A new study published in Sex Roles reveals a clear divide among women who identify as fat over whether their size is a feminist issue. The research, conducted in the United States, involved 20 self-identified fat or overweight women and sought to understand how they frame feminism in relation to body size. The work is led by Breanne Fahs, a professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State University, alongside Eric Swank, and is based on in-depth interviews conducted by Fahs herself.
The study engages with the concept of anti-fatness, a form of prejudice directed at larger bodies that feminist scholars link to traditional gender roles and beauty norms. Fahs explains that American society “is often fixated on how women look,” with messages from parents, partners, peers, and strangers contributing to a culture of “thin idealization” that can drive women to fear weight gain and to pursue restrictive diets or negative body self-perception.
Historical context frames the discussion: in the 1970s, second‑wave feminists warned that slenderness could harm women, which helped give rise to the notion that “fat is a feminist issue.” Fahs notes that in the past two decades, social movements challenging fat stigma have grown, with groups such as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) highlighted as taking a leadership role in this debate.
Beyond theory, the researchers emphasise the tangible disparities in how fat women experience society compared with fat men. In one cited study, fat women were 16 times more likely than fat men to report weight-related job discrimination, and broader findings suggest harsher judgments of fat women’s parenting and more frequent denial of loans, promotions or housing. By contrast, fat men tend to encounter fewer overt stigmas in everyday life.
Fahs and Swank set out to discover how fat women themselves talk about these issues and whether they recognise the gendered dimensions of weight stigma that academics often discuss. Fahs observes that much prior research has examined the causes and consequences of fat hatred, but “the way fat women view feminism has mostly been overlooked.”
The interview-based study recruited participants through local classifieds on Craigslist, aiming for geographic diversity, with women aged 27 to 66 (average 40). Half of the participants were women of colour, 40 per cent identified as bisexual or lesbian, and body weights ranged from under 200 pounds to over 300 pounds. All 20 interviews were conducted by Fahs via video calls and lasted about 90 minutes each, focusing on bodies, social experiences and political perspectives. The core questions explored whether participants considered themselves feminists and whether they believed fatness was a feminist issue, with feminism left undefined so respondents could answer in line with their own understanding.
The responses revealed a nuanced disconnect between personal identification and political framing. Thirteen women explicitly identified as feminists, three said they might use the label for certain issues, and four rejected it entirely. When asked whether fatness is a feminist issue, the group was split: eight said yes, four said maybe, and eight said no. Among those who identified as feminists, some maintained that fatness is not a feminist issue, while one participant, Marge, rejected the feminist label but still argued the case for fatness being a feminist concern.
The researchers outline six distinct themes in how the participants evaluated the link between fatness and feminism. Three themes supported the connection, including four participants who highlighted gendered double standards and a broader pattern in which society accepts fat men as funny or relatable while fat women face sharper disapproval. Three women described fatness as a central criterion by which women are judged, tying social worth to appearance.
Overt discrimination emerged as one of the most common themes linking the topics, with four participants citing institutional barriers in hiring, healthcare and media representation as evidence of a broader feminist problem. Fahs notes that participants described discrimination across workplaces, hospitals, schools and families against women who are fat.
Conversely, three themes rejected the association, with three women arguing that fatness is not a feminist issue and that weight is a matter of personal responsibility or lifestyle. Two participants asserted that fat stigma affects people of all genders equally and should not be framed as a women’s issue. A final theme saw three participants argue that fat women deserve ridicule, presenting teasing as a natural consequence of body size or a motive to lose weight.
Fahs emphasised the diversity of views, noting that some participants recognised gender inequality while others embraced anti-fat attitudes, which the researchers suggest could indicate internalised stigma or a form of anti-feminism, or simply a belief that struggles around weight are personal rather than political. The authors contend that framing fatness as a political issue could help challenge anti-fat bias and reduce self-blame, although evidence from the small sample cautions against over-generalising.
Several caveats accompany the findings. The study’s small size—20 women recruited through Craigslist during the COVID-19 pandemic—limits how representative the results are of the broader US population of fat women. The questions about feminism followed roughly an hour of discussion focused on fatness, which may have biased responses. Researchers used self-identification for feminism rather than measuring specific beliefs, a nuance that may have shaped answers, especially given some participants’ associations of feminism with the #MeToo movement or perceived extremes. Both Fahs and Swank identify as fat feminists, and Fahs conducted all 20 interviews herself, a factor the authors acknowledge could influence participants’ responses. Future research using standardized surveys could help clarify how widespread these viewpoints are across a larger population.
The study is titled Does Fatness Politicize Women? Fat Women’s Narratives on Whether Fatness is a Feminist Issue, and it is co‑authored by Breanne Fahs and Eric Swank.
