Confronting anti-fat bias to create more inclusive libraries

Abstract

Anti-fat bias, or the negative assumptions and beliefs about fat people that lead to discriminatory behaviors and policies, is increasingly acknowledged as pervasive and harmful in a wide range of settings, including workplaces, medical offices, schools, religious institutions, personal relationships, and, yes, libraries. This chapter will illuminate and invite you to challenge the ways in which the stigmatization of fat people is made manifest in librarianship: how we manage and evaluate library workers, construct our physical spaces, conceptualize our collections and services, develop programming, and relate to one another. Informed by existing scholarship, a recent study with public-facing fat librarians, and the author’s own experience as a fat woman working in libraries, the questions and recommendations that follow aim to create libraries that are more welcoming and inclusive for all workers and users, especially those in fat bodies.