Living Disability Justice and Fat Liberation in Such a Time As This

I came to Health at Every Size (then body positivity, now fat liberation) in early 2013. I was in my first year of grad school – one of those rare creatures that lived on campus. I didn’t realize it initially, but listening to the body stories of my roommate – also a Black grad student – began to radicalize me. Diet and weight loss cultures sounded like nonsense. I didn’t have the language for it at the time, but I viscerally felt the harm they were causing – in her and in myself.

When I started Fat Acceptance Month (FAM) in January 2019, I envisioned it contributing to a larger paradigm shift. I wanted as many people as possible to benefit from the mental reset that had changed my life and politics. I wanted a better world and FAM was my way of reimagining its future.

Of course, the world was significantly different then, just seven years ago. Fat activism was different. Disability Rights and Justice activisms were different. And deservedly so.

But as the systems that choke us evolve, pivot, and expand (to excess), it has become increasingly clear: so must we.

Anyone paying attention has observed the rewinding of progress. Even former Vice President Kamala Harris, fairly center-left, declared that “we are not going back.” From trad wife content and DEI rollbacks to the apparent return (with a vengeance) of both heroin chic and the r-word, we are being reeled back in – to an environment more comfortable for the most powerful. Much of our modern world is steeped in centuries of colonization, imperialism, capitalism, and white cisheteropatriarchy. And, now more than ever, they don’t want us to forget it.

So how do we stand up and fight back? How do we practice the discipline of hope?

I believe that the linchpin of liberation movements is body autonomy. You can’t have abortion and reproductive rights, trans rights, intersex rights, workers’ rights – and indeed disability justice and fat liberation, among others – without an inherent human right to the very vessels that allow us to experience life. We resist the rise of authoritarian movements by centering autonomy (which is separate from individualism).

However, in my almost 20 years of experience as an activist (community educator), I find most movement work lacking in its understanding of both disability rights/justice and fat liberation.

Renowned poet, singer, musician, and author Gil Scott-Heron famously said, “The revolution will not be televised.” Most people interpret his declaration to mean that The Powers That Be won’t allow it to be properly documented. That has certainly proven to be true in all the awful ways. However, he stated that his meaning was actually about the fact that revolution begins in the mind, with an idea. When your mind changes, your values and politics change, your words change, your actions change. And, in time, the world too changes.

So I call on you to make a change (or, perhaps, build on your progress). This is about more than planning events that require masking (which you should be doing!) or advocating for larger seats on planes (which you should also be doing!).

If you’re reading this, you’re already off to a good start. But changing your mind almost always means challenging your assumptions – the ideas you already have, absorbed from a society that hates both disabled people and fat people. It requires digging deep. What beliefs do you continue to hold on to? Perhaps you think that, in an ongoing pandemic, the most vulnerable just have to fend for ourselves. Or maybe you believe that it’s still inherently good for larger-bodied people to intentionally lose weight.

Following the right activists and influencers, reading the right books, watching the right documentaries, joining the right groups won’t allow our movements to evolve, pivot, and expand if we’re not actually internalizing the new, challenging information we’re introduced to. It requires radical honesty: about our fears, our prejudices, our privilege (where applicable), our self-hate (where applicable), our ignorance. This is the work. It is hard, painful, but it is the only way that we all truly get free.

I cannot attest to the changing of the world just yet, but this is my testimony. One day, near the end of 2012, I had an idea. That idea led me to a Facebook group. That group introduced more ideas. My values and politics began to change. How I spoke, how and what I taught shifted. 90s R&B girl group En Vogue said it best: “Free your mind and the rest will follow.”

Denarii Grace (she/they – mix it up!) is a multi-hyphenate writer and editor, singer, and long-time activist. Founder of Fat Acceptance Month, they’ve been an editor with Rooted in Rights since May 2022. She can be found on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram @writersdelite.

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