Where Does Fatphobia Come From? (Kate Manne)

Jan 25, 2024

Philosopher Kate Manne discusses fatphobia, debunking myths about thinness, health, and control. She highlights the mistreatment of fat individuals, the correlation between fitness and health outcomes, and the impact of societal beauty standards. The episode sheds light on the pervasive nature of fatphobia and its harmful effects.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia

02:44 • 17min

Learning from Remarkable Experts and a Masterclass Promo

19:30 • 2min

Fatphobia and its Origins

21:26 • 14min

The Benefits of Ritual's Essential for Women 18 Plus Multivitamin

35:46 • 2min

The Impact of Fatphobia and Medical Negligence

38:07 • 10min

The Correlation between Fitness and Health Outcomes

48:18 • 4min

Priming of Disgust and the Cultural Perception of Fat Bodies

51:54 • 8min

Challenging Beauty Standards and Appreciating Without Judgment

59:49 • 5min

“I think there's a lot of assumptions in play here that a good body is a thin one, a thin body is achievable, a thin body is achievable for everyone, and that you will be fully in control of your health and your mortality if you're thin, which is also just of course a myth. There are plenty of fat, healthy, happy people, and there are plenty of sadly unhealthy, thin people who should not be regarded as any more or less worthy than a fat person who suffers from a similar health condition. These people should be receiving, in most cases, just the same treatment. And yet, for the fat person who suffers from the same health condition, the prescription is weight loss, whereas for the thin person, they're given often closer to adequate medical care.”

So says, moral philosopher and Cornell professor Kate Manne, one of those brilliant and insightful observers of culture working today. She’s the author of two incredible books about misogyny—Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women and Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny—and has coined mainstream terms like “himpathy,” her word for the way we afford our sympathy to the male aggressor rather than the female victim. The example she uses is the trial of Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted Chanel Miller, and the way the judge and the media seemed more concerned about Turner’s sullied future than Miller’s experience and recovery.

Her newest book is just as essential: It’s called Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia and it explores Manne’s own experience of being a fat woman in our unabiding culture. If you read the Gluttony chapter of On Our Best Behavior, some of the material she explores will be familiar—but in Kate Manne style, she drives it all the way home. I love this conversation, which we’ll turn to now.