Happy Friday from BALANCE! Today, we are thrilled to feature Dr. Joy Cox. Dr. Joy Cox is a social justice advocate, using her skill set in research and leadership to foster social change through the promotion of diversity and inclusion.
Her research in Communication focuses on matters of intersectionality addressing race, body size, accessibility, and “health.” She is the creator and host of Fresh Out the Cocoon, a podcast centered on the lived experiences of fat Black women and femmes, and in teaching she inspires students to find their voice and confidently share ideas, making learning fun, relatable and empowering. When not conducting research, Joy serves as the Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion team for ASDAH.
Most recently, you may have seen Joy’s name in the powerful and enlightening Huffington post article from September entitled ‘Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong.’
Joy recounts her personal experience when she was failed by her doctor when she was hospitalized as a teen. “The doctor didn’t diagnose her dangerously inflamed bile duct, but he did, out of nowhere, suggest that she’d get better if she stopped eating so much fried chicken. “He managed to denigrate my fatness and my blackness in the same sentence,” she says.” Dr. Joy Cox has used experiences such as this one to fuel the fire behind the work she does.
In a continued effort to raise up the voices of the participants and encourage others to speak out, the Huffington Post followed up with a few of the people involved in the piece, including Joy where she discussed vulnerability in being in the article, on blackness and fatness, on shooting the photos for the original piece, and the impact this has had on her life.
She shared the following powerful statement “Somebody has to speak up for us because if not, we will find ourselves holding the remnants of personalities and bodies lost to diet culture in next generations. That’s not a sentence of judgment I’m willing to bear.”
We at BALANCE thank Dr. Joy Cox for her work and continued advocacy!
Check out Dr. Joy Cox’s website here.
Listen to her awesome podcast here.
Follow Dr. Joy Cox on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
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