"Women have a lot of things to be angry about, but unlike men who often turn their anger outwards, women tend to direct it inwards and that can lead to self-hatred and depression," she says.
In her fiction, as in life, Walker says that the hatred of fat bodies and a hatred of women are inextricably linked.
"The hatred directed at fat women is completely intertwined with misogyny," she says. "Any time you see a guy saying that he hates fat women or that fat women are disgusting or gross, it is a huge red flag for a guy who hates women. He's saying that women have to adhere to a particular body size and look a certain way, otherwise they are just sub-human."
Walker hopes that her book will help to change people's attitudes towards fat.
If anything, her psychotic fantasies make me even more weary of fat chicks than I thought I could be.
"I wanted people to think about why women's bodies are constructed in a certain why; why fat women are discriminated against, why we have this objectification of women in our culture," she says.
She wants thin people to understand how hurtful, damaging and unfounded their fat prejudice is. And she wanted to break the mould of storytelling by having a main character who is fat.
"There were no serious novels about what it's like to be fat. For fat women I hoped that they would be able to see themselves represented in the book."
Her message is also one of fat acceptance. In Dietland Plum Kettle comes to realise that she will never become thin and her pursuit becomes about self-acceptance rather than thinness. What a twist! :amazed:
For her part, Walker says she's truly happy with her body size. Even if she had a magic wand, she wouldn't choose her body to be anything other than it is.
Except to that of Kirby, so she can inhale food even faster.
"I've come to appreciate the perspective that being in a fat body gives me. I have a perspective on feminism, society and culture that I wouldn't have otherwise. If I weren't fat, I would be a totally different person," Walker says.
