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Happy Fat is a refreshing and empowering book that challenges society's beauty standards. It's definitely worth reading!

Who is the author of Happy Fat?

The author of Happy Fat is Sofie Hagen.

Society & Culture

Happy Fat Book Summary - Happy Fat Book explained in key points

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Happy Fat summary

Name: Happy Fat
Rating: 4 (49 reviews)
Author: Sofie Hagen

Sofie Hagen

Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You

4 (49 ratings)

22 mins

Brief summary

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen is a candid memoir and a powerful call to action. Hagen explores the implications of weight stigma and offers a compassionate, body-positive alternative.

Topics

Women's Stories Weight Loss

Table of Contents

Happy Fat
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Challenge your internalized fatphobia.

Have you ever used a euphemism to describe a fat person? Maybe saying that your friend is “well-padded” or has a “full figure?” People use these kinds of euphemisms because they’re terrified of using the word “fat.” But here’s the thing: some people are fat. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

This can be hard to believe because we’ve been told for so long that being fat is terrible. Stand-up comics make jokes about how they wouldn’t want to have sex with a fat person because they’re so unattractive. TV shows rarely feature fat people, and if they do they’re usually portrayed as comical losers. The diet industry preaches that being fat is unhealthy and will lead to a speedy death.

All of these negative opinions on fatness can be described as fatphobia. Refusing to describe someone as fat (when in fact they are) is actually playing into this phobia – you’re implicitly saying that being fat is so awful that we can’t even talk about it.

In these blinks, you’ll learn that it’s not only OK to talk about being fat – if we’re to challenge our own prejudices and combat the systematic discrimination experienced by fat people, it’s essential.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

how Sofie Hagen learned to love her body and throw away her scales;
why diets don’t work (but people carry on doing them anyway); and
why it can be helpful to watch feminist porn.

From the time she was young, Sofie was taught that food was bad and her body was wrong.

Sofie Hagen’s relationship to food became complicated when she was just five years old. A nurse told her mother that she was overweight and would have to go on a diet because it was “dangerous” to her health.

The nurse had done no medical tests, but she was so persuasive that Sofie’s mother immediately started trying to find ways to help her daughter lose weight. Sofie was introduced to a regime of dieting and portion control. But all this did was make her even more fixated on food and determined to find new ways to get it. It also gave her the message from very early on that there was something wrong with her body. This was extremely painful, and she started to eat more as a way of numbing the pain.

As a teenager, Sofie’s attempts to lose weight only intensified. She tried countless new diets, consumed only diet shakes, and did every form of exercise she could think of – from swimming to pilates to karate. She would periodically lose weight but always put it on again when she could no longer comply with the unrealistic demands of whatever diet she was on.

This made her hate herself and her body even more intensely. She saw herself as a weak person without any willpower. She dissociated from her body and resorted to bulimia in an effort to lose weight.

The outside world only reinforced her negative beliefs. Her mother was complicit in trying to force her to diet, giving her the message that her body needed to be changed. Her PE teacher would humiliate her in class, taunting her and forcing her to shower naked in front of her classmates.

Sofie became so convinced that she was unattractive that even when boyfriends tried to tell her that they liked her body, she was unable to believe them.

She dreamed of the “thin Sofie” who lived inside her, who would come out one day when she lost enough weight. Thin Sofie would be attractive and happy and successful. Thin Sofie would be fit and graceful and wear beautiful clothes.

The desire to be thin took up much of Sofie’s childhood and all of her teens. But that was all about to change.

Sofie’s whole world changed when she realized she was allowed to love her body.

Since childhood, Sofie had been taught that there was something wrong with her body and that she should hate it. When she became a stand-up comedian, she even transformed her self-loathing into a set – telling jokes about how fat and lazy she was and making everybody laugh.

She thought that one day, when she lost weight, she would be able to love her body. It never occurred to her that she could be fat and have healthy self-esteem.

Sofie began to see how prevalent fatphobia is in the media, pop culture, and the beauty industry.

Try to think of a movie or TV show that features a fat character. Now reflect on how that character is portrayed. Chances are they’re not shown as smart, successful, or happy.

