HOST: “Where do you see the intersection really? What is your definition of health?”
TOVAR: “Yeah, that’s really complicated, right? I think I want to sort of — I want to talk about that question, but I want to start by saying that, you know, no one has to be healthy. No, right? Like, I mean, it’s like, no, like there is no governing body that’s like out there putting, you know what I mean?
HOST: “Yeah.”
TOVAR: “It’s like, no one owes anybody that in either the traditional sense of the word or any other more innovative or, you know, more politicized, maybe even version of that word. So I think it’s important to say, like — and I want to back up and bring in intersectionality and say, like, great, like, look at the disabled community, right? Like, I think people with disabilities have, and activists within that space have consistently been saying, like, I’m never going to be your notion of healthy. That doesn’t mean I don’t get to be a full human. You get to treat me some kind of way, right? And so I think that I love taking that principle within disability rights to fat activism and to understandings of fatness. So I want to start there, right? Like, no matter what size you are, you don’t owe anybody else your health. But I mean, for me, right, like, in an ideal world where — like, in an ideal world, there wouldn’t be health-based gatekeeping at all.”