Community Church Unitarian Universalist New Orleans, Louisiana and the Unitarian Society of New Haven, Hamden, Connecticut
Issue
Fat people are discriminated against in healthcare, employment, and housing and stigmatized in all areas of life. Fat liberation seeks to end this injustice, which exists at the intersection of racism, sexism, ableism, and capitalism. By studying weight bias, Unitarian Universalists can advocate for the acceptance of all bodies.
Need
The study of weight bias by Unitarian Universalists will emphasize justice and love in the face of stigmatization and discrimination; correct harm done in our denomination and society; and further the cause of bodily acceptance. Despite being a growing conversation in our society, we have not formally studied this topic.
Grounding in Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalists have long advocated for justice in our interconnected world, particularly around anti-racist and feminist issues. Engagement in fat liberation would expand our denominationâs commitment to equality and love, and signal to all people that âthere is no wrong way to have a body.â
Topics for Congregational Study
What is fat liberation? What is anti-fat bias?
How is fat liberation a justice issue?
Why isnât body positivity or even body neutrality enough?
How does fat liberation intersect with anti-racism work?
How does anti-fat bias tie into capitalism?
How does anti-fat bias relate to healthism and ableism?
How does anti-fat bias negatively affect children?
Arenât UUs already inclusive?
Why is this important now?
Possible Congregational/Regional Actions
Educate congregations on fat liberation, including presenting a worship service on fat liberation or showing films about fat liberation, such as My Fat Friend.
Discuss how moralizing food is harmful to both adults and children of all sizes.
Create resources list for furnishings (benches, chairs, etc.), films, liturgy, books, digital resources, etc.
Become an accessible and welcoming physical space (seating, pulpit and chancel, doorways, bathroom stalls, clothing).
Become fat liberationist in documents, programs, and worship (by-laws, worship, Religious Education, potlucks and coffee hour, leadership).
Become vocal in support of fat liberation by spreading the word beyond the congregation (advertise, partner, advocate, integrate).
Present a fat liberation workshop at district meetings.
Advocate for legislative positions that foster fat liberation, including non-discrimination clauses in city and state ordinances.
UU and/or Other Organizations Addressing This Issue
UUA (progressive stack at GA, visual identifiers, UUA President remarks, GA accessibility accountability)
UU Fat Liberation Group
EqUUal Access (table sharing at GA)
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (Tigress Osborn spoke at GA)
Other Endorsing Organizations & Individuals
UU Fat Liberation is a majority fat group of around 150 Unitarian Universalists who have loosely gathered online and in person in the last three years to organize events at General Assembly, including meet-ups, a panel discussion, and a book talk, under the leadership of Rev. Cynthia Landrum and a 10-member steering committee. This group, which is in the process of forming officially, endorses this Study Action and will collaborate on various projects and events if it is approved.
Lindo Bacon, Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight (BenBella Books, 2010)
Lindo Bacon and Lucy Aphramor,Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight (BenBella Books, 2014)
Aubrey Gordon,What We Donât Talk About When We Talk About Fat (Beacon Press, 2020)
Aubrey Gordon,âYou Just Need to Lose Weightâ: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People (Beacon Press, 2023)
Sofie Hagen, Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World that Wants to Shrink You (Fourth Estate, 2019)
Anastasia Kidd, Fat Church:Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation (Pilgrim Press, 2023)
Morales, Grimm, and Ferentini (eds.), Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2021)
J. Nicole Morgan, Fat and Faithful: Learning to Love Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, and Ourselves (Fortress Press, 2018)
Sabrina Strings, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (NYU Press, 2020)
Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Second Edition: 2021) andY our Body Is Not an Apology Workbook: Tools for Living Radical Self-Love (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Workbook Edition: 2021)
Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (Hachette Books, 2016)
Jason Whitesel, Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma (NYU Press, 2014)
I am very interested in this CSAI. Fat discrimination is not addressed, and often accepted under the false assumption that your discrimination is for âhealthâ reasons. I have wanted to do a service at my church about this for a while and would love to share the following video, which I would invite everyone to watch: Rachel Wiley - The Fat Joke
4 Likes
clandrumcsw
(Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum, Commission on Social Witness)
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Thank you for the link! That was a powerful video, and I hadnât seen it before.
