The Hidden Lives of Big Beautiful Women

This book is a deep dive into the largely unexplored space of BBW ＂bashes＂--multi-day gatherings of fat women and their admirers. Using a range of feminist theories of embodiment and affect, the project is guided by autoethnography and in-depth interviews with twelve participants. Participant experiences are first analyzed with a key focus on experiences that cause grief and disenfranchisement; subsequently, the book looks at experiences that may be radical or revelatory. The book does not seek to either villainize or valorize BBW spaces but instead sheds a bright light on the experience of this cultural subspace and all it may offer to analyses of fat life.

The incomparable Crystal Kotow was a brilliant writer, activist, and educator whose research explored fat women’s relationships with their bodies. She got her PhD from York University and was a self-identified fat feminist killjoy who practiced radical vulnerability in her activism, storytelling, and community building.
May Friedman is a faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University. Much of May’s work explores issues of fat activism and weight stigma in many different settings. Using a range of arts-based methods including digital storytelling as well as analyses of treasured garments, May has explored meaning making and representation in relation to embodiment and experience.