TBR Pile Review: Fat Activism, 2nd Ed., by Charlotte Cooper

Blurb

Charlotte Cooper, a fat activist with more than 30 years experience, lifts the lid on a previously unexplored social movement and offers a fresh perspective on one of the major problems of our times. In her expansive, intelligent grassroots study she: – Reveals details of fat activist methods and approaches – Features extensive accounts of fat activist historical roots going back over four decades – Explores controversies and tensions in the movement – Shows that fat activism is an undeniably feminist and queer phenomenon Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement is a rare instance of fat people speaking about their lives and politics on their own terms. The book is the result of Charlotte’s community-based doctoral research.

My Review

I bought myself this book a while ago and I’ve been slowly reading it and trying to absorb the information. This book grew out of Cooper’s work as a fat activist and her PhD thesis. I found it quite fascinating. A lot of Cooper’s writing resonates with me from a Neurodivergent perspective, a similar aesthetic and rebellious response to people who want to put everyone in neat little boxes. There’s a lot of ideas to be shared between different minority civil rights activists, a lot of cross-over that could be harnessed. Unfortunately, as Cooper found out in organising some of her activism events, different people who should probably be working together won’t because they view one group or another as ‘less respectable’. For instance, the Queer community has a major fatphobia problem and LGTBQIA+ organisations struggle to think outside the ‘healthism box’.

I found the chapters on the history of fat activism interesting and disappointing – humans always disappoint me when they take something that works and let personal squabbles get in the way of changing the world for the better. I appreciate the author’s attempts to include activism from non-Anglophone spheres, and question the dominance of U.S. activists in the story. I also found the interviews with activists fascinating.

This book is fairly academic and is very personal to the author so if you’re looking for an easy read about the history of fat activism then you need to look elsewhere.

I’m recommending this one.