“It’s like fat women in America don’t have any options besides lose the weight.” For the Love Your Body Week keynote, performance artist and scholar Sharrell Luckett spoke to the crowd in ATS on Tuesday, February 12 about her personal journey with weight and storytelling. She emphasized the need for everyone to share their stories and imagine themselves into the future, and especially stressed the importance of hearing black women’s voices in America.
She began by asking everyone to share with their neighbor where they keep their darkest secrets, and if they would be willing to share the subject matter of those secrets. Some said in journals, others said with trusted friends, and some said in their heads. Luckett then moved to describing how she was fat in childhood, and used the word fat “endearingly”—to show that there’s nothing wrong with being fat; that’s how I will continue to use it in this blog. In other words, the word shouldn’t have a negative connotation attached to it. In her childhood, Luckett drew attention from boys, but noticed that when she got fat the boys disappeared. Her shame of being fat became a secret that she felt had to be kept quiet. She explained that when she got older, she found theater, but she was only chosen for certain roles, such as older women or inanimate objects in a show. In graduate school, she lost weight and turned into a skinny woman with whom she personally didn’t identify. Society had taught her that her body was unworthy and not sexy, but people’s view of her changed when she lost weight—so much so that she “came out” to her graduate advisor that she used to be a fat person. But no one told her about maintaining that weight and how much effort it would take. The myths of thin society are kept secret, but at the same time society expects us to always be striving towards thinness.
Luckett’s overall point was that her story is worth sharing, and she found hope through black performance and theater studies, and fat studies. She realized there were other people who felt the same way she did about her body, and who needed different stories to feel encouraged to share theirs. After describing her experiences, she left us with a message to welcome uncomfortable decisions and imagine yourself into the future. In the beginning she explained that fat women in America are not given a choice but to lose the weight, and so they cannot imagine a future for themselves. But the first revolutionary step is doing just that: recognizing the worth of your own story and projecting it into the future.
Written by Angelica Mishra ’19, WGRC student worker and Vice President of the Dickinson College AAUW chapter
February 22, 2019