When Sofie woke up to the fact that she had been brainwashed into hating her body, she started noticing how fat people were depicted in the world around her. She realized that her negative view of being fat was not at all surprising – she had learned it through almost everything she’d seen.

Dieting doesn’t work…except to enrich the weight-loss industry.

We’ve all seen shows like The Biggest Loser, which spread the idea that fat people could lose all their weight and become “winners” if they just dieted and exercised strictly enough.

Sofie grew up with these TV programs, as well as ads claiming that pills and potions were a surefire way to shed pounds. She devoured weight-loss books and joined weight-loss support groups. And over time, she did lose a lot of weight. But she also gained it all back.

It’s a myth that being fat means you’re unhealthy.

“How can Sofie say that it’s OK to love her body just the way it is when it’s so unhealthy to be fat?”

This seemingly innocent question is used as justification for continued discrimination against Sofie and other fat people. The logic? People can’t possibly be expected to embrace something that will eventually kill them.

Fat people face levels of discrimination and hostility that are detrimental to their mental and physical health.

Imagine you’re sitting in a restaurant, enjoying a cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs. Suddenly, you realize that a group of people are staring at you and meanly snickering. Or you’re walking along the street and someone screams that you’re ugly and disgusting. Imagine these things happening every day, multiple times a day, wherever you are.

Fat people’s lives are a minefield of daily discriminations – from the doctor’s office to a dating site, from the school playground to the beach. Fat individuals find it harder to get jobs and are paid less. In most US states, it’s even legal to fire someone for being fat.

There are concrete steps you can take to tackle fatphobia in the world around you.

Discrimination against fat people is a huge problem. You might even call it an epidemic. Most of us don’t want to be bullies or endanger people’s health, but how do we stop judging when we’ve grown up as part of a fatphobic world? And how can we actively support fat people in the face of violence and hostility?

The first step is to become aware that if you’re thin you’ve been endowed with an abundance of privileges: You won’t be deemed lazy or unattractive based on what your body looks like. You won’t have to worry about whether you can fit into the chair at a movie. Essentially, the world caters to you.

You can learn to love and celebrate your body in our fatphobic world.

Sofie’s life changed when she realized, at age 23, that she could love her body just as it was. This freedom allowed her to live in the present and released her from years of torturous self-loathing and abuse.

But accepting this is easier said than done when you live in a world that persists in telling you that the way you look is unhealthy, unattractive, and disgusting. You have to go against every piece of advertising, every movie representation, every dating profile reading “no fats.” How do you ignore these external voices and cultivate your internal sense of self-worth?

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What is Happy Fat about?

In Happy Fat (2019) Sofie Hagen reveals how painful it is to grow up fat in a society filled with prejudice and discrimination. She dispels entrenched myths about fatness, arguing that the correlation between being fat and being unhealthy has been misrepresented and that fatphobia – rather than fatness – is the dangerous social epidemic that we as a society need to challenge.

Happy Fat Review

Happy Fat (2019) by Sofie Hagen is a refreshing and empowering read that challenges society's narrow definition of beauty and promotes body positivity. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Offering a unique perspective on body image and fat activism, it encourages readers to embrace and love their bodies as they are.
With honesty and humor, the author shares her personal experiences, creating a relatable and engaging narrative that keeps readers hooked.
By debunking stereotypes and challenging societal norms, Hagen's book opens up important conversations about self-acceptance and social justice.

Who should read Happy Fat?

Comedy lovers who want to learn more about the life of a funny, fresh voice
Fat activists looking for resources on how to deal with fatphobia
People curious about the commercial interests that fuel the weight-loss industry

About the Author

Sofie Hagen is a celebrated comedian, fat activist, writer, and podcaster. She won the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015 and has since sold out venues across the UK and Europe. She has also appeared on the BBC, ITV, and Comedy Central. She presented a documentary on fatness for Danish TV channel DR2 and is currently recording a special called How To Love Your Fat for BBC Radio Four.

Categories with Happy Fat

Society & Culture Biography & Memoir

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