8 Author Tips to Avoid Body-Shaming in Your Books

By Paulette Stout

Our culture is obsessed with body size. It just is. Especially this time of year. How large or small someone’s body is often becomes more consequential to our perceptions of them than who they are as a people. One glance and we’ve already assessed their health, worth ethic, romantic prospects, intelligence, and happiness—all based on their physical size and how well it fits within society’s definition of what is acceptable. I raise this issue because too many authors embed these harmful messages in their work. This makes it near impossible for many people to sit down to read without feeling uncomfortable or insulted.

Some Background on Body Stigmas & Dieting

In the throes of researching my new book, What We Give Away, I read countless books and examined studies by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and more all confirming that health, weight, and longevity are not tied to thinness at all. You can be healthy and thin or healthy and fat. Unhealthy and thin or unhealthy and fat. In fact, once data errors were corrected, the CDC’s own studies showed overweight people lived longer than underweight and normal weight people. Shocker, right?

So I’ll let you in on a well-documented secret. Dieting doesn’t deliver sustained weight loss in humans. Short term, sure. But it comes back, and then some. You’ve likely experienced this yourself, and it’s a predictable, explainable physiological response. Even GLP-1 drugs don’t work indefinitely, with weight plateauing after 60 weeks, and most weight coming back after stopping the drug. What’s worse, the diet lie has been well known—and ignored—by researchers for years. This made me wonder why, and who financially gains by keeping people chasing an illusion of thinness. This too is covered in my novel. 

Diet culture harms people of all sizes. Those thin, fear getting fat, too many making themselves sick in the pursuit. Those fat become mired in unhealthy cycles of yo-yo dieting that leaves them emotionally exhausted and less healthy than if they skipped the restrictive diet in the first place and just lived. Ate when hungry, stopped when they’d had enough, and moved in a way that brought them joy.

And if all humans deserve to be loved, respected, and happy, why are we embedding so many harmful, body-shaming messages in our books?

How to Avoid Body Shaming in Your Books

If you’re interested in doing better, here are eight ways you can be part of a new generation of authors saying “no” to body shaming and anti-fit stigma in their books. 

1. Skip the negative self-talk: Too many books have main characters constantly shaming themselves for not having “ideal” bodies. This perpetuates our unhealthy cultural loathing of our own bodies. Instead of having your characters fuss over their weight, dig deeper into your character’s backstory and devise more meaningful obstacles for them to overcome. Insecurity is normal. Having your main character weight-shame themselves reinforces a harmful stereotype that this is expected behavior. 
2. Eliminate negative body commentary: If your main or side characters frequently comment on the size of those around them, think twice. Find another way to build character without body-shaming characters, including your readers. 
3. Avoid “thin” preconditions: When you make characters drop weight before they’re worthy of going after the lives they want, it sends harmful messages to readers that they must delay living their best life until they achieve an arbitrary weight. A happy life should be open to everyone, regardless of size.
4. Avoid harmful stereotypes: If all your fat characters are intellectually slow, lazy, mean, slovenly, ugly, unaccomplished, or unethical, rethink your choices. Sure, fat people can be all those things, but so can thin people. 
5. Don’t make all your fat characters single: Many fat people have meaningful and loving relationships with lovers, partners, friends, and family. If you typically write your fat characters as bridesmaids in their own lives, it’s time to get more creative. And real.
6. Skip the morality proxy: As writers, we often need shortcuts to help readers quickly understand who’s good, who’d bad, and why they should care. Try to decouple the adherence to strict diet and exercise regimens as shorthand for “this person is living life right. You should like and respect them.” It paints a narrow, rigid path for morality, and it’s frankly a little boring. A character can be evil in a handsome, trim body, and a good, moral person in a larger body sitting in front of the TV. (If you’re repulsed by that idea, take a breath. It takes time to get used to the idea of separating morality from thinness.) 
7. Get creative with your characterization: Fat people are often portrayed as jokesters, providing comic relief and little substance. As authors, we have the freedom to create meaningful backstories for our heroines. Take the opportunity to move beyond preconceived notions about what it means to be a fat and develop fat characters as you would everyone else you write. They live in larger bodies, but they’re human like everyone else.
8. Dress them to succeed: Often large-bodied characters in books are portrayed as wearing the literary equivalent of a burlap sack. But, y’all, you can literally dress them in anything you want. They need not wear Mumu’s. Style matters, so give your fat characters a wardrobe they can be proud of. 

Become Part of the Solution

Fat people have many inherent obstacles navigating a world hellbent on telling them they’re wrong and unlovable. Don’t continue this harmful storyline in the books you write. Readers are wising up and starting to speak up about fat shaming in books. Beyond racially insensitive content, fat shaming is number two reason I’m DNFing books these days. Books I looked forward to reading, by people I respect. But after decades of hating myself, I’ve said no more. And I expect the books I read to bring joy into my life, not reinforce past shame. As an author, you can be at the forefront of change.

Let’s grow this movement and shift the culture so people can take pride in who they are, regardless of the body they’re in. Give everyone the opportunity to sit down to read a book and just enjoy.

Note: If you are skeptical about my position on body size, do your own research. See the resources list on my website. Dig in and come to your own conclusions. 

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Paulette Stout is the fearless author of contemporary fiction whose books say the quiet things out loud. Her debut, Love, Only Better, is a relatable and empowering story readers are calling a “must read.” Her follow-up, What We Never Say, explores a ripped-from-the-headlines #MeToo topic with a surprising twist. Book three tackles race, class and belonging featuring two characters with sizzling chemistry.

Born in Manhattan and raised by a single dad, Paulette loves crafting stories that make readers feel and think.

You can usually find Paulette rearranging words into pleasing patterns while wearing grammar t-shirts. Either that, or texting pictures of something she’s whipped up in her kitchen to her two adult kids while her husband rolls his eyes.

Enjoy free reads on Paulette’s website at paulettestout.com/free.

Follow Paulette on Instagram: @paulettestoutauthor, Tiktok: @paulettestoutauthor, Facebook: @paulettestoutauthor Twitter: @StoutContent and on her website at paulettestout.com.

And don’t forget to leave a review after you finish reading!

WHAT WE GIVE AWAY

**A delicious standalone novel**

A story too big to ignore. A second chance at love. Did the biggest lie of Leslie’s life drive away the only man she’s ever loved?

Leslie is an award-winning journalist who thrives on tackling NYC’s most controversial stories. But at 37, she finds herself at the heart of an investigation that hits too close to home.

For as long as Leslie can remember, food has been the enemy. Something to avoid, not enjoy. When a relative challenges her perspective, she dives into the world of diet culture and eating disorders, only to see her own struggles reflected back at her. This revelation sets Leslie on a transformative journey to mend her relationship with food, her body, and the only man she’s ever loved.

Chef Risto is a bigger than life personality who unapologetically lives life to the fullest. With his restaurant thriving and his culinary star rising, Risto has everything he’s ever wanted—except Leslie. Their past is a tangled web of unspoken feelings and unmet expectations. He dreams of her every night. But how can they build a future together when Leslie can’t fully support his dreams?

When Leslie’s cupid-of-an-aunt insists she fill-in for her at Risto’s restaurant, their undeniable chemistry reignites. But can it overcome their complicated history?

Meanwhile, tensions rise as Leslie’s investigation threatens her TV career. It forces her into an impossible choice: achieve stardom while living a lie, or embrace the truth for a second chance at true love?

In this compelling tale of self-discovery and romance, Leslie must navigate a world that demands she conform, while finding the courage to be true to herself and live her best life.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: How To and Tips