Weight and Wisdom

“This book is an essential read for those looking to understand the origins, present day, and future of fat liberation. Stories are masterfully crafted to draw readers in even if you are someone who has never experiences the harsh realities of weight stigma. Weight and Wisdom: Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation provides a necessary foundation to have non nonsense conversations about the ways that modern society is complicit and more so, emboldened to declare that fat bodies do not deserve the same liberties, resources, and joy that smaller bodies readily partake of. It also (also rightfully so) reifies those with ample flesh to take up space unapologetically, offering a big middle finger to a world that is hell bent on seeing us suffer.”

“If you’re already familiar with the body liberation movement, Weight and Wisdom will bring you so much joy – many of the people you’ve heard of and learned from are speaking to you directly in this book about their work and lives….If you’re new to body liberation, Weight and Wisdom will draw you in, inspire you, and place you in a lineage you may have never known existed. The truth is, you are firmly held; your body loved and valued by those you’ve never met.

“Weight and Wisdom is expertly woven from insightful essays, eyewitness accounts, discussions, and oral histories about body liberation. The editors present an emotional tapestry that shows how local community efforts and social change efforts merge with personal need, political rage and creativity. Weight and Wisdom explores the history of various groups that have resisted fat people’s erasure. And, be clear, the vibrancy of our lives continues to be erased by the white supremacist, colonial, capitalist diet industries. Showing up and living well and bodily is one step that each person can take when possible, and then, collective action and deeper analysis contribute to the education and agitation to make a safe world for all bodies. Weight and Wisdom blesses us by teaching which people and what work has come before us. Weight and Wisdom will make you feel less lonely and more powerful in your own body liberation efforts.”

Tigress Osborn, MFA (she/her) is the executive director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). Founded in 1969 in the United States, NAAFA is the world’s oldest documented fat rights advocacy organization. As leader of the most diverse board in NAAFA’s 54-year history, Tigress has championed an intersectional approach to fighting anti-fatness through education, advocacy, and support. Her work with NAAFA has been featured in USA Today, Huffington Post, and Newsweek, and heard on BBC AntiSocial and ABC News. She also hosts and produces the NAAFA Webinar series, which features a wide variety of activists, scholars, and artists from fat community. She founded Full Figure Entertainment in 2008 in Oakland, CA, and co-founded PHS Fat Force in Arizona in 2019. Tigress is a justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) consultant and educator whose clients have ranged from major tech companies to small nonprofits. She is a two-time-women’s college graduate with a BA in Black Studies from Smith College and an MFA in creative writing from Mills College.