Between poems and fanzines: problematizing fat-hater experiences from an extension project

Abstract

This article aims to present results of the project Mujeres Activando: experiencias de talleres literarios como espacios para problematizar discursos y prácticas gordo-odiantes (Women Activating: experiences of literary workshops as spaces to problematize fat-hating discourses and practices). The project took place throughout the year 2021 within the group with the same name. The central objective was to reactivate other workshops called Poesía Resiliente (Resilient Poetry) that had taken place between 2016 and 2017 and had been part of the activities organized as part of the project titled Mujeres Activando. These spaces were considered safe by those who participated in the activities and issues such as gender violence and the construction of slum identities were addressed. The outreach project aimed to recover these spaces of community dialogue between women in which they could share their experience in relation to everyday violence on varied corporealities. This article will first refer to the creation of Mujeres Activando in its particular context. Then, it will describe the work carried out in the workshops. It is hoped that the importance of the meetings for the participants in the workshops is clearly reflected on this article, together with the production of fanzines as one of the unexpected elements in the process of letting ourselves get carried away by the territorial drifts.