Today we’d like to introduce you to Dom Garrett-Scott.
Dom, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a big fine Black feminist poet-scholar, researcher, writer, model, and content creator hailing from Dallas, Texas. I am a sociologist by training. I hold my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Sociology and I am currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin with expertise in race and ethnicity, Fat Studies, and the Black Feminist Tradition. My doctoral research is deeply concerned with how fatphobia, sexism, and racism create a culture that polices and punishes Black women and our bodies. Too often our everyday lives are placed under a microscope and picked apart for other people’s enjoyment. My academic studies about how fatphobia and body stigma shape the experiences of Black women-led me to my creative work. I was learning all of these things in the classroom about body discrimination in medicine, travel, and education. But for me, writing and researching was not enough. And that is where my creative work began. I began writing poetry and creating visuals about my experiences as a fat, Black woman from the South. My creative work is centered around the Black feminist tradition of putting theory to praxis. My content invites Black women to step into their power and abundance unapologetically regardless of their shape or size. I live loudly in hopes that other fat, Black women see that joy, ease, and abundance as our birthright.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road by any means. Fatphobia and misogynoir (anti-Black misogyny) permeate every crevice of our lifeworld. And therefore, every time I choose to spin joy out of this life, it is an act of resistance. The amount of hate that I get from choosing to live loudly and proudly in this big, Black body is astounding. I constantly have people on the internet who spew hatred and venom at me because I don’t hate myself. They pick up handfuls of mud and sling them at me in hopes that I will shrink – both physically and spiritually. People are so conditioned to see fatness as a source of sadness that they look at me like how dare I move through the world so joyously in this big body. They have spent so much time hating their own bodies that they want me to sit in company with them and their misery. And I refuse. That act of refusal is not an easy one. It’s not easy to re-program your mind and soul to embrace the body that everyone else says is wrong. But I’m doing it. And I hope that other fat people see me and understand that our bodies are not something we have to apologize for. Our bodies are a source of power, and I won’t stop until everyone knows that.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a writer, researcher, poet-scholar, model, and content creator. I specialize in creating visuals for and about fat, Black women and our lives. I am most proud of my visual project “Attempting Alchemy,” which is the first part of a visual poetry series that explores resistance to fatphobia and misogynoir. Attempting Alchemy is my effort to spin the venom of fatphobia into gold. It’s an attempt to transform the cruelty into something magnificent. It is a peek into my journey to unlearn every evil thing the world told me about myself and my body. It is an ode to me and an invitation to others. It is the insistence that I am a love story and my body can be that. My work is set apart from others because it comes from the thickest parts of my heart. My work is critically informed by the work of Black women before me and deeply intwined with the Black Feminist Tradition. My work is about more than body positivity. My work is about a politic of radical self-love. One that seeks liberation for all fat people. My work is about imaging a lifeworld beyond the bounds of fathphobia and misogynoir. I want everyone to imagine with me until we can bring our dreams to fruition.
Contact Info:
- Email: domgscott@gmail.com
- Website: domthefurious.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/domthefurious/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/domthefurious
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa-sV8JM7UCQWwNkYri9gkQ
Image Credits:
Deja Samuel Brittny Miller Jasmine Williams 365 Photography The Godfather Photography
