I teach a variety of courses in ethics and social philosophy. A while back, I was looking for a text on anti-fatness to assign my students—something to read alongside works on race, gender and sexual identity, and disability—and I found there wasn’t much out there in the philosophical literature (though, happily, that is slowly changing!). I wrote Why It’s OK to Be Fat, in part, to fill that gap. For several years now, I have been teaching on the topic of anti-fatness, and the book I ended up writing is very much a product of the conversations I have had in the classroom.  

At its core, the book aims to provide a framework for thinking about body size—and, in particular, fatness—as a social justice issue. It would work well as an assigned text in introductory or more advanced courses in Ethics, Social Philosophy, and Bioethics. Next semester, I’ll be teaching from it in my advanced undergraduate seminar “Philosophy of Oppression.” For those interested in teaching a course (or adding a unit) on body size as a social justice issue, please check back here soon for an instructional guide to Why It’s OK to Be Fat!