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Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and one of the nation's leading experts and lecturers on weight-based discrimination and body image. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes where she covers the plus-size market and how to end weight discrimination at work. She is the founder of Babecamp, a self-guided online course designed to help people break up with diet culture. She started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight and in 2018 gave a TedX talk on the origins of the campaign. Tovar edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012) and she's the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press August 2018), which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List, and The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color (New Harbinger Publications 2020). Her podcast, Rebel Eaters Club. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She has received two San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commissionsas well as Yale's Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, Al Jazeera, NPR, Yahoo Health and the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in San Francisco. We discuss topics including: Tools from Virgie's new book The Self-Love Revolution Creating Boundaries Say “no” once per day Decoding language _____________________ If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe. Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE “Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder”. For more information on Robyn's book “The Eating Disorder Trap”, please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website. “The Eating Disorder Trap” is also available for purchase on Amazon.
Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and one of the nation's leading experts and lecturers on weight-based discrimination and body image. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes where she covers the plus-size market and how to end weight discrimination at work. She is the founder of Babecamp, a self-guided online course designed to help people break up with diet culture. She started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight and in 2018 gave a TedX talk on the origins of the campaign. Tovar edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012) and she's the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press August 2018), which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List, and The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color (New Harbinger Publications 2020). Her podcast, Rebel Eaters Club. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She has received two San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commissionsas well as Yale's Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, Al Jazeera, NPR, Yahoo Health and the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in San Francisco. We discuss topics including: Virgie's interest in studying “fat people” Traps in education The lack of space to study fat phobia Take stock of what happened to you Body image and race with women of color and in high schools Racism and Misogyny _____________________ If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe. Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE “Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder”. For more information on Robyn's book “The Eating Disorder Trap”, please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website. “The Eating Disorder Trap” is also available for purchase on Amazon.
Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight. In 2018 she was named one of the 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. She is the founder of Babecamp, a 4-week online course designed to help women who are ready to break up with diet culture. In 2012, Tovar edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and in 2018 The Feminist Press published her manifesto, You Have the Right to Remain Fat, which was placed on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List. Her new book, FLAWLESS: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color, comes out in Spring 2020 from New Harbinger. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She is a contributor for Forbes and was awarded the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, BBC, MTV, Al Jazeera and NPR. She lives in San Francisco.
Virgie Tovar of #LoseHateNotWeight spoke with me in 2012 as she was editing "Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion." Founder of Babecamp, a course to help you break up with diet culture, Virgie's been named one of the 50 most influential feminists of 2018 by Bitch Magazine and will tell us about "The YAY Scale!" Virgie's manifesto "You Have the Right to Remain Fat" is out now & "FLAWLESS: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color" comes out Spring 2020. Virgie's books are on point for"Too Much Woman SF" June 8th & 9th, 2019 (this weekend!) Join Sexploration with Monika, Gina Hatzis, Lucia Pavone and more ambitious womxn who are ready to explore their leadership beyond the ordinary paradigm.
