Fat Bubble: Val And Co

Welcome to Fat Bubble, where we affirm the rights and dignities of fat folk, and their absolute entitlement to safety, joy and dreams. 

Last week, when I was talking about Fat Village, I said something that I often say – that a central tension of this work is recognising the anti fat hate that exists in the world, and then living as if it doesn’t. And today’s focus really feels bound in that dissonance. 

This week I’ve been grieving for the loss of Kaylea Titford, a young girl who died by neglect in Wales in 2020. I didn’t know her, but my whole system responded to the news with grief and rage that her young, fat, disabled body didn’t receive more gentleness, care and honouring in this world. 

I felt frustrated that the coroner’s report pivoted on the pathologising of her body, rather than the unequivocal accountability of the actions of her caregivers. I spoke about this on Instagram stories, and I wanted to honour her here too; this is a newsletter about fat joy, but it’s in the context of an anti-fat world, and we have to acknowledge that reality and navigate that tension sometimes.

One of the phrases that I use frequently in sessions is ‘the neutral accommodation of needs’. What would it look like if you recognised the human needs of your human experience, and accommodated them, neutrally without shame or judgment? What an overwhelming liberation that would be. What a deep source of joy and potential it would be. What a safeguarding it would be. 

In a fantasy parallel world, the needs of Kaylea’s fat and disabled body are neutrally accommodated, and her dignity and respect are so obvious and centered, and her access and support needs are financially sustained by our social care structures; in a fantasy parallel world she remains safe. 

So in a week that has really connected me to the cruelties of anti-fat world, I turn to the salve of my Fat Bubble, and this week want to focus on Val at Val And Co, and her clear and uncompromising commitment to the rights and dignities of fat and disabled bodies.

Val centres an intersectional understanding of oppressive issues in her worldview and her content, as a fat, disabled Indigenous woman. She shares her uncompromising commitment to body liberation, and I resonate deeply with how she positions the acknowledgment of fat liberation and disability justice as facts rather than debates; I experience a real sense of solidarity and safety when I engage with her work. 

Principally, Val’s account is focused on slow and ethical fashion. She shares super duper fashion and style inspo, with her images and videos connecting me with great small businesses and ethical brands, placing values at the heart of purchases. She shows her outfits with a #StyledSeated consideration and hashtag, to show other chronically ill and disabled folks how clothes look when seated.

It’s in the captions, and in her boundaries, that she places the slow fashion conversation within an intersectional context, and I value this so much. As someone who loves style, and values slow fashion, I just love to engage with an account that can do both. Do go and familiarise yourself with Val’s work (stopping by her Boundaries story highlight as you do), and I hope you get the same wonderful gifts that I do from her offerings – recognising that the clothes we put on our body are inextricably rooted in body liberation. She brings so much to my Fat Bubble, and I hope she does to yours too.