Fat phobia is also an intergenerational public health problem. I am a white woman in my 70s and came of age in the '60s. The fat-phobic, misogynistic and white supremacist world of that time created a lifetime struggle with obsessive eating, and searing self-hatred, in me. One of my children is a recovering anorexic.
Thank you for the work on this issue, especially the resources listed. Itâs an area where UUs really have a voice and can be effective, because of our work with Our Whole Lives. No matter which CSAI is chosen, this is important stuff and the natural growth of our values. <3
I think this is issue is especially important right now, with new weight loss drugs fostering a harmful rhetorical environment in the general public of fatness being something like a âsolved problem,â re-asserting old notions of weight being some metric of personal virtue or value, and the implications of how we talk about this issue have wide reaching implications for civility and bodily autonomy, wether weâre talking about the curtailment of reproductive rights, the malignment of neurodivergent individuals, or the respect demanded for gender identity.
The proposed CSAI on âFat Liberation:â avoids the serious health issues associated with obesity. Of course, there are legitimate concerns about stigmatization or discrimination against people who are overweight. But people may be overweight for a whole variety of reasons, some with serious medical implications, some not, with different issues involving diet, in addition to medical conditions such as diabetes.
This is not a matter of âliberationâ but of dealing with all the individual differences in helpful ways, especially issues of health, both mental and physical.
Working on our biases towards fat people does not rely on us knowing whether or not health is a factor in someoneâs size. That is quite literally not our business, one way or the other.
I cannot support this CSAI becuse it does not place a priority on health science. Of course there are issues around discrimination and stigmatization. Calling for âFat Liberationâ is confusing.and does not do justice to the concerns.
Discrimination is wrong. Denying fat people heathcare, job opportunities, housing and dignity is not going to make them healthy. and itâs not going to magically make them thin. And in fact, thin people can be unhealthy.
Taking the time to learn and examine our own biases and assumptions about fatness and fat people, will improve the way we treat fat people in our congregations who, regardless of how they got that way, are here NOW, fat NOW, and worthy of kindness, dignity, welcoming and comfort within our communities, NOW.
Examining the ways we engage with fat individuals and our biases around size will help us to realize the ways that those biases play out at a systemic level.
Fat Phobia kills. It leads to years of unnecessary suffering and disrespect by the medical system, society, and in employment.
When I was an anorexic runner who looked like I jogged off of a Yoplait yogurt commercial, nobody questioned my health. I got called beautiful and accomplished and dedicated to âeating rightâ and âhaving healthy boundaries with foodâ. Even when you could see my bones protruding, I was just âlitheâ and âdelicateâ. Nobody told me or implied that I really needed to see doctors or a dietician, that I was glorifying unhealthy things, that I was ignoring the advice of science or medicine, that I wasnât being a good role model to kids with my eating habits, or that I deserved to become so so very ill because of my food choices and that it was my own fault.
But as a society, those are all âacceptableâ things to think and say to and about fat folks, regardless if the words sound nice and passive and concerned or not. UUs think and say those things, as evidenced. And whether this CSAI is chosen or not, I believe itâs critical that UUs learn to sit in discomfort and examine why those sentiments are seen as socially acceptable, explore the root causes collectively, and determine how we actually want to treat each other and live in love.
Your comment and assumptions seem to reinforce the need for this CSAI. I see no need to put liberation in quotes as it is spelled out in the CSAI.
"Engagement in fat liberation would expand our denominationâs commitment to equality and love, and signal to all people that âthere is no wrong way to have a body.â Discrimination is discrimination and it is antithetical to our values.
I wonder if you have examined your own issues of health, both mental and physical, as much as you wish to police others? This may be an opportunity to explore your own internal biases and assumptions.
