And to be honest, I wonder whether restoring ourselves to the centre of our experience and scaring others off feeling any entitlement to encroach on this as much as we need or can be expected to do.

What I was trying to get to was that FA (in general, ignoring all the specificities and differences for a minute) sees the ‘problem’ of fat as a sociocultural one – it’s fat hatred that’s the problem, not individual fat bodies (I agree). But the ‘solution’ is still very much centred on the individual, on “changing one’s mind about fat”, and this change of mind leading to personal, individual liberation from socially ingrained fat hatred. It implies a level of individual autonomy that belies the cultural analysis of the problem. Extending it out to a community of personally liberated individuals doesn’t really resolve that tension, either (I don’t think).

I think it’s interesting that you identify the same contradiction in the dominant social discourse on fatness as well – I hadn’t really meant it like that, but you’re absolutely right. Despite all the talk about ‘obesogenic environments’ and such, the discourse still positions the ‘solution’ as absolutely the responsibility of the (fat) individual. I’d also argue that the discourse which positions fatness as a community issue in this way is deeply classist and used to ‘safely’ disparage ‘inappropriate’ lifestyles, cheapness, trashiness, and anything coded as ‘lower class’.

So you think that the ‘problem’ of fat isn’t seen by the dominant social discourse as something that exists on an individual basis? That an individual isn’t responsible for their own weight? I would have thought that fat was seen as something that was self determined (seen that way by society at least) and that the ‘solution’ is also seen as being a matter of individual self-determination but seeing as that (individual self determination) doesnt seem to be working (ie making us thinner) that society has now made it a community issue.

Or maybe I am barking up the wrong tree entirely…

: )

I agree that this is problematic – but this is what the communities are for. Resistance is both an individual act and a communal one. Resist personally and support others in their resistance. Without the community, the world will grind people down and say it’s their own fault. With community, parts of the world grind you down and other parts build you up. I can be as fat positive as I want, but without helping others, I would be perpetuating that harmful kind of individuality.

This is particularly important for people who are isolated from fat resources – in my case, I have a supportive fat partner, and a reasonable number of fat people in my town, but nowhere to buy clothes in my size. Someone else might have shopping resources but not have the cash to do it without pointers (and swaps) from other fat people. Many younger fat people are in a hostile home situation, so the FA community provides a safe mental space.