Fatty Fatty Two-By-Four, Can't Get Through The Bathroom Door:
A Feminist Analysis of the Discourse on Fat
and the Strategies Used to Challenge Fatphobia
by
Suzanne Louise Tepperman
B.A., The University of Western Ontario, 1993

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
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GENDER STUDIES

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OF NORTHE
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LIBRARY
Prince George, Be
©Suzanne Louise Tepperman, 2000
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
April2000
All rights reserved. This work may not be
Reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy
Or other means, without permission of the author

Abstract
Within our society, size is used as a measuring stick to determine which bodies .
are deemed acceptable and which are unacceptable. Fatter people have come to fill the
space of the unacceptable. However, because of pressures to conform, both thinner and
fatter people are oppressed by this condition. Young people need tools to be able to
critique the messages that the medical profession, mass media, their family, and their
peers are sending them; and within this thesis, a language is needed to theoretically
explore the politics of size.
To solve the first problem, I engaged in group interviews, using a semistructured interview format to help me determine how youth interpret societal
messages about fat. I used the information from these interviews to develop a
workshop that is designed to help youth develop positive body image. It is my
contention that if young people can grow up being comfortable in their bodies,
regardless of size, than society's fatphobic tendency will wither away.
To solve the second problem, the theories developed by Michel Foucault in
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison and The History of Sexuality: An Introduction,
Volume One are used as a springboard to examine fatphobia, weight-loss discourse and

strategies of resistance. From Discipline & Punish, Foucault's thoughts on Benthan's
Panopticon, systems of normalisation, and methods of disipline are explored.
From The History of Sexuality, this thesis examines Foucault's four categories of
discourse (the hysterical woman, the masturbating child, the Malthusian couple, and
the Perverse Adult) that he offers to demonstrate that sex was not repressed during the
Victorian era. In turn, four categories of discourse (the anorexic woman, the chubby

child, the health conscious couple, and the obese adult) are offered to both draw
attention to the existence of weight-loss discourse in society and to demonstrate that
these categories of discourse, which have been created to help people lose weight, are in
fact contributing to more people getting fatter.
This thesis also looks at the role that the Fat Liberation Movement has played in
recent history. Over the last 30 years, those involved in this movement have been
steadily working towards ending fat oppression. From The History of Sexuality,
Foucault's notion of reverse discourse is taken as a point of departure to highlight the
various strategies that have been used by participants in the Fat Liberation Movement
to subvert fatphobic dogma.
Though society still exhibits fatphobic tendencies after 30 years of activism, it is
not indicative of failure on the part of those participating in the Fat Liberation
Movement. The fact that this thesis focuses on fatphobia serves to illustrate that
progress is being made. The strategies adopted by these activists are being used to
create a new definition of fat: one that eliminates the negative stigma.

iv

-

Table Of Contents
Approval

................................................................................................................ii

Abstract

........... .................................................................................................... iii

Table Of Contents

·······································································································
·····v

List of Figures

.................. ............................................................................................vii

Acknowledgement

............................................... ... ........................................................... viii

Chapter One

Introduction ....................................... ............... ........................................ 1

Chapter Two

Fat and Foucault. ......................................................... .......................... 10
Discipline and Punish ................ .... ................ ......................................... 12
History of Sexuality ................................................................................ 26
Conclusion ........................ ....... ............................................. .. ....... ..... ... 39

Chapter Three

Fat Herstories ........................................................................................ 40
Fat Women's Experiences ......................................................... ............ 41
Fat Liberation Movement .................................. ..................................... 45
Strategies of Resistance ........................................................................ 53
Discussion ................................................................. ............................ 63
Conclusion ............................................................................................. 67

Chapter Four

Body Pride .................................................................... ...... ................... 68
Analysis of interviews ................... ....................... .. ....... ... .. ..................... 70
Research ........ ........................................................ .... ... ........................ 76
Workshop ....................... ................................................... .................... 80
Recommendations ................................. ..................... ........................... 90

Chapter Five

Conclusion ................................... ................................... ....................... 91

Bibliography

........... ....................... .... ..... ...... ...................................... ...................... 95

Appendix 1

Starving Stars ................................. ......... ... .................... ... .................. 101

Appendix 2

Before and After .................................................................................. 105

Appendix 3

Initial Letter to Principal. ........................... .... ........................................ 107

Appendix 4

Initial Letter to Parents ... ........... .. ......................................................... 108

v

Appendix 5

Principal's Acceptance Letter ............................................................... 109

Appendix 6

UNBC Ethics Approval ......................................................................... 110

Appendix 7

Consent Form ...................................................................................... 111

Appendix 8

Interview Questions -

Appendix 9

Results of Air Diet Exercise ................................................................. 113

Appendix 10

Letter to Parents .................................................................................. 114

Appendix 11

Fortune Game ..................................................................................... 115

February 2, 1999 ............................................. 112

vi

List of Figures
Figure 1: Mister Boffo, comic strip by Joe Martin, The Free Press [Prince George}
21 Nov. 1999 ............................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2: Betty, comic strip by Delainey and Rasmussen, The Free Press [Prince George]
24 Oct. 1999 .............................................................................................................. 14
Figure 3: Navel, greeting card by Anne Geddes ....................................................................... 30
Figure 4: Advertisement for Safe Fat Reducer, reprinted in Schwartz's Never Satisfied: A
Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat. .............................................................. 36
Figure 5: Whale, oil painting by Rachel Field, "Broadening Out." Trouble and Strife 23 Spring
··············································
·······················
··························
····59
(1992}: 23. ··············
Figure 6: Domestic Scene, oil Painting by Rachel Field, "Broadening Out." Trouble and Strife 23
Spring (1992}: 19 ....................................................................................................... 60
Figure 7: Hand, photograph by Sabrina Ovesen, "Artist's Statement." Sabrina Ovesen, SelfPortraits. Prince George: Prince George Art Gallery, 1999 ........................................ 60
Figure 8: Waves, photograph by Sabrina Ovesen, "Artist's Statement." Sabrina Ovesen, SelfPortraits. Prince George: Prince George Art Gallery, 1999 ........................ ... ............. 61

Vll

Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Julia Emberley for her
support and guidance during this process. I would like to extend a special thanks to
Barbara Berringer, my second advisor, for stepping in when Julia was out of the
country. I would also like to thank the rest of the committee, Mary-Ellen Keirn and Kate
Lawson for their input and encouragement.
I would also like to thank Jo-Anne Fiske and Marianne Ainley, present and past

chairs of the Gender Studies program, for the pep talks and advice that they gave
throughout my tenure at UNBC.
Without the support and friendship that I enjoyed with the women who
participated in Body Pride over the three years that I facilitated it, I would not have
found the courage to take some of the steps that I have taken while at UNBC.
I would also like to thank the principal and the teacher at the school where my

interviews took place, the children whom I interviewed and who were guinea pigs for
my workshop and their parents or guardians.
A huge thanks goes out to Pat and Charlie Grove for their generosity, both with
their time and their encouragement. I am very grateful to my good friend Gina Marucci
for a variety of things, but mostly just for being there.
Finally, I would be remiss in not sending a special thanks to my partner, Amy
Louise Green, for the many different ways in which she has supported me on this
journey. Her love and guidance have kept me strong.

vm

Chapter One

Introduction

Historically within Western society, the 'body' has always been a source of
conflict. The development of the mind/body dichotomy, which can be traced back to
Ancient Greece and the philosophy of Plato serves as evidence to this conflict.
According to Grosz, Plato believed that "[t]he body is a betrayal of and a prison for the
soul, reason, or mind" (Grosz 5). Woman's ability to reproduce placed her in the
category of body. Because of this association, all negative characteristics usually
attributed with the body became synonymous with 'woman' and so began the
pathologisation of the female body. This does not mean women's bodies are diseased in
any way. Rather, women's bodies and by extension women's minds are perceived as
diseased and that there is a history involved in this perception.
The pathologisation of the female body, or the 'female malady' as referred to by
Elaine Showalter1 is perpetuated in a variety of domains in society such as psychiatry,
literature and politics. Psychiatric discourse between 1870 and World War I (though not
limited to this specific period) focused primarily on hysteria. It was a condition "... that
was linked with the essence of the 'feminine' .. .it seemed elusive and enigmatic, resistant
to the powers of masculine rationality" (Showalter 129-30). As hysteria was linked to
female reproductive organs, women's bodies became the primary targets of hysteria.
Therefore, the emphasis on hysteria in the field of psychiatry illustrates the medical
support of the pathologisation of the female body.

1

See Showalter 1-20.

1

Within literature, authors have also used female protagonists to reinforce the
pathologisation of the female body. Showalter illustrates that such representations as
the suicidal Ophelia, the sentimental Crazy Jane, and the violent Lucia, "established
female sexuality and feminine nature as the source of the female malady, but each also
stood for a different interpretation of women's madness and man's relation to it"
(Showalter 10). These examples all stand to reinforce the notion that women were
considered less than huMAN.
Because of an ongoing pathologisation of the female body, women within
western society were and are generally considered second-class citizens. The glass
ceiling in the workplace, the medical model based on the male body, the wage
difference between women and men for like work, and the trivialisation of the work
performed in the home by women illustrate women's lower rank. Nevertheless, like a
carrot dangling in front of a donkey, the myth of the ideal woman has always been used
to tempt many women into believing that if they could just transform themselves into
'that woman' they will improve their status.
This thesis will examine the myth of the ideal woman. More specifically, within
this myth I will focus on the politics of size in western society in an attempt to
demonstrate the following two points: one, that women's position in western society
will continue to be subordinate to men's position if fatphobia is not addressed; and two,
that women, men and children will all continue to be oppressed by current fatphobic

2

discourse if fatphobia 2 is not addressed.
Historically, elements of the ideal woman have included being a perfect
daughter, (house)wife, and mother. While the nineteenth-century European premise of
the ideal woman remains strong, in that the traditional roles still exist, the subtleties
that compose the myth are ever-changing. We can see that in the nineteenth century,
hysteria was a primary pathology associated with women's bodies. Today we could
substitute hysteria with anorexia. In any event, a primary component of today's myth of
the ideal woman centres on body image, and more specifically body size. Although this
study will focus on North America, there is a growing trend globally for women to be
concerned with their body-the look of their body, the size of their body, and what they
can do to change their body. Who can blame them when one considers how the mass
media bombards us with images of young, thin models and actresses?
For some, a preoccupation with body size has led to the development of eating
disorders like anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa3 • Eating disorders have reached
epidemic proportions without many public outcries. In fact," ... [t]here are 150 times
more women on this continent who suffer form eating disorders as there are female
AIDS patients" (Poulton 37). While this statistic is not meant to take away from the

For me, 'fatphobia' incorporates the notion of a fear or dislike of fat or fat people as well as the
fear of becoming too fat or being too fat. Fatphobia is directly connected to questions of power and
oppression.
2

As described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,"[t]he essential features of
Anorexia Nervosa are that the individual refuses to maintain a minimally normal body weight, is
intensely afraid of gaining weight, and exhibits a significant disturbance in the perception of the shape or
size of his or her body .... The essential features of Bulimia Nervosa are binge eating and inappropriate
compensatory methods to prevent weight gain ... [I]nappropriate compensatory behaviors must occur, on
average, at least twice a week for three months" (539-545). These are, of course, clinical definitions of
eating disorders. For a feminist exploration on this topic, see Bordo, Chernin, Fallon et al and Wolf.
3

3

severity of AIDS and how AIDS affects women's lives, as Terry Poulton writes in No Fat

Chicks: How Women Are Brainwashed to Hate Their Bodies and Spend Their Money, "... no
coloured ribbons are worn to call attention to, or express compassion for, those who
have been felled by the edict that all women must be thin" (Poulton 37: my emphasis).
The quest to be thin has not stopped with diets and over-exercising. Plastic
surgery, such as liposculpturing, has become a viable method of producing the 'perfect'
body. Interestingly, "[p ]lastic surgery is the fastest growing medical specialty"
(McCabe 36). It has even become so popular "that sales and discount days are being
advertised (Poulton 100); and a surgeon has even written a special guide for teenagers
(McCabe 37). In today's society, many women feel obligated to change themselves
physically through diets, exercise, and plastic surgery, in an attempt to transform
themselves into "that woman." This fact both reinforces the myth of the ideal woman
and directly contributes to, if not already constituted by, the pathologisation of the
female form. In other words, the myth of the ideal woman does not just exist, it is being
constantly reinvented.
The message being sent to women is that it is possible to permanently lose
weight. Weight-loss programs sell themselves by trumpeting the personal triumphs of
their clients; fitness magazines do exposes of their readers' success stories. However,
while it is possible to lose weight, "National Institutes of Health and other studies show
that 98% of people who lose weight gain it back within five years. And 90% of those
gain back more weight than they lost" (NAAFA Weight Loss). How is a woman supposed
to feel if she loses weight and then slowly gains it back only to end up weighing more
than when she started, while all the messages around her are telling her that it is

4

possible keep off the weight? And how is a woman supposed to feel when the only time
people tell her she looks great is when she has lost weight?
This creates a situation in which, for most of these women, they will be
figuratively (if not literally) stuck on a treadmill chasing a carrot that will forever be out
of their reach. Although there seems to be an increase in the number of public images of
women who do not conform to accepted body image standards, (for example, Rosie
7

O'Donnell4, Camryn Manheim5, Lea Delaria6 and Jann Arden ) these role models are few
and far between. FATphobia is rampant in western society. Within mass media alone it
is impossible to watch television or movies without hearing fat jokes. Figure 1 provides

Figure 1: Mister Boffo, comic strip by Joe Martin, The Free Press [Prince George] 21 Nov. 1999.

one example of an accepted fat joke. Another example is from the movie 54. Early on in
the film one of the main characters, who is an aspiring musician, told another main
character that she placed a picture of a female musician she admired on the wall for

Rosie O'Donnell is an American comedian who is currently the host of her own talk show The
Rosie O'Donnell Show.
4

Camryn Manheim is an American actor who is currently starring in the television show The
Practice. She is the author of Wake Up, I'm Fat!, a book that chronicles her experience trying to make it in
Hollywood as a fat woman.
5

6

Lea Delaria in an American lesbian comedian.

