Weight and Wisdom
Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation
edited by
Nancy Ellis-Ordway & Tigress Osborn
Foreword by Caleb Luna
January 2025
Original trade paperback $25 | 264 pp | ISBN: 9781597191036
Ebook $9.99 | ISBN: 9781597191043
About the editors — Nancy Ellis-Ordway, Tigress Osborn | Library Request Form (PDF)
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Over the last 50 years in the United States, the medical establishment, the beauty industry, and the mainstream media have relentlessly forwarded the belief that fat is unattractive and unhealthy. While many believe that anti-fat ideas went unchallenged until the rise of body positivity, there have always been resistors. In the worlds of eating disorders treatment, Health at Every Size® advocacy, and fat activism, challengers to our cultural narratives have championed another way for decades.
In this collection, 34 of those trailblazing rebels against body oppression voice the history of challenging the status quo and working to create a world where all bodies are valued. The result is a multifaceted compilation of stories from researchers, legal experts, clinicians, scholars, and activists who pushed back against weight bias and all its various harmful practices and outcomes. Through interviews and personal essays, Weight and Wisdom documents untold stories, reflects on shortcomings and successes, and invites readers to continue cross-generational dialogues to ensure body liberation.
Contributors: Francie Berg, MS; Gayle Brooks, PhD; Harriet Brown, MFA; Barbara Altman Bruno, PhD, DCSW; Deb/Debby Burgard, PhD, FAED; Ragen Chastain, MEd, BCPA; Carmen Cool, MA, LPC; Carolyn Costin, MA, MEd, MFT, FAED, CEDS; Rev. E-K Daufin, PhD; Amy Baker Dennis, PhD, FAED, FACT; Peggy Elam, PhD; Bill Fabrey BSEE; Peggy A. Howell, RMT, CMT; Dalia Kinsey, RD, LD; Michael P. Levine, PhD; Caleb Luna, PhD; Pat Lyons, RN, MA; Margo Maine, PhD; FAED, CEDS; Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW; Allegra O’Hara, BA; Lily O’Hara, PhD, MPH; Tigress Osborn, MFA; Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S, FIAEDP, FADA, FAND; Jon Robison, PhD, MS, MA, Certified Intrinsic Coach®; Esther Rothblum, Ph.D.; Dana Schuster, MS; Brandie Solovay, BA, JD; Sondra Solovay, JD; Carol Squires, BS; Lisa Tealer, BS; Pattie Thomas, PhD; Marilyn Wann, MA; Rosie Young, MSW.
PRAISE for Weight and Wisdom
“It is more than a breath of fresh air. It feels like a soft, fleshy, warm hug from the living ancestors who have been on the front lines of this movement for decades….These stories fill in the gaps of how this movement was founded, the shapes it has taken, the stumbling blocks, outright failures, and successes.”
Caleb Luna, PhD
from the foreword to Weight and Wisdom
“Tigress and Nancy have done a great service by compiling this incredible anthology that is both political and deeply, deeply personal. Weight and Wisdom is an invaluable fat liberation history created by many of the very people who shaped the movement over the years. This is a must read for activists, advocates, and anyone who believes in creating a world where fat people can thrive.”
Aubrey Gordon
Co-host of Maintenance Phase podcast & creator of Your Fat Friend online essay series;
author of What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat & “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People
“What a book! What a piece of art! This is what you get when you connect writers in the activist space to speak on the intersectional experiences that they have both lived and witnessed!
“This book is an essential read for those looking to understand the origins, present day, and future of fat liberation. Stories are masterfully crafted to draw readers in even if you are someone who has never experienced the harsh realities of weight stigma.
“Weight and Wisdom: Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation provides a necessary foundation to have no nonsense conversations about the ways that modern society is complicit and more so, emboldened to declare that fat bodies so not deserve the same liberties, resources, and joy that smaller bodies readily partake of. It also (and rightfully so) reifies those with ample flesh to take up space unapologetically, offering a big middle finger to a world that is hell bent on seeing us suffer. Simply put, I love it here!”
Joy Cox PhD
author of Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Communities of Our Own
“If you’re already familiar with the body liberation movement, Weight and Wisdom will bring you so much joy — many of the people you’ve heard of and learned from are speaking to you directly in this book about their work and lives. I am so grateful to these contributors, and though I’ve been writing about body liberation for decades, I learned things and made connections I didn’t know. If you’re new to body liberation, Weight and Wisdom will draw you in, inspire you, and place you in a lineage you may have never known existed. The truth is, you are firmly held; your body loved and valued by those you’ve never met.
“Weight and Wisdom is expertly woven from insightful essays, eyewitness accounts, discussions, and oral histories about body liberation. The editors present an emotional tapestry that shows how local community efforts and social change efforts merge with personal need, political rage and creativity. Weight and Wisdom explores the history of various groups that have resisted fat people’s erasure. And, be clear, the vibrancy of our lives continue to be erased by the white supremacist, colonial, capitalist diet industries. Showing up and living well and boldly is one step that each person can take when possible, and then, collective action and deeper analysis contribute to the education and agitation to make a safe world for all bodies. Weight and Wisdom blesses us by teaching which people and what work has come before us. Weight and Wisdom will make you feel less lonely and more powerful in your own body liberation efforts.”
Kimberly Dark
sociologist
author of Fat, Pretty and Soon to be Old: A Makeover for Self and Society
“Storytelling is tremendously powerful. It helps us create a rich tapestry of human experiences and ideas, allowing us to understand the past and gain deeper context about where we are today. As someone who is still relatively new to this field, I am deeply grateful for the contributions in Weight and Wisdom: Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation. The progress we’ve made in the fat liberation movement would not have been possible without the work shared in this book.”
Aaron Flores, RDN
Certified Body Trust Specialist
“An important collection of short memoirs describing aspects of the first several decades of contributions to eating disorders and/or the weight-based oppression of fat people. While not exhaustive, it is an excellent history documenting the beginning efforts to challenge the cultural efforts to oppress and stigmatize bodies based on an ideal shape and size.”
Chevese Turner
Founder, Binge Eating Disorder Association
Co-author of Binge Eating Disorders: The Journey to Recovery & Beyond
Co-founder of Weight Stigma Awareness Week
Lived Experience Recovery Coach
“This is a collection of very human stories from people who were there at the time. Some are fond memories of a time of community and hope. Others reflect on mistakes made and harms done. Yet others speak of still-raw wounds. Yet we all continue to fight. That is the one thing everybody agrees on—this is worth fighting for. But the fight is still harder for some people than for others. This book of personal recollections reminds us that we can, and should, build on what has already been done—we don’t need to start over every generation—and we can learn from the mistakes that were made and do better.”
Angela Meadows, PhD
weight stigma researcher, University of Essex, UK
founder of the Annual International Weight Stigma Conference
“Weight and Wisdom…is the essay collection that has been missing in body liberation literature.”
Reading While Fat blog