Elizabeth Benson and Kate Rosen are on a mission to end anti-fat bias in singing spaces.
Kate Rosen is a singer and teacher who runs the Kate Rosen Voice Studio and cofounded the social activism group Fat Folks Detroit. Elizabeth Benson is an associate professor of musical theatre voice at Auburn University and the owner of Benson Music Studios. I asked them to tell us about their work on fat liberation in the voice studio and how we can be part of the fat liberation movement in our singing spaces.
Kate Rosen
First, can you tell us why you use the word “fat”?
Kate Rosen: We use the word “fat” because the fat community has embraced it, has reclaimed it. The words we hear a lot, “overweight” and “obese,” are very pathologizing and harmful, and I would consider them slurs if they were said to me. Something to think about: the word “overweight” implies that you are over the proper weight, that there is a proper weight to be, and you have exceeded it. “Obesity” is such a loaded term and is categorized based on the BMI [Body Mass Index]. Discrimination based on the BMI is a very, very life-threatening issue.
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And nobody is ever using the word “obese” in a loving way toward a fat person. But having a word, in this case the word “fat,” that fat people can associate with in a positive, or maybe even just a neutral way, gives us an umbrella term that we can congregate under. If we don’t even have a word to describe the thing that we are, how do we come together and form community?
Elizabeth Benson
What prompted you to begin this research?
KR: I am a person who has been fat my whole life to varying degrees and I have been performing since I was a kid, and so I have experienced the effects of anti-fat bias in the performing arts for my whole life. Around 2018, I started getting really interested in how [anti-fat bias] affected my whole mindset about myself, but also how that could apply in the studio.
I wanted to be a musical theatre singer, and I was encouraged to pursue classical singing even though that wasn’t a particular area of interest for me. To be on the receiving end of that type of derailment of my career aspirations at such a formative age…I really look back on that and wish that there had been somebody there to say, “Hey, that’s discriminatory,” and it’s really exciting and rewarding to be able to be that person now for others. We don’t need to be disallowing entry into any career field to someone based on their size.
Elizabeth Benson: I was already doing some research on the intersection of social justice and voice pedagogy. There was a huge anti-racism reckoning that happened in the theatre world around the same time as the pandemic. I had done some scholarship in the area of anti-racism in the voice studio. I was already thinking about how voice pedagogy really needed a big infusion of cultural humility and that we really needed to update some practices to make sure that everyone feels safe and included and that they belong, in order for them to explore their deepest artistry and get to those raw emotions. If we’re not creating a safe space, then how can we ask people to do that?
What are the ways that anti-fat bias shows up in the voice teaching studio?
EB: There are four big ones: mindset (of the teacher), physicality, repertoire, and uninformed pedagogy. In our research study, our 66 participants said a mindset shift is the single most important change that needs to be made. In voice lessons, an anti-fat mindset might manifest when a teacher emphasizes the idea that “thin equals healthy.” It can come out as overt discrimination by telling a student, “If you would just lose weight, you would get a job” or that “your audition would be taken more seriously.”
There are many ways physicality shows up. If chairs in the studio have arms, not everyone can sit in them. The idea of standing for the duration of a voice lesson—that is not going to work for all people. Using a full-length mirror and making the student face the mirror the whole time [could be harmful]. Some physical requirements like planking while singing or doing wall sits or running up stairs—these things are not going to be accessible for all people.
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Repertoire is a big one. [The problem is] assigning the “token fat girl rep,” meaning the moms, the witches, and Tracy Turnblad. We need to ask the students what stories they want to tell and not use appearance to type somebody.
Uninformed pedagogy assumptions are a big [problem]. Assuming a large body works the same or doesn’t work the same as a thin body; those are both problematic. And then there is pedagogical touching. For folks with an antagonistic or complex relationship with their bodies, having a physical stimulation of that body is not always going to be helpful, and it has the potential to be quite harmful. What we found in our research is that [pedagogical touching] is not very effective, particularly for fat folks.
What are some things we can do to combat anti-fat bias in our singing spaces?