7

Jann Arden is a Canadian singer.

5

inspiration and proceeded to explain that it was like putting a picture of a fat person on
the fridge . Alternatively, how many times have women in television sitcoms who have
been treated poorly by their male associates or friends asked their girlfriends if it was
because the outfit they were wearing made them look fat? What is inherently wrong
with being fat and who decided that being fat was so bad?
Unless we make some drastic changes regarding our perception of what it means
to be fat and how these perceptions affect 'fat' and 'thin' people, children will inherit the
same body image issues that previous generations have inherited. In fact, on the web
page for Health Bites, a magazine put out for the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN),
"[i]t is reported that over 80% of girls have dieted before age 18, and an alarming 40% of

9-year-old girls have already dieted" (NIN: my emphasis). It would seem that some girls
are already chasing the carrot.
While I do not expect the myth of the ideal woman to vanish overnight, we can
give children the proper tools to deal with society's present edict of the ideal body. With
this in mind, as part of my research, I have developed an interactive workshop
designed to foster positive body image in children with the intention of helping them to
grow up happy in their body-whatever size it may be.
Gender was the focus of this project with the intent of developing a new
discourse on the body; a discourse that celebrates both thinner and fatter bodies. The
politics of size, however, intersects many analytical categories including race, class,
gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Unfortunately, the scope of this project is not broad
enough to provide an effective analysis of the many different intersections. They each
warrant their own thesis and I did not want to make token gestures by including a

6

skeletal analysis. This is the beginning of a long-term project. Therefore, while this
project does not provide an in-depth analysis of the intersections of size with race, class,
sexuality, and (dis)ability, it does provide a solid foundation upon which I can build.
Future works could explore how race, class, sexuality, and (dis)ability individually and
collectively act to filter the many messages about size.
For example, in North America, do certain cultures' perspectives on bodies act as
a shield against dominant fatphobic discourse? For example, in the movie The Nutty

Professor, the main character, who is black and very fat, develops a formula to make
himself lean and muscular. However, the formula has short-term effects. Until he
develops a formula with permanent effects, the character's body oscillates between the
two body types. In the future, this movie could be used as a point of departure to
explore how issues of race, masculinity and body politics intersect.
Regarding sexuality, are there any differences between hetero- and homosexual
communities with respect to fatphobia? Do lesbians and gay men accept current
discourse on bodies in the same way or not? Does being 'in' or 'out' of the closet factor
into a person's perspective? How do age and location factor into the politics of size?
What are the different issues for younger and older women and men? What effect does
living in a rural environment versus an urban environment have on one's perception of
one's body and the bodies of those around them? The answers to these and other
questions would positively contribute to an alternative discourse on the body.
What follows in this thesis is an analysis of my research on fatphobia. Three
primary texts are used in Chapter Two to theoretically examine body politics in western
society. They include Michel Foucault's Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, The

7

History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Volume One and The Foucault Reader, edited by Paul
Rabinow. From Discipline & Punish, I explore Bentham's panopticon and systems of
normalisation. From The History of Sexuality I explore Foucault's four categories of
discourse which he uses to disprove the idea that sexuality was repressed in the
Victorian era. I use these categories as a springboard to examine current weight-loss
discourse. Finally, I tum to Rabinow's text in The Foucault Reader to further emphasise
the function of fat politics in our society. At this point in time, the last form of
acceptable discrimination and ridicule is perpetrated on the fat body, both inside and
outside of feminist circles. Therefore, this chapter contributes to feminist and cultural
studies through the exploration of discourse pertaining to fatphobia.
Chapter Three provides a historical perspective on what is now recognised as the
Fat Liberation Movement. In this chapter, I define, explore, and locate myself with this
movement. What led to the development of the Fat Liberation Movement? How has the
movement evolved? What has the movement accomplished? Given the climate of ·
fatphobia in which we live, how does one not feel defeated before even entering the
movement? What strategies are used by those involved in the Movement? These
questions will be explored in Chapter Three. This chapter will make a scholarly
contribution to historical studies.
In Chapter Four, I provide an analysis of my interviews with a grade six class
that focused on body image and I give an account of the journey that I went on to
develop my workshop. I also present a synopsis of my research that focuses on body
image issues and educational workshops. This chapter asks the following questions:
how have grade school children been influenced by western society's edicts about ideal

8

bodies?; what roles do the media, peers and family play in children's perceptions of
their bodies and the bodies of those around them?; what tools are available to help
children deconstruct harmful messages about bodies?
While the content of this thesis will make a theoretical contribution within
academia, I felt that it was also important to make a practical contribution to society.
The development of the body image workshop fulfils this criterion. It is important to
note, however, that without the opportunity to theoretically explore issues surrounding
fatphobia, I could not have effectively completed this aspect of my thesis. My research
provided a solid ground upon which I could move forward. My hope is that this body
of work will take us a step closer towards embracing the fat body and considering other
forms of discourse and representations possible for the fat body.

9

Chapter Two

Fat and Foucault

In the spring of 1998, before moving from Montreal to Prince George in order to
continue my graduate work at UNBC, my partner and I travelled to Toronto to visit my
family one last time. During this visit, my mother managed to find a private moment to
sit me down so she could express her concerns about my recent weight gain. Over a cup
of tea and a cookie, she proceeded to inform me that she thought that I should lose
some weight. And then, with a concerned voice, she continued by informing me that
John Candy was only 42 when he died.
A few years before this experience, during another family visit, a young female
relative and I were driving to the restaurant where my family was getting together for
Sunday brunch. During the drive, I proceeded to ask her the usual questions about
school, her friends and her siblings. She happily rambled on about what she was doing
in her favourite classes and gave me the latest gossip about her friends. At some point
during the drive she casually squeezed the fold of skin in between her underarm and
chest and proceeded to tell me with a wrinkled nose, indicating her strict disapproval,
that she was fat.
In the winter of 1998, a few friends got together to talk. We shared a bonding
moment as the conversation turned toward awkward childhood experiences. One
friend began to recount an event that occurred at her weekly Weight Watchers meeting
when she was ten years old. She proceeded to tell us how excited she was about telling
the group that she had prepared this low-fat spaghetti recipe. However, her excitement
was quickly dampened as the circle of women seated around her gasped in horror.
Almost immediately, she was reprimanded for preparing a meal with pasta because, as

10

she recounted, in the seventies, when one was on a diet pasta was not on the menu,
regardless of how it was prepared. Following that story, another friend began to
recount that by the age of twelve she had been put on her first diet-a trend that
continued throughout her adolescence. Another friend began to recount how during
her adolescence she and a close friend would compulsively exercise and starve
themselves between one and three days at a stretch.
The thread that binds these stories together is the idea that being fat is unwanted
and that one should do anything at any age and at any cost to rid oneself of it. Why did
my mother link my weight gain to John Candy's death? Why was my young relative
disgusted at the fold of skin between her underarm and chest? Why were my friends,
when they were children, put on restrictive diets by their parents? And, why did they
starve themselves and compulsively exercise as adolescents?
Are the stories that I have recounted anomalies or are they representative of a
prevailing attitude within western society which dictates that bodies, more specifically
women's bodies, should be fat free? While the answer may be obvious, four questions
remain: how has society internalised the message that it is a sin to be fat; why has
western society internalised this message; how has this internalisation affected our
relationship with food; and what does all this mean for the fat body?
What follows is an analysis of two of Michel Foucault's influential texts-

Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison and The History of Sexuality: An Introduction,
Volume One-as they relate to the politics of fat in the twentieth century. First, I will
explore the relationship between Bentham's panopticon, as described in Discipline &

Punish, and western society's present fatphobic nature. Second, I will explore systems of

11

normalisation pertaining to body maintenance that exists in our panoptic society. I will
then argue that these systems of normalisation are accepted within our society because
of two damaging myths: that it is possible to permanently lose weight and that it is
unhealthy to be fat.
The remainder of the chapter will explore The History of Sexuality. Specifically, I
will examine the four categories of discourse (the Hysterical Woman, the Masturbating
Child, the Malthusian Couple, and the Perverse Adult) that Foucault cites as evidence
to disprove the notion that sexuality was repressed in the Victorian era. I will then map
four corresponding categories of weight loss discourse present in the twentieth century.
Finally, I tum to Rabinow and The Foucault Reader. Rabinow, in "Right of Death and
Power Over Life," provides an analysis of Foucault's position on the production of sex. I
offer a possible rewriting of this passage to illustrate the importance fat politics plays in
western society.
Discipline and Punish

Foucault, in Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, provides some answers to
the questions posed above. He writes "[w]henever one is dealing with a multiplicity of
individuals on whom a task or a particular form of behaviour must be imposed, the
panoptic schema may be used. It is-necessary modifications apart-applicable 'to all
establishments whatsoever, in which, within a space not too large to be covered or
commanded by buildings, a number of persons are meant to be kept under
inspection ... "' (205-206). Therefore, while the panopticon serves as a literal design for a
prison, it can also be used metaphorically to explain relationships of power within
society.
12

Bentham's panopticon, as described by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish is
an architectural design of a prison. The physical structure is a circular building with a
tower in the centre. The top of the tower is encircled with windows. The building is
divided into cells that extend the width of the building. Each cell has a window at either
end. The exterior window allows the cell to be backlit which then fully exposes the
inmates to the supervisor.
The effect of this design is multi-purpose. First, for the inmates this configuration
lends itself to self-regulating behaviour. Because they cannot see the guard, they never
know if they are being watched. Therefore, they must be on their best behaviour at all
times. Second, the inmates are completely isolated from each other, visible to the guard
yet invisible to each other. "And this invisibility is a guarantee of order ... there is no
danger of a plot, an attempt at collective escape, the planning of new crimes for the
future, bad reciprocal influences ... " (Foucault, Discipline 200). Finally, through
hierarchical observation, "[t]hose who occupy the central position in the panopticon are
themselves thoroughly enmeshed in a localization and ordering of their own
behaviour" (Rabinow 19).
The Panopticon and Western Society

To explore the relationship between the panopticon and western society's present
fatphobic nature, I would like to draw on two common venues within our society: the
fitness centre and the restaurant. While exercising at a gym does not replicate the
isolating condition of a prison cell, the fitness centre does embody certain panoptic
features. Most gyms are covered with mirrors from ceiling to floor.lt is these mirrors
which simulate the tower and the cell of a traditional panopticon. The mirrors allow the

13

'guard' to have an encompassing view of the gym. The guard could be anywhere in the
room and still maintain constant supervision. Therefore, as an inmate, you are forced to
peddle that much faster, lift weights that are that much heavier, and exercise that much
longer to look like you are seriously trying to burn those calories, raise your
metabolism, and define your muscles.
While eating at a restaurant one also enters a panoptic structure. The order from
the tower is that we will get fat if we eat too much, if we eat foods that are high in fat
and if we eat foods that are high in calories. Consequently, if we even eat at restaurants,
we must regulate the foods we order to prevent this from happening. How many
calories are in the serving? What is the fat content of the food? How is the food cooked?
Can I get the dressing on the side? Is it made with a cream- or a tomato-based sauce?
While dining out, these are all questions that people ask themselves that act as selfregulating behaviour. As a society, we are so concerned about not getting fat or not
wanting to stay fat that much of the sensual pleasure is being leeched out of the dining
experience. The comic in Figure 2 provides an example of this.
In both cases, who sits in the tower? In the gym it could be the fitness instructors
or possibly
other gym
members. In
the restaurant,
it could be the
server or it

Figure 2: Betty, comic strip by Delainey and Rasmussen, The Free Press [Prince George]
24 Oct. 1999.

could be people seated at other tables. However, as Spitzack argues in Confessing Excess:

14

Women and the Politics of Body Reduction, "[i]n Foucaultian terms, a woman must identify
herself as the principle of her own subjection, playing the roles of tower guard and
prisoner simultaneously" (44-45). In other words, the self-regulating behaviour that
arises out of the panoptic schema negates any need for the guard. If you don't know
who is watching you, you can't 'let your guard down'.
Normalisation

As Foucault illustrates, the self-monitoring behaviour that occurs because of the
panopticon also lends itself to a system of normalisation. "By 'normalization,' Foucault
means a system of finely gradated and measurable intervals in which individuals can be
distributed around a norm-a norm which both organizes and is the result of this
controlled distribution" (Rabinow 20). These "gradated and measurable intervals"
evolved out of medical, psychiatric and social science discourse in the nineteenth
century with observation as the primary tool used to create the discourse.
While Foucault is speaking metaphorically with respect to "gradated and
measurable intervals," within the twentieth century, one can turn to tools that literally
provide gradated and measurable intervals which distribute individuals around a
norm. Examples of normalisation techniques include weight scales, Body Mass Index
(BMI), and skinfold calipers. While most people are familiar with the use of scales as a
form of weight measurement, the BMI (weight in kilograms divided by the square of
your height) attempts to provide a less arbitrary and a more scientific method of
measuring what constitutes a healthy weight because it incorporates height into the
equation. Essentially, the BMI is an attempt at widening the margin of what is

