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“My body used to belong to me.”
From the opening sentence of You Have The Right To Remain Fat, Virgie Tovar is going hard. The self-described ‘fatshionista’ is also an academic, a body image expert, a bonne vivante and a revolutionary who “chose to stop dieting because [she] wanted to start living […] life rather than continue dreaming about it.”
This book is nothing short of a revelation. The subtitle “A Manifesto” is earned in short order as Tovar systematically breaks down various oppressions that intersect and contribute to fatphobia one by one, talking about issues of class, race, misogyny (while Tovar, as an activist, acknowledges and addresses fat activism as a cross-gender issue, this book is explicitly for women), and, above all, shame. It all comes back to shame, in her reading of things – the ugly self-policing, culturally and constantly reinforced, that results from shame felt at a failure to meet an impossible ideal.
I would describe this as one of the best books I’ve read on body positivity (along with The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor), except for the firm line in the sand that Tovar draws between body positivity and fat activism. So, it’s one of the best fat activist books I’ve ever read, but it’s not just that. Throughout the book, Tovar offers some of the most articulate feminist rhetoric for existing in an hostile world that I’ve read in ages.
The book is twelve chapters, each of which functions both as a stand-alone essay and an advance in the overall argument, and runs just under 120 pages. It would be a fast read but for the revelatory weight of the content – which is superb, and hard-hitting, but delivered with such warmth. Tovar isn’t preaching from a removed pulpit: she’s offering a hand and a message of liberation to her sisters:
“It is with great urgency that I write to women directly. Whatever I tell you in the following pages is told with the greatest desire to see women live the life we all deserve to live.”
Passionate, political, poignant – pick up this book!
