Fat and fit: A culture-centered approach toward a new paradigm of health and the body

The human experience is fraught with stigmatizing experiences—whether framed upon race, gender, body size, sexuality, or physical ability, the pernicious effects of stigma are felt by all. Juxtaposed against this ubiquitous experience, however, is the amaranthine drive to liberate oppressed bodies. In this dissertation we unpack the effects of weight-based stigma and situate them in the backdrop of the Size Acceptance Movement. In doing so, we engage with important topics such as historical constructions of the body, personal and societal health, the intersections of the lived experience among marginalized groups, and the pernicious effects of the Thin Ideology. Utilizing the methodological/theoretical framework of the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA), we juxtapose the nuances of health, weight, and the body against the structural constraints of the Thin Ideology. This project engages with a corpus of data including 1,013 pages of single spaced interview transcriptions (N = 39), field notes, ethnographic experiences, and my own reflexive journals to address four research questions. This project studies the means through which members of the Size Acceptance Community engage with structural constraints (RQ1) to reclaim their access to health and social dignity (RQ2) subsequently studying ways in which members of this community construct meanings of health (RQ3) in an effort to develop a new paradigm of wellness which privilege healthy behaviors without privileging a particular body size (RQ4). The results of this dissertation project revealed the assimilating processes, expectations, and structure of the Thin Ideology, with particular attention paid to the role parents and medical professionals play in this process. The ubiquitous nature of the Thin Ideology and the resulting hegemony is juxtaposed against the resistance which is played out in the everyday experiences of corpulent individuals. We then articulate acts of agency in which members of the Size Acceptance Community engage. The stated goals of increased civil rights and body liberation are explored in detail. An in-depth analysis of the myriad ways in which agency is enacted within this community reveals a nexus of activism which is motivated by and expressed within a lens of education/scholarship, creative expression, visibility politics, and community support/empowerment. In an exploration of expressions of health as articulated from within the Size Acceptance Movement, we find that the movement envisions a paradigm of health which is not reliant upon the conflation of health and body weight. Participants within this study called for health campaign messages which educate about the importance of body trust and awareness, emphasize the value of attuning to and following the body's pleasure signals, and are constructed with purposeful body neutrality. In an exploration of the optimal recipients for this message, we explore two potential target groups—children and medical professionals. This project contributes to the existing literature by sketching a history of the Size Acceptance Movement, building upon the pre-existing theoretical framework of CCA, exploring the interconnections between current stigma research and transformative paradigms of alternative health communication praxes, and subsequently setting forth a new paradigm of health.