What Do We Call This Thing We're Doing?
Because maybe anti-diet journalism isn't quite it. (Also: We have a Preorder Giveaway for FAT TALK!)
Friday Thread: Is Anti-Diet Enough?
I’ve been describing the work I do here on Burnt Toast as “independent, anti-diet journalism” since I initially launched the full newsletter and podcast in June 2021. You read that tag line at the top of every email and hear it at the end of every podcast, and whenever I talk about the work that paid subscriptions support here. (Reminder! Those are 20 percent off today!) And when I landed on “anti-diet journalism,” it felt like the most all-encompassing way to say: I write and think about how we relate to food and bodies in an oppressive culture that gives us so many unrealistic messages, expectations and pressures, and within patriarchal, racist, anti-fat systems that so often make eating and having a body unsafe. Which is a more accurate way to say, it but not very zippy!
But I’ve been thinking for awhile that maybe “anti-diet” doesn’t say explicitly enough what we do and stand for here. And talking to Jessica Wilson for yesterday’s podcast drove home why: “Diet culture” is real and harmful, but if we only talk about diet culture, we can avoid naming the specific biases that underpin and create diet culture. I think “anti-diet” (along with intuitive eating and Division of Responsibility) are useful starting points for so many of us, especially, as Jessica notes, white women. But we can stay too focused on the personal project of breaking up with diets (important! life affirming!) and not move on to the bigger work of advocating for folks in bodies more marginalized than our own.
Don’t worry, we’ll still debunk diets here. I’ll still answer your nitty gritty questions about how to get diet culture out of your family’s food culture and how to talk about anti-fat bias with your mom/co-workers/partner/neighbor’s cousin hawking BeachBody. We can still deal with the personal issues, because the personal is political. But I want a tag line that better encompasses the full spectrum of the work we’re doing: Talking about the intersections of anti-fatness and racism, ageism, and ableism. Advocating for weight-inclusive healthcare and weight-inclusive clothing options and ability-inclusive fitness. Political activism (we need to start working on getting these laws against weight discrimination passed!). And so on.
So I’ve been playing around with “body liberation journalism,” (you’ll hear that on the next few podcasts) which feels closer. But I’d love your vote!
If you have better ideas, please, please, please drop them in the comments. I’d also love to hear how these terms resonate with you: Was anti-diet your entry point? Does that mean it still serves us, as this newsletter IS an entry point for so many folks? Or am I right that we are outgrowing it? Or maybe you got to the diet-y stuff after you found fat community and fat activism, and so one of those terms feels more authentic to you? Language is forever evolving in so many fascinating ways and I can’t wait to discuss this.
PS. As always, be cool, be kind, and follow our Thread Ground Rules.
FAT TALK Preorder Giveaway!
I know I’ve been telling you relentlessly to preorder and so many of you have—THANK YOU. Now comes the fun part: The swag! My fantastic marketing people at Henry Holt have put together the cutest “influencer boxes,” which they’ll be sending out to (as you might expect) various influencers who we hope will help talk up the book on social media. The boxes include:
A copy of FAT TALK (of course)
A box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix (world’s best brownie mix, IYKYK)
A limited edition set of five FAT TALK postcards
And they’ve set aside two of these boxes for me to raffle off for anyone who preorders the book! For a chance to win, just preorder FAT TALK anywhere you buy books (here’s where to preorder your signed copy, here are all the other places to order in hardcover or e-book, and here’s the audiobook, narrated by me!). Then fill out this Google Form or email your receipt to virginiasolesmith.assistant@gmail.com.
The post cards are super fun. Some are blank and some contain suggestions — like write a breakup note to your diet, or a love note to a fat kid. You can mail them, write them for yourself, or post them on social media with #fattalklovenotes.
Everyone who enters gets a digital set of the postcards to download and we’ll draw two gift box winners at random on April 25. (Digital downloads are for everyone but we can only ship boxes to US and Canada, sorry!)
Friday Links and Recs
This has been a horrendous week, yet again, to be a child, parent, teacher or school staff member in America. I haven’t written or posted about it because I’m out of words for what it means to live like this. But I am so grateful to
who wrote this on Tuesday and previously published this, which I refer back to when I need to figure out how to talk about the impossible with my kids.I think our sliver of hope right now really does come down to flipping state legislatures blue and then holding them accountable to passing gun reform. This isn’t getting anywhere in Washington. So a reminder that our Burnt Toast Giving Circle is still going and has raised over $5,100 for state elections in Virginia, a critical race this year. You can join us here.
Also this, alll day long:
OK, but we also need to laugh to survive, so I’m also grateful to
for the best analysis of Bridget Jone's Diary ever published.
I got this reader comment on Instagram this week, in response to a meme about women always trying to out-salad each other with their restaurant orders and it is THE BEST HACK for diffusing diet culture in social gatherings: