MAKING BODY POSITIVITY MORE INCLUSIVE
Toronto couple are united in their mission to combat appearance-based size discrimination
Jill Andrew and Aisha Fairclough are partners in life and united in their mission to combat appearancebased size discrimination. The Toronto-based pair use their blog, Fatinthecity.com, to add their voices as queer Black women to broaden the body-positivity conversation. Andrew is an academic, writer and speaker. Fairclough is a TV producer and specializes in diversity casting. Together, they co-founded Body Confidence Canada (bodyconfidencecanada.com), an advocacy group that produces the Body Confidence Canada Awards (BCCAs) and is home to the national campaign #SizeismSUCKS, which is campaigning to end size- and appearance-based discrimination across Canada.
They have also created Body Confidence Awareness Week (#BCAWeek), which will be held the second week in October and recognized by the Toronto District School Board and the Winnipeg School Division, so more than 300,000 students in two provinces will participate. A Body Love Ball fundraiser will be held at the 519 community centre on Oct. 26. They spoke to the Star about the story behind the many advocacy initiatives they have on the go.
Tell us how you began your mission, separately and together. Andrew:
Our journey towards this work was largely inspired by our own personal experiences of body-based harassment and body-shaming.
I was bullied, like many people, as a child based on my body size, facial features and the colour of my skin. Aisha, too, experienced body-based harassment and like the majority of plus-size women, we were both sized out of fashion. It’s really important to realize that body-shaming and the body positivity is not just about body size. If body positivity isn’t also addressing ableism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and the many other ways that people are discriminated against because of the skin they are in and how they define themselves, then that brand of body positivity isn’t ‘positive’ at all. It’s got to be all or nothing.
I have been a body-image advocate for over 20 years — I’ve been committed and actively doing this work. Aisha, who is also my life partner, and I have been working together on body-positivity initiatives for 10plus years.
How can we broaden the conversation about diversity? Fairclough:
(On) television, you rarely see a plus-size person whose storyline isn’t centred around their weight: My Big Fat Life, This is Us and Drop Dead Diva, just to name a few. As a producer, it’s disheartening when you pitch someone that’s bigger than size two and your executive producer says they’re too fat for television.
Weight-based discrimination is encouraged: Producers say they want ‘diversity,’ but it’s ‘safe diversity.’ When I styled Sunny Megatron, the host of Showtime’s Sex With Sunny
Megatron, back in 2015, it was groundbreaking to see a woman of size taking about sex openly. It’s an uphill battle. It is obvious that the world is ready for change and the world is ready to see more diverse bodies.
For years, the fashion industry has tokenized diversity with the one Black model, one Asian model and most recently, one plus-size model. The only way that a real shift will begin is when diverse bodies are included in various campaigns, not just one. On this season’s Project
Runway, they answered that call by including size-inclusive models on the runway. Designers will have to design for models size zero to 22.
What kind of interactive online responses do you get? Andrew:
We’ve got responses from people who are simply so thankful to see ‘people who look like us’ doing this work, leading conversations on body positivity, body-based harassment and appearance-based discrimination. We often get mes- sages from people who want to join our movements. We often get people who share very personal aspects of their story. On the other hand, we also receive a lot of trolls, hate mail and in fact, I’ve actually received death threats.
What are the hashtags that have had the most traction? Fairclough:
My top five are #goldenconfidence #celebratemysize #alternativecurves #sizeismsucks #beyondpositivity that really speak to the needs and demands of the plus-size consumer.