I always feel a bit strange about referring to myself in the third person, but I can't resist it here because I am over the moon to announce the final details for this talk that I'm giving in Toronto in a couple of weeks.
Ryerson University are hosting the event at the Gladstone Hotel. Following my talk there will be a panel discussion and then a party! ASL interpretation is provided and the venue is wheelchair accessible and supports attendant care. It's free.
Here's what I'm going to be talking about: having conducted an autoethnography of fat activism, I have found that this social movement is more complex than the literature and popular assumptions of it currently presume. In this presentation I will use 'queer' to theorise some of these complexities. I begin by acknowledging that there are many queers in my particular social networks of fat activism because of genealogies of radical lesbian fat feminism in the West. But queer can also be thought of as a series of qualities that expands fat activism. Sharing examples, I will show that a queered social movement is one where a common agenda is not necessary for social change; where being normal and nice is overrated; where sometimes the irrational is a productive course of action; and where it is possible to organise beyond the interests of dominant discourse. Queering fat activism matters because it increases access to social activism, enables people to develop liveable lives in the present, and adds to the well-being of people of all sizes.
The Queerness of Fat Activism with Charlotte Cooper26 June 2012, Doors 6.45pm COME EARLY!
The Gladstone Hotel1214 Queen Street West, TorontoThe Queerness of Fat Activism with Charlotte Cooper: Facebook EventAfterparty:
The Crush Project presents CHAFE Come along if you can, and tell anyone you know who can get to Toronto. Here's what people are already saying about the event:
Charlotte Cooper will blow your mind. if you have the opportunity to see her band Homosexual Death Drive never ever ever miss it. It will do everything for you that you ever needed. I love Charlotte Cooper in ways and magnitudes that I can never express. (Allyson Mitchell)
NO REALLY I DON'T THINK PEOPLE EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW INCREDIBLE THIS IS GOING TO BE. (Chelsey Lichtawoman)
The other thing is, isn't the poster for the event fantastic! It's designed by Sam Abel, you can see more of her work at
Saucy Nüdels. Would you like to see a copy of this poster on your wall, or on a noticeboard, or all over town? Download it right now!
The Queerness of Fat Activism with Charlotte Cooper – poster by Sam Abel (.pdf, 4mb)
Many thanks to the School of Disability Studies, the School of Social Work, the Department of Psychology and Critical Dietetics at Ryerson, as well as the Irish Social Sciences Platform for making this happen. Thanks also to the fat and queer activists of Toronto who have created a space in which an event like this can happen.
Also, earlier this week I made a list of introductory reading about fat and queer activism for anyone that's interested. It's a real mixture of things. No tests, no pressure, read or ignore at your leisure.
Cooper, C. (1996) 'Fitting' in Bernstein, R. and Clark Silberman, S., eds.,
Generation Q: gays, lesbians and bisexuals born around 1969's Stonewall riots tell their stories of growing up in the age of information, Los Angeles: Alyson, 59-64.
Cooper, C. (1998)
Fat & Proud: The Politics of Size. London: The Women's Press.
Cooper, C. (2009) 'Fat Activism in Ten Astonishing, Beguiling, Inspiring and Beautiful Episodes' in Tomrley, C. and Kaloski Naylor, A., eds.,
Fat Studies In The UK, York: Raw Nerve Books, 19-31.
Cooper, C. (2010) 'Fat is a feminist issue, but whose feminism?', [online], available:
http://www.thescavenger.net/feminism-a-pop-culture/fat-is-a-feminist-issue-but-whose-feminism-90645-428.html [accessed 11 June 2012]
Cooper, C. (2010) 'Charlotte Cooper and Judy Freespirit in Conversation, June 2010', Obesity Timebomb [online], available:
http://obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com/2010/09/charlotte-cooper-and-judy-freespirit-in.html [accessed 11 June 2012]
Cooper, C. (2010) 'Olympics/Uhlympics: Living in the Shadow of the Beast', thirdspace, 9(2). [Online] Available:
http://www.thirdspace.ca/journal/article/view/cooper [accessed: 11 June 2012].
