We are in constant dialogue with fat. We consider where our fat lives on our bodies—how to grow it, contain it, remove it, and prevent it. We check fat grams and make choices about what types of fat to put into our bodies. The historical and contemporary absence of fat—whether in flesh or in food—is not benign but is typically governed by a range of disciplinary practices designed to keep fat at bay. The presence and history of fat is deeply embodied and deeply emotional but is also bound up in other structural zones of oppression and privilege. It is impossible to think about fat without thinking about colonialism, for example, and the ways that food, wellness, exercise, lifestyle, and health are profoundly and palpably shaped by a colonized landscape. Likewise, thinking about fat in and on, as well as taken into and expelled from, our bodies is inextricably bound up in thinking through our culture’s broader notions of normalcy and madness—how the self-governance and the individual responsibility required to adhere to main- stream views of health are inextricably entwined with the anxieties of neoliberalism.

Rinaldi, J., Rice, C., & Friedman, M. (2019). Introduction to Thickening Fat. In M. Friedman, C. Rice, & J Rinaldi (Eds.), Thickening fat: Fat studies, intersectionality and social justice (pp. 1–11). Routledge.