Reclaiming the Narrative

Why we established days of significance. And what comes next. 

When we launched End Weight Bias, one of the big-picture questions we asked ourselves was: how do we shift culture in a way that is meaningful, sustainable, and community-led? We don't want to just counter harmful narratives; we want to create new ones. Not content to just push back; we want to build momentum. 

One of the ways we’re doing that is by establishing Days of Significance that centre dignity, joy, liberation, and community. Days that spark conversation, visibility, and connection. Days that belong to everyone who believes in fat liberation, and bring us together in joy and protest. 

These dates sit in a global annual calendar as reminders of what we value and what we’re fighting for. They give us shared moments to gather, celebrate, advocate, and amplify. They’re stepping stones in a much bigger cultural shift. 

And back in October, we saw exactly why they matter. 

What We Saw on WDoFJ. And Why It Matters 

On 11 October, we celebrated World Day of Fat Joy for the very first time. 

It was an online event, gentle in scale but powerful in feeling. Across our community, we saw people share moments of joy, pleasure, humour, softness, pride, and playfulness in their bodies. We saw people embrace the idea, sometimes for the first time, that joy is not something you have to earn. That your body, exactly as it exists today, is allowed to be a source of delight. 

Most of the people who joined in were already connected to this work, but WDoFJ also brought something genuinely exciting: people who were new to fat liberation and new to the idea of fat joy embracing the day with openness and curiosity. 

The comments, the shares, the “I needed this”, “thanks for the reminder to be joyful", and even the “I didn’t know this could be a thing”, showed us exactly why these days matter. 

Fat Joy is becoming increasingly culturally significant, and the way people responded showed us that there is real hunger for narratives grounded in dignity, joy, and possibility. That’s why this day will continue to grow, evolve, and become bigger and more expansive each year. 

And that brings us to the “why” behind these days, and why the dates themselves matter so much. 

Why We’re Reclaiming These Dates 

We live in a world that is hostile towards fat bodies. 

This hostility shows up everywhere, but it is most entrenched and most dangerous in health and medical systems. In these spaces, the pursuit of erasing fatness is routinely prioritised over supporting health-promoting behaviours, access to care, or wellbeing. Fat bodies are framed as inherently unhealthy, risky, and in need of correction, rather than as humans deserving of evidence-based care, respect, and autonomy. This way of thinking doesn’t just influence individual clinical encounters; it shapes global narratives about health itself, culminating in a day that is internationally recognised as responding to a so-called “crisis.” 

World Ob*sity Day is currently observed on 4 March and was historically marked on 11 October. The date was formally moved in 2020, but the October date continues to linger in academic spaces and public discourse. We noticed this recently at the Weight Stigma Conference, where the October date was referenced. 

World Ob*sity Day centres body size as a problem to be solved. The day perpetuates stigma, legitimises discrimination, and fuels policies and practices that actively harm people in larger bodies. 

Rather than ignoring the day or the harm often tied to the day itself, we wanted to reclaim the dates and shift the narrative. To protest the idea that we should be erased. To carve out our own space on those days and to stand up and push back and declare that we will not stand for systemic harm. 

So we introduced two days of significance: 

• 11 October – World Day of Fat Joy 

• 4 March - International Fat Liberation Day 

Each date has its own distinct purpose, tone, and energy. One is about celebration and embodiment. The other is about justice and systemic change. Two sides of the same push toward a world where every BODY is respected. 

World Day of Fat Joy | 11 October | A day for joy, connection, and unapologetic embodiment. 

World Day of Fat Joy is about celebration: of bodies, of community, of pleasure, of existence. It’s fun, it’s expressive, it's soft, it’s expansive, and it’s deeply political in the gentlest way possible. Joy itself becomes resistance. 

This day is about carving out space in a world that constantly tries to limit fat people’s joy. It’s about rejecting the idea that our bodies must shrink before we are allowed to take up space. It’s about reminding ourselves, and each other, that joy is not conditional. 

International Fat Liberation Day | 4 March | A day for advocacy, disruption, and systemic change. 

International Fat Liberation Day is the necessary counterbalance. Where Fat Joy celebrates the personal, Fat Liberation demands the political.  

This day is about justice, reform, rights, and visibility. It’s a direct challenge to the harmful framing often used on 4 March. It turns a day traditionally used to pathologise and erase fat people into one that centres our voices, our rights, and our liberation. 

These Days Serve Different Purposes. And We Need Both 

Fat Joy and Fat Liberation are connected, but they are not interchangeable. 

Joy without justice is fragile. 

Justice without joy is unsustainable. 

Having two distinct days, one celebratory, one political, allows us to honour the fullness of this movement. It creates space for people to connect in different ways, at different moments, through different energies. Both days are stepping stones toward generational cultural change. 

We are very conscious not to take away from, overshadow, or replace the work of fat liberation organisations globally. Our aim is to exist alongside the work already being done, existing days of significance, and the broader fat liberation movement, not in competition with it. By reclaiming 4 March and 11 October, we’re adding more moments of visibility and advocacy to the calendar, more reminders that liberation is ongoing, urgent work

 

Looking Ahead to 4 March 

As we move toward International Fat Liberation Day, we’re in the early planning stages, doing what we can while we collectively navigate the end-of-year sprint.

And that’s okay. Movements aren’t built in one month or one year. They’re shaped gently, consistently, over time. 

What matters is that the date is reclaimed. The narrative has shifted. The space is ours again. 

What comes next is simple, and it’s ongoing. These days are now anchored in our calendar. Each year we will mark them, celebrate them, and continue building momentum. We’ll evolve the way we hold them, expand participation, and bring more people along on the journey. By showing up consistently, we reinforce that liberation is a long-term commitment, not a single event, but a movement lived and repeated every year. 

We’ll share more about International Fat Liberation Day in the new year, but for now, we’re holding onto what October showed us: there is real appetite for days that centre dignity and joy. There is real momentum behind fat liberation, even in the midst of a broader cultural backslide towards thinness. And there is a community ready to claim these days as their own. 

Because these days don't belong to End Weight Bias. 

They are everyone's. 

And we can’t wait to build them. Together.