When someone criticizes our favorite works — whether it’s a book, movie, workshop, song, blog or painting — it can feel really bad. And that’s putting it mildly.

When someone disagrees with us over a minor issue of aesthetics or style, it’s easy enough to either debate, or agree to disagree. But what about when we find out that people and works we admire aren’t as great as we thought?

When a person in a marginalized group points out that a work you really love hurts them in some way, it can be hard to put our attachment to the work and its creator aside long enough to listen. It’s time to learn to process our feelings about criticism and use them as fuel for our anti-oppression work in the world. 

This 15-page workbook contains 34 questions for study, reflection and journaling to spark your awareness of—and help you confront—weight stigma and oppression. These questions are an opportunity to grow in your own anti-oppression and Health at Every Size® alignment and knowledge, and work on fatphobic beliefs and tendencies. They are not comfortable questions, but they’re important.

The entire workbook is printable at 8.5×11″ paper size and contains space for your reflections so that you can fill it out in your preferred format.

(As in all Lindley’s works, the word “fat” is used as a neutral descriptor for large bodies.)

Image description: A fat white woman in a sleeveless floral dress stands holding a red suitcase and looking out over water. Text on the image reads, “A fat person criticized your favorite author. What happens now? Unpacking Weight Stigma 1. Questions for reflection for fat allies and Health at Every Size® practitioners. Lindley Ashline.”