Obstinate Fatties: fat activism, queer negativity, and the celebration of ‘obesity’

In the face of current ‘obesity epidemic’ rhetoric that pathologises and ridicules fat bodies, much activist work around fat acceptance is focused on humanising and redemptive efforts to reduce stigma and prejudice. However, amongst these earnest attempts to change public opinion there is a realm of decidedly queer fat activist activity that indulges in unabashed revelry in fatness, highlighting ways in which fat subjectivities are constructed through narratives of trauma, shame and ill-health. This article uses the lens of negativity emerging from queer theory to examine these queer acts of impudence and argue that there is something radically, queerly liberating at play in the audacious refusal to be a ‘good fatty’.