CWS/CF

This new CWS/cf issue, Women and Fat Studies: Feminist Re-visionings, is in memory of Luciana Ricciutelli, long-standing managing and executive editor of Canadian Woman Studies. Before her death, Luciana championed this timely special issue to capture the exciting growth of Fat awareness and debate within the feminist movement and Fat research in the academy.

Feminist movement is built by the hard-won voices and brave engagement of diverse women and their allies locally and globally challenging their own varied patriarchies in social, economic, and cultural institutions, and each other. Radical and visionary feminist politics that engage intersecting patriarchal class, colonial, and racial oppressions are multi-centred—enriched and deepened by challenging dialogue and learning across and among the many voices and places of resistance.

Articles in Section One, “Framing Fat,” articles raise crucial issues and key debates that Fat-centred perspectives bring to the feminist movement and to women and gender studies (Kristin Rodier) and to human rights discourse (Megan Szczurko). The “Fat Liberation Manifesto, November 1973” (Freespirit and Aldebaran) reprinted here shows that Fat power is not new to feminism.

Articles in Section Two, “Experience,” explore the personal cost of fat stigma confronted and contested by very different protagonists. Kelsey Ionnoni shares her experience as a fat pregnant woman and new mother. Renee Tiller traces her changing experience and understanding of fat phobia as a young “small fat” biracial woman; Jen Rinaldi and May Friedman report weight and weight stigma experiences of non-binary participants from their larger research project with diverse non-cisconforming participants.

Articles in Section Three, “Engagement,” reveal pervasive fat phobia and oppression and personal and political resistance: in food justice activism (Leah Potvin); in the professional standards and socialization of the ‘caring’ professions (Rice et al.); in “definitions of fatness, thinness, and eating disorders” (Madeline deWelles); in dating app profiles (Jenn Clark); and in weight loss clinics (Diane Bracuk).

Table of Contents

Framing Fat

Rethinking Fat Studies and Activism in Women’s and Gender Studies Textbooks
Kristin Rodier

Fat Liberation Manifesto, November 1973
Judy Freespirit and Aldebaran

Squeezing Size and Weight into Human Rights Law
Megan Szczurko

Experience

“Your Momma’s So Fat”: an Exploration of Fat Pregnancy and Early Motherhood
Kelsey Ioannoni

Fatphobia throughout a Lifetime
Renée Tiller

Enby Experiences of Weight and Weight Stigma
Jen Rinaldi and May Friedman

Practice

Where Are All the Other Fat Folks? Fat Liberation in Food Justice Work
Leigh Potvin

Transgressing Professional Boundaries through Fat and Disabled Embodiments
Carla Rice, Meredith Bessey, Kaley Roosen, and Andrea Kirkham

Disrupting Normative Femininity: Diagnoses of Eating Disorders as Tools of Control
Madeleine De Welles

A Round Body into a Square Hole
Jenn Clark

The Slim Friend
Diane Bracuk

Poetry

Wandering in Wonderland by Kat Cameron
Return of the Nobodies by Elizabeth Greene
Trümmerfrauen (Rubble Women) by Ilona Martonfi
A is for Appetite by L.A.R.K.
To Go to Donaustauf by Ilona Martonfi
Weapons of a Warrior by Kat Cameron
Fattened by Kat Cameron
When Friends Introduced Me by Penn Kemp
Her Body an Island by Kat Cameron
Weighted by Claudia Costa
Betrayal by Yvonne Trainer
Giacometti’s Woman of Venice by lona Martonfi
Prism by L.A.R.K.
Gift for Granted by Penn Kemp

Book Reviews

What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk about Fat reviewed by Lakay Cornell

Being Fat: Women, Weight And Feminist Activism in Canada reviewed by Angela Stanley

Fat Studies in Canada: (Re)Mapping the Field reviewed by Andrea Lamarre

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia reviewed by Kristen A. Hardy

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space reviewed by Jessica Doberstein

You Have the Right to Remain Fat reviewed by Jenny Ellison, PhD

Disrupting Breast Cancer Narratives: Stories of Rage and Repair reviewed by Diane Driedger

The Missing List: A Memoir reviewed by Irene Gammel and Jaclyn Marcus

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, Second Edition reviewed by Mackenzie Edwards

Climate Chaos: Ecofeminism and the Land Question reviewed by Klaire Gain

In the Shadow of the Eighth: My Forty Years Working for Women’s Health in Ireland and It’s a Yes! How Together for Yes Repealed the Eighth and Transformed Irish Society reviewed by Katherine Side

Front Cover: Photography by Jennifer McCready, Lady Luck Photography Studio – “Bee Wilder,” Model: Ivory

Back Cover: Photography by Jennifer McCready, Lady Luck Photography Studio, Model: Ivory

Jennifer McCready is the owner and photographer for Lady Luck Photography Studio, in Ridgeway, Ontario. Since 2011, her mission has been to use her studio, and her passion for photography, to help EVERYBODY—no matter what age, size or shape—feel amazing about themselves. With a variety of options, including pinup, boudoir, glamour and most recently a special focus on mental health awareness, as well as her emphasis on self-love, self-acceptance, and self-confidence, Jennifer has helped hundreds of women and men feel like a superstar for the day—and every day after.

Ivory (Steff Ivory Conover) is a multi discipline performer known best for her booty shakin’, shenanigan making, and a voice that just won’t quit. A singer/model/actor/dancer/body positive advocate and graduate of Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, this former Miss Canada Plus has graced stages across North America, into the UK and the Caribbean, appeared in print media such as the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Globe & Mail and National Post, and across numerous TV networks. An archer, equestrian, axe thrower and firebreather, Ivory boasts a spectacular bag of tricks, which are sure to wow any crowd! Founder of the Succulent Six, Canada’s team of curvy superSHEroes (check out their TV show on CBC.CA and YOUTUBE!), guest chair on CTV’s The Social, panelist on 1 Queen 5 Queers (now streaming on CRAVE) and a proud member of Les Femmes Fatales, Canada’s FIRST burlesque troupe for Women of Colour, you can follow her antics on Instagram and twitter @pureivorydotca or online at www.pureivory.ca