The Year in Fat Joy!
An extremely unofficial but wildly opinionated ranking of the best in fat positive pop culture this year.
Yes, 2024 has been the (second) year of Ozempic. Yes, the Wicked witches are shrinking. Protein girlies (of all genders) are thriving. Anytime I’m interviewed, I’m asked if the fight for fat acceptance is dead and if you only look at Instagram’s For You page, I can understand the question because ours remains a thin-dominated culture.
But fat joy is still happening. Fat art is still happening. Fat resistance is still happening.
And a key part of the Burnt Toast mission is to make sure you know about it. So here, presented in no particular order, are my ten favorite fat pop culture moments of the past year.
If you appreciate these fat moments —and want more work on fat joy and body liberation in 2025!— please consider joining Extra Butter.
Extra Butter is our premium subscription tier. It’s $99 for the year, and gets you behind every single paywall including everything I write about my divorce, dating while fat, when fat influencers lose weight, and so much more fat joy. Extra Butter also keeps Burnt Toast an ad- and sponsor-free space, which is critical to the work we’re doing here.
2024 Top Fat Joys
1. Somebody, Somewhere, starring Bridget Everett
This show has had my whole heart since it’s first season, and I’ll leave it to true Midwesterners like Lyz Lenz to explain its brilliance. But on the fat rep front, I will say: This is the rare show that centers a fat woman without making the show have anything to do with her weight…until Episode 3 of Season 3, when Sam experiences the kind of thoroughly normalized, mundane, medical anti-fatness in exactly the way millions of us have experienced it. It’s a deeply authentic, understated. and nuanced portrayal of what happens to fat people in the doctor’s office and weaves beautifully into the rest of the storyline without becoming the entire storyline.
Also, Bridget Everett is one of my forever crushes, and I watch this clip of her singing Janis Joplin at least four times a week. How is she so talented?! How does she get a tube top to stay put like that?!? Come on the Burnt Toast podcast, Bridget, I have so many questions for you.
2. Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne
I already knew
was brilliant and that Unshrinking is a groundbreaking book that connects the dots between misogyny and anti-fatness in ways that will make you reconsider your high school experiences and also the very fabric of our society. But it’s nice to see that the National Book Awards and The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024 list also got the memo.
PS. If you are also a Kate fan, you should know that she wrote the most beautiful foreword for the paperback edition of Fat Talk, which is out now!
3. Moo Deng!!!
What is there even left to say about the raw beauty and power of Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo/fat icon who stole the Internet’s heart this year. She is perpetually yelling or asleep, and enjoys food like it’s her job. As a mother, I could dream no bigger for my daughters.
4. Your Fat Friend, directed by Jeanie Finlay, starring Aubrey Gordon
Okay, technically this film debuted in 2023—but it came to streaming in 2024, so I’m counting it. Jeanie Finlay is just a beyond genius filmmaker and excellent human and this creative collaboration with Aubrey is Fat Canon. I think about moments from this film constantly. It’s a cathartic watch for any fat person, but it’s an even more important (if uncomfortable) watch for anyone who loves a fat person. Also, Pam Forever. (All the where to watch details here.)
5. Tigress Osborn on the Time100 Health
How much does it matter for the fat, Black director of NAAFA to be honored on a list that also includes the CEO of Novo Nordisk (manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy)? A whole fucking lot, actually. Tigress Osborn and NAAFA work tirelessly to end weight discrimination in healthcare—a fight that’s only gotten harder since semaglutide took over modern medicine.
We are now HALFWAY to our goal of raising $15,000 for NAAFA to continue this vital work — will you join us?
Burnt Toast is matching every dollar donated up to another $15,000! This will give Tigress and her team a combined $30,000 to put towards their lobbying and education efforts next year.
6. Bridgerton Season 3, starring Nicola Coughlan
It is a truth semi-universally acknowledged that Nicola Coughlan is not technically fat—she is a petite midsize queen playing a fat character, as we discussed on the podcast, and I broke down further with
here. But she is both a member of the Perfect Breasts Club, and a non-normative body type for Hollywood and that put her in the crosshairs of anti-fatness this year when her Bridgerton character, Penelope Featherington was bumped from supporting cast to romantic heroine, playing opposite a conventionally hot (?) guy. We had to grapple, as a society, with the concept of a “mixed weight relationship.” (Otherwise known as…every relationship!!!) A lot of men were annoying about it. But we did get that carriage scene—and took a step towards Hollywood recognizing that fat women are hot af.7. Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Housemates is a fantastic story of friendship, love, queerness, art, and road trips. And Emma is one of my favorite thinkers about how fatness gets depicted in fiction, so the way she approaches her fat protagonist is just refreshingly unlike anything else I’ve read. And not the point, but she’s also an incredibly good dresser, as we discussed in detail in her podcast episode.
8. Kameron Saunders, Eras Tour Dancer
This one was nominated by Burnt Toastie
, who writes:I have to shout out my fav. Kam Saunders. for being the best dancer ever on the Eras Tour- he wrote a really beautiful post about how seen and valued he felt throughout the tour and he has spoken about breaking away from restrictive eating habits that he thought he needed to do to be in the dance community. I took a pic of his caption because I’m always here for Kam. My boys and I will miss his Bejeweled dance the most.
9. Empire Waist, directed by
I cried when I watched a screener of Empire Waist prior to interviewing director Claire Ayoub for the podcast, but I REALLY cried while watching it again last week with my 11-year-old. (Except stealthily this time, because major displays of mom emotion are not cool, obvs.) It’s just such a tender, funny, joyful coming of age story, centering on the friendship of two fat protagonists who love and see each other exactly as they are. Now streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and more —watch it with your favorite middle schooler (I’d say honestly fine for ages 9 and up?), thank me later.
10. by
I am SO PROUD that we expanded the Burnt Toast universe to launch Corinne’s newsletter about clothes this year. Indulgence Gospel listeners already know how funny and brilliant Corinne is, but her writing is just so good. And while Big Undies is not exclusively about dressing as a fat person, it is one of the few fashion newsletters written by a fat person who considers size inclusivity in every item linked. Corinne also writes about clothes from a queer, gender-inclusive lens (something else generally missing in fashion writing!!!). Even if you don’t think you care about fashion writing, you should be reading Corinne.
PS. And Extra Butter subscribers get a 20 percent discount on a Big Undies subscription—so that’s another great reason to join us today!
Not to be a suck-up, but I’d add “Burnt Toast” to the list. You’ve given me great joy and camaraderie throughout the year…a bad year for the country, but also for me personally. “Indulgence Gospel,” like “Somebody Somewhere” (OMG, how I love that show!) always makes me feel I am among friends. Many thanks to you (and to Corinne…I love Big Undies, too!)
How does Bridget Everett not have all the Emmys, ffs!!
Also Corinne! I do not care about fashion writing or even want to buy clothes most of the time, and I love reading Big Undies.