Fat Acceptance Movement - History

History

During the early part of the 20th century, obesity was seen as detrimental to the community, by means of decreasing human efficiency, and that obese people interfere with labor productivity in the coastal areas of the United States.

This kind of history and visibility gave rise to the Fat Acceptance movement which originated in the late 1960s, although its grassroots nature makes it difficult to precisely chart its milestones. Like other social movements from this time period, the fat acceptance movement, initially known as "Fat Pride," "Fat Power," or "Fat Liberation," often consisted of people acting in an impromptu fashion. A "Fat-in" was staged in New York's Central Park in 1967. Called by a radio personality, Steve Post, the "Fat-in" consisted of a group of 500 people eating, carrying signs and photographs of Sophia Loren (an actress famous for her figure), and burning diet books.

Several groups formed during this period to promote a fat acceptance agenda. In 1969, William Fabrey founded a social club promoting "Fat Pride" called the National Association to Aid Fat Americans, subsequently renamed the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) NAAFA. In 1973, a radical NAAFA chapter spun off to become an independent group, the Fat Underground, promoting a stronger activist philosophy. They were inspired by the philosophy of the Radical Therapy Collective, a feminist group that believed that many psychological problems were caused by oppressive social institutions and practices. The Fat Underground, founded by Sara Fishman (then Sara Aldebaran) and Judy Freespirit, took issue with what they saw as growing bias against obesity in the scientific community. They coined the saying, "a diet is a cure that doesn't work for a disease that doesn't exist".

Shortly afterwards, Fishman moved to New Haven, CT, where she, along with Karen Scott-Jones, founded the New Haven Fat Liberation Front, an organization similar to the Fat Underground in its scope and focus. In 1983, they collaborated to publish a seminal book in the field of Fat Activism, Shadow on a Tightrope. The book collected several fat activist position papers initially distributed by the Fat Underground, as well as poems and essays from other writers.

The 1980s and 1990s witnessed an increase in activist organizations, publications, and conferences. In the 1980s, new anti-dieting programs and models began to appear in the research literature in response to new information dispelling common myths about obesity.