Death Fat - Part 1

Turning the tables on "morbid ob*sity"

Let’s talk about the term “morbid ob*sity.” Taking just the “ob*sity” side of that term, it’s important to debunk the idea that “ob*sity” is an “objective” or “clinical” or “medical” term, and thus it’s what should be used to define fat people. My friend Anastasia Kidd does a good job explaining this in her book Fat Church, and I learned this use of asterisk in the word from her. The asterisk interrupts and interrogates it. What I’ve learned from her is that “ob*sity” comes from the Latin “ob” and “dere” which means over and eat or devour, or eat away. It is, therefore, in itself, a judgement statement — it means to over eat, to over devour.

So we use the term “Fat” in Fat Liberation circles. It’s a word many have learned to fear, but we’re reclaiming it. Fat is just a descriptor. It’s not trying to hide what we are, but it doesn’t have inherent labels in it the way ob*sity does.

The harmful nature of the word ob*sity is compounded in harm by the medical term “morbid ob*sity.” When you’re fat, it’s amazingly harmful to be constantly described as “morbidly ob*se.” It denies that one is a living, thriving, vital, and important being — you’re deathly fat/dying/a diseased thing, a gloomy thing. You’re “death fat.” (Almost as bad: being told I was a “geriatric pregnancy” at age 33/34. The medical industry can be ridiculously bad at labels sometimes.)

Several years ago, Lesley Kinzel coined the term “death fat” as a way for us to deal with this humorously. It’s startling, which is why it’s great. But it’s funny and reclaiming while also carrying the pain of being told over and over again that we’re not living, we’re dying.

I can’t even begin to describe how painful the term “morbid ob*sity” was during the pandemic. Every time the news would describe who was most at risk with COVID, who was most likely to die if they got it, the list would include people who are “morbidly ob*se.” I was trying to survive and lead my community through this while constantly being told, “you’re death fat — and that means you won’t survive. Death fats will die.”

But what does this have to do with faith? Well, faith institutions are in the business of dealing with death. And I think that means looking at this term, and the issues of fat people around death, differently. So that’s where I’ll be going in hopefully the next post.