San Francisco’s new ‘fat positivity’ expert, hired to fight weight stigma in the city, is causing a stir before she’s even sunk her teeth into the job.
A newly resurfaced clip of Virgie Tovar, who describes herself as a ‘leading expert on weight-based discrimination and body positivity,’ shows her talking about how cutting back on cake is a form of oppression.
In the video, titled ‘No, I won’t cut you a smaller slice of cake’, the 42-year-old plus-sized woman calls out people who ‘ruin everything’ for asking for less cake while attending events.
She goes on to coin this phenomenon a ‘Cake Related Fatphobic Incident (CRFI)’.
Explaining what this concept means, she tells viewers: ‘A Cake Related Fatphobic Incident or CRFI is that moment when it’s time to eat delicious cake and it’s interrupted by a moralizing impulse.
‘Inevitably, there’s always someone at the party who has to declare publicly that their slice is too large and that the person who’s cutting the cake (almost invariably a woman) must do some disproportionate amount of labor in order to accommodate their need to feel superior.’
The video, from 2018, goes on to show three female actors role playing a CRFI.
One woman says, while embodying the ‘annoying’ party-goer role set forth by Ms Tovar: ‘Can you do a little bit [of cake]… like, can you like scrape all the frosting off and cut it in half and give me two forks, because I’m sharing.’
A newly resurfaced clip of Virgie Tovar shows her talking about how cutting back on cake is a form of oppression
Another female appears, echoing similar demands and constantly resizing her slice of cake to be smaller.
The third takes things further, whining to the camera: ‘Could you just cut my piece into 12 equal symmetrical little pieces and put each one into a tiny little Tupperware, so that I can have a bite for each month of 2018. Thanks!’
Ms Tovar then continues her monologue on CRFI.
She says: ‘Let’s take a step back and view what’s happening through a critical feminist lens.
‘CRFI typically happen in environments where there are primarily or exclusively women.
‘Women are disproportionately, negatively affected by diet culture because diet culture maps on to sexism like many parts of diet culture.
‘There is a significant performance component you have to show others that you are being good.
‘Controlling how much you eat is part of what it means to be a quote “good woman”.
‘This kind of behavior is a way for people to keep other people in check through food moralizing, surveillance and policing.’
In the video, titled ‘No, I won’t cut you a smaller slice of cake’, Ms Tovar slams women who ‘ruin everything’ for asking for less cake while attending events. Stock image
Virgie Tovar, a self-described ‘anti-weight-based discrimination’ announced her appointment working with the San Francisco Department of Public Health on her Instagram , calling it ‘an absolute dream come true.’
She continues: ‘These are the mechanisms that are at the core of diet culture and weight control. The idea that you can position yourself as superior to others through self-control in self-denial is super sexist.
‘CRFI have a history of creating a hierarchy among women and ultimately in maintaining misogynist expectations.’
The video was shared to Ms Tovar’s Facebook page in 2018 but the link no longer works. It was reshared this week on End Wokeness’ X account.
In a caption accompanying the YouTube clip, Ms Tovar wrote: ‘Statistics indicate that 104 percent of women will experience a Cake Related Fatphobic Incident (CRFI) before the end of 2018.’
While the clip is no longer on Ms Tovar’s page, it has recently done the rounds on social media, with many commenters outraged by her ‘fat acceptance push.’
@EndWokeness posted the video to X, with the caption: ‘San Francisco Weight Czar Virgie Tovar on why eating less cake is oppression.’
It was announced this week the San Francisco Department of Public Health had hired Ms Tovar as a consultant on ‘weight stigma and weight neutrality’ despite the city in the midst of a battle against rampant homelessness, open-air drug use, and violent crime.
Announcing her appointment on her Instagram, she called it ‘an absolute dream come true.’
‘I’m unbelievably proud to serve the city I’ve called home for almost 20 years in this way!’ Ms Tovar wrote.
‘This consultancy is an absolute dream come true, and it’s my biggest hope and belief that weight neutrality will be the future of public health.’
Critics argue San Francisco has far bigger problems to deal with than how people feel about their weight.
With the city struggling to deal with homelessness, drug addiction, and public safety concerns, prioritizing a weight stigma consultant feels tone-deaf, they argue.
‘This is real?’ tweeted Elon Musk upon hearing the news, believing it might be satire.
‘So the goal is not to fix any problems. Just to make people feel better about having them,’ surmised one user.
‘San Francisco is just making their problems worse,’ added another.
Ms Tovar is a prominent advocate for ‘fat positivity’ and body acceptance
In another Instagram post, she held up a sign reading, ‘I don’t want Ozempic,’ explaining that she didn’t want to take the drug because it wouldn’t address ‘weight bias’
‘You do have the right to remain fat, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy!’ quipped a fourth.
Supporters see the move as typical of progressive politics emphasizing the importance of addressing weight-based discrimination as part of broader public health goals.
Ms Tovar, who authored a book entitled You Have the Right to Remain Fat, positions herself as a leading voice against weight-based discrimination.
Her website describes her as a ‘plus-size Latina author, lecturer, and expert on body positivity with over a decade of experience.’
She has managed to build a career as an outspoken advocate against diet culture and traditional health metrics like body mass index, or BMI.
Her published works and social media presence often critique society’s beauty standards and ‘fatphobia.’
In one online video she reflected on her own struggles with ‘disordered eating’ describing how medical professionals pressured her to lose weight from an early age.
‘I really believed that this was about my health,’ she said. ‘I really believed my doctor was right, and so I was using the language of getting ‘better,’ but I was actually deeply in the throes of anorexia.’
Ms Tovar has been vocal on social media about reshaping workplace conversations around food and body image.
In another Instagram post, she held up a sign reading, ‘I don’t want Ozempic,’ explaining she didn’t want to take the drug because it wouldn’t address ‘weight bias.’
While Ms Tovar’s consultancy role is official, the specifics remain murky with the San Francisco Department of Public Health yet to disclose the specific nature of her responsibilities or how much she is being paid.
The department has also not specified how her consultancy will impact its programs or how success will be measured.
