Why Fat is a Feminist Issue

The proposition that fat is a feminist issue is almost an axiom within the feminist literature. And yet, different feminist
scholars see fat as a feminist issue for radically different reasons. An analysis of mainly U.S. research suggests that for
some, fat is a symptom of underlying distress and compulsive eating as a coping mechanism for this gendered anguish. For others,
higher rates of “obesity” among poor women and women of color is a scandalous form of environmental injustice necessitating
policy interventions to combat obesity in these populations. Others have argued that fat is a feminist issue because the fear
of being or becoming fat tyrannizes average-size and relatively thin women, limiting their quality of life and often leading
to eating disorders. In contrast, Fikkan and Rothblum (2011) argue that fat is a feminist issue because fat women are subjugated to bias, discrimination and abuse precisely because
they are fat women. Unlike other approaches, they put actual fat women at the heart of their analysis, comparing their experience
to that of both thin women and to fat men. They rightly signal the importance of examining how the social experiences of fat
people vary by sex, social class, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation, among other factors. While emphasizing the importance
of their perspective, this article advocates that this line of feminist analysis be pushed even further.