The “fear of fat” brings up 32,900 hits on a Google search I recently did. Skimming through the articles, I find that some deal with how the media is afraid to show “fat” models/ actresses,
etc because it won’t sell the fantasy that people expect (!), some are are personal accounts of being afraid of becoming fat (blog entries, etc.). Many, if not most, deal with the fear of becoming fat as a contributing factor in eating disorders.
It even has a name Cacomorphobia: Fear of fat people
This is not a funny issue, but my approach to the difficult topic of body image and self-esteem is to take it out of the clinical setting, and be a body-positive “activist” through my drawing, writing and a sense of gentle humor. I think if there were MORE images of normal and plus-size people in the media, there would be LESS fear of fat in our hearts.
I’ve been working on a YouTube video to promote my book “More to Love”, and my homework assignment from my animator Adam was to create a few new illustrations for the video.
Here is “Screaming Fat” a parody of the very famous painting by Edvard Munch, and a sketch for “Dreaming Fat” (Adam will add the scary fat dream in his animation)
