'London is the most fat-shaming place I've ever been to,' US author says

Author: Sarai Walker
Hatty Collier27 April 2016

A US author has described London as “the most fat-shaming place” she has ever visited.

Writer Sarai Walker, who pens novels about women and weight, has described facing a barrage of nasty comments from Londoners about her appearance while living in the capital.

The author made the remarks during an interview with The Guardian on her new book Dietland, which is about a 21 stone woman named Plum, who lives a lonely life in Brooklyn and is constantly dieting.

She told the newspaper that in the US “fatphobia” would manifest itself in subtle ways but that while living in London for seven years, on and off, strangers would often say horrible things to her face about her weight.

Ms Walker said: “London was the most fat-shaming place I’ve been in my entire life.

"It was on a scale like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”

The California-born writer blamed London’s apparent fat-shaming culture on women’s bodies being constantly on display in phonebooths and tabloid newspapers across the capital and described the city as like “a red-light district”.

Comparing London to her native US, she said: “We have fashion magazines with scantily clad women but you don’t see those kind of porny images in public as much.

“I felt part of the reason I got harassed in London was because there were messages everywhere that women’s bodies are public property.”

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