Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You
Sofie Hagen

A searing and impassioned debut from comedian Sofie Hagen – who urges us to fight back and reframe our toxic relationships with our bodies.Sofie Hagen has always been fat. But after years of struggling with her body image and subjecting herself to countless diets, Sofie began to question the incessant body shaming and internalised fatphobia that she had always taken for granted. She started to worry less about fad diets and impossible beauty ideals and began to challenge the origins of these deep-seated aspirations.Happy Fat is a response to this exploration: part-memoir, part-social commentary, Sofie describes how she conquered a negative relationship with her body and provides practical tips for readers to do the same – drawing wisdom from fat liberation champions along the way.Covering topics from shame and sex to airplane seats, love and getting stuck in public toilets, Happy Fat shows us how taking up space in a culture that is desperate to reduce you can be radical and emboldening.Happy Fat is a celebration of the fat body: an agenda-setting call to arms to re-evaluate our current beauty standards and how we define our self-worth.

Copyright (#u1796858d-acde-5ad2-8ecb-b0c91f1e6f09)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thEstate.co.uk (http://www.4thEstate.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2019

Copyright © Sofie Hagen 2019

Sofie Hagen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Illustrations by Mollie Cronin (Art Brat Comics).

This book contains health- or medical-related materials or discussions. The content is the opinion of the author and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

This book is based on the author’s experiences. Some names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed, reconstructed or disguised to protect the identities of those involved.

All reasonable efforts have been made by the author and the publisher to trace the copyright holders of the images and material quoted in this book. In the event that the author or publisher are contacted by any of the untraceable copyright holders after the publication of this book, the author and the publisher will endeavour to rectify the position accordingly.

Cover photograph © Matt Crockett

All reasonable efforts have been made by the author and the publisher to trace the copyright holders of the images and material quoted in this book. In the event that the author or publisher are contacted by any of the untraceable copyright holders after the publication of this book, the author and the publisher will endeavour to rectify the position accordingly.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008293871

Ebook Edition © March 2019 ISBN: 9780008293888

Version: 2019-04-18

Dedication (#u1796858d-acde-5ad2-8ecb-b0c91f1e6f09)

To the canaries in the coal mine

Contents

Cover (#uaeb8c0fd-7957-5bb1-a6fa-3b29042d7b4d)

Title Page (#u6aaa02e6-cdab-5140-aef9-9b06be4e9a90)

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

PART ONE

1.My fat body

2.We need a fat Disney princess, and how to actually ask for one

Stephanie Yeboah

3.Public bathrooms and other places where fat people can get stuck

Dina Amlund

4.Clothes and why it’s okay to dress almost exclusively in orange

5.Love, friendship and fat fucking

Kivan Bay

6.Why you should chuck your scales in a bin

7.‘But what about health?’ But what about you shut up?

Matilda Ibini

PART TWO

8.How to be a good friend to fat people

9.How to love your body

10.Afterthought

Thank you

Recommendations

Footnotes

End notes