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Welcome to the community!
Explore our community-created resources. These materials are designed to encourage action through education. From insightful articles to thought-provoking videos, we have collaborated with members of the community to handpick materials that will fuel conversations and drive change.
Calendar of Events
2023
Monday, September 25
Challenging Weight Stigma and Discrimination on the Journey to Body Liberation
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
Chevese Turner, Founder of Body Equity Alliance and Co-Creator of Weight Stigma Awareness Week
Weight stigma, also known as anti-fat bias, and discrimination are the cornerstones of the problematic manner in which fat/larger-bodied individuals are treated within society. From loved ones to friends and healthcare, housing, and employment, they are used to shame people with the hopes of eradicating fatness. Body liberation is an important goal for larger-bodied individuals to reclaim and begin to, for the first time, or perhaps once again, trust their bodies. This talk is political in that it looks at the concepts of intersectionality, healthism, health equity, determinants of health, and oppression to better understand “who gets what and why.” This will lay the foundation for how much stigma, bias, and discrimination are costing us as individuals and as a society, not only financially, but with regard to our well-being.
3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
#SizeFreedom: The Fight to Outlaw Weight Discrimination
Tigress Osborn
Anti-fatness shows up in every aspect of American life, yet across the US, there are very few laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on body size. The Campaign for Size Freedom is working to change that. In this session, Tigress Osborn, long-time fat activist and Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance will present an overview of the current legislative landscape and will discuss what the future holds for passing more laws to ban height and weight discrimination. Participants will leave this session with an understanding of why intersectional fat liberation must be treated as a social justice priority, how laws can help change perceptions of fat people, and how they can get more involved in the movement for size freedom.
Tuesday, September 26
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
Food Justice for ALL of Us? How Weight Stigma & Anti-Fatness Keeps the Movement Exclusionary
Patrilie Hernandez:
During this session, attendees will gain insight into how the food justice movement, rooted in Black liberation, has evolved to promote supremacist thinking and colonialist ideology. Attendees will learn how bodies and food can be used to uphold systems of oppression, including how social identities and their proximity to systemic power shape these beliefs. After expanding on the various pillars of food justice, Patrilie, the session facilitator, will guide session participants through a historical timeline, starting with the emergence of food insecurity in America into the public eye during the Civil Rights movement, ending with specific examples of how weight bias and anti-fatness interfere with working towards inclusive food.
3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
Dawn Serra:
Pleasure, Sex, and Fat Bodies
In a culture that pressures us to give up our lives in the quest for smallness, pleasure and sex often become forbidden, forgotten, or filled with shame. Yet, pleasure is not only a powerful avenue for healing trauma but it is also a radical act of resistance, particularly if you are in a larger body. Join sexuality expert, counsellor, and coach Dawn Serra for this interactive, informative discussion around sex and pleasure for people in fat bodies (and those who love them). Topics that will be explored include the pillars of pleasure, creative solutions for navigating sex in a fat body, shame and self-compassion, plus time for questions and open dialog.
Wednesday, September 27
*Continuing Education Credit Hours: 1:00
Live Interactive Webinar
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
Angela Mensah, PhD:
Weighing in on why "They don't really care about us".
This presentation will cover the traumatization of fat people by anti-fat healthcare providers
*Continuing Education Credit Hours: 1:00
Live Interactive Webinar
3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
Philly Fat Con: Adrienne Ray, Donnelle Jageman, & Kenyetta Harris
Behind Philly FatCon: An Origin Story
Learn more about Philly FatCon and how three women from different backgrounds came together to plan a first-of-its-kind, fat-focused convention in Philadelphia. Adrienne Ray, Donnelle Jageman, and Kenyetta Harris will tell the story of how they came together and what fat community means to each of them.
Impact Council Roundtable
3:00 - 5:00 pm EST
By invitation only.*
Thursday, September 28
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
Laura Burns:
For Us, By Us: Creating an accessible and inclusive retreat center
The fat and disabled communities are underserved in so many ways, including lack of access to community-centered event spaces and spas. The Appalachian Retreat and Spa is a project built from the ground up to center the needs of people whose bodies are marginalized in every way. Let's talk about the need for spaces like this, the process of making it happen, the specific challenges related to creating this kind of space for fat and disabled folks, and how we are making it happen!
*Continuing Education Credit Hours: 1:00
Live Interactive Webinar
3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
The History of Health at Every Size® and the Association for Size Diversity and Health
Angel Austin
This session will discuss the history of ASDAH. I’ll also discuss the history of Health at Every Size® and explain why it was needed. I’ll talk about how whiteness shows up in HAES® and “the Movement”, and explain the oppression and exclusion of fat, Black folks in HAES®. I’ll close out my presentation by explaining ways that those in attendance can change their commitment to care.
Friday, September 29
*Continuing Education Credit Hours: 1:00
Live Interactive Webinar
12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
Caleb Luna, PhD:
Fat Queer Media as Political Self-Making: Toward an Fat Queer Anti-Racist Politic
In this talk, Caleb offers some reflections on their journey developing their identity as a fat and disabled queer of color through fractions of media objects they encountered growing up. Through this journey, they extrapolated a fat identity shaped through innately queer of color political projects. They thread fatness through queer of color political frameworks to demonstrate the parallels between fat and queer political identity, as well as how they productively inform and extend one another. Ultimately, they engage with quotidian media objects to demonstrate their utility and integrity in articulating a political strategy toward collective liberation.
Virtual Chair Yoga
2:00 - 3:00 pm EST
Led by Laura Burns
Please have a sturdy chair with no wheels and no arms.
*Continuing Education Credit Hours: 1:00
Live Interactive Webinar
3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
Wellness or Weight Stigma: Getting What You Want, Need and Deserve in the Healthcare System
Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, Co-Founder & CEO of Within Health, Co-Host & Co-Creator of WSAW
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2023
WSAW Videos
