“They didn’t know fat was awesome”: fat activism and fat community in Toronto, Canada

Khouri, Jessica (2014) “They didn’t know fat was awesome”: fat activism and fat community in Toronto, Canada. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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    Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
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Abstract

My project focuses on fat activism as a direct challenge to the discourses of the so-called “obesity epidemic.” Looking at the embodied experiences of fat activists, including my own, I look at the multiple ways fat activism is carried out in the Toronto area. I situate these experiences of fat activism in two ways. One, I look to examine both individual and group activisms within and against the negative stereotypes of fatness that come from obesity epidemic discourse. Using food, fitness, and fashion, I explore how our experiences as activists work to reinscribe fatness in more positive and celebratory ways. Secondly, I investigate the individualizing discourses of obesity and the loneliness and shame these create for fat individuals. As a response to this, I examine fat community creation as a fat activist project. Within this, I explore counter-discourses of fat activism and how they work both to support fat people and revalue fatness as an embodied experience. Finally, I look at these counter-discourses to investigate issues of inclusion and exclusion within fat community.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/6393
Item ID: 6393
Additional Information: Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-134).
Department(s): Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of > Gender Studies
Date: May 2014
Date Type: Submission
Geographic Location: Toronto (O.N.)
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Overweight persons--Ontario--Toronto--Societies, etc.; Obesity--Social aspects--Ontario--Toronto; Overweight persons--Ontario--Toronto--Psychology

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