15

considered a normal or healthy weight. With the BMI we do not all have to weigh
120 lbs. to be considered healthy.
Unfortunately, the package may be prettier but the message is still the same. The
BMI is still focused around a norm. A person's BMI must fall within a specific range to
be considered normal or healthy. Interestingly, in June of 1998, the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) in the United States lowered the bar on what it considered a healthy BMI.
For seemingly arbitrary reasons a healthy BMI changed from 27 to 25. As quoted in
Laura Fraser's article "Fit Today Fat Tomorrow" F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, who led the NIH
guideline changes admitted that "... the scientific literature doesn't prove that people
with BMis of 25 will have shorter lives ... Nevertheless, the task force decided to label
people overweight at BMI 25 as a 'preventative measure"' (Fraser 51: my emphasis)
leading us to conclude that Pi-Sunyer is using the technique of calling someone fat to
help them lose weight.
The use of skinfold calipers is another technique used within the twentieth
century which assists in the normalisation process. Skinfold calipers are used to
measure a person's fat content. They clamp on to various body parts and the width at
which they are forced to expand is used to determine how much fat a person has on
their body. After measuring each area, the total number maps onto a corresponding
chart and a person's fat content is deemed either too high, too low, or just right.
However, going through this process can be an unnerving experience. I remember
having to learn how to use these calipers in one of my undergraduate courses in
Physical Education. I can still remember the anxiety I felt as my partner clamped my
various body parts. Where was I going to fall on the chart? How embarrassing it would be if

16

my content was too high! What if my reading is higher than my partner? These thoughts and

more were running through my head throughout the exercise. While I may have been
graded on my ability to use the calipers, I felt like the real test was where my body
placed on the chart with respect to fat.
These measurement techniques are flawed. Grogan, in Body Image: Understanding
Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children, reveals that both the BMI and the

skinfold calipers do not account for weight gain that occurs 'naturally' with age (10-11).
Therefore, one can almost guarantee a 'misdiagnosis' with older people because the
same chart is applied to both a 25-year-old and 50-year-old. Furthermore, neither
weight scales, the BMI, or the skinfold calipers take lifestyle into account. Muscle
weighs more than fat. Therefore, when applying these measurement techniques, fatter
people with increased muscle mass (due to an active lifestyle) are guaranteed to be
considered unhealthy because their weight will fall outside of what is considered
'healthy'. Alternatively, thinner people are automatically considered healthy just
because they fall into the acceptable range.
One does not have to rely solely on these 'technical' mechanisms as evidence to
normalisation practices within society. They are all around us. Susan Bordo in
Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body writes:

Through the pursuit of an ever-changing, homogenizing, elusive
ideal of femininity-a pursuit without a terminus, requiring that
women constantly attend to minute and often whimsical changes in
fashion-female bodies become docile bodies-bodies whose forces
and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection,
transformation, 'improvement.' Through the exacting and
normalizing disciplines of diet, makeup, and dress-central ·
organizing principles of time and space in the day of many
women-we are rendered less socially oriented and more
centripetally focused on self-modification. (166)

17

As Bordo indicates, we are surrounded by normalising disciplines that attempt to
dictate who we should be and what we should look like. Advertisements for gyms, such
as the one for 24-Hour Fitness, a fitness chain in the United States, exemplify this fact.
The 24-Hour Fitness billboard simply had pictures of aliens on it with text that
read "When the Aliens Come, They'll Eat The Fat Ones First." An image of a lean
muscular body, glistening with perspiration, is not needed to sell 24 Hour Fitness's
produ~t. In this advertisement, 24-Hour Fitness simultaneously reprimands fatter people

for merely existing and warns thinner people about what will happen to them if they
get fat-that their bodies will be publicly scrutinised. The advertisement is extremely
clever. It both reinforces and supports the myth of the ideal body. By not providing an
actual image of a thin person, we do not know where to draw the line. Who defines
how fat you need to be before the aliens will eat you? How much fat is too much fat?
Low- and no-fat food products that have taken over grocery stores, weight-loss
groups such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig or TOPS (take off pounds sensibly) as
well as the signs that get put up on hydro polls that read Diet Magic-562-3078 also
serve as evidence to normalising techniques that surround us. By extension, these
techniques play an important role ".. .in the systematic creation, classification, and
control of 'anomalies' in the social body" (Rabinow 21).
The fat body has come to fill this place. "The child whose build is socially
'deviant' comes, early in life, to be regarded by others as responsible for his/her
'condition', and deserving of social disapproval, and, sooner or later, is subjected to
pressures to restrict food intake in order to 'correct' his/her condition. Failure to do so is
seen as 'weakness', 'wanting to be fat', or even as a masochistic desire for rejection"

18

(Wooley, Wooley, and Dyrenforth 82). As this quotation demonstrates, even some of the
psychiatric discourse around fat confirms Rabinow's concept of how anomalies occupy
the space outside of the bounds of what is assigned to 'normal'. Furthermore, Wooley,
Wooley, and Dyrenforth show how the classifications of 'normal' and 'deviant'
('anomaly') introduce discipline: if the category of 'deviant' did not exist, there would be
no reason to impose sanctions to force a return to 'normal'. Failure to conform to these
sanctions only serves to escalate these disciplinary actions and strengthens the divide
between normalcy and deviance.
Discipline

Because of self-regulating and normalising techniques, a group of fat women
going to a restaurant and ordering the most decadent items on the menu could be
interpreted as a political act. It would appear that these women, because of what they
look like and what they are ordering, are not engaging in self-disciplining actions.
Otherwise, their food order would be anything but decadent. Their actions make them
anomalies within our society-because they are fat and because they are not regulating
what they eat in an attempt to get thin. Given the panoptic environment in which we
live, one can conclude that because these women are not conforming to normalisation
techniques and not engaging in methods of self-regulation, they are in need of
discipline.
These disciplines exist and they are waiting to impose themselves on these fat
women who dare to eat what they choose. However, for the most part, these disciplines
do not exist as overt, barbaric actions. Rather, they "... reflect a wider societal emphasis
on rational procedures as the most effective way of inducing certain bodily effects"

19

(McHoul and Grace 68: original emphasis). Indeed, within western culture, these

rational procedures exist. They exist in the form of job discrimination and inadequate
health-care services; by making fat women pay twice as much for clothing which can
only be purchased through catalogues and a select number of retail outlets; to the
provision of small seats in public venues so activities like attending classes at school,
flying or going to the movies becomes inconvenient or uncomfortable; and by sending
fat children to Weight Watchers. These situations serve as examples of rational
procedures because of two misguided perceptions: first, that it is possible to permanently
lose weight; and second, that it is unhealthy to be fat. These two myths are perpetuated
by medical, consumer market and media discourse which focuses on the evils of fatness
and the benefits of weight loss.
Myth One-Permanent Weight Loss

Essentially, two reasons make it impossible to permanently lose weight-genetics
and metabolism (Koras-Bain 33). There are parts of us that are genetically
predetermined, such as eye, skin, and hair colour. Most people do not know that our
weight is also predetermined. This does not mean that it is possible to predict exactly
how much a child will weigh once they stop growing; however, it does mean that a
person is predetermined to be either fatter or thinner (Kater 72). One only needs to look
at family portraits from different generations to see the role genetics plays in
determining body size.
Metabolism is another important factor in determining a person's thinness or
fatness. Metabolism is "... the rate at which calories are used in the body" (Kater 84).
Each person has a different rate or speed at which calories are burned ranging from

20

slow to fast with a sizeable variation in between. Food that is not used or metabolised
by the body is stored as fat and is saved as reserve energy. Consequently, someone with
a faster metabolism will store less fat and have less reserve energy than someone with a
slower metabolism (Kater 85). However, "[h]unger is not affected by the rate of
metabolism or the amount of fat stored. Soon after our stomach empties, we naturally
feel hungry. There is no basis for the common belief that fatter people should be less
hungry" (Kater 85) and accordingly eat less.
The body interprets caloric restriction as a period of starvation and responds by
slowing down its metabolism" .. .in order to conserve energy (calories), and sends
messages to the dieter that it needs more food. When the dieter goes off her diet, her
body converts extra calories consumed as fat, in anticipation of the next period of
starvation, resulting in weight gain greater than the amount lost" (Koras-Bain 33). This
also illustrates why permanent weight loss is impossible. It is ironic to note that in some
parts of the world, dieters may resent the body for its inability to differentiate between a
diet and a period of starvation while elsewhere, this metabolic strategy can be essential
to survival.
Set Theory of Natural Weight also exposes this myth. Marion Crook in The Body

Image Trap writes: "[e]ach person has a natural weight that her body prefers. It may be
thin, it may be heavy, but it is the weight her body hovers near when she eats three
meals a day and exercises normally" (56). In other words, an individual's natural body
weight seems to fall on a continuum from thinner to fatter. One can conclude that
society, not biology, is dictating that all women must be thin. Crook also notes that
"[t]here is some evidence to indicate that the body's natural weight is the weight at

21

which the individual is biologically most healthy and that the reason the body defends
itself from losing or gaining is to protect health (57). This theory helps explain why,
when one is on a diet, it becomes increasingly more difficult to lose weight as the diet
continues.
Other than women suffering from anorexia nervosa, only a tiny fraction of the
population (approximately 2%) has been on a diet and permanently kept off a
significant amount of weight (see the discussion on page 4 of Chapter One). Most
dieters have spent the majority of their time yo-yo dieting-losing weight, only to
slowly gain it back plus a few extra pounds, then onto to the next diet that is
guaranteed to work. Are all these dieters failures or is it possible that the problem
resides somewhere else?
It is understandable why many people believe the myth that it is possible to

permanently lose weight. Our society is bombarded with messages from health care
professionals, pharmaceutical companies, weight management groups, and mass media
about the latest diets, drugs, and cures for weight loss that are guaranteed to work. We
believe that they will work; we pray that they will work because of the advertising and
marketing strategy of the diet industry. This strategy ".. .is based on the creation and
perpetuation of fear, biases, and stereotypes. Fat people are portrayed as unhealthy,
unattractive, asexual, weak-willed, lazy, and gluttonous" (NAAFA Dieting).
This type of marketing has catapulted the diet industry's profit from $10 billion
to $40 billion dollars in the last thirty years (Poulton 78). With this much money at
stake, it is obvious why these companies have maintained a selling strategy that
promotes insecurity and fear. Fat or thin, if we are all anxious about our bodies, we will

22

grow to depend on their products, whether they work or not. In Foucaultian terms, the
marketing strategies used by the diet industry create insecurities and fears in people
that systematically reinforce normalising principles and discipline docile bodies.
Myth Two-Being Fat is Unhealthy

Obesity is usually touted as the cause of heart disease and diabetes. However,
Wooley and Wooley report that a "[s]tudy of a community with a high incidence of
overweight but in which obesity was socially acceptable found levels of heart disease
and diabetes below the average for slender Americans" (74). Given this fact, it is
possible that the stress of being stigmatised as lazy, dirty, stupid, ugly, cheaters, liars,
mean, sloppy, and dishonest (Olson et al., 888; Wooley Theoretical18), is the cause of
health problems for fat women as opposed to fat.
Shanewood provides a sobering counter-argument to the hypothesis that fat
causes health problems. At three weeks old, Lynn McAfee's parents began to worry
about her size. By age six, her doctor is prescribing amphetamines to help her lose
weight. By fifteen, after trying every diet on the market and developing a tolerance to
amphetamines, McAfee switches to Adipex. "McAfee's doctor knows she's taking much
more than the recommended dose, but he reassures her that they'll worry about the side
effects when she gets thin" (Shanewood).
While McAfee's experience may be an extreme case, many fat women have spent
their childhood, adolescence and adulthood being on and off diets only to get fatter and
fatter. As Wooley and Wooley indicate, "[i]t seems possible that the loss of Slbs. may
virtually insure the later gain of 6 so that dieting-the major treatment for obesity may
also be a major cause of obesity" (73: original emphasis).

