Summer vacation is finally here, and with it comes the opportunity to make a significant dent in my ever-growing TBR pile. Throughout the year, I collect all sorts of things that pique my interest… historic fiction, biographies, bestsellers, mysteries, graphic novels, and more. I gravitate toward books that are written from diverse perspectives and voices that I don’t experience personally. I am also drawn toward books that center on fat characters and anti-fat bias, and want to support fat authors.
A few months ago, I was listening to the “Book Gospel” episode of the Burnt Toast Podcast. In the episode, hosts Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay, discussed the books they were excited about, including several fat-positive reads. One that was mentioned at the end of the podcast particularly caught my attention.
Fat Church: Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation, written by Anastasia E.B. Kidd was written to help equip people of faith to disrupt the anti-fat bias that the Church has historically supported. Kidd has a vested interest in the topic as a fat person and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Her book offers a well-researched approach to calling out the medical and diet industry on their bullshit, and how to live fully as a fearfully and wonderfully made person with dignity.
The book begins, as most fat-activism books do, with a deep dive into the lies we have been fed by our doctors, “Big Pharma”, and the wellness industry on the reality and efficacy of the diets they promote. I mean, do you know that THEY know that diets are doomed to fail… always? These industries consciously withhold the truth that any drug, surgery, or plan is extremely unlikely to produce significant, life-long weight loss… yet they keep selling it to us… and we fall for it over and over.
Kidd’s thorough review of the history of diet culture and body policing is supported by significant research that is annotated for readers to take further study on their own. She also makes strong connections of body shame to its roots in racism, misogyny, ableism, and homophobia, offering an avenue to treat all people with dignity. The book concludes with a fantastic set of questions for small group discussion.
What I found most fascinating about Fat Church, though, is its connection of fat-shame and body policing to the history of the Church. The “Fall of Man” and the church’s view of our sinful flesh can be blamed for why we are encouraged to constantly beat ourselves up and punish our bodies. Until reading this book, I never really connected my weight shame to the Purity Movement I was very much a product of either. (Thank goodness for working on deconstructing all of that.)
Instead of punishing our flesh for existing, Kidd encourages readers to view their bodies in one of the central tenets of the Christian faith. That God willingly chose to take on human flesh and become a person… the good, the bad, and the whole mess of humanity. Just by the fact that God chose to dwell among us, our bodies… ALL bodies… are worthy of dignity and care. If our aging, broken, blobby bodies are worthy of God’s indwelling, then “let us never doubt that all flesh is indeed glorious.”
Kidd encourages readers to view the Holiness of God’s indwelling as a reason to not only love ourselves more fully, but also move us to fight for the dignity and representation of all marginalized groups. By claiming a gospel of fat liberation, we can be moved to fight for the voices of many others and take up causes of social justice.
I really enjoyed this book and am grateful for the fresh perspective it gave me on my body and its right to exist. I hope to encourage more people of faith to read it and create safe spaces within the church for all bodies.
Forty Fat and Fabulous 