{The Body Liberation Guide} The planned obsolescence of activists

Hi friend,

It happened again two weeks ago. One of our most beloved community members got a day job.

So much for her Instagram and podcast episodes and programs and the endless hours of support she gave the fat community.

I don’t know if that particular activist has announced her career change publicly, so I won’t name her.

This happens all the time. One of the most well-known body-positive and fat-positive activists of all time, one who reached a certain amount of mainstream fame and published multiple books, has dropped out of sight in the last few years.

I don’t know her personally, but the community grapevine informed me that despite all her seeming success (and quite a bit of body privilege), she couldn’t make a living from her work.

Let’s talk about accountability.

When we think about accountability, we generally think about individual people either being accountable or held accountable to others for their actions.

But what if we also consider accountability when it comes to communities?

What do we owe our activists, who are often some of the most marginalized among us?

When our activists can’t keep a roof over their heads no matter how many hours they work, what does that say about our community values?

When I say “community” today, I mean both fat folks and our allies and accomplices.

This is where I get really blunt with you: why is it that we value the work of the most marginalized the least?

How is it that a number of thin white women have built well-paid speaking and writing platforms on their body positivity and fat positivity, but another fat activist in a fat body drops out of sight every single week because we didn’t support them and they burnt out?