23

Also, it is not inconceivable that fatter women put off going to the doctor until it
is too late, due to a fear of potential reprimand about their weight based on previous
negative experiences. "At fourteen, near-tragedy strikes again for McAfee when she
almost dies from a ruptured appendix, undiagnosed until almost too late because she's
afraid to visit the family doctor about the pain. On her last visit before her appendix
burst, he said to her, 'Look at you. You look like a G-d gorilla. Look at your thighs. Look
at your belly'" (Shanewood).
Research by Olson et al. supports this theory concurring that McAfee's
experience is not anomalous. Their study concludes that "[o]bese patients often perceive
that physicians are biased against them" and that "[t]he most common reason women
gave for delaying a physician visit was embarrassment about their weight. Another
large group [of women] planned to lose weight before they saw the physician"
(888-889). Scoldings by medical professionals contribute to the disciplining of the fat
body. They also reinforce the self-monitoring behaviour characterised by our panoptic
environment. The fact that these women put off seeking necessary medical attention
until they had lost weight serves as evidence to this point.
Given our fatphobic culture, if fatter women do not get to the doctor until it is too
late, it is not unrealistic to conclude that their death would be automatically linked to
their size instead of the social climate or their true condition. In this instance, when
women die and their size is reported-either overtly or subvertly-as the cause of their
death, the wheels of normalisation are once again kept in motion.
We live in an androcentric society; therefore, as feminist researchers we cannot
assume that women's perspectives are incorporated into research. We also live in a

24

heterosexist society; therefore, as feminist researchers we cannot assume that
homosexual perspectives are being incorporated into research. We can also extend this
argument to include race and class. One must conclude that because we live in a
fatphobic society, as feminist researchers, we cannot assume that fat perspectives are
being incorporated into research. Western society's repulsion with fat directly
influences research about fat. This results in research that is biased against fat and fat
people; therefore, we cannot truly know if there are any health risks that are associated
with being too fat.
Esther Rothblum in "Women and Weight: Fad and Fiction" notes that in surveys
done by Dwyer and Mayer in the 1950s and 1960s, 14 percent of women were on diets
at the time of the survey, over 60 percent of high school students had at one time been
on a diet, and 30 percent were dieting at the time of the survey. Rothblum continues by
noting that "[t]wenty years after these surveys, the rate of dieting has doubled for
females in the United States" (13). Do we really know if being fat is unhealthy? It
appears that in the last 50 years generations of women have grown up dieting, robbing
their bodies of essential nutrients.
Considering that our obsession with thinness has only become worse over the
years, obesity research is most likely being done on chronic dieters. For that reason,
"[e]ven if correlations are found between weight and certain diseases, this is not, of
course, evidence of a causal connection ... some factor associated with overweight-such
as frequent weight loss and gain-may be the actual cause of disease" (Wooley and
Wooley 74). One can therefore conclude that the health risks commonly associated with
being too fat can also be associated with a lifetime of dieting.

25

These two myths-that it is possible to permanently lose weight and that it is
unhealthy to be fat-create a society where it is acceptable to blame everything on the fat
body. When a woman goes to the doctor because she has a sore throat, the remedy
should not be weight loss. If a fat woman is single, it might just be because she chooses
to be, not because she cannot get a partner. Nevertheless, the roles that genetics and
lifestyle play in the creation of the fat body is inconsequential. A person should have
the choice to be as fat as they want without being subjected to disciplinary and
discriminatory treatment.
Because fat has become vilified, one could conclude that rational procedures,
rather than appearing as discriminatory actions, are perceived as incentives. Why
should society supply supportive health care, nice clothes, and wider seats to its fatter
members? These two myths (the possibility of permanent weight loss and being fat is
unhealthy) make it easy for many to believe that if people with fat bodies had more selfcontrol, they could slim down. Accordingly, society uses this normalisation to
rationalise why it does not tailor itself to these specialised (anomalous) bodies.
History of Sexuality

There is a common perception that "... with the advent of a Victorian regime
sexuality was regulated, confined, and censored ... " (Smart 95). In The History of

Sexuality Foucault labels this as the repressive hypothesis and proceeds to discard it.
First, he rejects it because it is based on the notion that sex had become prohibited and
this prohibition just needed to be lifted for sexuality to become emancipated. Second, he
disputes the connection of the repressive hypothesis to the rise of capitalism and the

26

need of the bourgeoisie to control the working class. Instead, Foucault believes that the
creation of sexuality was in fact constructed by the bourgeoisie for the bourgeoisie.
Following in the footsteps of the aristocracy and the notion of blue blood, the
bourgeoisie's deployment of sexuality had more to do with ".. .what the 'cultivation' of
its own body could represent politically, economically, and historically for the present
and the future" (Foucault Sexuality 125). In other words, the bourgeoisie used sexuality
(primarily procreation) as a way to enhance its own position.
In arriving at this conclusion, Foucault asks, "[b ]y what spiral did we come to
affirm that sex is negated? What led us to show, ostentatiously, that sex is something we
hide, to say it is something we silence?" (Sexuality 9). He challenges this hypothesis by
illustrating the extensive amount of discourse that was being produced in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries concerning sexuality. He cites four predominant
categories of discourse in which sexuality was produced: "the hysterical woman, the
masturbating child, the Malthusian couple, and the perverse adult" (Sexuality 105).
I find these categories of particular interest with respect to the creation of
discourse on weight loss in the twentieth century. In fact, it is possible to map the
weight-loss discourse categories onto Foucault's four categories. The examples of
discourse that Foucault uses to prove that sexuality flourished were ironically created to
control sexuality. Similarly, the categories of discourse that were created to eliminate
the fat body have actually played a primary role in creating the fat body-as some
researchers have concluded, dieting may be the cause of obesity, not the cure (see
page 23). What will follow is a brief description of each of Foucault's categories
corresponding to equivalent categories of discourse that evolved this century. They

27

include the anorexic woman, the chubby child, the health-conscious couple, and the
obese adult.
The Hysterical Woman vs. the Anorexic Woman

Foucault explains the concept of the hysterical woman in the following passage
from The History of Sexuality:
... a threefold process whereby the feminine body was analysedqualified and disqualified-as being thoroughly saturated with
sexuality; where it was integrated into the sphere of medical
practices, by reason of a pathology intrinsic to it; whereby finally, it
was placed in organic communication with the social body ... the
family space ... and the life of children. (104)
The corresponding category to Foucault's hysterical woman is the anorexic woman.
Western society expects women to maintain thin bodies. However, if she becomes
anorexic she crosses the line between what is deemed to be acceptable and what is
unacceptable. Her body becomes pathologised. In this state, like the hysterical woman,
her body is analysed, qualified and disqualified. Current psychological discourse that is
produced on the anorexic body provides evidence to this point •
8

Moreover, a woman does not even have to be anorexic, she just has to look
anorexic to produce controversy. Calista Flockhart (star of the television show Ally
McBeal) provides an example of what happens to women if they cross the line and
become too thin. With the exception of a select few, Hollywood's leading ladies, at least
in the last few decades, have become increasingly thinner. Unfortunately, for women in
Hollywood, "[n]ot only is talent put to the test, so is dress size" (Lee Dll). However, it

8

See Epling and Pierce, Duker and Slade, and Vandereycken and Van Deth.

28

would appear that not until Flockhart have people officially been offended by this
condition.
Since the Emmy Awards show in September 1998, to which Flockhart wore a
revealing dress, her body has been scrutinised by the media (see Appendix 1). She has
come to epitomise what is wrong with Hollywood and by extension what is wrong with
society's expectations on women. Unfortunately, given society's hypocritical stance on
how women's' bodies should look-thin but not too thin-women who have crossed
this arbitrary line will have to bare the brunt of this scrutiny.
The Masturbating Child vs. the Chubby Child

Discourse surrounding the masturbating child centred around the control and
surveillance of the child. Based on "a double assertion that practically all children
indulge or are prone to indulge in sexual activity; and that, being unwarranted, at the
same time 'natural' and 'contrary to nature,' this sexual activity posed physical and
moral, individual and collective dangers ... " (Foucault, Sexuality 104). A desire to
regulate children's development led to medical, pedagogical, and psychological
discourse about children's sexuality because they were perceived to occupy a perilous

space-simultaneously being natural and contrary to nature, pure and corruptible.
Once again, the discourse surrounding the chubby child centres around the
control and surveillance of the child. Many children are chubby. As infants and
toddlers, this quality is revered. In the presence of a chubby infant, it is not uncommon
to hear adults directly link a baby's cuteness to her or his chubbiness. We find images
like Figure 3 endearing; however, because of normalisation practices that create a
fatphobic society, there is a fear that the chubby child may become a fat adult.
29

This fear is created and reinforced
by the following: medical discourse that
equates a healthy and fit body with a
thin body; media discourse focusing on
exercise (for example a Participaction
commercial showing elementary school
children in gym class with a voice-over
stating that obesity is on the rise and that
exercise contributes to healthy living);
femininity discourse which dictates that

Figure 3: Navel, greeting card by Anne Geddes.

when girls become women their happiness is directly related to, among other things,
how thin they are.
The child's body thus becomes simultaneously thought of as both natural and
contrary to nature. The end result is that the food intake and exercise output of the child
is controlled and surveyed, to the point that many are put on weight-loss programs. The
testimony of a friend as noted the introduction of this chapter illustrates this point.
Moreover, Marion Crook in The Body Image Trap reports that "[i]n 1965, 'experts'
advocated dieting at 13, dieting at 5, even at birth, and some even demanded that
mothers prevent obesity in utero" (34: original emphasis). Crook notes that even in the
early 1990s, on a visit to a public library one could retrieve books like Keep Your Kids

Thin, Help the Overweight Child, How to Improve Your Child's Behavior Through Diet, and
Kids' Slimming Book (34).

30

The Malthusian Couple vs. the Health Conscious Couple

The socialisation of the couple created the third form of discourse. In the
eighteenth century, governments became focused on population rather than subjects or
people. Governments began to view population "... as an economic and political
problem: population as wealth, population as manpower or labor capacity, population
balanced between its own growth and the resources it commanded" (Sexuality 25). The
understanding of sex was a means to an end-a way to comprehend the economic and
political problems. Sex was therefore deconstructed such that birth rates, marriages,
legitimacy of children, frequency of sexual relations and methods of inducing fertility or
sterility for example became a primary concern of the state. (Sexuality 25).
It was this transition, from people to population, that led to the creation of the

Malthusian Couple. "[E]conomic socialization via all the incitements and restrictions ... a
political socialization achieved through the 'responsibilization' of couples with regard to
the social body as a whole ... and a medical socialization carried out by attributing a
pathogenic value ... to birth-control practices" (Sexuality 104-105) played a primary role in
this creation because they helped the government to police the population.
The health-conscious couple is the third category of discourse focused on weight
loss. The notion of healthy living is at the forefront of this discourse. Economic
socialisation occurs through incitements and restrictions on those who do not conform
to an 'ideal' weight. A survey on employment discrimination done by NAAFA on
NAAFA members reported that, "[ o ]ver 40% of fat men and 60% of fat women stated
that they had not been hired for a job in the past because of their weight ... Over 30% of
fat men and women indicated that they had been denied promotions or raises, and over

31

25% indicated that they had been denied benefits (such as health or life insurance)
because of their weight (Employment 93t Fat people are economically disadvantaged in
other ways including having to pay more for clothes, having to buy two airline tickets
or fly first class when travelling by air, or spending money on obesity 'cures' such as
diet drugs or various surgeries.
Political socialisation is used to create a moral society. It is reinforced through the
belief that proper exercise and eating habits will create healthy bodies. These bodies
will in turn create healthy couples, who will in turn produce healthy children. The
question is, what are the consequences for those who do not conform to this model?
One can turn to the Marlene Corrigan trial to add to this discussion.
Ms. Corrigan, from California, was originally charged with felony child
endangerment in November 1996, though convicted of misdemeanour child neglect (a
lesser charge) in January 1998 following the death of her thirteen-year-old daughter
Christina. Christina weighed 680 lbs. at the time of her death. Who do you blame for
Christina's death? The mother who let her daughter get that fat, the daughter for not
being able to control herself, or the medical professionals who were so biased, they
could not see past their fatphobia to think of reasons other than over-eating as the cause
of her obesity. Diets were the only treatments Christina received from the doctors she
visited, despite the fact that repetitive weight gain was the only outcome of her

9

The figures on discrimination that I have quoted are in fact most likely higher. As the authors
note, "... respondents wrote that they suspected job discrimination but couldn't prove it...Thus the results
on the frequency of job discrimination may actually be underestimating the true incidence"
(Employment 93).

32

dieting (Campbell and Levesque 70).
Marlene was a scapegoat. She was punished as a way to show other parents,
specifically mothers, what will happen to them if they do not produce healthy (i.e., thin)
children. The media and the justice system were the conduits through which this
occurred. The media constantly ignored the facts of the trial. Rather than question why
medical professionals did nothing to help Marlene and Christina, they chose to paint
Marlene as "passive and overwrought" and Christina as a "stubborn, willful, [and]
somewhat unlikeable girl" (Campbell and Levesque 70).
Essentially, "[t]he press coverage of the Corrigan case functioned to censure not
only Marlene, but all mothers who do not meet societal expectation of ideal mothering."
(Campbell and Levesque 72). The justice system, by actually finding Marlene guilty
drove the final nail in the coffin. The lesson to be learned? Not only will mothers receive
a public thrashing for a failure to control their children, they will be held criminally
responsible. I wonder what would have happened to Marlene if Christina had died
from anorexia instead?
Medical socialisation is carried out by attributing a pathogenic value to the fat
body. In the United States, insurance companies can deny health insurance to those
applicants who do not adhere to their 'ideal' weight. Ideal weights have been
determined through height/weight charts developed by Louis Dublin, an insurance
executive at Metropolitan Life Company; they are currently being used by most
insurance companies. Unfortunately, "[t]he charts are a statistical report created ... in
1959 and only slightly revised in 1979. The research was not based on medical studies,

33

mostly included white males, and was economically biased" (NAAFA Weight Loss) •
10

Therefore, the creation of the height/weight charts and lowering the bar on other
normalising techniques such as the BMI strictly for preventive measures have tangible
effects that can negatively impact a person's life. While those who conform to weight
guidelines are rewarded-with proper health care, economic stability, and public
acceptance- those who do not conform are penalised. These incitements and
restrictions produce a sadomasochistic socialisation that dictates: conform or suffer the
consequences. This mirrors Foucault's panopticon, which forces self-regulation
(masochism) or, failing that, discipline (sadism) imposed by society.
The Perverse Adult vs. the Obese Adult

The perverse adult serves as the fourth discourse that Foucault emphasises.
Through psychiatric discourse a normalisation and pathologisation of sexual behaviour
is created. In response to pathological anomalies, corrective technology was developed.

