Fat Bubble: Jenny Bruso
Hello Fat Bubblers! (that’s not a very good name, is it?! Anyone have a suggestion?!). Well, welcome to this week’s Fat Bubble, where I share fat joyful and fat affirming resources, in the hope that they will also bring you comfort and satisfaction.
Last week’s email was just a teensy tiny one, as I was resting up from losing my voice. Thankfully, giving myself a bit of a break, and letting my TikTok algorithm work it’s magic on me, did just the trick, and this week I’m feeling great.
In last week’s email, the resource I shared was the Fat People Doing Things trend over on Tiktok, which is also a much used hashtag on Instagram and, this week, I thought I’d dive deeper into the origins of the audio that makes all those videos possible. So this week, I’m focused on Jenny Bruso!
Jenny Bruso is a fat, femme, queer writer, hiker and group hike leaders, based in the USA, and has been one of my favourite follows for some time now. No surprise, seeing fat hiking representation is, lol, thin on the ground. Dreaded memories of geography field trips, trying to find utility trousers to fit my thick thighs and then, even worse, having to use them! As a 15 year old, hiking hills in the Peak District was worrying, because it was one of those experiences where I was so worried that I would be outed. Outed as fat, outed as ‘unhealthy’, outed as needing extra accommodations – I remember the stress of trying as hard as I could to assimilate, whilst also knowing that my puffy red face and mean girl smirks from others would expose me.
These are familiar experiences to anyone who grew up fat, or even grew up coded as fat in relation to their slimmer peers. Outdoor pursuits became a stressful thing to be avoided, and as far as I could see, there was no affirming attempt to portray outdoor activities as ones that actively wanted to include fat people, other than as an attempt to make them not fat anymore.
So when I stumbled on Jenny, who was not changing her body but simply existing in it, in nature, it was a lovely wholesome and healing experience! That very familiar cry from my system – finally, someone who looks like me, doing things. And now, years later, Jenny has taken that idea and made her ‘fat people doing things’ video, that has now birthed thousands of copies and tributes!
Alongside her own activism and representation of fatness outdoors, Jenny then created Unlikely Hikers, a group and community that seeks to connect underrepresented outdoorspeople – ‘plus size and fat, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, queer, trans and non-binary, disabled, neurodivergent and beyond. We don’t conflate these experiences, we explore and build community at their intersections' (Unlikely Hikers website).
As we often say, representation is not the beginning and end of liberation, but it’s an important aspect of belonging. To see diverse groups of people engaging in pursuits that have historically been less welcoming is a reclamation, and shows us yet another option for this magical life, if we want it. Finding community, like Unlikely Hikers, whether online or in person, is to find tips, tricks, hacks, as well as the sweet feeling of solidarity.
Jenny now also partners with brands in developing more inclusion in sizing, and in creating culture shift so that underrepresented populations are less underrepresented. If you’re local to her, you could join a group hike. If not, and hiking is interesting to you, perhaps it will inspire you to know that you do deserve to take up space on hike trails. If you are slow or out of breath, or wearing patched together gear because companies are still catching up, that doesn’t negate your right to do the things that bring you satisfaction. Fat people doing things, it’s a thing!
Until next week, friends, wishing you safety and joy.
Vicky