Hello, I am Sea Matheson. I am an activist based out of Austin, Texas, specifically working with the non-binary and fat community to help increase [the] presence of intersectional and non-binary people with such events in Austin as a Women’s March, March for Our Lives, [and] most recently, the global climate strikes. My preferred pronouns are she and her. And my paper, ‘Embracing Fatness as Self-Care in the Era of Donald Trump,’ is something I’m thrilled to be presenting and has been accepted here at the New Zealand Fat Studies Conference 2020.

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Space is an important element of self-care. And one tool for creating both ideological and physical space is fatness. When I was younger, on several occasions, I was touched or fondled sexually, and on some of these occasions, it was done without my permission. So, in college and grad school, however—and at this point, to be clear, I did not yet identify as fat—one day, however, all that changed. I was fueling my vehicle at a nearby gas station, and as I was collecting my receipt, a man reached out and tried to touch me, sexually. And I had a realization that I wasn’t worried.

Now, why was I not worried? Because I understood that in that moment, because of what, at this point, I was referring to as my freshman pounds—my newfound fat—this stranger, regardless of his determination, would have far greater difficulty in grabbing my genitalia without my consent. And that was where I began to explore the idea that fatness can be self-care.

From that point on, I actively chose to—I identified as fat.

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