This week I’m talking to author and fat activist Virgie Tovar about her new book You Have the Right to Remain Fat. Tune in as Virgie shares her manifesto for standing up to diet culture. Virgie Tovar is an author, activist and one of the nation's leading experts and lecturers on fat discrimination and body image. She is the founder of Babecamp, a 4-week online course designed to help women who are ready to break up with diet culture, and started the hashtag campaign #LoseHateNotWeight. Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, Al Jazeera and NPR. She pens a weekly column called Take the Cake on Ravishly.com. She edited the ground-breaking anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012) and her latest non-fiction work, You Have the Right to Remain Fat (published August 2018 by Feminist Press). Follow Virgie Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook --- Body Kindness study: Want to help advance research on body image healing? I’m co-investigator of a new study with Dr. Jennifer Webb Director of the Integrative Positive Psychology Research Lab in Mindfulness, Body Acceptance, Culture & Health (MIND-BATCH) at UNC Charlotte. We’re looking for female Body Kindness readers living in the U.S. who are either pregnant OR who have at least one child 5 years or younger to complete a survey. Visit www.BodyKindnessBook.com/research to learn more and find out how you can get a free e-book and web-based resources. --- Support the show Thank you to our generous supporters! We are working toward our goal to fund the full season. Can you donate? Please visit our Go Fund Me page. --- You can subscribe to Body Kindness on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and iHeartRadio. Enjoy the show? Please rate it on iTunes! - http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1073275062 Are you ready for Body Kindness? Get started today with my free e-course and on-demand digital training. Learn more - http://bit.ly/2k23nbT The New York Times Book Review calls Body Kindness 'simple and true'. Publisher's Weekly says it's 'a rousing guide to better health.' http://bit.ly/2k228t9 Watch my videos about why we need Body Kindness on YouTube. https://youtu.be/W7rATQpv5y8?list=PLQPvfnaYpPCUT9MOwHByVwN1f-bL2rn1V --- Enjoy the show? Please subscribe and rate it. Have a show idea or guest recommendation (even yourself!) E-mail podcast@bodykindnessbook.com to get in touch. Join us on the Body Kindness Podcast Facebook group where you can continue the episode conversations with the hosts, guests, and fellow listeners. See you there! Nothing in this podcast is meant to provide medical diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Individuals should consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice and answers to personal health questions.
Queer & Trans Artists of Color Vol 2 A celebration of queer and trans black and brown genius...building on the groundbreaking first volume, Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Nia King is back with a second archive of interviews from her podcast We Want the Airwaves. She maintains her signature frankness as an interviewer while seeking advice on surviving capitalism from creative folks who often find their labor devalued. In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses biphobia in gay men's communities with Juba Kalamka, helping border-crossers find water in the desert with Micha Cardenas, trying to preserve Indigenous languages through painting with Grace Rosario Perkins, revolutionary monster stories with Elena Rose, using textiles to protest police violence with Indira Allegra, trying to respectfully reclaim one's own culture with Amir Rabiyah, taking on punk racism with Mimi Thi Nguyen, the imminent trans women of color world takeover with Lexi Adsit, queer life in WWII Japanese American incarceration camps with Tina Takemoto, hip-hop and Black Nationalism with Ajuan Mance, making music in exile with Martin Sorrondeguy, issue-based versus identity-based organizing with Trish Salah, ten years of curating and touring with the QTPOC arts organization Mangos With Chili with Cherry Galettte, raising awareness about gentrification through games with Mattie Brice, self-publishing versus working with a small press with Vivek Shreya, and the colonial nature of journalism school with Kiley May. The conversation continues. Bear witness to QTPOC brilliance. Included in the evening will be performances by: Ryka Aoki is the author of Seasonal Velocities, He Mele a Hilo (A Hilo Song) and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul. She has been honored by the California State Senate for her “extraordinary commitment to free speech and artistic expression, as well as the visibility and well-being of Transgender people. Ryka was the inaugural performer for the first ever Transgender Stage at San Francisco Pride, and has performed in venues including the San Francisco Pride Main Stage, the Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, the National Queer Arts Festival, and Ladyfest South. Ryka also appears in the recent documentaries “Diagnosing Difference” and “Riot Acts.” She has MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is the recipient of a University Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.Winner of the People Before Profits Poetry Prize, Meliza Bañales aka Missy Fuego is the author of Say It With Your Whole Mouth (Poems) and the Xicana-Punk-Rock-Coming-of-Age novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific which was a 2016 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She was a fixture in the San Francisco Bay Area spoken-word and slam communities from 1996-2010, where she became the first Xicana to win a poetry slam championship in 2002. She is a Visiting Professor of Literature and Counter-Culture at UC San Diego and the feature film of her novel is currently in pre-production in Los Angeles.Nadia Ann Abou-Karr is an artist, writer and practitioner of holistic healing arts. She has been self publishing her own zines since middle school, with the most recent being THE ICONOCLAST Revolutionary Love series which highlights the complexities and confusion that arise from loving in the 5th dimension. Ultimately she always come back to the realization that self love is the best kind, and she uses all of her creative production to create an optimal climate for free love.Kim Tillman is an LA-based singer/songwriter, lead singer of the band Tragic Gadget and half of the music duo Kim Tillman & Silent Films. Her songs have been featured in film and television including American Girl: Saige Paints the Sky, the 2014 documentary feature Off the Floor, on Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and the ABC Family series Switched at Birth. Armed with a honey-velvet voice and precise, evocative lyrics, she aims simply to move you. Praise for Queer & Trans Artists of Color Vol 2 “Nia King’s essential project is about demystifying the artist’s life, and centering expression at the heart of radically diverse QTPOC lives. This second volume of artists’ voices is full of heart and wisdom, struggle and triumph. Another must-read for anyone dedicated to living creatively.” —Jeff Chang, author of Who We Be and We Gon’ Be Alright“With all the talk in the entertainment industry about a lack of diverse voices in our media, Nia King does the big work that is necessary to rescue the entertainment industry from itself. She is going out there to highlight these voices, not because they are diverse, but because they are absolutely necessary.” —W. Kamau Bell, host of United Shades of America“Queer and Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2 continues to amplify beautiful voices that need to be heard. Refreshingly honest and illuminating, these interviews combine to form a powerful statement on the journey of the artist, and the person behind the art, towards creating a world where we can all thrive as our true selves.” —Mat Johnson, author of Loving Day and Pym“Nia King once again provides a vital space where LGBTQ artists of color can share their unique experiences working in their creative fields. This volume, like its predecessor, will be a must-read for years to come.” —Hari Kondabolu, writer and comedian“This book shines a spotlight on QTPOC artists, activists and self-proclaimed weirdos, a group who rarely receive such attention. Through fluid and compelling conversations with King, readers learn about the creative processes, identities, organizing, and politics that inform their art. This is a beautiful archive as well as a rich source of information for creative people seeking inspiration.” —Farzana Doctor, author of All Inclusive and Six Metres of Pavement“In this new volume Nia King continues the invaluable work of amplifying the voices and interrogating the ideas of a new generation of joyous, committed creators. If you want to know who is shaping the culture of the next century, this is a book you must have: a book brimming with honesty, intelligence and heart.” —Nayland Blake, artist and professor“This book is a revolutionary literary gesture, providing both practical information to artists and also doing the work of expanding the archive. I love the way that King brings interviews to the page, disseminating artists’ knowledge while also creating a window into their language and lives. The honesty of the unscripted conversations feels both intimate and subversive.”—Virgie Tovar, author of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion Nia King is a queer Black, Lebanese, Hungarian, and Jewish artist and activist from Canton, Massachusetts living in Oakland, California. She is the author of Queer & Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives and the host and producer of We Want the Airwaves podcast. Her writing and comics have been published in Colorlines, East Bay Express and Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. She has spoken about her work at schools and conferences such as Stanford University, Swarthmore College, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Facing Race, the Allied Media Conference, and the National Association for Ethnic Studies Conference. You can find more of her work at artactivistnia.com and contact her at NiaKing@zoho.com. Elena Rose, a Filipina-Ashkenazi trans lesbian mestiza, rode stories out of rural Oregon and hasn’t stopped telling since. As an ordained minister, writer, and organizer, she has been published in magazines including Aorta and Make/shift, co-founded the Speak! Radical Women of Color Media Collective, co-curated the acclaimed National Queer Arts Festival show Girl Talk: A Trans and Cis Women’s Dialogue, works as a nationally-recognized interfaith educator on justice issues, and serves on the boards of the Solar Cross Temple and the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. She can be contacted at takingsteps@gmail.comand on Twitter @burnlittlelight.