(Sexuality 105).
The obese adult is the contemporary category to Foucault's perverse adult.
"Culturally, obesity is constructed not only as an affront to aesthetic sensibilities, but as
an indicator of overall character deficiencies. A curious mix of science, aesthetic, and
character judgement ... " (Spitzack 10). Ideals of acceptable and pathologised bodies are

In Fat/So Marilyn Wann reveals that Dublin's first analysis of the data revealed that "[a] person's
weight could vary by thirty or forty pounds, without being associated with any greater risk of dying"
However, "Dublin didn't like the idea of people feeling comfortable with a weight gain of thirty or forty
pounds, so he invented frame size to reduce that range. For each frame size, small, medium, or large,
there would only be a ten- or fifteen-pound range recommended. That way, Dublin reasoned, people
would start to worry if they gained five pounds" (51).
10

34

created and reinforced through a variety of discourse including psychology, mass
media, and consumer market. All three reinforce the concept of normal bodies through
their tragic portrayal of life as the obese person.
Within psychiatric discourse one can turn to Albert Stunkard's The Pain of Obesity
as evidence of this point. Aside from the title, the following excerpt from the
introduction of Stunkard's book provides a poignant example of how fatter bodies have
been pathologised within society:
This is a book about troubled people-those troubled by the
modern American obsession with overweight and obesity. It tells
something about the way they eat, how they feel about themselves
and their bodies, and a good bit about how they cope with the
preoccupation that dominates their lives-losing weight. (1)
We have such a hatred and fear of fat that it is impossible for many to believe that one
could be 'obese' and enjoy a high quality of life, not to mention enjoy a life that did not
centre on losing weight.
Within mass media one could turn to the talk show Jerry Springer on NBC and its
portrayal of the host's 'heroic' attempt to save the life of man who weighed close to 1000
pounds. Viewers watched as workers chain-sawed the front wall of this man's
apartment so he could be transported to the hospital to lose weight; unfortunately, the
man eventually died. Springer's 'selflessness' was even recognised by the popular show

Entertainment Tonight as they aired an expose of Springer's involvement with this man.
The media coverage of the Corrigan trial also illustrates how the media uses the
sensationalistic 'tragedy' of obesity as disincentive.

35

The advertisement in Figure 4 (Schwartz 238) illustrates this point with the
juxtaposition of the mournful fat woman beside the smug thin woman. "Don't Cry
Because You Are Fat" the thin woman tells her friend, "Send To Prof. Kellogg and He
Will Reduce You As He Did Me." A pill to cure all ills, in this case (faulty) digestion and
assimilation of food, which comprise the root of fat people's affliction, as the
advertisement indicates. "My treatment is prepared scientifically. It does not stop or

Don't Stay Fat
$liDO Box
Free

My tr t ~ t is _prep.ared scientifically. Tt does
not stop or u~d r dtgc$tton : on the contrary it pr.,..
xnotcs proper .d1gestion and auimilation of food, which
99 fat people m a hundred haven't got, and t ~ why
they arc flll.

$1.00 FREE P.\CKAGE COLPOX.

Don ' t Cry

Prof.

~ u

You Are Fat .

Thi;; cou u,on is good for Sl Sl.OO package or Kellollf's Sn.fe r 11t du~ r ftnd a bo<>k of Photographs
ntH r ~ o o
~~
1' rll m yo nr name and address
o_n the bl ank
~ bctow a nd enciQ$P. 10 cents in
.s th·cr o r s l p~ t•s an cvid<:ncc of gooo faith nnd
to ~ p o ~r po. t~ and packing, and by return.
marl YOU w1ll rc<:ctve n ~ .
p. ~
prepaid.

Send To

o~~ and He Will Reduce You

A.s He Did Me.
Frt'c, ~ ;,. ly free , a Sl.OO boll: o.f Kellogg's Safe
Fnt ~ du r to every sufferer from fat,J' ust to prove
tha t t t .actually reduces you to normal, oes it safely,
no d b uil ds up ~ our hcnlth at thr. 63me lime. r want
t o_ ~ d you w1thout a cent of expense on your part
t !m ~ .~ p
~
of what I . am free to call a really
woad e rru l fat rcdur.cr.

F . J. Kellogg, 3158 Kellog11, Bldg.,
Battle Creek, Mich.

Name ..............,.................. .... ................ ..................... ..
Strcec No .......... ..... ......... .........·.............. .........................

City nne! State ....................... ...... ..... ..... ....... ............... ..

F1:om \Voman Beautiful (1910). Frank]. Kellogg :'> Rengo obesity cure and

Safe Fat Reducer ads drew some 135,000 replies by 1914.
Library of Congress

Courtesy of the

Figure 4: Advertisement for Safe Fat Reducer, reprinted in Schwartz's Never Satisfied: A Cultural
His ton; of Diets, Fantasies and Fat.

hinder digestion; on the contrary, it promotes proper digestion and assimilation of food,

36

which 99 fat people in a hundred haven't got, and that's why they are fat." What
Kellogg is implicitly saying here is that a fat body isn't just fat; it is diseased; there is
something wrong with it.
Just as corrective technology was developed to change the sexual deviant, one
cannot forget the corrective technology that has been devised as a way to 'save' the
obese body. Here, we can turn not only to the medical profession and the use of
procedures like stomach stapling, liposuction and pharmaceuticals like Redux and
Fen/phen, but also to consumer market discourse. For example, Susan Powter's Stop the

Insanity and exercise guru Richard Simmons's programs. Both individuals became
famous for their high energy infomercials. Powter with her cropped platinum hair and
Simmons with his tank top and striped shorts, both equated weight loss to a happier
and healthier life.
The discourse that was created around sexuality was intended to control it, to
conceal it. However, as Foucault demonstrates, the opposite occurred. Sexuality was not
repressed, it flourished. What about the discourse around weight loss? Has it been
effective? According to National Institutes of Health (NIH)," ... the number of
overweight [adult] Americans increased from 25 to 33 percent between 1980 and 1991"
and "... 11 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, up from approximately 5
percent in the 1960s and 70s" (NIH). Interestingly, with all the discourse that was
created to eliminate fat bodies, western society has entered the new millennium with a
greater number of fatter people than ever before.

37

To provide a synopsis of Foucault's theories about sexuality and their
relationships to fat politics, we can turn to Rabinow and his analysis of Foucault's
position on the production of sex.
Sex ... was employed as a standard for the disciplines and as a basis
for regulations. This is why in the nineteenth century sexuality was
sought out in the smallest details of individual existences .. .it was
suspected of underlying the least follies ... But one also sees it
becoming the theme of political operations, economic interventions
(through incitements to or curbs on procreation), and ideological
campaigns for raising standards of morality and responsibility: it
was put forward as the index of a society's strength, revealing of
both its political energy and its biological vigor (267-68).
I offer a rewriting of this passage to illustrate the importance that fat politics plays in
our society.
[Fat] is employed as a standard for the disciplines and as a basis for
regulations. This is why in the [twentieth century fat is] sought out
in the smallest details of individual existences .. .it [is] suspected of
underlying the least follies. But one also sees it becoming the theme
of political operations, economic interventions (through
incitements to or curbs on [obesity]), and ideological campaigns for
raising standards of morality and responsibility: it is put forward as
the index of a society's [weakness], revealing of both its political
energy and its biological [deficiency].
If weight-loss discourse is going to succeed at making people thin, understanding the

minutiae of everyone's relationships with food and exercise is crucial (for example,
creating a wealth of research on food psychoses and on exercise workouts). Fat is
considered to be the root of all evil. Consequently, being fat becomes the problem for
everything and getting thin becomes the solution for everything. Weight loss has
become the theme of political operations through the production of discourse on the
responsibility of couples to the social body, as the Corrigan trial illustrates. Finally,
ideological campaigns for raising the standards of morality also exist. Self-control has
38

become a predominant issue within weight-loss discourse and there is a direct link
between self-control and morality.
Conclusion

The fat body has been created because of the categories of discourse that focus on
weight loss in our society. These categories have built the metaphorical panopticon in
which we live. Today, we are told that an acceptable body is always a thin body, and
maintaining (or attaining) this ideal forces us to police our own behaviour through a
constant obsession with counting calories and fat grams, and compulsive exercise. If fat
bodies can be used to block the exterior window (and therefore the source of
backlighting in the panopticon), surveillance would be impossible. Therefore, the
instrument of oppression, the panopticon, is appropriated by the oppressed to fight
their oppression in the same way that the fat activists have been steadily reclaiming the
right to be fat over the past three decades.

39

Chapter Three Fat Herstories
. Sharon writes about her experience at a Family Synergy meeting, an organisation
for the study and practise of inner emotional growth, extended families, and communal
living. She explains how participants would have to answer rounds of questions that
became increasingly more personal. At one point, they were told to "'tell each member
of the group something you don't like about them"' (Schoenfielder and Wieser 136).
Sharon recounts that the first woman to speak turned directly to her and said "'Sharon,
I'd like to tell you that your body is repulsive, and it's especially repulsive to me because
you have such a nice face'" (Schoenfielder and Wieser 136: my emphasis). With the
variety of comments this woman could have made, why was it that she felt compelled
to comment on Sharon's size? If Sharon had been a lesbian, would the woman have
commented that she found her sexuality repulsive? If she had been a woman of colour,
would the woman have told her to lighten her skin tone because she felt her skin was
too dark? If she had had a large nose, would the woman have told her to get
rhinoplasty if she found her nose offensive? (Schoenfielder and Wieser 136).
There is no question that fat has been demonised in Western Society. As a result,
many women have been trying to control their weight. From diets to protein powders,
tapeworms, cellulite creams, excessive exercising, intestinal bypass surgeries, stomach
stapling, liposuction, jaw wiring, super saunas, and magic little pills, women have been
trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain by these and other drastic methods.
Perhaps these measures are logical responses that result from living in a society that
attempts to render women powerless. If they have no control in their life, at least they
can attempt to control their weight. However, a consequence of adhering to such a

40

lifestyle is that women who cannot lose the weight or women who choose not to lose the
weight become subject to discriminatory treatment, as Sharon's experience illustrates.
In the last thirty years, certain activist groups have been formed to combat the

discriminatory treatment imposed on fat people in our society. These groups are
collectively known as the Fat Liberation Movement. The following chapter will
highlight the path of the Fat Liberation Movement, from its inception in the late sixties
in the United States to a movement that is present in many countries around the world.
First, I will provide examples of fat women's experiences. Second, I will highlight the
events that led to the development of the feminist Fat Liberation Movement. Third, I
will examine the publications, politics and activities of the Fat Underground, the first
women's organisation to come out of the Fat Liberation Movement. I will then illustrate
the growth of the movement by providing examples from current publications and of
current organisations. This section will demonstrate some of the different strategies that
members of the Fat Liberation Movement have adopted to fight fatphobia. Finally I will
conclude with a discussion on fat politics and how I locate myself within it.
Fat Women's Experiences

The Fat Liberation movement evolved from a strong reaction to a society that
oppresses people because they are fat. One might be tempted to trivialise this situation
with a few time-honoured myths. For example: A fat woman could lose the weight if she

wanted. Or: She's just not trying hard enough. Another one is: Maybe she's too lazy, or she
just has no self control. Unfortunately, these and other myths about fat people, including
the notions that fat people are unhealthy, sexually undesirable, unfit, and eat more than
thin people, all contribute to the oppression of fat women. Mass media, the consumer

41

market, medical research and 'loving' families who just want the best for their children
perpetuate these myths.
I challenge anyone to watch a night of television and not laugh at the many fat
jokes that are peppered throughout all of the shows. If there are fat female characters,
are they the lead roles? Do they have any love interests? Have they ever passionately
kissed anyone? Are they intelligent characters with something to say? Or, are they the
butt of jokes, filmed always eating, perpetually jovial, or concerned with their weight?
The popular sitcom The Nanny is a perfect example of this. A recurring character in the
show is the mother of the female lead. She is fat, she is always eating, and she is always
complaining about wanting to lose weight. Meanwhile, all the other characters, who are
thin, make fun of her eating habits and her size 11 •
It is easy to talk about the stereotypes of fat people. I believe, however, that it is

more enlightening to stray from these stereotypes and listen to the voices of the women
who have directly suffered because of them. To understand the repercussions of these
myths and stereotypes one can turn to Shadow on a Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat

Oppression. The content of this book "... represent the first ten years of the feminist Fat
Liberation Movement" (Schoenfielder and Wieser X) and is one of the most important
texts to come from out of the Fat Liberation Movement. These women speak
passionately and eloquently about the ramifications of being fat in a world that

This example from The Nanny exemplifies the standard representation; however, there are a
handful of women on television who do not conform to this stereotype. For example, one can turn to
Camryn Manheim on The Practice, and Rosie O'Donnell and Roseanne on their own talk shows. Although
these actresses are actively countering the stereotypes of fat women, it is still the case that the negative
representations far outweigh the positive ones.
11

42

demands women be thin. I have highlighted four categories-education, family,
medical, and employment- to demonstrate fatphobia's reach within our society.
The following example illustrates one woman's experience within the education
system. In one interview, a 15-year-old girl recounts how one of her teachers in public
school would call her Sherman, as in Sherman the tank and how later on in school,
another teacher mumbled to her as she was walking out of the class room to go to the
bathroom- "[I]f you can set your fat ass on the toilet" (Schoenfielder and Wieser 75). In
the same interview, the girl recounted how her grandmother and aunts would say
things like "Why don't you lose weight so you could look real good and have
boyfriends?" (Schoenfielder and Wieser 76).
Within the pages of Shadow on a Tightrope, there are also examples that
demonstrate how family members treat their fat children and the effect that this
treatment has on them. Nancy describes how she was put on her first diet when she was
".. .maybe a sophomore or junior in high school" because "... my mother thought I
needed to go on Weight Watchers .. ." (Schoenfielder and Wieser 173). Later, Nancy
described how her mother would make comments to her like ".. .if I didn't quit eating
and gaining weight, then they were going to have to roll me away to school"
(Schoenfielder and Wieser 174). Nancy developed bulimirexia. 12
Family can have a devastating effect on a person's self esteem. A woman who
calls herself thunder recounts:
i began to gain really noticeable weight when i reached puberty.
my mother's reaction was a blend of disavowal and
acknowledgement; she would not accommodate my weight gain by
12

Bulimirexia is an eating disorder that combines the characteristics of both bulimia and anorexia.

