Male privilege and white privilege are more broadly familiar concepts than thin privilege, and the basic idea is similar: thin or not-fat bodies have unearned societal benefits because of their thinness or not-fat-ness.
The language of thin privilege may be something you’ve been searching for words for your whole life as a fat person, so I hope that the links below are as helpful to you as they have been to me.
Body image activist, speaker, and educator Melissa A. Fabello, PhD, has published a number of articles on thin privilege and it was her work at Everyday Feminism that introduced me to the terminology.
- Let’s Talk About Thin Privilege [TW: weight/measurements]
- Yes, Very Skinny Women Still Have Thin Privilege – Here’s Why
- 4 Things We’re Not Saying When We Say Thin Privilege
- Yes, You Still Have Thin Privilege If You ‘Worked For’ Your Body – Here’s Why
- Before You Dismiss the Concept of Thin Privilege, First Ask Yourself These 4 Questions
There’s a whole bunch of other stuff on Everyday Feminism about thin privilege, so feel free to check out the search results for more.
Ravishly also has a number of posts exploring the topic. Here are just three that I’ve checked out.
- I’ve Experienced Fat Shaming And Thin Shaming And I Can Tell You Which Is Worse by David Minerva Clover (Hint: It’s not the one with the privilege)
- How An Invisible Illness Gives Me Thin Privilege by Katherine Brown (about the intersection of thin privilege and health privilege)
- Take The Cake: Do Smaller Fat People Have Privilege? by Virgie Tovar (also uses the term relative-size privilege)
See also:
- This is Thin Privilege on tumblr
- The real difference between skinny shaming and fat shaming lies in one key term: privilege by Rachel Lubitz
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