Hosted by the Centre for Women's Studies and Department of Sociology, University of York, as part of CWS's Gender Studies Now! series. Chaired by Dr Ann Kaloski-Naylor, poet, organiser, and CWS Associate Fellow
During the 2010s, the body positivity movement experienced a meteoric rise in mainstream recognition. It became a cultural phenomenon, generating celebrities, boosts in industries and a modest body diversity in popular media representation. However, body positivity’s celebration was not without critique, as its popularity grew, criticisms relating to the types of bodies that became the focus of body positivity demonstrated the movement’s shortcomings and complexities.
Dr Gemma Gibson's new book,The Body Positivity Movement: A Story of Acceptable Fatness (Emerald Publishing, 2025) investigates the contemporary body positivity movement, its triumphs and its shortcomings.
Using memoirs and life writing from activists, body positive advocates, and her own personal recollections, Gibson traces body positive activities and practices through the fat activist movement in the UK and North America. The Body Positive Movement demonstrates how body positivity has been an important tool for many fat activists, but also how the movement has been vulnerable to political dilution in mainstream media, advertising and social media.
This work uses an activist perspective to explore body positivity through the lens of fat activism. This thought-provoking work has resonance in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Fat Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. Students, instructors and activists will find The Body Positivity Movement useful for exploring body positivity and popular feminism.
About the author
Gemma Lucy Gibson is a feminist researcher, writer, and academic lecturer, currently based at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the social constructions of the body and the embedded stigma within institutions. The Body Positivity Movement is her first monograph and started with her doctoral research at the University of York's Centre for Women’s Studies, today proudly hosting this event.
Event format, location & access
This is a hybrid event. Room number and Zoom link will be circulated to registered guests 2 hours before the event start. The lecture will be followed by an audience Q&A.
Check accessibility information on AccessAble. Pay & display parking available: more info.
