Virgie Tovar
Virgie Tovar, MA is an author, activist and one of the nation’s leading experts and lecturers on fat discrimination and body image. She is the editor of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, 2012). She holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. Virgie has been featured by MTV, the San Francisco Chronicle, Bust Magazine, and Jezebel, as well as on Women’s Entertainment Television and The Ricki Lake Show. She is a babely multi-racial femme and uppity apostate who lives in San Francisco. Find her online at www.virgietovar.com.
Read Virgie Tovar
How Body Positivity Helped Me Go No-Contact With My Family
Date: April 3, 2021, 9:20 pm
Content note: this article discusses childhood abuse and self-harm; those paragraphs have green text.After working in fat liberation and body positivity for about a decade, I am super familiar with the power of this kind of work. In short, it transforms people and it often does so in unexpected ways. When we reconnect with our body, it doesn’t just mean we may have more confidence or a better relationship to the mirror. It means we reconnect to the information superhighway [...]
What Is Weight Discrimination & How Does It Affect Us? UCLA Researcher A. Janet Tomiyama Has Answers
Date: June 21, 2020, 1:13 am
A. Janet Tomiyama, Ph.D., is an associate professor at UCLA. She studies health psychology and social psychology.Tovar: How did you end up researching weight discrimination?Tomiyama: I first studied low calorie dieting and why it didn't work. The evidence was so overwhelming that restrictive dieting was counterproductive. The many non-academics I talked to all seemed to know that already, yet they kept starting new diets. The question for me was: Why?? Why would peop [...]
Rebel Eaters Club Self-Love Coffee Scrub
Date: May 3, 2020, 9:28 pm
This post was inspired by my preparations for the Rebel Eaters Club pajama party, happening May 16 thanks to Netflix Party! I love making DIY body care products, but I can't handle anything that requires an emulsion blender or more than 3 ingredients. Hence... this coffee scrub that I love so much. All you need is: >Coffee grounds I recommend un-used coffee grounds (grounds that haven't been exposed to water), but used grounds are fine if you're going to use the scrub soon. W [...]
YHTRTRF Is On the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List
Date: May 17, 2019, 12:20 am
You Have the Right to Remain Fat is on the Amelia Bloomer List! The Amelia Bloomer List is a project of the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. Since 2002, the Amelia Bloomer Project has created an annual booklist of the best feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18.Books I have a crush on that are also on the list in the category of young adult non-fiction: Abdulali, Sohaila. [...]
Meet Bayley, Counselor #1 @ Camp Thunder Thighs
Date: May 4, 2019, 12:17 am
In 8 weeks, I'll be in the woods of Sausalito, California with about 30 babes leading Camp Thunder Thighs. It's my reimagining of the concept of Fat Camp. Instead of scales, there will be s'mores. Instead of punitive exercise, there will be jiggling. Instead of calorie-counting, there will be patriarchy-smashing. I'm beyond, beyond that I'll be doing this work alongside an excellent human and fellow Taurus, Bayley. Bayley Van is a full time fashion fatty. She rocks fat fashion from t [...]
