Going with the Gut: Fatness and Erotic Knowledge in Black Feminist Theories of the Body

Abstract:I argue that several Black feminists theorize fatness as a marginalized form of embodiment that should be reclaimed as a source of pleasure and abundance. Tracing the history of anti-fat bias back to its roots as a vehicle of racialized bodily control, we learn that the fat Black body has always served as a threat to white colonial power. Turning to Black feminist texts, from the writing of Audre Lorde and bell hooks to Zadie Smith's 2005 novel On Beauty, offers alternatives to this account of fatness, finding instead beauty, self-love, and political solidarity in fat Black women's bodies.