne, you are not plus size.”

Virginia

Oh and she thought that was very reassuring.

Corinne

Yeah, and I think also was genuinely like “you're not.” I was probably like a size 12 and plus size models are smaller than that.

Virginia

Yeah in modeling land, as we learned from the midsize queens, thats on the large size for many plus size models.

Corinne

Yeah, I had a huge ribcage.

The other childhood memory I have of fatness is I remember coming across the book <a href="https://www.splitrockbks.com/book/978