The Semantics of Fat

Often when you’re doing fat activism, people get offended at the use of the word “fat”. They’d prefer I use “gentler” terms, like chubby or full-figured or voluptuous or curvy or stout, ad nauseum. Fat, most people seem to think, is mean. Perhaps it’s all in how you look at it, but for myself (and for many fat activists, I think), we reclaim the word by recognizing what it is: just a thing. Fat is fat, whether you’re talking about little round fat cells or fat, flabby arms or a fat ass. It’s not a value statement, it’s an noun and an adjective. Marilyn Wann addresses the power of the word “fat” perfectly in the introduction to Fat!So, the book she published in 1998.

If you really want to bug folks, call them fat, especially if they’re not… Tell me one other word or phrase that can produce such strong reactions: “Root canal?”; “IRS audit?”; “License and registration, please?” None of these phrases have the elegant emotional impact of this one little word, fat, which is why the bullies use it against you, me, and anyone whom the bullies think can be made to feel smaller (or bigger) than they actually are… Reclaiming the word fat is the miracle cure you’ve been looking for.