Virgie Tovar
Virgie Tovar, MA is an author, activist and one of the nation’s leading experts and lecturers on fat discrimination and body image. She is the editor of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and the mind behind #LoseHateNotWeight. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender.
Virgie has been featured by the New York Times, MTV, the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Huffington Post, Bust Magazine, Jezebel, and Interrupt Magazine as well as on Al Jazeera and The Ricki Lake Show.
Her most recent speaking engagements have included University of Washington, Earlham College, Hollins University, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Davis, California College of the Arts, Sacramento State University, Sonoma State University, and Humboldt State University. She lives in San Francisco and offers workshops and lectures nationwide.
Learn more about her work at her website. To read her Everyday Feminism articles, click here.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Book Virgie Now!
To arrange to have Virgie speak at your event, please complete this form here and we will be in touch soon. Her presentations include:
- Lose Hate Not Weight: 5 Ways to End Diet Culture NOW! – This presentation is dedicated to offering participants a core and intersectional understanding of the foundation and effects of diet culture and equipping them with 5 ways to work towards its eradication that can be implemented immediately.
- #LYB: The Sex Positive Guide to Loving Your Body – This presentation begins with a critical history of the connections between food, bodies and sexuality – we interrogate American history from the 19th century diet reform movement to the contemporary media-generated war against women – and ends with concrete tools for creating a body positive sexuality.
- Performing & Constructing Fat Identity: Radical Fat Activism as Queer Cultural Performance – This presentation examines the utilization of social media by fat queers of color to convey political dissatisfaction and critique. Invoking queer theorist Jose Munoz’ theory of “queer cultural performance,” we examine hashtags and images as modes of political engagement.
- Selfies & The Future of Representation – According to Pamela Rutledge, PhD there are “many more photographs available now of real people than models.” “Selfie culture” is a radical departure from traditional portraiture and the democratizing effects of cell phone cameras can be linked to this incredible shift in representation. While some call selfies a manifestation of narcissism, there is much to learn from the ways that traditionally underrepresented communities utilize this medium to change notions of who we are as a culture.
All topics can be adapted to be presentations, keynote speeches, or workshops and can be tailored to the audience.
If you don’t see a topic that quite meets your needs but think we can cover it, just let us know. We are also willing to create a signature talk or workshop for groups.