43

allowing me to get larger-sized clothes when/ as i needed them, but
she encouraged/pressured me to join weight watchers ... when i
was 15, my mother encouraged/pressured me to go to a diet
doctor. The regimen this time consisted of a SOD-calories-a day ~ t
supplemented by daily shots of some chemical vitamin compound
which my mother administered. (Schoenfielder and Wieser
210-211)
What effect did this have on thunder? She continues:
i can intellectually understand why she did these things, but i have
always hated that she did them. I know that she was acting out of
love and caring for me, but i felt then that she must not have really
loved me, since she was so intent on changing me, and since it was
apparently so easy for her to subject me to what i considered gross
indignities (and still do). (Schoenfielder and Wieser 211: original
emphasis).
From a medical perspective women have also been under attack. Doris, in her
essay, explains how during her second pregnancy her doctor told her not to gain any
more weight because she was about 15 pounds 'overweight.' He was concerned that she
would have a weight 'problem' after she delivered. In fear of future reprimand, Doris
would starve herself prior to doctor's appointments. When she gained a few pounds,
she recounted how the doctor "blew up at me. He threw the chart down. He kept
shaking his head and telling me how disgusted he was with me ... He finally said, 'I
don't give a damn about you. But I do care about that baby. I'll get rid of that weight"'
(Schoenfielder and Wieser 114: original emphasis). The doctor admitted Doris to the
hospital and put her on a 700 calorie a day diet. When Doris still hadn't lost any weight
he asked her '"Who's slipping you candy?"' (Schoenfielder and Wieser 114. ). He refused
to believe that she wasn't cheating and cut her diet to 500 calories a day. At the end of
one week, when Doris had only lost one pound, her doctor said "'Well, you surprise me,

44

I guess it is hard for you to lose weight, isn't it?" The woman never saw that doctor
again.
Regarding employment experiences, Deb, in an interview, explains that after
filling out an application form to be a telephone operator, the employer asked if she was
lying about her weight on the application. The employer continued by letting her know
that they had a scale at their disposal and stated that" .. .1 think you weigh more and if
you do we can't hire you because you're overweight" (Schoenfielder and Wieser 17).
When the woman questioned what difference her weight made, the employer stated
"Well, because fat people tend to be sick more than thin people" (Schoenfielder and
Wieser 17).
Fat Liberation Movement

The Fat Liberation Movement began in the late sixties and it was the negative
experiences of women like those just mentioned that led these women to organise. A
number of other events also occurred in the late sixties that set the scene for this
movement. In "Fat Feminist Herstory-A Memoir" Karen Stimson notes that:
In the U.S., a number of events occurred which, along with ongoing
social currents, helped codify the personality, politics and
philosophy of a generation and would have a profound influence
on later decades. Among these were: the Woodstock music festival;
the Second Wave of feminism; the Stonewall Rebellion; and the
founding of NAAFA (originally the National Association to Aid Fat
Americans, later changed to National Association to Advance Fat
Acceptance) (Stimson 1).
Moreover, Vivian Mayer writes in the Foreword of Shadow On a Tightrope, that there
were, in fact, two predominant influences on the fat women's liberation movement in
Los Angeles, "radical feminism and radical therapy" (Schoenfielder and Wieser X).

45

Radical Feminism was created by women for women, with an understanding
that women's oppression was a direct result of patriarchal power. "Radical Feminism
has stressed women's control of our bodies as essential to liberation. The issue has been
dealt with in three primary ways: through the Women's Health Movement; through an
analysis of the body as a primary site of women's oppression; and through a discussion
of sexuality" (Rowland and Renate 285). Fat oppression may not have been apart of the
immediate agenda of Radical Feminism as it was more gynaecologically based;
however, with its analysis of women's bodies, it did create a space for fat women to
theoretically examine and practically react to fat oppression.
Radical therapy is the antithesis of traditional psychiatric therapy. Hogie
Wyckoff in "Radical Psychiatry For Women" explains that:
As radical feminist psychiatrists, we believe that psychiatry is a
political activity. Psychiatrists cannot be neutral; they insert their
personal values, either blatantly or passively. By not taking a clear
stand they support the status quo through what Marcuse (1965)
termed 'repressive tolerance.' Therefore, at this point in history we
feel that men, particularly professional, elitist, and sexist men,
cannot help free women ...We refuse to 'diagnose' 'patients' as 'sick,'
label them with such terms as 'schizophrenic,' or 'treat' them with
'medicines.' We are convinced that people are basically good and

powerful and, given the right conditions, can live cooperatively

together. Therefore, when people are troubled, they are oppressed
rather sick (Wyckoff 370-371: original emphasis).

Therefore, radical therapy with its analysis on social oppression creates a space for fat
women to examine why they have been deemed second-class citizens because of their
size.
Essentially, Radical Feminism and Radical Therapy provided the stage for the
women's Fat Liberation Movement to take place, because they turned society's
opprobrium of fat on its head. They did this by insisting that it was patriarchal society
46

that was the oppressor, rather than the fat person's individual shortcomings or illness
that posed an affront to society.
The Fat Underground

The first women's organisation to come out of the Fat Liberation Movement,
called the Fat Underground, originated in Los Angeles, California in 1973. It is not
surprising, given the obsession with the thin body in the horne of Hollywood that the
Fat Underground was born there. In 1971, leading up to its inception, the originators,
Judy Freespirit and Vivian Mayer, had become involved in developing a radical
feminist therapy collective. With the aid of Fat Power by Llewellyn Louderback, Vivian
Mayer was able to develop the concept of fat liberation. The backbone of fat liberation
included the radical notions that:
1. Biology, not eating habits, is the main cause of fat.

2. Health problems of fat people are not inherently due to fat, but
are the result of stress, self-hatred, and chronic dieting.
3. Weight-loss efforts damage health, almost never 'succeed'
except temporarily, and should not be used.
4. Food binges are a natural response to chronic dieting.
The role of a radical therapist is to help fat women feel good
about themselves and stop trying to lose weight. To accomplish
this, radical therapists should learn and teach accurate
information about fat women's health and nutrition. They
should provide emotional support for women on binges to
continue eating and stop feeling guilty! (Schoenfielder and
Wieser XII).

47

In 1972, a chapter of NAAFA was forming in Los Angeles. Both Judy and Vivian

became members. However, in 1973 as Mayer wrote, "[w]hen NAAFA refused to go as
far as we wanted to go in confronting the health professions, we broke from NAAFA
and formed the Fat Underground" (Schoenfielder and Wieser XII), a collective of
women linked to the radical therapy, lesbian, and feminist communities (Stimson 1).
The first of many publications to come from the fat underground was The Fat

Liberation Manifesto. Building on the concepts that Mayer brought to fat liberation.in
1972, this document poignantly articulates the ideology of the Fat Underground. The
manifesto outlines the entitlement of fat people to respect, equal rights, and equal
access; it aligns itself with other oppressed groups; it singles out 'reducing industries' as
the enemy and it repudiates science practices. (Schoenfielder and Wieser 52-53).
The publishing of position papers and monthly articles for Sister, a Los Angeles
feminist newspaper, the facilitation of consciousness-raising and support groups,
actively engaging with the media, and attempts at educating women's health clinics
made 1974 a very busy year for the Fat Underground. (Stimson 2). However, the death
of Cass Elliot of The Mamas and the Papas in the summer of 1974 increased their attack on
the war against fat. "Things really took off when Cass Elliot died," Judy Freespirit
recounted in an interview with Andrea Hernandez. "When she died, the news media
thought it was really funny and they put that she died choking on a ham sandwich. It
made us very angry and we got very pissed" (Hernandez 1).
The media, by reporting that she died choking on a ham sandwich, relied on fat
stereotypes to eulogise her, essentially trivialising her death. In the New York Times the

48

day after her death, John Rockwell reported that "[h]er physician said the singer
probably choked on a ham sandwich" (36). However, much of the blame lies with the
doctor who made such a delinquent comment. Unfortunately, today many people still
believe that she died choking on a ham sandwich and this misinformation is
periodically repeated, as in the movie Austin Powers. If it was not so tragic, one might
interpret a follow-up article by the New York Times as amusing.
On August 6, nine days after her death, the paper put an end to the rumour
concerning the manner in which she died. The anonymous author writes: "Dr. Keith
Simpson, a British pathologist, and Gavin Thurston, a London coroner, issued a
report ... that ruled out the theory that "Mama" Cass Elliot choked to death on a ham
sandwich. Rather, they said, the 3513-year-old singer .. .succumbed to a heart attack
brought on by being overweight" (Notes). The gluttonous stereotype of a fat person
makes it easy for many not to question the popularised theory about her death.
Moreover, this stereotype forces the media to enlighten its readers. She didn't really die
while eating, but what she did die of, being fat, is just as bad.
In reporting Elliot's death, Rockwell writes that she "... stood up to 5 feet 5 inches
tall and weighed 250 pounds, pursued a variety of crash diets, and at one time claimed
to have lost 120 pounds. But she retained her earthy image until the end" (36: my emphasis).
The implication of Rockwell's statement is clear. His use of the word claim while
describing her weight loss serves to illustrate his belief in another stereotype about fat
people-that they have a poor character. He does not even believe that she could have

13

The author erred in reporting the correct age that Ms. Elliot died. She was, in fact, 33 years old.

49

lost that much weight.
By writing that she retained her earthy image until the end, he attempts to
describe Elliott in a positive light; however, he merely swings from one stereotype to
another. While a comparison to Mother Nature may seem more favourable than
descriptive comments that rely on fat stereotypes, he is still idealising her image.
Whether he relies on negative or positive stereotypes to describe her, Rockwell
reproduces femininity discourse that dichotomises the female form.
In looking for answers to explain the untimely death of Cass Elliot, the Fat
Underground took a different path than both the media and the medical profession.
Straying from the popular use of fat stereotypes, they turned to dieting rather than
obesity (Stimson) for answers to their questions. Cass Elliot had spent a lifetime of
yo-yo dieting. In fact, she "... had been on a severe diet and had just lost 80 pounds at
the time of her death" (Hernandez), and yet everyone but the Fat Underground linked
her death to her size.
It would seem that the Fat Underground was using a wider lens to examine the

situation. Their personal experiences in conjunction with a critique of health politics
(provided by Lynn Mabel-Lois, a core member of the Fat Underground whose
knowledge as a medical librarian greatly influenced this situation [Schoenfielder and
Wieser XIII]) helped members of the Fat Underground develop a feminist critique of fat
stereotypes that took the emphasis off obesity and placed it on dieting. This redirection
is a strong example of a reverse discourse within the Fat Liberation Movement. This
will be discussed in more detail at the conclusion of this chapter.

