Guest Blog: 'True Health is Not About How You Look': Writer and Actor Kate Sumpter on Health, Fat-Shaming and Sin in Her Play SPIN

Six years ago, I was partially paralysed, unable to walk normally, and too weak to jump even an inch. I was also receiving more compliments on my body than ever. 

After a catastrophic disc herniation that caused a condition called Cauda Equina and emergency surgery to save my ability to use my legs and bowels, I happened to lose about fifteen pounds in two weeks. I was already thin but the stress killed my appetite to the point where I burned through any fat reserves I had along with almost all my muscle. 

Yet two weeks after major surgery, my paralysed leg taped into a walking position under my costume, I was on a film set of a major tv production being complimented on my lithe frame. I looked like a model, they said. I was the least physically healthy I had ever been but here I was receiving accolades for the perceived beauty of my emaciated body. If I needed more proof that what our society perceives as a ‘good’ body has nothing to do with actual health, I certainly received it. 

I thought about this experience a lot while writing my solo show SPIN. It is a dark comedy about a spin instructor with dreams of attaining the perfect body who is forced on a journey to save her soul. I also perform the piece while spinning on a stationary bike so (spoiler alert!) I did eventually regain the use of my leg.

The play posits that skinniness is not only wrongly equated with health but is such a venerated quality that it takes on the value of a virtue. Conversely, being fat can be seen as practically sinful. In a Capitalist society that worships productivity, fatness is construed as the ultimate sign of laziness and therefore a moral failing.

This is not true- it’s a body, not a spiritual litmus test- yet moralising the body forms a kind of secular religion which manifests in fitness culture and society at large in very destructive ways. It is often much harder for fat people to get jobs and appropriate medical care, not to mention the outright cruelty that they can face on a daily basis. Part of the reason people want to be thin is because they’re terrified of being treated how society treats fat people. 

But skinny people suffer from fatphobic ideology too. Believing that so much of our worth is tied to how little adipose tissue we have is a devastating limitation of our humanity. We are so much more than that yet so many of us still find ourselves in a constant cycle of dissatisfaction with our weight, chasing an end to our perceived imperfections that never comes. Fatphobia hurts everyone, but by dismantling our judgements and misconceptions we can free ourselves. 

Being against fatphobia does not make me anti-health. I am a fervent advocate for health; true health that is not about how you look, but how you feel and how much you enjoy life.

If we truly care about health then let’s advocate for easier access to nutritious foods, inclusive fitness culture, and correcting racial and class inequalities which worsen health outcomes rather than shaming individuals (which, by the way, has been proven not to make anyone skinnier or healthier in the long term). Hating our bodies is a pervasive sickness in our society and it is worthy of far more of our attention.

SPIN is my attempt to shine some light on this illness but ultimately we have to be the cure.

SPIN is at the Arcola Theatre 9 – 20 January 2024

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