[Archive 2007-10-10] Obesity and the Fat Acceptance Movement: Kira Nerusskaya speaks

Historical archive — originally published 2007-10-10. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Opinions rooted in racism, sexism, homophobia are commonly unacceptable to express in public or in polite company. Michael Richards shouted down a black heckler by yelling, "Shut up!" followed by "He's a nigger!" and gave his already dormant career less of a chance of ever reviving. When Isiah Washington called a co-star on Grey's Anatomy a "fag," his contract was not renewed.

None of this would have happened to either actor if instead of racist or homophobic terminology they had said, "Shut up, fattie!" or "Fat ass!" It's not an easy time to be fat in America. A fat person is seen as weak-willed, as suffering from an addiction to food, as unhealthy and deserving of ridicule. It goes without saying that people who are overweight are, indeed, people with a full range of emotions and feelings that are as easily hurt as a thin person's.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone met Kira Nerusskaya, a documentary filmmaker, at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Her film The BBW World: Under the FAT! is in production and post-production. She is a self-described Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) and she hosts the website TheBBWWorld.com; she is also one of the leading voices that has recently emerged for fat acceptance. In researching her film she has traveled to Russia, London, Paris, Ireland and all over the United States to interview fat women about their obesity and their place in their respective societies.

Below is an interview with Nerusskaya about the health, issues, public reactions to and sexuality of a BBW.

KN: It was originally put up by my producer, Jonn Nubian. Jonn and I had a long, on-going conversation over five years. It was always my dream to do a documentary about this subculture that exists in America. It's a movement that exists.

KN: For people to accept us at the size we are. I was fortunate enough to be born on January 15th, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. He felt nobody should be discriminated against because of the color of their skin, and I extend that to nobody should be discriminated against because of the size of their skin. We are always looked at as sub-human or second-class citizens because of our size. Ironically enough, we outnumber everyone else. Over 60% of the population in America is overweight in some capacity. So there is more of us, and literally, there is more of us.

KN: Desire? It depends on the way it's put. I think I have an interest in being a little bit smaller, but I don't necessarily have an interest in being like Britney Spears. That's considered the ideal beauty in America, even though she's an unfit mother, God knows what else she does in her personal life, on top of the fact the woman has a hard time putting a sentence together beyond a fourth grade level.

KN: Out of shape in the sense of not fit, or out of shape in the sense of not having a six pack?

DS: What do you think the Britney Spears MTV performance and comments about her physique sent out as a message?

KN: It was negative. It said you need to be rail thin in order to be considered beautiful and accepted. In order to be worthy. In order to be loved. Especially in America I find it ironic because we are the melting pot, and there are people from all over the world, different shapes, heights, skin tones, races, religions...you would think we'd see diversity in beauty. And we lack that. Isn't it a crime that it took however many years for two African-American actors to win Academy Awards, and then it's suddenly "The Year of the Black Actor" and it's like, 'No, those were really good performances that year and that's who won.' I don't consider Britney Spears right, perfect and wonderful. I feel bad for her, but we should be celebrating everybody. It is and should be, to take a quote from a great interview I did with Carla Drew from FAT GIRLS!: The Musical...it's the "Everybody Matters Revolution." That's the underlying feeling in fat acceptance: everybody matters. And we are tired of being excluded. Part of that is combating the media that portrays us as terrible, rotten, evil, no good, lazy, slovenly, etc., when that might not be the case. The stigma attached to fat people is prevalent. It's hysterical: do you really think that's what we do, sit around and eat all day? I remember reading a post from a British news source where women were celebrated for their curves, and there was a woman who posted thinking that they legitimately did nothing else but sit and eat all day. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss, but only to those it serves.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Obesity and the Fat Acceptance Movement: Kira Nerusskaya speaks by Wikinews contributors under CC BY 2.5. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. Contributor history.