Episode 45 with Clarkisha Kent
A Big Bitch Manifesto – Clarkisha Kent
Show Notes & Full Transcript
Clarkisha Kent (she/her) is a culture critic and bringer of chaos. Her new book, “Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto,” was published this year, and Clarkisha is here to talk about it, along with a foray into the connections between purity culture and fatness and how we can use The Kelli & Kat Test to determine whether a piece of media has provided the audience with thoughtful representation of fat [Black] women and/or non-men.
Clarkisha Kent is a Nigerian American writer, culture critic, former columnist, and author of “Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto.” Committed to telling inclusive stories via unique viewpoints from nigh-infancy, she is fascinated with using storytelling and cultural criticism not as a way to “overcome” or “transcend” her unique identities (as a FAT, bisexual, and disabled Black African woman), but as a way to explore them, celebrate them, affirm them, and most importantly, normalize them and make the world safe enough for people who share them to exist.
Please connect with Clarkisha on her website and IG. The Kelli & Kat Test.
Also mentioned are the books “Fearing the Black Body” and “Belly of the Beast.”
This episode’s poem is by Ha Jin and is called “A Center.”
Bonus content with Clarkisha through Apple Podcast Subscriptions and on Patreon.
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Our thanks to AR Media and Emily MacInnis for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.
A Fat Joy Podcast Book Review
Fat Off Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto
Written by Clarkisha Kent
Respectfully reviewed by A. Cavouras
Book Summary
With a heartfelt storytelling approach, Clarkisha Kent takes you on the journey of her life told through her body and her unwavering commitment to finding herself at home within it. The chapters follow her life chronologically as Kent shares stories that shaped her body and soul. Reading like a journal, Kent uses her engaging inner dialogue as she confronts a home and a society that seem to attack the very essence of who she is.
What’s Special About This Book
The word manifesto is correct here- this book is about knowing your worth, adding the tax, AND sending the bill. This book is the type of memoir that needs to replace (insert privileged narrative of your choosing here) to build out the fullness of the human experience. Clarkisha Kent is doing it in the pages of Fat Off Fat On, and her work skillfully edges aside dominant narratives in the biography genre.
Kent uses an abundant amount of ™ symbols as a way to reference different events in her life and it is witty and amazing every time: Original Sin™, My Life As A Baby Gay ™, Big Chop™, and Main Character™ syndrome to name a few. Her writing draws in great pop culture anchors ranging from Janet Jackson to the Pillsbury Doughboy. All of this is layered with the complex and nuanced unpacking of topics so often silenced in dominant discourse: purity culture, immigrant experiences, church expectations and abuse dynamics.
Beautiful Lines for Your Heart, Your Mirror, or Your Twitter
P. 216
“...but as I grow older, “humble” is a word I see weaponized far too often against the baddest bitches alive. Merely because they, indeed, recognize that they are, in fact, bad bitches.”
P. 255
“Fatness makes a woman and her body a little less controllable. A little less governable. And a little less concerned with chasing whatever body “trend” is being pushed - by the diet industry, the clothing industry, and by mass media at-large-onto them to suck them into the hamster wheel that is figuring out what is desirable to the common cis(het) man at the moment.
Because it is fatness’s demand for space to live, for space to grow, for space to move, for space to expand, for space to prosper, and for space to love openly and freely that makes its existence quite, quite radical.”
End Note
This is a validating story that connects deeply with me as a reader. The writing is crisp and original, bravely taking swings at fatphobia and all the difficult ways it wove itself into Clarkisha Kent’s life. The book also stands as a call to action for each of us to make space for our own healing - a radical manifesto indeed.
Respectfully reviewed by A. Cavouras (a.cavouras@gmail.com)