At the Fat Studies Reader book release reading. Photo by Max Airborne.
"Flabulous," an award-winning 2009 documentary about Marilyn Wann from student filmmakers at Tamalpais High School.
"Fat Chicks," by Karole Langlois.
"The Yay! Scale Surprise," by Beloit College students. (2011)
"Ladies Night Out" By Lizzie Sterling. (2011)
|
Bio
Marilyn Wann is a fat activist, author, and weight diversity speaker. In 1994, she started the print 'zine FAT!SO?, which was nominated for an Utne Reader 'zine award. In 1998, she wrote the FAT!SO? book, an American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers.
Marilyn has been giving weight diversity talks since 1995, when she learned about the suicides of three youths, who'd been teased and bullied for being fat. She's been invited to speak all over the U.S. and in Canada, Mexico, and Iceland, and has appeared in national and international media. She organized the "Eat me!" protest, which drew media attention and the interest of local lawmakers. As a result, she helped organize support for San Francisco's height/weight anti-discrimination ordinance, which passed unanimously in 2000. (Only a handful of jurisdictions offer such civil rights protection.) Marilyn works closely with fat community, Health At Every Size® professionals, and fat studies academic scholars. Since weight connects powerfully with other areas of identity, she seeks to address the intersectionality of oppressions. In 2005, she was honored to receive the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club Individual Service Award. She's been a board member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (2004-2008), an advisory board member for the Health At Every Size Journal (2000-2006), and is currently an editorial board member for the Fat Studies Journal. Wann founded and moderates the fat studies email list, one of the original gathering places for people involved in this interdisciplinary field. The politics of embodiment have inspired Marilyn to perform in a bikini with the Padded Lilies synchro swim team on The Tonight Show, wave pompoms with the Bod Squad fat cheerleading troupe, do burlesque with Ms. Demeanor's Fat-Bottom Revue, dance with the Phat Fly Girls (now EmFATic Dance), and co-host a pirate radio show called "Fat-A-Tat-Tat — Soundtrack for A/The Fat Revolution" with Heather MacAllister (2004-2005), among other weight-lib adventures. She is the creator of the Yay! Scale™, a bathroom scale that gives compliments instead of numbers. Marilyn Wann holds undergraduate and master's degrees in linguistics and literature from Stanford University. 
By Mark Richards.
|
