Online supplement
Welcome to the online supplement to Why It’s OK to Be Fat (aka the b-sides). In a nutshell, the book argues that we need a radical shift in how we think and talk about being fat. It’s aimed at a general audience, and its readers aren’t presumed to have any familiarity with the subject matter. As such, I keep discussion of technical details and more academic matters that might be of interest to specialists to a minimum. Some readers may be interested in more in-depth discussion of particular topics or in consulting further sources. In this online supplement, one will find extended discussion of some issues that are only briefly addressed in the book, additional footnotes and references, as well as a list of popular and philosophical resources on fat acceptance and related topics. This material is intended to be read alongside the book. To that end, the extra material (accessible via links below) is organized by book chapter.
Chapter 1. Social Attitudes about Fatness
1.1 Background
1.2 How society makes it bad to be fat
1.3 Are we entering an era of fat acceptance?
1.4 Resistance to fat acceptance
1.5 Some personal reflections
1.6 Aims of the book
[chapter 1 extra notes]
Chapter 2. Against Fat Stigma
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Why the obesity epidemic demands an urgent response
2.3 Fat stigma to the rescue? [further reflections on the worry that fatness is becoming “normalized”]
2.4 Is fat stigma likely to do good?
2.5 Stigma does serious harm to people’s health and well-being
2.6 Fat stigma likely worsens social inequalities [another reason to oppose fat stigma: that it’s inherently inhumane]
2.7 What of fighting fatness in more benign ways?
2.8 Conclusion
[chapter 2 extra notes]
Chapter 3. Weight as a Public Health Issue
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The health risks of being fat [additional disputes and complications]
3.3 Should fat people expect to greatly improve their health by becoming thin? [further empirical evidence]
3.4 We don’t know how to make fat people thin [response to challenge that we *do* know how to do so]
3.5 Should fat people expect to greatly improve their health by trying to become thin? [response to an argument that a small chance of success would justify such efforts]
3.6 What about weight-loss surgery or drugs?
3.7 Conclusion [sketch of an alternative public health approach to the status-quo one]
[chapter 3 extra notes]
Chapter 4. Is it Wrong to Be Fat?
[critical reflections on the term “junk food” and on the moralization of food more generally]
4.1 Introduction [4.1 & 4.2 further points on blaming]
4.1.1 Judging as blameworthy
4.1.2 Expressing blame
4.1.3 Roadmap
4.2 What are fat people blamed for?
4.3 Why might it be wrong to be fat?
4.4 Fat people don’t impose wrongful economic harms on others
4.5 Fat people shouldn’t be blamed for climate change
4.6. Conclusion
Chapter 5. Weakness of Will
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Blaming fat people for being weak-willed
5.3 Do people remain fat because they’re weak-willed? [additional empirical evidence]
5.4 Do people get fat because they’re weak-willed? [additional empirical evidence & further reflections on blameworthiness for weakness of will]
5.5 Conclusion [why the weakness-of-will hypothesis is so widely believed]
[chapter 5 extra notes]
Chapter 6. Fat Pride, Gluttony, and Selfishness
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Blaming fat people for “glorifying obesity”
6.3 How to respond when blame is fitting?
6.4 Conclusion
[blaming fat people for culpable ignorance]
[blaming fat people for unapologetic indulgence]
[chapter 6 extra notes]
Chapter 7. Sizeist Oppression
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Fat people are oppressed [how we should understand the social category of being fat]
7.2.1 What does it mean to be oppressed?
7.2.2 Are fat individuals systematically socially disadvantaged? [empirical background & further discussion of social identity threat]
7.2.3. Are fat individuals unjustly disadvantaged?
7.2.4 Is the size-based hierarchy imposed on fat people durable?
7.3. Conclusion
[chapter 7 extra notes]
Chapter 8. What does Fat Acceptance Entail?
8.1 Taking stock [why we should discuss the health status of, and people’s control over, being fat]
8.2 Remedies [a survey of obstacles to dismantling sizeism]
8.3 We must resist sizeism
[chapter 8 extra notes]
Further resources to check out
If you want to cite these materials, you can do so along the following lines:
Rekha Nath (2024) Chapter 5 supplement to Why It’s OK to Be Fat. Available at www.rekhanath.net