Is Fat Bias Real?

🎙️ Is Anti-Fat Bias Real?

What happens when society equates health with thinness and worth with appearance? In this transformative episode, hosts Evolve Benton and Jefferson Darrell take on the pervasive and often invisible issue of fat bias with special guest Vinny Wellsby. From childhood trauma to media stereotypes and the medical industrial complex, this discussion unearths how anti-fatness intersects with race, gender, disability, and class, inviting listeners to unlearn internalized shame and embrace radical body acceptance.

Learn more about Evolve Benton's DEI Consulting https://evolvebenton.com/

Learn more about Breakfast Culture https://www.breakfastculture.org/

 

---

 

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:00 – 04:00 | Opening reflections on body shaming and societal messaging

• 04:01 – 09:00 | Defining fat bias and its medical, cultural, and social lenses

• 09:01 – 15:00 | Media, racism, and the construction of the “ideal body”

• 15:01 – 20:00 | Jefferson’s experience with weight loss and the paradox of approval

• 20:01 – 26:00 | Reclaiming the word “fat” and why language matters

• 26:01 – 32:00 | The economics of fat bias: Who profits from body shame?

• 32:01 – 38:00 | Representation and joy: What liberation could look like

• 38:01 – 44:00 | Positive media portrayals of people in bigger bodies

• 44:01 – End | Resources for healing, reflection, and showing up for all bodies

 

---

 

🧠 Learning Outcomes

• Fat Bias Is Systemic and Personal: Fatphobia doesn’t just live in individuals—it’s built into our institutions, media, and healthcare systems.

• The Origins of Anti-Fatness: Western beauty standards have racist and classist roots and we’ve seen the historical weaponization of fatness.

• Language Matters: The use of “fat” as a neutral descriptor vs. a slur—why reclaiming the word can be empowering.

• Intersections with Race and Gender: How fat Black bodies are policed and pathologized differently than white ones.

• The Wellness Industrial Complex: How diet culture and health messaging often disguise anti-fatness as “care.”

• Radical Acceptance as Resistance: Body neutrality, joyful movement, and self-advocacy as tools for reclaiming autonomy and dignity.

 

---

 

👨🏽 Guest Bio

Vinny Wellsby (they/them) is a world-leading expert on dismantling anti-fat bias and diet-culture, TEDx speaker, and best-selling author.

 

---

 

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• "Fearing the Black Body" by Dr. Sabrina Strings – A foundational text on the racial origins of fatphobia