By Zoë Farr ’21
Managing Editor of Web Content
As the struggle to diversify beauty standards continues, a new focus on body image has developed, drawing public attention to the societal struggles of plus-sized individuals.
Movements devoted to the acceptance of different body types have reached points of contention as their messages diverged, creating two entirely separate campaigns with different goals. According to Very Well Mind, the mainstream body image movement, known as “body positivity,” was meant to emphasize the self-acceptance of your body regardless of external influences like the media and public opinion. However, many, including Phoenix Georgiades ’22, feel that body positivity does not go far enough in advocating for plus-sized people and has veered away from helping individuals with diverse body types.
“Body positivity has become co-opted by thinner folks for their own needs, basically,” Georgiades said. “It focuses more on the individual as opposed to the systemic problem. ‘Body positivity, body love’ isn’t going to solve the problem of fat discrimination.”
Georgiades was involved in the creation of the group Fat Acceptance Now!, which is dedicated to spreading the message of fat acceptance to the Mount Holyoke community. Georgiades and Ellis Townsley ’20, a recent Mount Holyoke graduate, created the group last year in hopes of bringing fat acceptance and empowerment to campus.
According to Yes! Magazine, fat acceptance is the belief that bodies come in a variety of shapes and sizes and that all bodies have equal value. In that sense, fat acceptance has a similar message to body positivity. Yes! Magazine, though, further defines fat acceptance as a political movement that advocates for the rights and dignity of fat people, implying an external agenda that body positivity lacks.
Georgiades hopes to effect change at Mount Holyoke through FAN!. “I have this three-part idea where it’s a support group, an activist group and a social group. I think there are a lot of mental health issues that come with the experience of fatphobia and weight stigma. But I think that there’s something special about talking about that with people who have the same systemic experiences as you do, where it’s not just body image. It’s all of these other things,” Georgiades explained.
FAN! currently has a mailing list of 12 people, but Georgiades hopes to expand the initiative’s reach and has future plans for a “Fat Babes Pool Party” as seen on the Hulu series “Shrill.” “It just seems like it would be such a beautiful thing. So that’s something that I want to do after, after COVID[-19], when it’s safe,” Georgiades said.
FAN! has begun compiling a list of changes to enact on campus to make Mount Holyoke accessible for all body types. These include seating without armrests, a larger range of sizes for Mount Holyoke apparel at the Odyssey Bookshop and more modifications in physical education classes in order to accommodate all people.
“I just know that a lot of fat folks experience feeling alienated in PE classes. I think that there can be more done in that area,” Georgiades said.
FAN! is still working on gaining traction with the Mount Holyoke community, hoping to get more people involved before approaching Mount Holyoke College to gain status as a student organization. With students divided between remote and on-campus locations, creating a student organization seems increasingly difficult.
“I am gonna need help [to achieve organization status]. I’m going to need someone who wants this as much as I do, and also someone who has the time to do this. … I just want to create a small group of people who are really invested in this so that we can kind of distribute the workload in terms of achieving org status,” Georgiades said.
According to Georgiades, there are things that individuals with thinner body types can do to help, specifically by analyzing their own relationships with body image.
“There’s an air of silence. People don’t interrupt fatphobia in other people, and that’s because people think of it as an internal thing where it’s ‘but I just think this about me’ and not actually thinking about the implications of their words,” Georgiades said.
To combat this, Georgiades recommended some general tips to broaden the perspective on fat acceptance: “Familiarizing yourself with the terminology is always great. [Interrupt] fatphobia when you see it, and also [look] at the media that you consume.”
If you or your friends have any interest in joining FAN!, contact Phoenix Georgiades ’22 at georg23p@mtholyoke.edu to join the mailing list.