Don’t Tell Me to Lose Weight: Navigating and Challenging Medical Fatphobia

Don’t Tell Me to Lose Weight: Navigating and Challenging Medical Fatphobia

The so-called “obesity crisis” is a fatphobic myth that constructs fatness as a disease that needs to be eliminated for the good of society. In fact, fatness is not a disease, and dieting to lose weight isn’t sustainable and is an actual threat to people’s health. On top of that, this misinformation, along with discrimination and shame, prevents people in large bodies from accessing the healthcare they need. In this workshop we will challenge commonplace myths about fatness and health and develop self-advocacy strategies to use when faced with fatphobia in healthcare settings.