Cooper, C. (2011) 'A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline - zine download', Obesity Timebomb [online], available:
http://obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com/p/queer-and-trans-fat-activist-timeline.html [accessed 11 June 2012]
Cooper, C. (2011) 'Queer Hapas, fat activism and weight loss surgery', Obesity Timebomb [online], available:
http://obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com/2011/03/queer-hapas-fat-activism-and-weight.html [accessed 11 June 2012]
Cooper, C. (2012) 'A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline: Queering Fat Activist Nationality and Cultural Imperialism',
Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, 1(1), 61-74.
Fontaine, G. (2008) 'Keynote Address: Nolose 2008 - More Than Just Fat: The Intersection of All of Our Identities', in NOLOSE, Northampton MA. [online] Available: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nolose.org%2F08%2Fgeleni_fontaine08.pdfamp;ei=ohnWT627HvC10QXqps36Aw&usg=AFQjCNFdJNL4C4bcuUVt82f7o2gTA8dxAw [accessed 11 June 2012]
Freespirit, J. (1983) 'A Day In My Life' in Schoenfielder, L. & Wieser, B. , ed.
Shadow On A Tightrope: Writings By Women on Fat Oppression, San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 118-120.
Freespirit, J. (2003) 'On Ward G' in Koppelman, S., ed.
The Strange History of Suzanne LaFleshe (and other stories of women and fatness), New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 153-160.
Gingras, J. R. (2009)
Longing for Recognition: The Joys, Complexities, and Contradictions of Practicing Dietetics, York: Raw Nerve.
Johnston, J. and Taylor, J. (2008) 'Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign',
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 33(4), 941-966.
LeBesco, K. (2001) 'Queering Fat Bodies/Politics' in Braziel, J. E. and LeBesco, K., eds.,
Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 74-87.
LeBesco, K. (2004)
Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Mitchell, A. (2005) 'Pissed Off' in Kulick, D. and Meneley, A., eds.,
Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession, London: Penguin, 211-225.
Moon, M. and Kosofsky Sedgwick, E. (1994) 'Divinity: A Dossier, A Performance Piece, A Little-Understood Emotion' in Kosofsky Sedgwick, E., ed.
Tendencies, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 211-246.
Rensenbrink, G. (2010) 'Fat's no Four-letter Word: Fat Feminism and identity Politics in the 1970s and 1980s' in Levy-Navarro, E., ed.
Historicizing Fat in Anglo-American Culture, Columbus OH: The Ohio State University Press, 213-243.
Rothblum, E. and Solovay, S. (2009)
The Fat Studies Reader, New York: New York University Press.
Schoenfielder, L. and Wieser, B. (1983)
Shadow On A Tightrope: Writings By Women on Fat Oppression, San Francisco: Aunt Lute.
Shuai, T., Mozee, G., Paulus, K., Rachel, Fontaine, G., Weintraub, A., Herrington, J., Joe, Sondra and Zoe (2011) 'NOLOSE Policy Change: Inclusion and Moving from Identity to Intention', [online], available:
http://www.nolose.org/11/genderpolicy.php [accessed 11 June 2012]
Snider, S. (2009) 'Fat Girls and Size Queens: Alternative Publications and the Visualizing of Fat and Queer Eroto-politics in Contemporary American Culture' in Rothblum, E. and Solovay, S., eds., The Fat Studies Reader, New York: New York University Press, 223-230.
Stinson, S. (2004)
Venus of Chalk, Ann Arbor, MI: Firebrand Books.
Tomrley, C. and Kaloski Naylor, A. (2009)
Fat Studies In The UK, York: Raw Nerve Books.
White, F. R. (2012) 'Fat, Queer, Dead: 'Obesity' and the Death Drive',
Somatechnics, 2(1), 1-17.
