Fat Roots: Sonya Renee Taylor
Fat Roots

Fat Roots: Sonya Renee Taylor

Fat Rose

Sonya Renee Taylor is a fat, queer, Black woman from the US who lives in New Zealand. She is a powerhouse, a poet, and a peer in the fat liberation movement. In 2011, Sonya said the phrase, “The Body is Not an Apology,” which she then transformed into the title for the social network and digital media company she would found and the book she would write and publish over the next 7 years. Sonya works to “disrupt systems of inequity from an intersectional, radical self-love and global justice framework.”

In addition to publicly spotlighting fat, Black bodies, Sonya’s many contributions to fat liberation and to Fat Rose’s lineage include gifting us with the term, “body terrorism,” to combat the idea that “oppression” is abstract, vague or a matter of opinion. “Body terrorism” gives words to the reality that every person has a body and it is these bodies of ours that experience the oppression of fat phobia, racism, ableism, and all other forms of oppression linked by the bodies that bear that violence.

As Sonya says, 

“To discuss oppression as a manifestation of body terrorism is to move the conversation out of the abstract and return it to its site of impact, the body. Otherwise we risk forgetting that oppression in its many variations is a shared experience. Everybody with a body is affected.”

And,

“As a human in a body sharing this planet with other humans in bodies, I have a responsibility to interrupt body terrorism, as do you.”

At a time when fat liberation was being widely neutralized, repackaged and sold as “body positivity,” Sonya came out swinging with “radical self-love,” a 2-for-1 antidote to body terrorism AND a mechanism to dismantle systemic violence. 

“A return to radical self-love requires our commitment to building shame-free, inclusive communities that uplift one another while honestly addressing body terrorism in all the ways it manifests as oppression based on age, race, gender, size, ability, sexual orientation, mental health status, and all other human attributes.” 

And,

“Fatphobia kills black women; fatphobia is literally killing us; your intersectional analysis doesn’t advocate freedom if it isn’t dealing with thin privilege and bodily hierarchy.”

Without Sonya Renee Taylor, we might be duped by the false dichotomy of choosing either healing our internalized fat oppression or fighting the systems that normalize fat oppression. Sonya shows the way fat oppression and white supremacy are linked, and her visionary use of social media and web content demonstrate how personal transformation can act in service of societal liberation. She continues to experiment with new intersectional liberation tactics today. And we are so lucky to be on this journey together. 

Painting by Isicera Dew, text by Heather Mack and Charis Stiles for Fat Rose.

Where to find Sonya Renee Taylor

Sonya’s work can be found at 

Find intersectional fat liberation digital media at https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/

[Image description: “Sonya Renee Taylor is a fat, queer, Black woman from the US who lives in New Zealand. She is a powerhouse, a poet, and a peer in the fat liberation movement. In 2011, Sonya said the phrase, “The Body is Not an Apology,” which she then transformed into the title for the social network and digital media company she would found and the book she would write and publish over the next 7 years. Sonya works to “disrupt systems of inequity from an intersectional, radical self-love and global justice framework.” Around the text is the Fat Rose logo, a red fat fist and white roses encircled by the words “Fatties Against Fascism, Resist,” and the words “Fat Rose, Fat Roots” and “Sonya Renee Taylor” at the bottom.]