This weekend (19 January 2020) Professor Heather Widdows joined a panel of influencers to discuss ‘the politics of ugliness’ at Anti Diet Riot Fest.

The festival aims to combat ‘society's obsession with thinness, narrow beauty ideals and fat phobia’ during January, a time where there is a cultural push to ‘firm up and cut down’.

Professor Widdows introduced some of the themes from her book, Perfect Me, including how beauty has become an ethical ideal to live by as we have a ‘duty to be beautiful’. She argued that it’s not surprising that how we look matters in an increasingly visual and virtual world where the pressure to be perfect is something which young men and women increasingly feel.

Heather Widdows speaking about Everyday Lookism at the Anti-Diet Riot Festival in London

She also introduced everyday lookism – a new campaign against body shaming that asks people to call out their experiences of lookism so together we can stop it.

Almost 500 lookism stories have been shared so far and the stories were shared as stickers throughout the festival.

An Everyday Lookism campaign sticker