Body Diversity & Weight Inclusion Work Group

Body Diversity and Weight Inclusion Work Group

The UC Berkeley Body Diversity and Weight Inclusion Work Group, comprised of faculty, staff, and student representatives, promotes a campus environment that embraces community members of all shapes, sizes, and social identities. We aim to mitigate anti-fat bias and other cultural and environmental risk factors for disordered eating and exercise. The group meets regularly to better understand these issues on campus and in our own lives, creates and shares recommendations for improving the campus environment and culture, and supports a culture shift towards a campus that celebrates bodies of all shapes and sizes. To get involved, please contact the work group at bodydiversity@berkeley.edu. 

Events

Fall Semester: Body Acceptance Week (October)

Body Acceptance Week is an exciting, new initiative promoting body acceptance—including body positivity, body neutrality, and body liberation—for all.

Research shows that body dissatisfaction is a leading risk factor in the development of an eating disorder. As part of NEDA’s commitment to eating disorder prevention, Body Acceptance Week provides resources, education, and support for those experiencing body dissatisfaction and its associated risk factors.

In celebration of #BodyAcceptanceWeek, take the body affirmation pledge to show your commitment to body acceptance for yourself and others.

Learn more >

Spring Semester: Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February/March)

Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) is an annual campaign to educate the public about the realities of eating disorders and to provide hope, support, and visibility to individuals and families affected by eating disorders.

Presentations

Weight-Based Discrimination

Weight-Based Discrimination & Anti-Fatness 101

By Virgie Tovar, MA

Description: Weight-based discrimination and fatphobia are normalized through current medical/health paradigms, which pathologize the fat body as unnatural, unhealthy, and undeserving of care. These paradigms have been critiqued for being unsupported empirically and for facilitating the poor treatment of people in larger bodies. Viewing fat bodies through the lens of medicine/health limits our ability to understand that ending weight-based discrimination is an urgent human rights issue above all else. In this intersectional primer, expect to learn the basics of what weight-based discrimination and fatphobia are, how they manifest explicitly and implicitly, theories on their origins, a review of some of the literature that tracks their impacts (from medical bias leading to less frequent preventive care for fat patients to the bias that leads to a wage gap between plus-size women and straight-size women), as well as short and long term solutions. This session is led by Virgie Tovar, author of four books (including You Have the Right to Remain Fat and The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color) and contributor for Forbes.com, where she covers the plus-size market and how to end weight discrimination at work.

Presentation Slides

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Resources

UHS Resources

Podcasts

News articles & Blog posts

Academic articles 

Websites