Sabrina Strings

North Americans commonly believe that the Western aversion to fatness is rooted in medical concerns, especially given the purported “obesity epidemic.” However, studies have shown that the aversion to fat bodies in the West precedes medical warnings about any presumed relationship between fat and health. Further, research has long established that group most likely to be denigrated for being fat is Black women. In this presentation, I will show that contrary to popular beliefs, fatphobia is not rooted in medical concerns. Rather, it arose as a mechanism to justify the booming enterprise of slavery through the degradation of Black people, and Black women in particular, as unrestrained in their “animal appetites.” Moreover, when the medical establishment elected to take up questions regarding the relationship between fat and health in the 20th century, physicians chose BMI as its proxy, a tool mired first in eugenics, and later in colorblind racism.