The other week, my good friend Heidi told our group chat that she had figured out how to start offering emergency contraception at her bookstore (available on a sliding scale for as little as $1!). “For the first time since the election, I feel happy and hopeful,” she wrote. This launched a whole discussion about how hopeless we’ve all been feeling since the election, but how yes, finding even just one concrete thing to do right now can help so much.
When the world is on fire, it can be very hard to know where to start. Is one thing enough? How do you pick your thing? Should we not just panic and spiral instead??
But I keep coming back to this idea:
Here at Burnt Toast, the thread we pull at, every week, is anti-fat bias.
We advocate for clothing accessibility and for size-inclusive healthcare; we talk about how to have conversations about these issues with loved ones, and we hold public figures accountable for their biases. Given how high the stakes of (gestures around at everything) feel right now, that work might now feel… too niche. But anti-fatness is rooted in racism and misogyny; it’s an inextricable part of the whole damn cloth.
This is why Burnt Toast is joining forces with NAAFA this month to fund fat.
Our goal is to raise $15,000 by December 31st, with your help.
If we hit it, Burnt Toast (as in me/the business), will match that with another $15,000.
That’s a combined $30,000 we can raise to support NAAFA in their crucial efforts to pass laws against weight discrimination in states and cities around the country.
You’ve heard me talk before about how state legislatures are our best defense against a Trump presidency; this will be doubly true as we watch Trump appoint established anti-fat healthcare leaders to key roles in the federal government. NAAFA also works tirelessly to build awareness around fat liberation and uplift community voices.
Here’s
, executive director of NAAFA, to tell you more about why this work matters right now:I also love how she explained it in her recent newsletter:
We know that fervor for Trump’s mass deportation promises will stir up hate and harm against immigrant communities regardless how the plans are actually carried out. We know that 2LGBTQIA+ rights will be reversed and that transgender people, in particular, will be in danger. We know that law and order policies that already disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities will be implemented in frightening ways. We know that reproductive rights are already eroding in many states. Across the government, at every level, we are likely to see safety nets unraveling and essential support diminishing for people in the most marginalized communities.
There are fat people in all of those communities.
On top of all of the life-threatening changes they will be facing, they will also be facing medical weight bias, anti-fat employment discrimination, and housing insecurity compounded by size discrimination. Racial stereotypes will be compounded by anti-fat stereotypes for the BIPOC communities that will certainly experience more violence. Reproductive health options will be limited by BMI cutoffs and ineffective products for higher-weight people. Fat people who are displaced will need extended size clothes. Fat people who are enduring food scarcity will be told they couldn’t possibly actually need food.
These concerns, and more, have always been present at the intersections of fat justice and other causes. So, when people ask why we should focus on fat activism when there are so many pressing things to worry about, here’s the answer: fat liberation is part of every urgent social justice issue.
I know there are many donation requests in your inbox today, but there are over 63,000 of you reading this email. If everyone donated just $1, we would exceed this goal four times over! If a donation isn’t an option for you right now, you can also support us by forwarding this email to a few friends or amplifying our work on social media — I’ll be joining NAAFA for an Instagram Live to discuss this at 1pm Eastern today!
Thanks so much for being in this corner with us!
We Need Your Questions!
Corinne and I are recording your December Indulgence Gospel tomorrow, so we need your:
Holiday questions! Dealing with relatives/gift ideas/fat travel/etc! We are good at all of it.
Sex and dating questions! I personally loved our fat dating episode so much, and think Corinne gives the smartest advice, so I’m lobbying for an Ask Corinne segment on the pod now (sure, I’ll have opinions too!). Send us some juicy personal situations to weigh in on! This can be specific to the fat dating experience, or just whatever you’re dealing with rn.
You can drop Qs in the comments here, hit reply to this email, or for max privacy, drop them in this Google Form.
Tuesday Links & Recs
If you need a spicy, fat positive romance that is also seasonally appropriate, I really cannot stan A Jingle Bell Mingle hard enough for you. Read it by the fire last Saturday and it was bliss (as is the whole trilogy!).
(Because somebody always asks: Here’s that amazing blanket I’m under, yes it is the coziest.)
Love this conversation on powerlifting between our own
and . Great read if you’re heavy-things-curious.Also, here’s Corinne on the very best pants.
I was on WBUR’s Endless Thread podcast recently to discuss our fixation with Stanley Cups and WaterTok. (Here’s the essay I originally wrote about this ICYMI.)
OG Burnt Toastie Roxy made sure to let me know about this butter shirt and she was correct to do so!!!
I love my life with my kids, but I also love this essay by
about what comes next. wrote her antifeminist origin story.Could not resist a few more of these sweet rings when they went on sale yesterday.
Dying to make this roast chicken and bread salad soon.
Very excited for
’s forthcoming book on toxic budget culture!!The hidden costs of chronic accommodation. Oof.
One of my fav science journalists (also a Burnt Toastie!)
wrote about how to advocate for weight-inclusive care at the doctor’s office and it’s so good.Love this by
on why the Wicked body speculation is so unhelpful.
Thank you for making it so easy to donate to a worthy cause!
I spent part of the day figuring out donations for 2025. This year I donated to two local safety nets, women's reproductive health, and my local library, which tends to a growing homeless community. NAAFA will be my 5th donation. Thank you for this post. Each one pull one.