At an event in Amsterdam, writer Roxane Gay and our editor-in-chief Eliza Anyangwe discussed how fatphobia shapes women’s experiences, socially, professionally, and within health systems.
Gay described the “hypervisibility” of living in a body that attracts constant judgment, recalling medical visits where her symptoms were ignored in favour of weight-based assumptions. “I’ve gone to the doctor for a sore throat and the first thing written on my chart is ‘obese,’” she said.
Anyangwe noted that despite their different body types, both face scrutiny under Western standards that narrowly define which bodies are considered “acceptable”. Their exchange points to a broader pattern: appearance continues to influence credibility, care, and opportunity.
The conversation raises a critical question for institutions: how do we build systems that recognise women’s full humanity rather than reducing them to body size?
