Circumstances

Kelli Jean Drinkwater’s TED talk “Enough with the fear of fat” was delivered in May 2016 at TEDxSydney. TED Talks are regular conferences which feature influential speakers exploring developments in technology, science, culture, and lifestyle.

Kelli Jean Drinkwater’s speech explores a social issue, namely prejudices against fat people and the movement for fat acceptance.

The speech mentions how most people in today’s society are affected by “fatphobia” (l. 19), an irrational fear of being fat which also leads to judging fat people harshly: “We live in a culture where being fat is seen as being a bad person…” (ll. 21-22).

The speaker describes fatphobia as a form of discrimination which is very hard to challenge: “Like any form of systematic oppression, fatphobia is deeply rooted in complex structures like capitalism, patriarchy and racism, and that can make it really difficult to see, let alone challenge.” (ll. 20-21). The quotation also alludes to the present-day capitalist,...