San Francisco’s obesity czar claims eating less cake is “oppression.”

San Francisco’s new “fat positivity” expert, hired to combat weight stigma in the city, is making waves before she’s even sunk her teeth into the job.

A newly surfaced clip from Virgie Tovar, who describes herself as a “leading expert on weight-based discrimination and body positivity,” shows her how cutting back on cake is a form of oppression.

In the video, titled ‘No, I won’t cut you a smaller piece of cake’, the 42-year-old plus-size woman calls out people who are ‘ruining everything’ by asking for less cake while attending events.

She goes on to call this phenomenon a ‘Cake Related Fatphobic Incident (CRFI)’.

She explains what this concept means and tells viewers: ‘A Cake Related Fatphobic Incident or CRFI is when it’s time to eat delicious cake and this is interrupted by a moralizing impulse.

‘Inevitably there is always someone at the party who has to publicly declare that their share is too big and that the person cutting the cake (almost always a woman) has to do a disproportionate amount of work to satisfy their need to feel superior . .’

The video, from 2018, then shows three female actors playing a CRFI.

One woman, playing the role of “annoying” partygoer, as explained by Ms. Tovar, says: “Can you put a little piece of cake… like, can you scrape all the frosting off and cut it in half and give me two forks , because I share.’

Another female appears, repeating similar demands and continually adjusting her piece of pie to become smaller.

The third goes one step further and whines at the camera: ‘Can you just cut my piece into twelve equal, symmetrical pieces and put each piece in a small Tupperware container, so that I can have a snack for each month of 2018. Thank you!’

Ms. Tovar then continues her monologue about CRFI.

She says, “Let’s take a step back and look at what’s happening through a critical feminist lens.

‘CRFI usually occurs in environments where there are mainly or exclusively women.

“Women are disproportionately negatively affected by diet culture because diet culture feeds into sexism, as do many parts of diet culture.

‘There is an important performance component: you have to show others that you are good.

“Controlling how much you eat is part of what it means to be a ‘good woman.’

“This type of behavior is a way for people to control other people through food moralization, surveillance and policing.”

She continues, “These are the mechanisms at the heart of diet culture and weight management. The idea that you can position yourself as superior to others through self-control and self-denial is super sexist.

“CRFI has a history of creating a hierarchy among women and ultimately enforcing misogynistic expectations.”

The video was shared on Ms Tovar’s Facebook page in 2018, but the link no longer works. This week it was shared again End Wokeness’ X account.

In a caption for the YouTube clip, Ms Tovar wrote: ‘Statistics indicate that 104 percent of women will experience a cake-related fatphobic incident (CRFI) before the end of 2018.’

Although the clip is no longer on Ms. Tovar’s page, it has recently made the rounds on social media, with many commenters outraged by her “fat acceptance.”

@EndWokeness posted the video to

This week it was announced that the San Francisco Department of Public Health had hired Ms. Tovar as a consultant on “weight stigma and weight neutrality,” even as the city was in the midst of a battle against rampant homelessness, open-air drug use and violent crime.

She announced her appointment on her Instagram, calling it “an absolute dream come true.”

“I am incredibly proud to serve the city I have called home for almost twenty years in this way!” Mrs. Tovar wrote.

“This consultancy is an absolute dream come true, and it is my greatest hope and belief that weight neutrality will be the future of public health.”

Critics argue that San Francisco has much bigger problems to deal with than how people feel about their weight.

As the city struggles to address homelessness, drug addiction and public safety concerns, prioritizing a weight stigma counselor feels tone-deaf, they say.

“Is this real?” tweeted Elon Musk when he heard the news, believing it could be satire.

‘So the goal is not to solve any problems. Just to make people feel better about having them,” one user surmised.

“San Francisco is just making their problems worse,” another added.

‘You have the right to stay fat, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy!’ joked a fourth.

Advocates see the move as typical of progressive politics and emphasize the importance of addressing weight-based discrimination as part of broader public health goals.

Ms. Tovar, who wrote a book titled You have the right to stay fatpositions itself as a leading voice against weight discrimination.

Her website describes her as a “major Latina author, teacher and body positivity expert with over a decade of experience.”

She has managed to build a career as an outspoken advocate against diet culture and traditional health metrics like body mass index, or BMI.

Her published works and social media presence often criticize society’s beauty standards and ‘fatphobia’.

In an online video, she reflected on her own struggles with “disordered eating,” describing how medical professionals pressured her to lose weight from a young age.

“I really believed this was about my health,” she said. “I really believed my doctor was right, so I used the language of ‘getting better,’ but I was actually deep in the throes of anorexia.”

Ms. Tovar has been vocal on social media about reshaping workplace conversations around food and body image.

In another Instagram post, she held up a sign that read “I don’t want Ozempic,” explaining that she didn’t want to take the drug because it wouldn’t address “weight bias.”

While Ms. Tovar’s advisory role is official, the details remain unclear as the San Francisco Department of Public Health has not yet disclosed the specific nature of her responsibilities or how much she is paid.

The department also has not specified how its consulting firm will impact its programs or how success will be measured.