Fat Is A Way Of Saying No

The Insistence That The Commercialisation Of The Body Is A Fit Subject For Political Discussion And Intervention Is Well Overdue.

Our Idea Of A Healthy Body Is So Destabilised That Insecure People Have Come To Bolster Their Own Bodies By Deeming Others - Those With Fat Bodies - Less Worthy, Less Capable And Less Employable.

Being Able To Provoke A Different Point Of View To The Standard Current Ideological Or Political Perspective As Played Out In Conventional Newspaper Or Radio Reportage Is What A Public Intellectual Does. But It's Not Merely About Being Oppositional, Because That's Too Negative.

Emotional Literacy Means Being Able To Recognise What You Are Feeling, So That It Doesn't Interfere With Thinking. It Becomes Another Dimension To Draw Upon When Making Decisions Or Encountering Situations. Emotional Expression By Contrast Can Mean Being Driven By Emotions, So That It Isn't Possible To Think. These Two Things Are Often Confused, Because We Are Still Uncomfortable With The Idea Of The Validity Of Feelings.

I Wish We Could Treat Our Bodies As The Place We Live From, Rather Than Regard It As A Place To Be Worked On, As Though It Were A Disagreeable Old Kitchen In Need Of Renovation And Update.