KR: Have a sturdy chair without arms, with a high weight capacity. Then make sure the chair is placed [so that] there is space around it. Exercise balls are so common in voice studios nowadays, but that can be very inaccessible to folks in fat bodies due to low weight capacity. When you’re doing exercises that are more physically intense, it’s a great idea to start with the simplest or least challenging version of that and then, if needed, offer more challenging versions. Offering the easiest version as the standard version is going to help people, including fat people, feel less shame and feel more that they’re getting the full benefit rather than feeling like they’re failing at the full version.
One really simple change you can make is putting some kind of body positive art or fat positive art in your studio. That is a small but powerful invitation. It doesn’t get in the face of anybody who may or may not feel comfortable identifying with their weight in any particular way but identifies you as a person who is open to treating all people of all sizes in an equitable way.
When people look in a mirror for that prolonged a time [an entire voice lesson], it can be very difficult for anybody with body image issues. And in a very fatphobic world, that is likely to disproportionately affect our fat students. It is really important that we stop using full-length mirrors as a standard part of a voice lesson. Elizabeth has an interesting method in her studio.
EB: I have a sheer cover like a curtain over the mirror, and then I have hooks to the side, and I tell all my students that they can decide on that day, that lesson, if they want to open the mirror or not, but it defaults to being closed.
KR: The last thing I want to talk about with this is the repertoire. If we want to see change in the industry, we have to recognize that we are also the industry as voice teachers. If we are preparing, let’s say, a wonderful young musical theatre major who has the personality and voice to sing Ariel [from The Little Mermaid], and we are prepping her to sing Ursula because she’s fat, we are disadvantaging her. An Ariel voice is not necessarily going to be at home in [Ursula’s] repertoire—and, also, we are not allowing the training of this young singer to become the next viable option to be Ariel. If we cut off people’s potential, then we are blocking the pipeline that allows these qualified, skilled, trained, fat singers to show up at auditions and to be that option.
This applies with other facets of identity as well. For example, if we are not allowing trans and non-binary students to sing the roles that excite them and that fit them and that reflect their particular gifts, then we’re not getting J. Harrison Ghee playing Daphne in Some Like It Hot, and we’re not getting Alex Newell, right? Someone said yes to them, and someone encouraged their training. It’s our job as teachers to say yes more and to stop being so afraid of what the industry wants.
What else can we do to support fat singers?
EB: The presence of a supportive teacher is so potent and powerful for students. That’s the single most important thing I hope people take away from this discussion. You have so much power as a teacher to empower and support and to lift up your students and to advocate beyond the studio. Another thing that especially university teachers can do is make sure that the inclusion statement in their syllabi explicitly talks about size inclusion.
What benefits would we see if we could eliminate fat bias in our singing spaces?
KR: Some of the things that really come to mind for me are the ways that representation affects audiences. By seeing fat folks up on stage, we are informing a whole audience that fat people deserve to be the center of attention and to be able to take up their space. If we have a theatre environment that represents our population [accurately], then every kid can see a place for themselves on the stage. If we had representation, we would get more people into that career who can provide even more representation, and on and on.
Any way that we can fight for equity and fight against discrimination is a worthy cause. I hope it reaches fat people when they see more representation, and I hope it reaches thin people with the power to help dismantle this oppression.
EB: My first reaction was “We could just focus on the artistry!” The other thing is that there would be more joy. We have a great quote from one of our research study participants, Robin, who said, “To some extent, performing joyfully in spite of fear and nerves and body image issues feels like an empowering act of rebellion. For the people who may not want to see me or hear me. I’m going to be seen and heard anyway, simply because singing brings me joy.”
That’s what I want to see on stage. I want to see people who love themselves and are happy in their lives and are doing something because it brings them joy. We all deserve to feel that, and we all deserve to see that.
For more information about fat liberationist work in singing spaces, Benson and Rosen will be launching fat liberationist voice teacher training in 2025. Contact them at ebenson1@auburn.edu and kate@katerosenstudio.com for more information, including a list of fat liberationist ally resources.
