Da'Shaun L. Harrison

“Every time a government decides whose body must be protected and whose bodies must be erased for the sake of national imagery, this is body fascism. Every time there is a call for sovereignty by state powers with the intent to maintain borders, this is body fascism. Every time Black flesh is wrangled, dismembered, abused, this is body fascism. Understanding this clarifies exactly how fascist ideologies operate through the body, not only by glorifying a narrow ideal, but also by violently repressing the Black fat,”

Da'Shaun L. Harrison · said 2026-09-05 · reported 2026-09-07

Harrison criticized efforts to treat fatness as a public-health issue, connecting them to racial control and body fascism.

“Abstaining from pleasure becomes a way to train obedience, to train self-denial, and to train discipline in service of a broader political order. Body fascism is not some relic of the past. It's an active feature of modern imperial regimes,”

Da'Shaun L. Harrison · said 2026-09-05 · reported 2026-09-07

Harrison argued that diet culture conditions obedience and discipline as central components of body fascism.

“Black fatness is made meaningful through suffering, through surveillance, and through control and the policing of Black fat flesh anchors entire systems of governance. Without a population to discipline, there would be no BMI, no obesity epidemic, and no medical or scientific institutions organized around managing fatness,”

Da'Shaun L. Harrison · said 2026-09-05 · reported 2026-09-07

Harrison spoke during a session on 'Health Fascism' at the Socialism 2026 conference in Chicago.

“The diet industry reflects this logic. It operates through what I once defined as formal and informal relationships among major food corporations, the medical-industrial complex, and individual wealthy benefactors to sustain a social order in which fat people are monitored, restricted, guilted, stolen from, and punished. Diet culture has always linked food to morality, framing restraint as virtue and pleasure as danger through language like 'guilty pleasure,'”

Da'Shaun L. Harrison · said 2026-09-05 · reported 2026-09-07

Harrison argued that the diet industry sustains a social order in which fat people are monitored, restricted, and punished.