Fat Studies

Let Me Hear Your Body Talk: Aerobics for Fat Women Only, 1981-1985

by Jenny Ellison

Published in Gender, Health and Popular Culture: Historical Perspectives, ed. Cheryl Krasnick Warsh.

By 1984 aerobics, dancercise, jazzercise and the like were among “the most popular physical activities of North... more By 1984 aerobics, dancercise, jazzercise and the like were among “the most popular physical activities of North American women.”  Aerobics emerged in the early 1980s in the wake of Title IX and the development of organizations like CAAWS [Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport], actions which sought to advance the position of women by improving their status as athletes.  Due to their apparent focus on femininity and feminine display aerobics classes have tended to be seen as a departure from the sports feminist goals of liberation and equality for women.  Some historians and feminist theorists have likewise viewed aerobics as a co-optation of the concept of liberation. With aerobics, the potential for collective gains for women appear to be replaced with individualistic goals; the freedoms offered by sports co-opted for the purpose of selling a service to women.

My previous research on female athletes confirms that media representations of aerobics tend to present the activity as aesthetic rather than health-promoting.  From the :20 Minute Workout to Tab-Cola advertisements, an archetype of female aerobics participants emerges. Clad in high-cut pink leotards, with matching leg-warmers and sweat-bands, these young, lean, white women represent the self-monitoring, self-disciplining consumers of beauty culture described in Susan Bordo’s seminal Unbearable Weight.  This paper explores the relationship between idealized images of women in popular culture and women themselves. Do feminine ideals and archetypes of femininity figure into women’s participation in aerobics? Can we find the sports feminist values of liberation and health promotion in women’s aerobics classes in the 1980s?

Fat Women: the Role of the Mother-Daughter Relationship Revisited

by Maya Maor

Maor, M. (2012). Fat Women: The Role of Mother-Daughter Relationships Revisited. Women's Studies International Forum. 35 (2): 97–108.

Fat Acceptance in Israel's Lesbian-Queer Communities

by Maya Maor

Maor, M. (2012). The Body that Does Not Diminish Itself: Fat Acceptance in Israel's Lesbian Queer Communities. Journal of Lesbian Studies,16 (2): 177-198.

Representation of Plus-Sized Women in Film - Reflective Essay

by Pat Lawrence

The Re-Presentation of Movie Posters featuring plus-sized

women can be viewed at more The Re-Presentation of Movie Posters featuring plus-sized

women can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/Fatsploitation

• Lupton, D. (1994) Food, memory and meaning: the symbolic and social nature of food events. The Sociological Review, 42(4), 664--85.

by Deborah Lupton

Food, risk and subjectivity.

by Deborah Lupton

In Williams, S., Gabe, J. and Calnan, M. (2000) (eds), Health,Medicine and Society: Key Theories, Future Agendas. London: Routledge, pp. 205--18.

"This Complicated, Colossal Failure": The Abjection of Creighton Bernette in HBO's Treme

by Julia Leyda

Television & New Media 1527476411434517, first published on February 7, 2012 as doi:10.1177/1527476411434517

The character of Creighton Bernette on the HBO series Treme, in his excesses and abjection, embodies post-Katrina New... more The character of Creighton Bernette on the HBO series Treme, in his excesses and abjection, embodies post-Katrina New Orleans in crucial ways: physical and emotional excesses become ways to distance his character from viewers, in ways analogous to the othering of the city and its inhabitants in post-Katrina media and public discourses.

Theorizing the Obesity Epidemic: Health Crisis, Moral Panic, and Emerging Hybrids

by Matt Patterson

Co-authored with Josée Johnston.
Forthcoming in Social Theory & Health (Accepted October 2011).

The academic literature on obesity frequently bifurcates into two poles: a realist pole that treats obesity as a... more The academic literature on obesity frequently bifurcates into two poles: a realist pole that treats obesity as a biomedical fact, a health risk, and an ‘epidemic’, and a second, constructionist pole that adopts a critical view of obesity as a moral panic driven by political interests and cultural values. Drawing on a wide range of literature from epidemiology, medical sociology, public health, political economy, cultural studies, and popular journalism, this paper maps out a realist-constructionist divide within academia and the public sphere, and examines the insights and limitations of these perspectives. After mapping the main “silos” within obesity studies, we examine two key questions: (1) is the obesity epidemic based on medical fact or political interest, and (2), is obesity a disease or a social identity. Drawing from the metatheoretical principles of critical realism, we argue that obesity scholarship can be advanced by conceptualizing the obesity epidemic as a ‘hybrid’ construction that arises out of the interaction of biophysical, socio-economic, and cultural forces. This analysis demonstrates the useful role of social theory integrating diverse analytic perspectives, and bringing clarity to a heated public debate that characteristically points the finger of blame at obese individuals.

