"You Have the Right to Remain Fat!"

I love, love, loved this book! I was left feeling empowered and motivated after reading this small manifesto because when you can feel the confidence and the self-respect of a person through a book you have no choice but to suddenly open your eyes and understand the damage that our society has done to our minds and subsequently our bodies. To be able to read how someone values themselves and their self-love higher than we often value our society’s opinion allows you to really give a massive middle finger to our messed-up beauty standards. Tovar addresses issues like: the glorification of restriction, internalised inferiority and sexism, heteromasculinity, and fatphobia. At this point I feel as though I should define fatphobia so in Tovar’s words: “fatphobia is a form of bigotry that positions fat people as inferior and as objects of hatred and derision”. However, fatphobia does not only target fat people. It targets everyone because we either are fat or we live in fear of becoming fat, hence fad diets, cosmetic surgeries, exercise boot camps… all different ways to torture our bodies into submission.

All my life I have been surrounded by wonderful, strong women whom are weighed down by the belief that they are too fat to live their lives to the fullest, that they should not take pictures when they are having fun, that they should hide behind the camera and allow the skinnier people to have fun and be the centre of attention. For a long time, I passively accepted this, and to a certain extent, even imitated these women meaning that I further alienated myself from my own body. As women, we are taught to despise our bodies, to hide them behind our clothes unless it is deemed appropriate to not do so by a man. That is why in a world that teaches you to self-doubt, the most rebellious act is to self-love and I truly believe that Tovar allowed me to take my journey to self-love a step further.

Virgie Tovar also did a marvellous job at highlighting all the issues within our current diet culture that we live in. As a true intersectional feminist, Tovar connects the crucial elements of fatphobia with sexism, racism, and transphobia and consequently what these forms of discrimination entail. As a brown fat girl, she recounts a few of her endless stories of discrimination and hatred by other people for simply existing.

The book is only 121 pages long but it manages to cover such important subjects in a complete manner, not leaving any part out. I think one of the most important chapters is “In the Future, I’m Fat” because it encourages everyone to stop simply surviving and to start living our lives as who we were meant to be, whether you are fat or skinny you have the right to have the best time. We shouldn’t have to think that ‘when I am skinny I will finally do…’, we need to just do it. Be brave, be fearless. The world is for us to enjoy and for us to love.

I would recommend this to EVERYONE! Everyone in the whole Western world needs to read this to get a taste of what our destructive society has conditioned us to believe. This book is especially recommended to those that may have suffered from body image issues, eating disorders and insecurities.