Continuing the discussion about fat and disability

I'm a bit late in mentioning this but I've only just come across it myself, though as Lucy mentions, I saw an earlier draft.

Last December my friend and colleague Lucy Aphramor published an article in Disability & Society in which she extends and updates my own paper, which appeared in that same journal over ten years ago.

It's exciting to see developments in the work I did on my MA in the early 90s, which was then reformulated as my book Fat & Proud, as well as in my original Disability & Society article. Hannele Harjunen has also used this paper as a starting point for her own research. My own work didn't come out of nothing, I remain indebted to my MA supervisor at the University of East London, Dr Jenny Corbett, who had the brilliant idea of applying the Social Model of Disability to fat stuff.

One of the things that I like about Lucy's work here is that it shows how valuable it can be to explore experience and identity through different approaches. I think this is a dynamic process that has potential to instigate open dialogue usefully, and benefit all parties. This is especially so when, as so often happens, the identity is usually restricted to one sphere, namely medicalisation.

Anyway, please read and comment. Let me know if you have trouble gaining access to Lucy's paper.

Aphramor, Lucy (2009) 'Disability and the anti-obesity offensive', Disability & Society, 24:7, 897-909. (Here's a link to the journal)

Cooper, Charlotte (1997) 'Can a fat woman call herself disabled?', Disability & Society, 12:1, 31–41 (I put it online).