I chat with Virgie Tovar – Author, Speaker and Activist – on the roots of diet culture, the relationship between weight-loss culture and social oppressions, the role of internalized sexism as it relates to self-worth and so much more. In this episode, we chat about: • How Virgie got into fat activism and feminism and how it saved her life • The experiences and women who inspired her to write the book Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and create Babecamp • The history of diet culture and it’s relationship to sexuality and morality • The relationship between weight-loss culture and social oppressions, such as sexism, racism and classism • What the normalization of dieting behavior looks like in our society • Dieting as a language and the symbolism of and what it means to people • Diet culture in the workplace and how to deal with co-workers who are invested in it • How feelings of inferiority are often at the root of our dieting and weight-focused behaviours • The relationship between inferiority and internalized sexism • Why dieting is addictive and difficult to abandon because of the drama and high it gives us • Plus so much more!
Download Episode! Hey, lovely radicals... Ear-treat ahead! In this episode of the "Life Unrestricted" podcast, Virgie Tovar and I chat about how she became the unapologetic badass she is today. As you might guess, she wasn’t always as confident as she is nowadays, and she had to learn a lot about life, herself, sexuality, feminism and diet-culture to finally be able to liberate herself from the oppressive, fat-phobic cultural paradigm that keeps women desperately trying to fit in, often in the form of dieting and obsessing over their weight. She experienced first hand, what it means to be fat-shamed, stigmatized and devalued and she is now fiercely on a mission to educate people about the ugly truths behind the merciless profit-seeking mechanisms of the diet-industry, media-literacy, the effects of weight-stigma on mental and physical health and the ways of changing the current narrative. Virgie shares her story with us and you’ll hear: – How early it got into her head that women should "lose weight" – What measures she was willing to take in order to change her body – How fat-phobia and weight-stigma can cause women to engage in risky sexual behavior – How fat-stigma intersects with other cultural injustices like racism, homophobia, sexism, classism or ableism – How she ended up with an extraordinary lifestyle and sexual adventures when she was only a teenager – What it was that made her feel desired and more comfortable in her body – How feminism helped her to reclaim her own power – What the exact moment was that she finally broke up with diet-culture for good – Why feminism is seen as something "OH, NO, THANKS!" for many people, especially women – What her journey towards self-acceptance looked (and looks) like – What causes her to experience bad body days – Why fat-phobia causes ongoing trauma for people – How bigger-bodied people can protect themselves and take care of their own mental health first – How we can help changing the current diet-culture-poisoned paradigm one woman at a time – How we can engage in political activism so that it can be a form of self-care – What her nationwide lectures are all about, and what her main messages are – What her online course "Babecamp" offers to women who are ready to ditch their diet-culture-brainwashed mentality – What her deepest wish is – What she would like to be remembered for... ...And so much more! Check out her website with all of her work (including her latest book project and details about "Babecamp") at: www.virgietovar.com and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/virgietovar Here’s the link to her groundbreaking anthology "Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion": http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Heavy-Fierce-Girls-Fashion/dp/1580054382 ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We’re right over here at: www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/ Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Please: Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid=stpr
Activist and author Virgie Tovar joins us to discuss why she gave up the battle to lose weight and started focusing on loving her body exactly as it is. We talk about fat acceptance, body positivity, smashing diet culture, embracing feminism, Instagramming your food, and lots more! Virgie Tovar, MA is an author, activist and one of the nation's leading experts and lecturers on fat discrimination and body image. She is a plus size style writer for BuzzFeed and the creator of #LoseHateNotWeight. Tovar edited the ground-breaking anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012). She holds a Master's degree in Human Sexuality with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. After teaching "Female Sexuality" at the University of California at Berkeley, where she completed a Bachelor's degree in Political Science in 2005, she went onto host "The Virgie Show" (CBS Radio) in San Francisco. She is certified as a sex educator and was voted Best Sex Writer by the Bay Area Guardian in 2008 for her first book. She lives in San Francisco and offers workshops and lectures nationwide. Find her online at VirgieTovar.com and on Twitter @virgietovar. To learn more about Food Psych and our guest, visit christyharrison.com/foodpsych Ready to make peace with food? Join Christy's intuitive eating online course! How healthy is your relationship with food? Take the quiz and get free resources at christyharrison.com/quiz!