Required Pre-Readings:

• Read: The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI (The Medium) – Aubrey Gordon  

• Read: Fat Girls In Black Bodies, by Dr. Joy Cox

  • Chapter 1: Where It All Began

  • Chapter 2: God and His Problem with Fat Folks

• Listen: Food Psych #196: Diet Culture's Racist Roots with Sabrina Strings (Episode starts at ~14:40 minutes) 

Journal Prompts

• Christy Harrison begins her episodes of Food Psych by asking her guests, “So, tell me about your relationship with food growing up.” Take as much time as you’d like to write a response to this question. So, tell me about your relationship with food growing up.

• In Food Psych #196, Sabrina Strings draws connections between the relationship to food and cultural context, linking what is a personal experience to larger cultural shifts (i.e. The Great Migration, Jim Crow, desegregation). What large cultural shifts have taken place in your lifetime that have influenced or altered your relationship with food, body image, and size?

Supplementary Material (for extra knowledge!):

• Shilo George’s Keynote address for the 11th International Weight Stigma Conference in 2023 

• Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, by Sabrina Strings (Find at your local public library, bookshop or online)

• Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, by Da’Shaun Harrison (Find at your local public library, bookshop or online)

Time & Location information

• March 18, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. MDT

• Zoom: https://udenver.zoom.us/j/2115437730?omn=89440750825

Required Pre-Readings:

• Chapter 1: Four Big Fat Lies About Weight and Health, Body of Truth: How Science, History and Culture Drive our Obsession with Weight and What We Can Do About It, by Harriet Brown, pp. 1-31  

• Everything you know about obesity is wrong, The Huffington Post by Michael Hobbes 

• Listen: Maintenance Phase: Is Being Fat Bad For You?

Journal Prompts

• How have societal conversations about health and fitness impacted your relationship with your body? How has it affected how you see yourself as healthy (or not) or fit (or not)? How has it impacted your ability to trust your body and respect its wisdom? 

Image Prompt

• Take a picture of something in your world that someone in a fat body would have trouble using or accessing.

Supplementary Material (for extra knowledge!):

• Weight Science: evaluating the evidence for a paradigm shift. Bacon, L., & Aphramor, L. (2011). Nutrition Journal, 10, 1-13.  

• The weight-inclusive vs. weight-normative approach to health: evaluating the evidence for prioritizing well-being over weight loss. Tylka, T. L., Annunziato, R. A., Burgard, D., Daníelsdóttir, S., Shuman, E., Davis, C., & Calogero, R. M. (2014). Journal of Obesity, 2014(1), 983495.  

• Chapter 4: Money, Motivation, and the Medical Machine, in Body of Truth: How Science, History and Culture Drive our Obsession with Weight and What We Can Do About It, by Harriet Brown. pp. 95-121  

• Chapter 7: First, Do No Harm, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat, by Aubrey Gordon, pp. 139-153  

Time & Location information

• Tuesday, April 1 from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. MDT

• Zoom: https://udenver.zoom.us/j/2115437730?omn=86125633899

Required Pre-Readings:

For this week, pick 2 of the following readings:

• Chapter: K-Spa, in My Body, by Emily Ratajkowski, pp.99-115

• Chapters 25 and Chapter 72, in I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy, pp. 87-94 & 243-249

• Chapter 6: Meeting Gender’s End, in Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, pp. 85-104

For this week, pick 1 of the following listens:

• Food Psych #180: Body Policing, Social Class, and Diet Culture with Sonalee Rashatwar

• Food Psych #137: How to Navigate Diet Culture with Evette Dionne

• Food Psych #142: Breaking Free from Fatphobia & Gender Norms with Caleb Luna

Journal Prompts

• Choose one from the discussion questions listed below. Take as much time as you’d like to write a response to this question.

Image Prompt

• Take a picture that represents what health means to you.

Supplementary Material (for extra knowledge!):

• I Want Freedom & Last Chapter, You Have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar, pp. 109-121 

Time & Location information

• Tuesday, April 15, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. MDT

• Zoom: https://udenver.zoom.us/j/2115437730?omn=81343575170

Required Pre-Readings:

• Chapter: What Early Fat Activism Taught Me in You Have the Right to Remain Fat, by Virgie Tovar, pp. 89-99 

• Chapter 1: Beyond Self-Love in Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, by Da’Shaun Harrison, pp. 1-9 

For this week, pick 1 of the following listens:

• Food Psych #119: How to Fight Back Against Weight Stigma with Ragen Chastain

• Food Psych #130: How to Fight Fatphobia in Woke Spaces with Melissa Toler

• Food Psych #105: Body-Acceptance Secrets with Jessamyn Stanley

Journal Prompt

Weight stigma and fatphobia are often overlooked in discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion—despite weight stigma being rooted in anti-Blackness, healthism, and ableism. How might you apply what you have learned over the course of this book club to DEI efforts in your own personal and professional spheres?

Image Prompt

Take a picture of what body liberation means to you.

Supplementary Materials (for extra learning!)

• Weight and Wisdom: Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation by Nancy Ellis-Ordway and Tigress Osborn

• Fat Lib Archive, they have the Fat Liberation Manifesto on there among others 

• Chapter Locating in Fat Activism, pp. 114-129 (covers the Fat Underground and fat feminist activism) 

• A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline

Time & Location information

Tuesday, April 29, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. MDT

Zoom: https://udenver.zoom.us/j/2115437730?omn=83509150375