Being Fat: Women, Weight, and Feminist Activism in Canada

"Being Fat is an important text that provides a historical and political grounding of fat women organizations in Canada. […] This scholarship is imperative to recognizing and understanding how the fat liberation movement began and provides insight to contemporary forms of resistance."

Nicholas Villarreal, San Diego State University, Fat Studies

"Being Fat is a very thoroughly researched, lively, and engaging read."

Jacqui Gingras, Department of Sociology, Ryerson University

"Based on an enormous amount of primary research, Being Fat is a tremendous piece of Canadian feminist history. It presents a well-contextualized discussion of women’s own understandings of what it meant to be fat in late twentieth-century Canada. Ellison also documents an impressive and not well-known history of fat activism and other efforts of resistance. Being Fat offers new insights about lesbian feminism and the feminist movement in Canada, and it will give readers a better understanding of the politics of weight and body size."

Mary Louise Adams, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University