50

The Fat Underground's first reaction to the media's sensationalisation of Elliot's
death was to speak at the Women's Equality Day celebration in Los Angeles. This event
occurred a few weeks after her death. The annual gathering that year was attended by
over a thousand women. "... [M]embers and fat friends of the Fat Underground and Fat
14

Women's Problem-Solving Group marched onto the speakers' platform wearing black
armbands and carrying candles" (Schoenfielder and Wieser XIII-XIV). Lynn Mabel-Lois
spoke on behalf of the groups. Essentially, she made a speech "... denouncing the
medical profession as murderers of fat women" (Schoenfielder and Wieser XIII-XIV). As
Vivian Mayer explains in the forward of Shadow on a Tightrope, this event was an
important part of the history of the Fat Underground because "[they] had finally taken
the irreversible, inevitable public step" (Schoenfielder and Wieser XIV). Just as the
Stonewall Rebellion fuelled the fire that developed the Gay Liberation Movement
(Duberman xvii), the death of Mama Cass Elliot acted as a catalyst for the Fat Liberation
Movement.
By the mid seventies, the Fat Underground adopted new tactics in activism.
While they had been primarily engaging in a scholarly battle against the medical
industry and heavily involved in Radical Therapy, they began to adopt a more
confrontational style of activism. Sara Fishman (also known as Aldebaran and Vivian
Mayer) in "Life In The Fat Underground," writes:

The Fat Women's Problem Solving Group was an organisation designed to" ... help members
stop dieting and build self-esteem" (Fishman 7). This organisation was a stepping stone for women to get
involved in the Fat Underground." Although they did not feel bold enough to join the Fat Underground,
[they] recognized that Fat Liberation had something valuable to say to them and they wanted to be
connected with it" (Fishman 7).
14

51

Around 1975, we began a new type of activity: harassing local
weight-loss institutions. In a typical action, we would attend a 'free
introductory lecture,' pretending to be shopping for a diet cure. But
when the lecturer would ask questions, we would attack the
program's medical theory and success rate. Our goal was to shake
the lecturer's confidence and turn away customers (Fishman 9).
Other activities, such as disrupting behaviour modification seminars and speaking on
panels kept the women of the Fat Underground busy. An especially triumphant event
occurred when "... Lynn Mabel-Lois was a featured speaker at a city-wide women's rally
protesting crimes against women." Fishman recounts how "[Lynn], denounced weightloss surgery as mystified oppression15" and that "[p ]rocedures such as intestinal bypass
and jaw-wiring are considered healing rather than barbaric and dangerous
mutilations .. .only because fat is seen as a woman's problem" (Fishman 9: my emphasis).
The Fat Underground was riding a wave. They were theoretical, political and active.
By 1976, due to political and interpersonal problems, the Fat Underground began
to disband. But, it was the death of one of its core members in 1983 to Breast Cancer that
caused the ultimate dissolution of the Fat Underground (Fishman 9). However, this did
not happen before members began putting together Shadow on a Tightrope 16, an
anthology of texts by the many women involved in the Fat Liberation Movement. In
this book, these women questioned why mainstream feminism embraced fatphobia,

15

Mystified oppression is an expression coined by Radical Therapy and refers to the idea that the
true reason for oppression is concealed. "An example would be the practice of 'protecting' women from
sexual harassment by denying them access to education or employment in predominantly male fields"
(Fishman 2).
It is interesting to note that it took six years to publish Shadow on a Tightrope. The publishing
difficulty arose due to a perception of a lack of audience.
16

52

how the medical profession linked being fat to being unhealthy, and how patriarchy
demanded thinness of women. Once again, these activities illustrate a reverse discourse
within the Fat Liberation Movement.
Lynn Mabel-Lois and Aldebaran question whether "... high blood pressure, the
cholesteroled arteries, the heart disease, the kidney failures [are] due to being fat; or are
they due to the stresses of living a persecuted, hated life, and undergoing frequent and
prolonged periods of starvation?" (Mabel-Lois and Aldebaran 56). They also question
whether "[f]at in women is considered especially reprehensible because it suggests that
the fat woman is more interested in indulging her appetites that in indulging a man's"
(Mabel-Lois and Aldebaran 56).
In Joan Dickenson's article she writes "[w]hether or not I choose to be fat, I am.
Choice doesn't make it legitimate to torment me ... No feminist suggests that blacks
bleach their skin, or that lesbians try to love men, so why should we insist that fat
women aim for thinness?" (Dickenson 42). The combination of the personal accounts of
their experiences and the insightful political analysis of fat oppression makes Shadow on

a Tightrope one of the most important and lasting contributions the Fat Underground
could have given the Fat Liberation Movement.
Strategies of Resistance

Since the Fat Underground, fat activists have been uniting not only in Los
Angeles but around the world. They have united to lend support to each other, work
towards ending fat oppression and to have fun. However, with the immense
production of discourse on weight loss, as described in the previous chapter, one might
feel like we are doomed to live in a society that attempts to discipline and control our
53

bodies. At this point, we can return to Foucault. He provides some insight as to why we
need not feel disillusioned with the situation.
Foucault writes, "[d]iscourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but it
also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it"

(Sexuality 101). Foucault does not perceive power as negative because it has the
potential to provide emancipatory moments. He introduces the idea of reverse discourse
and cites homosexuality as his example of how these moments can occur. Through
reverse discourse, "[h]omosexuality began to demand that its legitimacy or 'naturality'
be acknowledged, often using the same vocabulary, using the same categories by which
it was medically disqualified". (Sexuality 101).
Discourse centring on weight loss has created the idea that fat is undesirable,
unhealthy and unhygienic; that being fat leads to an emotional state of unhappiness;
and, that one is immoral because one cannot control one's weight. Essentially the fat
body, like the homosexual body, was a by-product of discourse. Given Foucault's
notion of reverse discourse, has a space been created for an alternative discourse on the
body? One can turn to the Fat Liberation Movement to answer this question.
Documents produced by NAAF A, a major force in the Fat Liberation Movement,
provide evidence of a reverse discourse. These documents expose biases and conflicts of
interest within obesity and weight-loss research. An example of this can be provided by
the HTML brochure "NAAFA Policy on Obesity Research." The authors note that:
Xavier Pi-Sunyer, who is a researcher and has a weight loss clinic at
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, sits on the advisory council of the
American Obesity Association. (The AOA touts itself as a consumer
advocacy group, but its primary goal is to lobby Congress to pass
legislation mandating that insurance companies pay for weight loss
attempts.) Pi-Sunyer is also a member of the Weight Risk

54

Investigation Study Council, which was created by Knoll
Pharmaceuticals to provide research grants. He also sits on the
advisory board of American Hove Products, Wyeth-Ayerst Labs
and Knoll Pharmaceuticals. He was also a consultant to HoffmanLaRoche, Knoll, Genentech, Eli Lilly, and Weight Watchers
International (2).
Readers may recall Pi-Sunyer. I made reference to him in the previous chapter while
exploring the BMI. Strictly for preventative measures, he fought to have the marker,
which determined if a person was overweight, lowered from 27 to 25.
However, when it comes to conflict of interest, Pi-Sunyer is not alone. Thomas
Moore, as quoted in the NAAFA Policy on Obesity Research, writes that "[m]ost leading
obesity researchers are either consultants to diet or pharmaceutical companies, conduct
research for these companies, presenting their results at conferences sponsored by these
companies, or sometimes all three" (Obesity 2). By discussing the biases and conflicts of
interest that exist within obesity research, NAAF A uses reverse discourse. They
accomplish this by shifting the focus away from fat.
High blood pressure is commonly associated with fat people and is a valued
motive for weight loss by physicians. However, in the NAAF A HTML brochure "Facts
About Hypertension and the Fat Person," the authors cite three reasons that may lead to
a skewed blood pressure reading: cuff size, the white coat syndrome, and medication.
First, the authors note that standard cuff size is not guaranteed to properly fit
around a fatter person's arm. If the fit is too tight it can, "... produce a very high blood
pressure reading when the actual blood pressure is normal or even below normal"

(Facts). Larger cuffs," ... designed for use on the leg of an average size person ... can be
used on the larger arm" (Facts). They conclude by informing the reader that "[i]f a large
cuff isn't available, or if the arm is too large for a thigh cuff, blood pressure can be
55

measured by placing the cuff over the forearm, rather than the upper arm, and listening
to the pulse at the wrist" (Facts).
Second, they inform the reader that the white coat syndrome can also produce a
skewed blood pressure reading. "The treatment of hypertension [high blood pressure] is
based on the accurate measure of blood pressure in a resulting, relaxed state. A visit to
the doctor is typically stressful for a fat person, particularly if a stern lecture on dieting
is anticipated. If the fat patient is experiencing fear, anger, or anxiety as her /his blood
pressure is being taken, the reading cannot serve as a guide for treatment" (Facts).
Finally, the authors note that certain medications, both prescription and overthe-counter, can produce a side effect that elevates blood pressure. If fatphobic doctors
do not thoroughly inquire about a patient's current drug intake, she or he may
recommend inappropriate action (Facts). Once again, NAAFA adopts reverse discourse
as strategy to combat fatphobia. Their use of medical discourse provides theories that
weaken the causal connection between hypertension and fat.
It is my assertion that Foucault would place the popular medical opinion

regarding obesity as well as the NAAF A counterpoint along a continuum of discourse
on fat in our society. "To be more precise" as Foucault says, "we must not imagine a
world of discourse divided between accepted discourse and excluded discourse, or
between the dominant discourse and the dominated one; but as a multiplicity of
discursive elements that can come into play in various strategies" (Sexuality 100).
Therefore, I offer the information provided by NAAF A as an example of a competing
medical discourse. When the only questions that are being asked by the medical

56

profession centre on how to make fat people thin, there is plenty of room left for reverse
discourse.
Moreover, if we are to envision a "multiplicity of discursive elements" rather than
discourse that is "divided between accepted discourse and excluded discourse," the
information provided by both the medical profession and NAAF A can be
simultaneously interpreted as true and false. For example, chronic dieters need to be
able to justify the time and money they expend on diets, so they have to believe that
diets work and that weight loss is necessary for good health. Even when presented with
the NAAF A contention that it is the diets that are failures, not the dieters, chronic
dieters still strongly believe that the result of dieting is weight loss, rather than weight
gain (i.e., reverse discourse is inaccurate) and that they are improving their state of
health by trying to lose weight (i.e., medical discourse is accurate).
On the other hand, fat activists have to believe that the reverse discourse is true
while the medical discourse is false because they need to be able to justify their position
that being fat is itself not unhealthy and that fatphobia is unjustifiable prejudice. If fat is
not a health hazard, then fatphobia becomes just another prejudice like sexism,
classism, or homophobia, rather than an expression of concern over quality of living. To
support this position, they assert that diets don't work (i.e., reverse discourse is
accurate) and that attempts at weight loss are ill-advised (i.e., medical discourse is
inaccurate).
Over the last three decades, groups such as the Fat Lesbian Action Brigade
(FLAB), the feminist caucus of NAAFA, the Canadian Association for Size Acceptance
(CASA) and the London Fat Women's Group have organised. Largesse, the Network for

57

Size Esteem has also formed. It "maintains a library of archival material on fat
liberation ... as well as a computer database cataloguing resources in dozens of
categories" (Airborne 54). The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination (CSWD) also
works to "... influence public opinion and policy on behalf of larger individuals through
public testimony, letter-writing campaigns, and participation in national task forces and
committees" (Shanewood 4).
Lynn McAfee (also known as Lynn Mabel-Lois), is a founding member of CSWD
and is the director of their Medical Advocacy Project. This position gives her the
opportunity to interact with a variety of organisations that have a direct influence on
the research about fat people. She is involved with the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) Task Force on Obesity Prevention and Treatment and she attends conventions
held by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) and the
American Society for Clinical Nutrition. She is also a co-instructor for a seminar for the
employees of Knoll pharmaceuticals on size acceptance, published articles on the
negative experiences that fat people have with health care 'professionals', and she has
sat on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) committee "... to develop voluntary
business guidelines for weight-loss programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny
Craig" (Shanewood 6). McAfee's involvement with the Fat Underground started her off
on a path that has kept her personally, politically and professionally involved in the Fat
Liberation Movement.
Professional organisations, like those just mentioned, are not the only ones
involved in the battle against fatphobia; theatre and swimming groups also exist.
Furthermore, these groups provide evidence of additional strategies used by the Fat

58

Liberation Movement. The Fat LIP Readers Theatre group illustrates the use of the
theatre strategy. Their mission statement is to "... end fat oppression and promote size
acceptance through education and theatrical performance" (Airborne 52).
Another strategy involves the use of exposure. Swimming groups such as
Making Waves, Water Women and Ample Opportunity have embraced this strategy.
Exposure, as a strategy, is effective because it helps both to counteract the stereotype of
the lazy fat person and to expose observers to a diversity of body types not normally in
evidence. These swimming groups also give women an opportunity to have some fun
and get some exercise. The involvement of women in these types of groups is
particularly commendable given the paradox that exists within our society that fat
people are expected to exercise in order to get fit and lose weight, and yet it extremely
difficult to find proper workout clothes. It is practically impossible to find swim suits
larger than size 30. Additionally, as the size increases the option for styles and colours
decreases.
Women artists,
like Rachel Field and
Sabrina Ovesen, are also
involved in this
struggle. They have
adopted visual arts as a
strategy to challenge
fatphobia. Rachel Field

Figure 5: Whale, oil painting by Rachel Field, "Broadening Out." Trouble
and Strife 23 Spring (1992): 23.

(Figure 5 and Figure 6), who identifies as a fat lesbian artist from England uses "big oil

59

paintings based around the figure of a
fat lesbian women, using herself as ·
the model" (Broadening 19). When
talking about her work, she is quoted
as saying "'It's about demanding
space, about taking space; allowing
myself to get bigger within the work
and saying 'Hey, look at me! I'm
lovely!'· It's about being proud-and
not so proud; about wanting to wear

Figure 6: Domestic Scene, oil Painting by Rachel Field,
"Broadening Out." Trouble and Strife 23 Spring (1992): 19.

sequins-and about popping out of your shirt"' (Broadening 18).
A little closer to home, Sabrina
Ovesen recently had her first solo show at
the Prince George Art Gallery. In Sabrina

Ovesen-Self Portraits, using the medium of
photography, she has taken nude selfportraits (Figure 7 and Figure 8). Her work
is important to the Fat Liberation
Movement because she is a fat woman.
Today, fat women are supposed to be
ashamed of their bodies. They are expected
Figure 7: Hand, photograph by Sabrina Ovesen,
"Artist's Statement." Sabrina Ovesen, Self-Portraits.
Prince George: Prince George Art Gallery, 1999.

