The Fat Female Body

Quotes:

“Overweight is a mar to beauty…An excess of fatdestroys grace and delicacy. A fat face has a monstrous uni-formity. No theatrical producer would hire a plump actress tomirror the real depths of the human soul”
(Kersh & Morone,2002, p. 166).
It is crucial for fat people to see themselves reﬂected in art– to see our struggles and our beauty. Dancing together, appear-ing in public, making speeches, reaching out, performing CakeDances and sharing experiences with others creates culture and builds communities. When we stop mindlessly consum-ing culture and begin to actively participate in it,
we craft and change our realities. We can imagine alternative ways of living and being (Mitchell in Kulick & Meneley, 2005, p. 224).
The ‘fat’ woman, for McLester, emerges as a moral failure: a woman 2

The ‘Fat’ Female Body who has not managed her desires, who is appalling in her excesses,almost subhuman, and transversely, such moral failures are (re)presentedas inherently ‘feminine’
Dr. McLester’s medical opinion of the ‘fat’ female is not that it is a‘ suffering ’ body, but rather, that it is the source of suffering for others.
In fat-obsessed cultures we are all ‘lipoliterates’ who ‘read’ fatfor what we believe it tells us about a person. This includes notonly their moral character but also their health (Graham inKulick & Meneley, 2005, pp. 178–179).

For example, the ‘fat’ woman (is presumed to be) lazy, she is out of control, she is a moral failure, she is unhealthy, she is an affrontto normative feminine bodily aesthetics, she is a food addict, shecannot manage her desires, her level of intelligence is below average

However, where bodies are positioned as non-normative, difﬁcult,unwilling to ﬁt , medical science attempts to ﬁnd physiological anom-alies, congenital disorders, or infectious disturbances as reasons forbodily difference.

The problem with this shift, as I will go on to discuss ingreater detail, is that it reproduces the notion of individual (moral)responsibility: the belief that if only the individual would comply withhealth directives for ‘health’ (eating the ‘right’ foods, exercising more),‘obesity’ could, and would, disappear.

It is the function of disciplinary medicine, then, that connects thenotions of self-policing, self-knowledge, self-transformation and moralresponsibility. As I have explained, disciplinary medicine relies onthe illusion of personal choice for all individuals, whereby each feelsthey freely choose to take up medical directives relating to ‘healthy’lifestyles. In other words, the power of disciplinary medicine func-tions at a
tacit
level: the virtuous
appeal
of mastering one’s own bodyin line with dominant health strategies
disguises
the disciplinary effectof medical discourse

Few readers will have escaped the avalanche of public commentabout overweight and obesity in the last few years. A quick Inter-net search of newspaper articles shows that during 1990 the word‘obesity’ appeared only twice in the headlines or lead paragraphsof three leading Australian newspapers. In 1999 this number wasfourteen and in the twelve months to September 2003 it wasseventy-three

Responce:

In reading this book, or extracts of it, I was not sure what to expect. I read it with the intention of gaining a stonger understanding of experiances of being fat and female in the
modern world and what the implications of this where howvwer did not not realise the extent to which this would go. What I found particullarly interesting about this text is the concept
of being fat making an individual inherantly inadequate and morrally questionable. I realised a lot about myselof in reading this, as someone who has always has had issues with undereating
this hit very hard and I felt forced to adress that part of the reason fro tis is that I feel guilty and selfish when I gain weight. As well as this something else that I found
interesting in this text was how the medicalisation of the fat female had fead this stigma and lead to it being treated as something contagous and disgusting but also those who are fat
being seen as inadequate and disgusting beings.
After reading this I oreseneted my subject with these quotes and discussed them. She entirly resonated with the messages in this text and by people as close to her as her family
she has been made to feel guilty and selfish for her body and size and has often felt evil and lazyt because of it. This stigma has lead to huge undereating patterns for her
and a range of dangerous behaviours that could have been avoided without it. This has made it ever more important for me to challenge this notion through my work and to celebrate the
female body as it is regardless of it's medical, social and cultural associations.
She also found the Mitchell in Kulick & Mendeley powerful. She really felt strongly about their strong and positive message of celebrating our bodies as they are and in order
to break down this stigma we need to stop consuming this biased culture. I want to carry this strong and optimistic message through my work. By showing a true body alongside honest
experiences, journey and emotions to create this feeling of inclusivity, healing and acceptance.

Phase 5: Final Output

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