Glossary

A running list of definitions that you may run into in this blog and elsewhere.

Fat: Fat is an adjective and an organ.  Many fat people find on their journey to fat positivity and/or fat acceptance that it is helpful to reclaim the word fat.

Fat acceptance: see here

Fat activist: A fat person who engages in activism to advance the acceptance of fat bodies and/or to combat anti-fat discrimination

Fat positivity: see here

IWL: intentional weight loss

“O” words: overweight, obese and any variation thereof.  These are terms that hypermedicalize/pathologize fatness.  They are offensive, so I don’t use them.  I refer to them as the “O” words, if at all.

Person of size:  This is a euphemism for fat that some people prefer.

WLS: weight-loss surgery, also referred to by fat activists as stomach amputation, gastric amputation