Fat Activism and Disability: Flying While Fat/ Disabled – with artist/activist Stacy Bias and Dr Bethan Evans of the University of Liverpool
Flying is uncomfortable for many people, but when the physical infrastructure of the plane doesn’t accommodate your body and/or the social attitudes of other passengers make the plane environment a hostile space, flying can be a particularly anxious thing to do.
Legislation requiring airlines to make adjustments to accommodate and support disabled people varies across the world. In the UK, fat people are covered by EU regulations requiring support be given to passengers with reduced mobility, but these regulations do not guarantee accessible seating or facilities for either fat or disabled people. There have been several high profile cases recently of disabled people being excluded from flights or having their mobility aids damaged. Similarly fat people face exclusion from flights.
This talk explores the intersections between fat and disability in relation to air travel, presents some narratives of people’s experiences of air travel and raises some questions about the relationship between disability and fat activism when it comes to making a case for accessible transport. We will also be showing an animation by Stacy Bias which presents the voices of fat passengers. We encourage people to come along and share their stories, good or bad, of (in)accessible air travel and to join the discussion.
You can also see the Flying While Fat animation at other venues throughout the festival, find out more here: www.dadafest.co.uk/the-festival/event/flying-while-fat-animation-by-stacy-bias
Fat and Crip Power! A Public Conversation with Liz Carr & Charlotte Cooper
Liz Carr has been a disability rights activist for over 25 years. Charlotte Cooper has been a fat activist for even longer. They’re great friends who have been talking about the overlaps, shared experiences and differences between their worlds across cafe tables and on their settees for the past few years. Is there a relationship between fat and disability? Where does disability and fat activism overlap and diverge? How can performance and art help develop these themes? How can we support and strengthen each other without being sanctimonious creeps? They now want to share this conversation with you and hope you’ll join them in thinking about the relationship between fat and disability – personally and politically.
Liz Carr is an actor, comedian and disability rights activist. Most visible in her role as Clarissa Mullery in BBC’s Silent Witness, she co-hosted the irreverent BBC Ouch! Podcast and regularly performs cabaret and stand up comedy. As a passionate opponent to legalising assisted suicide, she has just launched Assisted Suicide The Musical into the world assistedsuicidethemusical.com.
Charlotte Cooper is a psychotherapist, cultural worker and para-academic from East London. She blogs about fat at obesitytimebomb.blogspot.co.uk and you can find out more about her at charlottecooper.net. Her latest book is Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement (HammerOn Press). She is one of the dancers in SWAGGA.