Sofie Hagen on fat activism and taking up space in a fatphobic world
This article has been published to coincide with an episode of Mashable's new podcast, History Becomes Her. Listen here
Sofie Hagen is a Danish comedian who co-created the Guilty Feminist podcast with Deborah Frances White. Hagen is non-binary and uses pronouns she/they/he.
Hagen is a fat acceptance campaigner and plus size fashion designer, who speaks candidly about our culture’s ingrained anti-fat bias and the subtle and overt ways society continues to marginalise and discriminate against fat people.
You May Also Like
In this episode of History Becomes Her, Hagen discusses her admiration for civil rights activist Rosa Parks. Hagen also shares how she first learned about the fat acceptance movement and how people can unlearn their ingrained anti-fat bias. She also explains the difference between body positivity and fat acceptance.
Hagen explores the origins of the fat acceptance movement, which can be traced back to 1967 when 500 people met in Central Park, New York City, and staged a "fat-in" to protest anti-fat bias.
"500 fat people gathered, and they ate ice cream, and they burned diet books," she says. "And they had posters of whoever was like the most voluptuous larger woman they could find, you know, so just, and they their slogan was 'a diet is a cure that doesn't work for a disease that doesn't exist.' And that says everything."
You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In her book, Happy Fat, Hagen writes about the reality of being fat in a world that wants you to take up less space. She talks about being spat on and having someone tell her, “If you weren’t so fat, I’d rape you.”
Hagen wants to reclaim the word “fat” and live in a world built on self-acceptance and loving your body.
Asked how we can, as a society, overcome and fight against our internalised fatphobia and anti-fat bias, Hagen said the answer is not to "love yourself, hug your body, love your curves, buy this lotion."
"The actual answer hurts a tiny bit because we have to really acknowledge our privilege and find out that, oh, I'm part of the problem as well because we all are."
Subscribe to History Becomes Her on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Topics Activism Social Good
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
