In September 2019 I attended the Female Allies to Large Women Workshop led by Teresa Enrico. 


Teresa explained how vicious large women’s oppression is, how it affects us, and how we have “thrown large women under the bus” [abandoned large women and treated them badly].


The following points were made:


• “Attractiveness” makes us compete with other women to attract men. We “sell out” [benefit at their expense] other women. For example, we don’t interrupt the constant fat oppression they face, we judge them, and we give them “helpful” advice.
• We women typically carry feelings that there is something bad and wrong about us. For example, my mother was disappointed that I was a girl—I have always felt that I am wrong in every cell. The large women asked allies to “learn to recognize the many flavors of self-hatred.”
• It is useful to tell the story of your body’s history. How has sexism and fat oppression affected your body from birth onward?
• We are doing this work to reclaim our minds. It is not about losing weight. It is about health and well-being.
• We need to discharge all assumptions about “pretty,” “ugly,” “thin,” and “fat.”
• We need to appreciate ourselves for the way we are and appreciate large women for the way they are. There is nothing wrong with any of us. We are also good, and we like each other.

On Sunday the allies met with the Large Women’s Workshop, led by Marion Ouphouet. This brought me face to face with how vicious and invisible fat oppression is. I am seeing more of the ways that internalized sexism limited my life and hurt me and women that I love and want to be closer to. I have made a commitment to work regularly on my preoccupation with weight, as well as on other patterns of internalized sexism, and on being an ally to large women—for myself, for large women, and for all women.