The Debut Memoir Taking Aim at Racialized Fatphobia

Clarkisha Kent is disabled, fat, queer, Nigerian American, and a Taurus. Her identity has many facets, and she is proud of them all. But that wasn’t always the case. In the cultural critic’s debut memoir, Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto, she recounts her journey to overcome the demons — Christianity and purity culture, an abusive childhood home, racialized fatphobia, ableism — that pushed her to hate her every layer.

While the subject matter is serious, the book is laced with the self-deprecating humor and niche pop-culture references that made Kent a leading voice and must-follow on Twitter. (Case in point: The chapter “My Bisexual Awakening” opens with “Last time on Dragon Ball Z,” a reference to the dramatic narrator intro that recapped plot points in the popular ’90s anime.) As evidenced by her creation of the “Kent test” — a companion or “POC version” of the Bechdel test that rates the quality of representation of women in a piece of media — Kent likes to use her platform to reform the way we talk and think about women both fictional and real. Fat Off, Fat On chronicles her long journey to deprogramming herself from the anti-fat sociocultural messaging that Kent absorbed while growing up. She’s hoping it will act as a guide to help readers deprogram themselves, too.

Bake Off is getting a new co-host, and she’s an absolute treat. Speaking of sweet treats: If you escaped prison, what would you want your first meal to be? Pancakes, perhaps? And it seems President Xi Jinping likes it finger-lickin’ good. Only four more days until the Succession season-four premiere, thank goodness. Now begins the fauna portion of our chat. Click if you dare: They’ve discovered a giant new spider species in Australia. Stories like this one about the calf that escaped a slaughterhouse in Brooklyn yesterday living out her days at a New Jersey animal sanctuary are nice, but remember that conditions for all the other animals in the meat trade are far from cute. The New Mexico department of game and fish is hiring bear huggers, but you only get to hug them if you’re brave enough to climb into their den first. And congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Pickles on the arrival of their three hatchlings.

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