Binghamton University to Host Dance Party for ‘Body Positivity’

Binghamton University is set to host a “respect rave” for “body positivity” on Monday.

Binghamton University in New York is set to host an event on Monday that aims to celebrate “body positivity” for students struggling with body image issues. The event, a “respect rave,” will invite students to celebrate the diversity of their body sizes by dancing into the night with the peers.

Sarah Thompson, a lecturer of health and wellness at Binghamton, said, “Dance is a way of pulling people in and feeling their bodies and respecting what their bodies can do and [understanding] how it feels to be well in the body. Moving our bodies and feeling our bodies and not worrying about what we look like when we move, but rather experiencing the joy it brings, makes us more connected to our bodies.”

“While being healthy, the party is also meant to be interactive and engaging,” Thompson said. “We want people to come in, participate and dance.”

While the Binghamton University event seems relatively tame, the “fat acceptance” movement has seen significant growth over the past several years, finding a comfortable home on college campuses.  On March 1, “fat sex therapist” Sonalee Rashatwar gave a lecture about “fat acceptance” at the University of Vermont. She told students to “throw [their] scales in the trash.”

Earlier this month, a guest speaker at Johns Hopkins University argued that humans can be healthy at any body weight.

At the beginning of the month, Danish comedian Sofie Hagen accused a cancer research organization of “fat-shaming” after they published an advertisement that highlighted the link between obesity and cancer.

The academic journal, Fat Studies, dedicates its pages to the promotion of the perspective that the overweight people are oppressed in the Western world. In November, Breitbart News reported on a Fat Studies article that argued that overweight females have a hard time in school because they can’t fit comfortably in small classroom furniture.