A manifesto for fat activism

This piece of writing is offered in response to The Fat Liberation Manifesto, written by Judy Freespirit and Aldebaran in 1973. I love this declaration, it remains relevant despite the passing decades, but it has also dated since its first publication, so I decided to have a go at writing a new version. (It's quite bossy! Oh well, that's what a manifesto is about).

Where those authors used the pronoun 'we', I cannot count on a community of support for what I write below, so I retain the first person singular. I invite others to add their own comments and to adapt and produce their own manifestos.

A manifesto for fat activism
Charlotte Cooper
London, November 2010

1. I believe

a) I am an atheist and part of what I believe is that there is no afterlife and no supernatural explanatory framework for human existence. The lives we are living now are all we have, there's no greater entity controlling the show.

b) I believe that all living beings strive for the best lives we can in context of resources available to us. Generally speaking, I think we all try to do the right thing, although what constitutes 'right' varies greatly and can be oppressive.

c) I recognise that there are ways of partially framing and ordering human existence so that it is understandable and therefore less perplexing, but I believe that life is fundamentally chaotic and disordered, multidimensional and frequently contradictory. I also believe that the ordering interventions we make do not necessarily have the outcomes we originally intended.

d) Given my beliefs, I propose that popular aims of fat activism that entail overarching revolution – creating a world without fatphobia, for example – represent an impossible task.

e) Although fat activism may represent an impossible task, it is still a valuable endeavour because of its potential for making our short and precious lives more bearable. It can help create meaning, kinship, it can be compassionate, fun and life-affirming.

f) I think of fat activism simply as 'doing stuff' with a critical consciousness; it can be almost anything.

2. I propose

a) Do no harm and don't be mean.

b) Recognise that fat activism is for every body as is respect, equality and recognition. There are many ways of experiencing fat.

c) Embrace fat activisms that make most sense to you and which draw upon your strengths and interests. Pursue fat activisms that make you happiest. Help create and maintain a movement that is as multidimensional as life itself. Have a go.

d) Fight and expose aspects of human life that denigrate the diversity of human embodiment, especially where this is done for profit, by spreading lies, by using pseudo-science, by invoking morality, by causing harm, by exploiting, by stereotyping, by discriminating, by using unsound ethics, and by promoting hate.

e) Don't operate in a vacuum, not that you can. Learn as much as possible about historical and cultural contexts for fat activism, especially within feminism. Ally your work with a wider field of anti-oppression activism. Don't be racist. Find out about civil rights activism, and disability activism, peace activism too, queer and trans liberation, anti-capitalist and non-violent protest.

f) Try and be respectful of diverse contexts. Fat activism does not need police, or missionaries, fundamentalists or fascists. There is no need for inappropriately forced reductionism. People can find their own voices for fat activism, there's room for everyone.

g) Try and clear about your own context and try and understand how this shapes your fat activism. Are you American? Do you only speak English? Do you live in Western culture? Do you have money or privilege? How does this affect what you say, think and do? How does it affect other people?

h) Because of the chaotic and contingent nature of human life, it's helpful to question absolute binaries of good and evil, right and wrong, us and them. Instead, try and engage with the bits that fall between, the grey areas, hybridity, contradiction, the beautiful mongrels of the movement.

i) Try your hardest to listen and create friendly dialogue (properly friendly, which means that you'll need to know the difference between this and weird passive-aggression).

j) Try to recognise the gorgeous and disruptive power of fat bodies. Claim it whenever you can.