A Look Inside Philly's 'FatCon' Convention
Event organizers seem more interested in establishing obesity on the totem pole of social justice than engaging in a serious discussion about weight.
The pro-fat movement will be holding Philadelphia’s first “fat people” convention in October featuring celebrity “fat speakers, influencers, performers” and more.
Organizers of the conference immediately blocked me on Instagram where they are advertising their program. But a colleague at The Federalist was willing to send over screenshots of the page revealing who is scheduled to speak. Spoiler alert: no doctors are on the lineup beyond clinical counselors.
Sadly, I was also denied a press pass three times. But in lieu of my attendance, I did some digging into what the conference will have to offer.
Attendees can expect panels from pro-fat influencers on “combating fatphobia,” “navigating fatphobia,” and “plus-size” fashion. The conference will even feature “fat-friendly” fitness classes including one titled, “Free the Jiggle.”
Everything on the event page seems to indicate organizers are far more interested in planting obesity as a victimized group on the social justice hierarchy than a serious discussion about the dangers of severe fat accumulation.
The keynote speaker for the conference will be Sonalee Rashatwar, otherwise known as “the Fat Sex Therapist.” According to the FatCon Instagram, Rashatwar, who uses “they/he” pronouns,” is “a superfat queer bisexual non-binary therapist” who specializes in “diet trauma” and offers “fat positive sexual healthcare.”
Others on the lineup include “Dr. Joy Cox.” Except Cox is no medical doctor. Cox received a 2018 Ph.D in communication from Rutgers University. The author of “Fat Girls in Black Bodies,” Cox’s work is “centered on fatness, identity, and social change,” according to the conference Instagram.
“Much of my work has focused on matters of intersectionality addressing race, body size, accessibility, and "health" within the context of body acceptance and fat liberation,” Cox’s website reads. “I consider myself a social justice advocate as I use my skill set in research and leadership to foster social change by promoting REAL diversity and inclusion initiatives.”
In other words, not much a physician.
But again, urgent medical advice to individuals with common health problems isn’t the point. The point is the promotion of social justice, and fixing obesity at the center of it with an emphasis on obese women in particular. None of the conference speakers on the all-women lineup have built their profiles on raising the red flag over obesity. They’ve all made money on raising the white one.
Alexis Krase is a “lifelong fattie” who will speaking on the “Fat & Fashionable” panel. The owner of “Plus BKLYN,” Krase advocates clothing designers normalize plus-size fashion in New York City.
“Radical self-acceptance is encompassed in what we espouse as a business for our community because fat people have been on the fringes of fashion for so long,” she told Refinery29 in November.
Except such radical self-acceptance is deadly, let alone costly. The obesity epidemic is the manifestation of sedentary lifestyles and a toxic diet propelled under the apathetic paradigm of “radical self-acceptance.” People who are obese, which includes more than two-fifths of the U.S. adult population, are at extraordinary long-term risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and many types of cancer, just to name a few. What obese patients are guaranteed in the short term is limited mobility.
Redefining obesity as an immutable characteristic from a deadly preventable one does two things: 1) alleviates the emotional pressure to lose weight and 2) enriches medical professionals profiting off a nation content to become chronically fat, sick, and depressed. The money is in the treatment, not the cure. Obese people can expect to pay twice as much in health care costs over their lifetime than those at an otherwise standard weight.
One of the pro-fat conference sponsors listed is Radiance Medical Group, a Philadelphia service provider pledged to the approach of “Health at Every Size.” That approach rushed more than $190 billion into the health care industry for treating obesity last year.
When asked how much the group made last year treating obesity or obesity-related illness, the practice denied it made money at all.
“We make ZERO DOLLARS on this,” Dr. Vicky Borgia wrote in a Thursday email. “We make money caring for the health of ALL people.”
If the common ethic of the "body positivity” movement is at all indicative of the upcoming themes at FatCon Philly, the cultural elimination of “fatphobia” will be a top priority.
“Fatphobia,” according to Kayla Stansberry, a “fat liberation educator” scheduled to be on a conference panel discussing body positivity, “refers to the discrimination of individuals in larger bodies based solely on their size.” Discrimination is written with a loose definition where the bar is so low that accounting for size to calculate health is fatphobic.
“Fatphobia,” she wrote on a TikTok post last year, “is in all things.”
San Francisco pro-fat activist Virgia Tovar expanded on “fatphobia” in her 2018 book, “You Have the Right to Remain Fat.” “Fatphobia,” she wrote, is a form of “bigotry” that is the “new language of classism and racism.” I.e., victims of systematic oppression that social justice seeks to destroy.
While absent from the conference lineup, the prominent pro-fat influencer’s book is a self-proclaimed “manifesto” against “diet culture and fatphobia.”
“It is only when we stop lying to ourselves that we can stop being lied to by others,” Tovar wrote in the introduction. By chapter three, Tovar explained, “‘Fat’ and ‘thin’ are make-believe categories the way ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ are.”
On a podcast with Ulta Beauty in December, Tovar said “there’s nothing wrong with being fat,” ignoring the serious health risks presented by clinical obesity.
According to the CDC, heart disease is the number one cause of death in women.
“No one has to be healthy,” Tovar added. “No one owes anybody that.”
The title of Dr. Cox’s lecture at FatCon is “fatting in peace.”
But the process of “fatting” also plays out on national television. Watch the first 15 minutes of any TLC episode of “My 600lbs Life” to watch how “peaceful” excessive “fatting” can be. Or just read about frequent gallstone pain. Dr. Cox might want to rethink what she considers “peaceful.”
Links:
The Federalist: Gender Studies Professor Blasts Fight Against Obesity As ‘Fatphobic’
The Federalist: These 14 American Cities Have A ‘Target’ Of Banning Meat, Dairy, And Private Vehicles By 2030
Washington Post: In the Gulf, a growing scramble for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs
New York Times: Mental Health Spending Surged During the Pandemic
Wall Street Journal: How We Age — and How Scientists Are Working to Turn Back the Clock
Washington Examiner: Alcohol industry displeased with Biden czar considering call to have just two drinks a week
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