For California-based author and activist Virgie Tovar, the quest to end weight-based discrimination is a full-time job. Since January, she has traveled to London to meet with Meta about how online avatars can accurately represent plus-size people, called out Old Navy for reneging on its plus-size line and published an article on Forbes.com arguing that the American Academy of Pediatrics' controversial new recommendations regarding childhood obesity will contribute to harmful stigma and bias.

Tovar, who believes fiercely in celebrating fat joy, has also led a group of plus-size travelers through Italy, eating all the gelato and pasta with relish. She capped off that trip with a fabulous fashion shoot in Venice dressed in a frothy pink ball gown.

This Thursday, April 27, Tovar brings her energy and advocacy to the University of Vermont, where she will present a talk titled "Prioritizing Human Rights Over Health in the Conversation About Fat Bias." The free event at Ira Allen Chapel starts at 4:30 p.m.
VIRGIE TOVAR: I don't think it's either/or. Living a life free from stigma is a human right. Human rights don't have limitations or caveats. Like, we wouldn't say, "OK, every human deserves basic dignity and respect except people who wear glasses or have freckles." Certainly in the past we've said, "Every human gets dignity and respect except women and people of color," and we now realize how archaic and cruel that kind of thinking is.



It's important to remember that, just like the issue of weight and the insistence upon fat inferiority today, the issue of racial inferiority and gender inferiority were at one time also supported by the medical field, using the language of science to justify them. If dignity is not a right granted to every human, then it is, in essence, a tool that's used to delineate first-class citizens and second-class citizens.

SD: You recently wrote a beautiful essay about the joy and kinship of finding a vintage plus-size corset in Florence. What is the one message you'd want to share with your fellow fat people?
VT: Dear fellow fat people, you have the right to love yourself. There is nothing wrong with you. Your body is an incredible and magical inheritance. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

I've spent about 11 years reading almost every single thing about weight, and what I'm now 100 percent sure of is this: Your body likely will not fundamentally change in the long run, no matter how hard you try to change it. You will most likely always be a fat person, and, let me tell you, that isn't a bad thing. You are not a failed thin person. It is not and will never be your fault that we live in a culture that chooses to target and dehumanize you. Fatphobia is the problem, not you.

Protect yourself from fatphobia in the small ways that you can: Don't date people who expect you to lose weight. Stop crushing on people who only want to date thin people; they're fatphobes, not "awesome people" you'd have access to if you just finally shrunk your body. Don't be friends with people who refuse to stop using "fat" in a disparaging way. Give yourself permission to imagine a world where you can thrive.