Today I’m talking with Angelina Moles, a Critical Fat Studies theorist and performance artist with a Master of Art's degree in Communication Studies. They use both she/her/ hers and they/them/theirs pronouns when being referred to. Angelina is a fat activist whose work is centered in critiquing/unpacking white supremacy, thin privilege, and the medical industry for their creation and contribution to fatphobia and anti-fat stigma. 

 

She is currently working on creating a website dedicated to discussing fat liberation and is dipping their toes into burlesque dancing. Angelina is a performance artist who creates pieces that discuss and focus on the fat body and the way it is policed in a thin society. They have performed all over the Bay Area and the country.

 

Listen in as Angelina gives us a crash course in fat studies exploring how fat bodies are medicalized and feared, the racist roots of fatphobia, and how the medium of performance communicates complex ideas in novel ways.

 

Show Highlights: 

 

• Often fatness gets looked at as a choice.
• Fatness is not like other oppressions because of the narrative that people can permanently change.
• We blame fat people for not fitting into public spaces when the problem is structural.
• Fat studies takes fatness out of the medicalized lens.
• Unpacking all the connotations that are associated with the word “fat”
• Body size, race, and gender are often not talked about in the classroom.
• Internalized fatphobia can impact fat students and make them uncomfortable.
• How the “obesity epidemic” isn’t real.
• Explains the history of BMI which is rife with racism and misogyny.
• Fatphobia is directly connected to racism.
• Explaining that having thin privilege doesn’t mean you never struggled.
• How troubling it is to call fat people “brave” or “courageous” when they wear crop tops.
• How she had to learn how to save energy by not arguing with those who don’t get it.
• Body positivity is a lot different than fat positivity.
• How she thought she was being a good fat person by trying not to be fat.

 

Links & Resources

 

• FAT!SO? : Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size by Marilyn Wann
• You Have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar
• Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings
• Fat Studies Reader 
• The Fat Sex Therapist
• @nataliemeansnice - Natalie Hodge
• Roxane Gay
• The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor 
• Fat Lip Podcast
• Fierce Fat Femme on Instagram and YouTube 
• Fatty Goes Oink