The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats

by David Schleifer

David Schleifer. 2012 “The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats.” Technology and Culture 53(1): 94-119.

Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology,... more Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology, and nutritional science. Some manufacturers began using partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, in the early twentieth century. Medical authorities began framing saturated fats as unhealthy in the 1950s. In the 1980s, activist organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, condemned food corporations’ use of saturated fats and endorsed trans fats as an acceptable alternative. Nearly all targeted corporations responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats, which fit easily into their existing products. Trans fats thus became the perfect solution to the political problem of saturated fats and to the technical problem of what to use in their place. Activists helped precipitate technological change, but by 1994, trans fats were no longer regarded as a solution. Instead, they became regarded as a new nutritional problem.

Social networking and the fat female athlete: Reimagining the female athlete

by Candice Buss

Presented at the National Women's Studies Association meeting 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Social networking has revolutionized how people learn about their world. More interestingly, the internet has... more Social networking has revolutionized how people learn about their world. More interestingly, the internet has empowered people to find ways to express themselves intellectually, creatively, and kinesthetically. Many adults have discovered the joys and challenges of athletic endeavors because of the many blogs and online communities that foster a Health At Every Size attitude in regards to physical activity. By highlighting various modes of networking that fat athletes use, discussing some of the hazards inherent in health-related online activities, and comparing them to online spaces devoted to athleticism for female athletes as a whole, I seek to demonstrate how online networking can foster the notion of community virtually.

Queerness and Fatness: Connections to Discourse

by Candice Buss

Presented at the National Women's Studies Association 2010 meeting in Denver, CO

Whether or not the medical concept of obesity is truly the dire
emergency that is touted by many public health... more Whether or not the medical concept of obesity is truly the dire
emergency that is touted by many public health officials, the fat female form is still viewed as something that is unfeminine, disgusting, slothful, and amoral. By virtue of a variety of media and social networking vehicles, the fat body (particularly the fat female body) is being reclaimed and celebrated. Books such as Fat!So? (Wann, 1998) and Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere (Harding & Kirby, 2009) have attempted to normalize and destigmatize the fat body and the fat experience. Along those lines, texts analyzing the biological and psychological impact of weight reduction strategies have declared that dieting contributes to illness and that a “Health At Every Size” approach is an appropriate feminist health ideal. Because of the biopsychosocial impact of fatness on individuals and society, there are correlations between fat discourse and queer theory. A comparison between the fat acceptance movement and the queer rights movement elicits a variety of reactions from various theoretical stances. The most poignant comparison is in regards to the biomedical factors involved in both identities. Members of both communities have attempted to use scientific studies to justify their identities, to attempt to legitimize their existence by claiming that their fatness (or queerness) is an immutable
piece of themselves, “the biological bedrock of contemporary visions of identify.” By searching for a “fat gene” or a “gay gene,” these people attempt to bypass discussions that would place blame. By placing their identity in the hands of genetics, they derail discussions of morality, choice, behavior, and environmental factors that also shape us.

Deviant Dancing: Fatness, queerness, and dis/ability on "Dancing With The Stars"

by Candice Buss

To be presented at the South East Women's Studies Association Meeting March 29-31th, 2012

The reality television sensation “Dancing With The Stars”
has been highlighting the supposed reality of celebrity... more The reality television sensation “Dancing With The Stars”
has been highlighting the supposed reality of celebrity bodies as
“real” people in motion.  Through their televised dance journey
narrative, celebrity bodies are constructed in a way that
problematizes what is considered a “real” body on the small screen. Celebrity bodies that do not fit within the hegemonic ideal become discursive texts throughout popular media.  From Chaz Bono’s publicly trans body, to Kirstie Alley’s fatness, to Marlee Matlin’s D/deafness, celebrity bodies are publicly critiqued in ways that “normative” bodies on the show do not engender.  With this in mind, this paper seeks to use queer theory to critique the show’s discussions of the non-normative dancing body.

