No shame

The problem of discrimination against fat people in Russia is not made up. They face job search rejections, medical prejudice, they receive lower salaries than people with “normal” weight. They often have trouble finding their size when shopping for clothes, as well as finding positive media representations of people who look like them. Many of them are bullied and shamed throughout their lives.

It seems that society insists: there is no place in the world for fat people.

In the modern world, being fat is still much more than just a body characteristic. If you are fat, it is automatically implied that you are a lazy, weak, stupid, spineless, spoilt person. You can never be truly loved, you can never have neither friends, nor a happy family, nor a dream job. “They don’t see your personality; they only see fat and awful” - one of the participants said in her interview for the project.

Fatphobia is not about beauty or health, it is about power and control over other people’s lives. In manifests itself in different ways. Apart from open fat hating, it is often sugarcoated with “I’m just worried about your health”, “I just want to help you become a normal good-looking person” type of thing. As a result, being exposed to fat shaming and public disapproval on a regular basis causes stress, which in its turn leads to eating disorders, internalized fatphobia, feeling of guilt and shame for your own existence, depression and suicidal behavior.

«No shame» features stories of fat people from Russia who experienced fat shaming in the past or still have to face it. The subjects of the project are people of different genders and sexualities, different occupations and professional activities. They refuse to stay silent and put up with the system that makes millions of human lives miserable. It’s not enough to say only «love yourself», because this is not destroy a system where is fatphobia a kind of normality.