Fat Is a Social Justice Issue, Too

Abstract

Empirical evidence continues to show that like other historically marginalized groups, fat people experience discrimination in employment, education, the media, politics, interpersonal relationships, and especially health care. Yet, despite the fact that fatphobia in the United States has always been intimately connected to other systems of oppression like sexism, racism, and classism, those of us who identify as critical sociologists so often exclude it from our analyses. We fail to acknowledge that fat is a social justice issue, too. In this article, I argue that fatphobia is a system of oppression worthy of greater theoretical and empirical consideration in humanist sociology. I begin by providing a brief history of the ways fat has been pathologized and medicalized in the United States. I then discuss some of the ways fat is connected with gender, race, and class in particular. Finally, I offer some strategies for how critical sociologists can move forward, including suggestions for engaging in fat activism.