As a plus size woman in a culture that promotes only one kind of body and only one kind of lifestyle as acceptable, I am very aware of how fat bodies are viewed in our culture. On a daily basis I encounter anti-fat attitudes, experience or witness bullying of people based solely on their size and am well aware of the different ways in which fat people face discrimination in various settings (from education to employment to healthcare). You only have to look at the comments section on a positive article about a fat person within the mainstream media to see these anti-fat attitudes in practice.
I was at uni when I first started looking at body acceptance and self love, and when I first became comfortable with identifying myself as being fat. Not “curvy”, not round, but fat. In the course of my studies I was looking at articles written about being a fat person, rejecting the negative connotations that we are taught to associate with the word fat and seeing what was out there in terms of not just body positivity but fat positivity. Fast forward a few years and one degree, and this is still something I am interested in because I’m still fat and the attitudes that people have towards fat people haven’t changed for the positive.
I’ve been talking to Cat Pausé (who you might know as the fat positive activist behind Friend of Marilyn) about the upcoming conference Fat Studies: Identity, Agency and Embodiment, which is on 29-30 June 2016 here in New Zealand, and I was really excited to hear that some amazing people will be there to speak.
Substantia Jones is one of the keynotes speakers at the Fat Studies: Identity, Agency and Embodiment conference. I became particularly interested in Substantia’s work The Adipositivity Project while I was in the final year of my photography degree – she photographs people in all of their gloriousness, which I think is extremely important because it’s not very often that fat bodies are shown in a positive light. It’s not often our bodies are celebrated and shown as beautiful (and you can disagree with me if you like, but I think that all bodies are beautiful in some way, regardless of shape and size) if they’re outside what beauty standards deem as acceptable or worthy.
There are 18 amazing speakers and two great keynotes presenting at this conference (check out the full list here) and if you’re interested the academic discussion around fatness, size as a social justice issue at the intersection of oppression, and critically appraising size oppression as it is manifested in various societal institutions (medicine, media, education, etc) then this will be a really interesting discussion to follow.
I had planned to head down to Palmerston North to attend the Fat Studies conference, however I’ve got an important appointment on one of the days that the conference will be running, so now instead of travelling down I’ll be following the livestream and attending online. If you’re interested in attending online (which means that you can tune in from anywhere in the world and get access to on demand videos of the presentations after), you can register here.
WIN IT: I have one online registration to the Fat Studies: Identity, Agency and Embodiment conference to give away. All you need to do to get in the draw is leave me a comment below letting me know that you’re interested and where you’re from. Yep, that’s it! The winner will be drawn on Monday 20th June 2016.
Congratulations to our winner Meredith Noble!
I am so interested! I am in Toronto, Canada.
I’ve been eyeing this conference for a while! I am new to the fat studies space and am absolutely fascinated by it. I’m a Canadian living in NYC at the moment 🙂 (Lots of Canadian interest I see!) Thanks for this opportunity!
Congratulations Meredith, you’ve won yourself an online registration! I’ll be in touch by email shortly xM
I’d love to see this online! My friend Kath is presenting and I’d love to support her. I’m in Newcastle, New South Wales.
I would love this opportunity. this needs to be talked about and attitudes need to change and it gives me so much hope to see people willing to step up and do so.
I’m from Auckland
I would definitely be interested. I love the adipositivy project and would love to hear all of these speakers. I’m a kiwi from new Plymouth but I won’t be able to make it to the conference.
Definitely keen! Could be very useful research for a project I have in the works!
(I’m in Auckland) <3
Yes please! I’m from Canada.
I’d definitely be interested! The discussion topics look really interesting. They’re certainly not small topics to take on! I’d look forward to the meaty discussions surrounding them. I’m in Auckland so unfortunately wouldn’t be able to travel down to Palmy, an online ticket would be incredible!
This looks gloriously fascinating and I’m definitely keen on learning and listening to these speakers! It sounds like a fabulous event! This Canadian would love to win!! Knowledge is power!!
This is the first I’ve heard about the conference but as a street style photographer, I’d be interested in hearing from all speakers but particularly Substantia Jones. I am not fat but recently I’ve been thinking about things that I am not but the role I have to play in supporting making the world a more accepting place for all of us in it…
Wow thank you for writing about this Meagan. I didn’t realise so much academic work was being done in this area and I’m so pleased and heartened to see that it is. I would love to attend online since I’m in Auckland and I’m going to bookmark this so I remember it’s on.
I am so keen for this. I am thinking about doing some research into how fatness has been understood and portrayed in the media historically, and being up to date with current thought would be a great help. Was already aware of the conference, but lack the means to attend. I’m from Dunedin.
Hi Kari! If you’re in Dunedin you should definitely come for Substantia’s speaking engagement at the uni! It’s open to public and free to attend. Here’s the event link for more details… https://www.facebook.com/events/719175554890331/
Thanks for sharing Gurleen!
Thanks Gurleen, I found out about Substantia’s talk a couple of days ago and got very excited – will definitely be there. Thanks for mentioning it! If you’re a Dunedin person too, you might be interested in the Body Positive Feminists Dunedin group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/615475295255282/ if you’re not aware of it already 🙂