Ep 80 with Virgie Tovar
Body Belonging with Virgie Tovar
In this episode, Virgie shares what fat phobia and diet culture is and how they are linked, the many ways healthcare professionals can bring themselves and others closer to body justice, how people lose belonging of their bodies, the first thing we need to do in the unravelling of fat phobia and diet culture and meaningful lessons from her own journey back to her body.
Listen to the Episode here:
https://themindfuldietitian.podbean.com/e/with-virgie-tovar/
Here Fi and Virgie speak about:
‘You Have The Right To Remain Fat’; Virgie defines fat phobia and diet culture in her own way and how they link together.
The importance of understanding and recognising that fat phobia isn’t just about the behaviours that are overtly aggressive and mean-spirited.
Why we need to interrogate residual feelings that are largely based on the idea that fatness is a form of deviation or evidence of a systems failure.
How and why we all hold the trauma of fat phobia, regardless of our placement in society, and the need to change our hearts, minds, and spirits.
The real and harmful impact of trauma that is activated and worsened every day for larger bodied people.
The importance of internal work and how the current situation requires us to reckon the harm we may have caused.
The cycle of living which is ‘harm and repair, harm and repair’; recognising that we need to keep striving for change but that this process creates possibilities for growth.
The ‘Pool’ Analogy which can help us understand why marginalised people have no choice but to exert more energy to stay afloat.
“My body used to belong to me” – is the first line in Virgie’s book, she expands on this and shares how people lose belonging of their body.
The first thing we need to do as dietitians to contribute to the dismantling and unravelling of diet culture and fat phobia.
Virgie leaves us with some important and meaningful lessons from her own journey back to her body.
As mentioned in the podcast:
Fatphobia and Diet Culture With Virgie Tovar on The Laverne Cox Show
Study about restriction, hunger, long term decisions – Glasgow Scotland *did you find this Fi?
Anti-Fat Attitudes Test (AFA)
More about Virgie:
Virgie Tovar holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes where she covers the plus-size market and how to end weight discrimination at work. She started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight and in 2018 gave a TedX talk on the origins of the campaign. Tovar is the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press August 2018) and The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color (New Harbinger Publications 2020). She is the host of the podcast, Rebel Eaters Club.
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