ABOUT THIS BOOK

An expansive, grassroots exploration into fat activism.

Charlotte Cooper, a fat activist with over 25 years’ experience, lifts the lid on the previously unexplored social movement of fat activism. Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement allows readers an inside view into the lives and politics of fat people on their own terms. Fat activism, Cooper argues, is not just a response to obesity discourse, but a social movement in its own right. Delving into the movement’s methodology and historical roots, Cooper shows how fat activism is an undeniably feminist and queer phenomenon.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Charlotte Cooper is a psychotherapist, artist, and fat activist with around 30 years of experience. She is the author of Fat Activist Vernacular and Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size. She is also a founding proponent of Fat Studies.

REVIEWS

Charlotte Cooper’s fierce new book Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement should be required reading for scholars and activists. Cooper draws on extensive interviews with fat activists to render a trenchant analysis of our field of motion. She takes a penetrating look at activist efforts and self-understandings, eschewing easy praise in favor of discernment that ultimately promises to invigorate the movement.

Charlotte Cooper is once again in the vanguard of radical social change with this book about fat activism. She has captured the history of the fat rights movements, interviewed fat activists, and demonstrated the extensive and exciting breadth of fat activism in a global setting. Fat activism is often portrayed as ineffective when in fact its lack of conformity and interdisciplinarity can serve as a model for other social movements.

For any civil rights movement to succeed, it must know its history; to build on its strengths and learn from its mistakes. With the ubiquity of the Internet, the historical knowledge and record of activism can be rewritten with 140 characters. That is one of the many reasons that Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement is important. Anyone interested in the epistemology, ontology, and methodology, (not to mention history) of fat activism should make this a central text of their library.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Undoing

2. Doing

3. Locating

4. Travelling

5. Accessing

6. Queering

Bibliography

Index