Episode 20: Weight Loss Surgery Isn’t Selling Out, But Justifying it by Fat Shaming Is

The fat positive community was shaken up last week when Ashley Nell Tipton, one of our few fat representatives in mainstream entertainment, announced that she had weight loss surgery last month. But the community’s shock and hurt wasn’t for the reason you think.

Sure it smarts to hear that we’re losing one of our tiny threads of representation, but what hurts more is when a representative who built her brand (with the support of her loyal fat fan and customer base) using fat-positive, self-love language turns that self-love around and wields it as a weapon against people who choose to remain fat. This is fat shaming at its most damaging, and we shouldn’t stand for it.

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The music on today’s show is by Starcrusher. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com.

A transcript of this episode can be found here!

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