Fat Intake and Its Relationship with Pre-and Post-menopausal Breast Cancer Risk: a Case-control Study in Malaysia.

by Mohd Razif Shahril

Background: Fat intake has been shown to play a role in the etiology of breast cancer, but the findings have been... more Background: Fat intake has been shown to play a role in the etiology of breast cancer, but the findings have been inconsistent. Objective: To assess the association of premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer risk with fat and fat subtypes intake. Methodology: This is a population based case-control study conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from January 2006 to December 2007. Food intake pattern was collected from 382 breast cancer patients and 382 control group via an interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and a broad range of potential confounders was included in analysis. Results: This study showed that both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer risk did not increase significantly with greater intake of total fat [quartile (Q) 4 versus Q1 OR=0.76, 95% CI, 0.23-2.45 and OR=1.36, 95% CI, 0.30-3.12], saturated fat (ORQ4 to Q1=1.43, 95% CI, 0.51-3.98 and ORQ4 to Q1=1.75, 95% CI, 0.62-3.40), monounsaturated fat (ORQ4 to Q1=0.96, 95% CI, 0.34-1.72 and ORQ4 to Q1=1.74, 95% CI, 0.22-2.79), polyunsaturated fat (ORQ4 to Q1=0.64, 95% CI, 0.23-1.73 and ORQ4 to Q1=0.74, 95% CI, 0.39-1.81), n-3 polyunsaturated fat (ORQ4 to Q1=1.10, 95% CI, 0.49-2.48 and ORQ4 to Q1=0.78, 95% CI, 0.28-2.18), n-6 polyunsaturated fat (ORQ4 to Q1=0.67, 95% CI, 0.24-1.84 and ORQ4 to Q1=0.71, 95% CI, 0.29-1.04) or energy intake (ORQ4 to Q1=1.52, 95% CI, 0.68-3.38 and ORQ4 to Q1=2.21, 95% CI, 0.93-3.36). Conclusion: Total fat and fat subtypes were not associated with pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer risk after controlling for age, other breast cancer risk factors and energy intake. Despite the lack of association, the effects of total fat and fat subtypes intake during premenopausal years towards postmenopausal breast cancer risk still warrant investigation.

Fat Activist Community: A Conversation Piece

by Charlotte Cooper

Cooper, C. & Murray, S. (2012) 'Fat Activist Community: A Conversation Piece', Somatechnics, 2: 1, 127-138.

We have known each other for a decade now, first meeting to talk fat politics over cake and coffee in a little cafe... more We have known each other for a decade now, first meeting to talk fat politics over cake and coffee in a little cafe ́on a rainy London night. In recent years, we have worked more closely with each other, with Charlotte keynoting at the 2010 Fat Studies conference in Sydney that Sam organised, and working as a Visiting Scholar at Macquarie University. We regularly discuss issues that crop up in our work, and broader issues relating to fat politics. However, a specific issue that continues to come to the fore in our discussions is fat activist communities, and the variously enabling and limiting experiences we have had within these communities. Of course, fat activist communities are not a monolithic whole, and our experiences reflect this. Given our interest in fat community, an exploration of the complexities, difficulties and productive potential of a range of fat activist communities is the focus of this conversation piece.

A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline: Queering Fat Activist Nationality and Cultural Imperialism

by Charlotte Cooper

Cooper, C. (2012) 'A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline: Queering Fat Activist Nationality and Cultural Imperialism'. Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society. 1:1. 61-74.

A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline is a project located in multiple spaces that began as an attempt to co-create... more A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline is a project located in multiple spaces that began as an attempt to co-create a snapshot of community history. The timeline began as a conference workshop, became an object produced by that workshop, and then transformed into other entities: something that could be discussed and remodelled into multiple forms, on- and offline, and into archival objects. It originated as a fat activist dialogue with community histories and memory, but has moved beyond its original intent. The content of this particular fat activist project is not under discussion here: the process of fat activism and the cultures within which it takes place are the areas with which I wish to engage in this article. However, I encourage readers to downloaded digital copies of the
zine from my blog, obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com

Ideal “Plus Size” Bodies & the Trouble with Resistance

by Amanda M. Czerniawski

Guest Post in Sociological Images on November 20, 2011.

Healthism & the Bodies of Women: Pleasure and Discipline in the War Against Obesity

by Talia Welsh

Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 1 (Fall 2011)

Australian Bodies to Become Biggest in the World Within the Next Ten Years

by Lily O'Hara

Size Diversity and Health Conference explores Health at Every Size

by Lily O'Hara

Don't Diet: Adverse Effects of the Weight Centered Health Paradigm

by Lily O'Hara