60

to be hiding their 'imperfect' form, not
putting it on display. However, as Sabrina

writes in her Artist's Statement, "[t]he aging, imperfect body can be associated with
corruption, loss of sexuality and decay.
Through this exhibition of photographic
self-portraits I want to encourage
pleasure in viewing a woman's body that
is not a limited icon of masculine
heterosexual desire" (Ovesen 25).
On a literary front, for the latest
rants and analysis on fat oppression and
acceptance, one could also turn to books
such as Journeys to Self-Acceptance: FAT
Figure 8: Waves, photograph by Sabrina Ovesen,
"Artist's Statement." Sabrina Ovesen, Self-Portraits.
Prince George: Prince George Art Gallery, 1999.

WOMEN SPEAK, Adios, Barbie: Young
Women Write About Body Image and

Identity, FAT!SO?: Because You Don't Have To Apologise For Your Size!, or the fall1999
issue of Fireweed appropriately titled FAT. Although they are a bit harder to find,
magazines specialising in fat issues have also begun to be published. The growing list
includes: Radiance: The Magazine For Large Women, Fat Girl: A Zine for Fat Dykes and the

Women Who Want Them, or Canada Wyde: The lifestyle magazine for large Canadians and
their admirers. Finally, in the genre of fashion magazines, MODE magazine caters to
plus-size women.
Within literature, the use of parody is another example of a strategy used by
17

17

For a discussion on the use of parody as a feminist literary strategy, see Hutcheon.

61

authors to challenge fatphobia. We can turn to Fat! So? by Marilyn Wann to illustrate the
use of this strategy. The book is part action-hero comic book, part influential text, part
body image workbook. She combines humour and information to produce a book
designed to arouse fat pride in its readers. In one section, she recounts her experience of
looking through a mail-order catalogue. She discovers that for the price of $24.95, one
could purchase a one-pound blob of fake fat which is to be used as an incentive to
dieters. In response to her discovery, she writes "[j]ust think. Let's say I weigh 270
pounds and I'm about 50 percent fat. What am I worth? A cool $3,368.25 at the very

least. Of course, I'd never be willing to sell, but I find it quite amusing to think of people
who are so desperate for a few extra pounds that they'll lay down twenty-five bucks for
a shoddy look-alike" (26: original emphasis). Fat is supposed to be our nemesis with
shame and disgust as its side kicks. Wann turns this ideal on its head by providing an
alternative perspective on fat.
Issues of fat activism can also be found on the web. Many of the fat magazines
and organisations have their own web sites. There are even chat rooms, discussion
groups, and personal web pages dedicated to fat issues. To unite these web pages there
are also web rings such as the Supersize web ring, the Fat and Proud web ring and the
Big Beautiful Woman/Fat Admirers (BBW /FA) web ring. These rings link and provide
easy navigation between the many web pages dedicated to fat people, their admirers
and the businesses that cater to fat people. The BBW /FA ring is dedicated specifically to
women and currently has 506 sites in the ring.

62

Discussion

I am excited by the positive changes that have come to life since the time of the
Fat Underground and NAAF A. Simultaneously, I am also filled with a sense of
remorse. The stories in Journeys to Self-Acceptance: Fat Women Speak are comparable to
those in Shadow on a Tightrope. Unfortunately, they were published twenty years apart.
The information in Fat Power is also comparable to those written in books like No Fat

Chicks: How Women Are Brainwashed to Hate Their Bodies and Spend Their Money and
FAT!SO? Unfortunately, these too are published over twenty years apart.
Have we moved at all in the last thirty years? How effective have the different
strategies of resistance really been? Why are eating disorders on the rise, the average
weight of women in the media almost 25 per cent lower than the 'average' North
American woman (Poulton 17), and why have weight-loss industries increased their
profit from $10 billion dollars to $40 billion dollars in the last thirty years? (Poulton 78).
Seeing a profit to be made, food companies like Nestle, Stouffer, and Heinz (who, until
recently, owned Weight Watchers) embarked on a journey to produce diet foods
(Poulton 63) 18 • With food companies selling the 'poison' and the 'cure', things are not
going to change overnight. There is too much money and too much power at stake.
Where does this leave us? In 1971, Grosswirth wrote: "[i]t is more or less accepted
in the United States and Western Europe that if a man wears a suit larger than size 40 or
42, and a woman requires a size 18 dress or larger, that man or woman is fat"
(Grosswirth 24: my emphasis). Today, the only mainstream fashion magazine that

18

In 1990, the revenue for these types of foods was $14 billion dollars. (NAAFA).

63

caters to plus-size women (MODE) starts at size 14. It is not uncommon for women in
Hollywood to wear a size one/two or three/four. And, many women are striving for or
berating themselves for not having a completely fat-free body. Can the bar drop any
lower? Will dressmakers start making negative sizes or will sizes be increased so that
one/two becomes a three/four, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of obese
North Americans because more people are wearing size 16/18?
Where does this leave a woman who has just begun her fat activism? Because fat
activism is easily diluted in the sea of fatphobia, how does a woman plan her course?
Where does she start? Given the circumstances, it is easy to become discouraged and
give up. One can, however, find comfort from the words of Lynn McAfee. In an
interview with B. Shanewood she explains her approach to fat activism:
When I was in the Fat Underground, I thought that if I just told the
world they were wrong and showed them how they'd hurt us,
things would change. They didn't. When I was in NAAFA, I
thought that if I could help fat people feel better about themselves,
feel more entitled to a better life, things would change. They didn't.
So I decided to downscale my expectations. I realised that I had
expected the world to move too fast, to go from A to Z in one or
two short leaps. Through the council, I decided to concentrate on
moving people from A to B (Shanewood 4).
Her words have a Foucaultian flavour to them: McAfee is not looking to produce a
rupture within current forms of weight-loss knowledge. In other words, she is not
looking to change the world overnight. Rather, through her decision to move people
from A to B, she is focusing on" .. .dealing with mobile and transitory points of
resistance, producing cleavages in a society that shift about, fracturing unities and
effecting regroupings, furrowing across individuals themselves, cutting them up and

64

remoulding them, marking off irreducible regions in them, in their bodies and minds".

(Sexuality 96).
When fat activists become overwhelmed and begin to question whether they are
making a difference, they can turn to pictures and books (like those mentioned earlier in
this chapter) for inspiration. This reaffirms that change is possible. If the strategies used
by the Fat Liberation Movement did not have a profound impact on our society, all the
marvellous benefits we do have that were not around when the Fat Liberation
Movement was born would not exist; benefits like the magazines, clothes stores, and
web sites that cater to fat women.
Reading the emails of Fatdykes, a mailing list on the internet for fat lesbians, and
the correspondence from women across North America, England and Australia attests
to the fact that it is important not to underestimate the power and size of the fat
community on the internet. It is impossible to measure the effect that this invisible
community has on the individuals who enter its domain. These web sites act to "furrow
across individuals, cutting them up and remoulding them, marking off irreducible
regions in them, in their bodies and minds" (Sexuality 96).
As well, the strategies used by the Fat Liberation Movement created a space for
Camryn Manheim, in her Emmy acceptance speech for her role in the television drama

The Practice, to state that her victory was "... for all the fat girls!" (People 62). Given the
fact that Hollywood personifies fatphobia, the fact that Manheim even won her
category and then had the bravery to make her speech illustrates that the strategies
used by the Fat Liberation Movement have not only been successful but that they have

65

also provided a different lens though which one can examine both fatphobia and
weight-loss discourse.
McAfee's words also allow fat activists to concentrate on an important piece of
the puzzle-prevention. More specifically, the prevention of fatphobia. Earlier, I
pointed out that eating disorders are on the rise. What I failed to mention is that not
only are the numbers increasing, but the age of those affected is becoming increasingly
younger. Younger and younger women are developing eating disorders. As children
enter puberty, their bodies go through a variety of changes. One such change is the
addition of fat to their body. As Kathy Kater points out in Healthy Body Image: Teaching

Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies Too!:
... [w]hen this development is labelled 'getting fat,' (negative
connotation attached) rather than celebrated as the start of a new
stage of growth, self-consciousness, preoccupation, anxiety, and
often hunger (from restrained eating designed to ward off normal
development) begin to consume attention. At a point in life when
students should feel strong and confident in who they are, more
and more of them feel there is something wrong with them. The
impact of negative self-esteem and lack of self-confidence have long
ranging effects into adulthood (Kater xiii).
Keeping this in mind, as a component of my thesis and as my way of contributing to the
Fat Liberation Movement, I have developed a workshop that targets pre-pubescent and
early pubescent children (grades 4 to 6). I discuss this workshop in detail in the next
chapter. I am targeting this age group because, as I have already stated, I want to work
at the level of prevention.
A central theme within this thesis is how women are oppressed by fatphobia;
however, body politics has negative consequences for all members of society. This is
why I decided to build a workshop that is geared to both girls and boys. Prevention is
66

the strategy that I have adopted as part of my contribution to the Fat Liberation
Movement and I know that with this strategy I will be making a difference. If children
at this age can understand the changes that their bodies will soon be going through and
interpret these changes in a positive light, and if they can become critical thinkers with
respect to the negative messages that permeate western society about fat, then perhaps
we could raise a generation that was not ashamed of their bodies.
Conclusion

As we usher in the new millennium, we will be entering into the fourth decade of
Fat Liberation. It has grown from a small group of women sitting around the proverbial
kitchen table and has spread out across the western world. Those in the movement have
provided a critical analysis of fat oppression and they have used different strategies of
resistance including reverse discourse, theatre, exposure, parody, and visual arts to
challenge fatphobia. For many, the Fat Liberation Movement has taken the shame out of
being fat and replaced it with pride. The movement has influenced policy, as Lynn
McAfee's involvement as director of the Medical Advocacy Project illustrates. It has also
provided a social network for fat women and men. I am excited to see how it will grow
in the future and how I will be apart of it.

67

Chapter Four

Body Pride

This chapter provides an account of the journey that I took to develop Body

Pride-a workshop designed to foster positive body image in children. It includes the
following: an analysis of my interviews and a synopsis of my research that focused on
body image issues and educational workshops. Next, I will elaborate on why and how I
narrowed the focus of the material that I included in my workshop and I will provide a
detailed account of the final product. Finally, I will offer a concluding comment that
will summarise my experience.
I have become keenly aware of the external factors that have produced my own
fatphobic state of mind-the media, my family, and my peers. From my readings of
books like Shadow on a Tightrope and Journeys to Self-Acceptance: Fat Women Speak I
discovered that the external influences on the women discussed in these books were
similar to my own. I was curious to learn if my participants, who were teetering
between childhood and adolescence, had yet to be influenced by these same external
factors; and furthermore, if they had been influenced, how had it affected their life.
The interviews occurred at an Elementary School in Prince George, British
Columbia, Canada. The students I interviewed were in grade six. I interviewed 20
students in two groups divided by gender: 13 boys and seven girls. One student was
hearing-impaired and therefore an interpreter was present during that interview. A
small percentage of the class were First Nations students and the rest were Caucasian.
The interviews took place in early February 1999 and took approximately one hour each
to complete. I then returned to the class in May 1999 to facilitate the workshop. The
workshop was given to the entire class and took approximately one hour to complete.

68

In order to execute these interviews and the workshop, I had to receive ethics
approval from the University. This process involved getting permission from both the
principal of the school and the parents/ guardians of the students who were to be
potentially involved. For a copy of the letters I sent to these two groups, a copy of the
principal's letter and University's ethics approval, and a copy of the consent form that
parents/ guardians were asked to sign, see Appendix 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively. As
protecting the anonymity of the children was of extreme importance, I have covered
any markings or text that may expose a clue as to the identity of the participants.
There were a variety of ways that I could have interviewed the class in order to
attain information on this topic. My choices included individual questionnaires,
interviews with each child, an interview with the entire class or a combination of the
oral and written methods. I decided to interview the entire class. Three factors
contributed to this decision. First, I wanted to keep the disruption of the class to a
minimum. While answering a questionnaire would have been the least invasive, it did
not satisfy my last two criteria-developing a rapport with the class and my curiosity
around how group dynamics would affect the interview. Basically, I felt that face to face
interviews would provide me with an opportunity to receive more in-depth
information.
For the interviews, I composed a list of questions to ask the students (see
Appendix 8). However, these questions simply served as a guide; I did not limit myself
to the questions that I had pre-planned. In fact, I was quite happy to have the students
guide the interview. At different times during this process, the participants took the

69

control of the direction of the interview; therefore, the same topics were not always
discussed in each of the interviews.
While I was excited about the interview process, two things made me somewhat
nervous about interviewing the entire class. First, I was concerned that I would not be
able to handle the class, unsupervised. While I wanted the teacher to stay in the class
during the interview, I felt that her presence as an authority figure had the potential to
influence the children. Therefore, I chose to interview the students with their teacher
absent from the room.
Second, I was also concerned that peer pressure might influence students'
responses. While I do not believe that it is possible to completely remove peer pressure
from a group situation, my solution was to divide the class into two groups-girls and
boys-and interview each group separately. I realised that this solution would not
alleviate this problem completely; however, my instinct was that the group format
would produce valuable information that could not be obtained from questionnaires. I
divided the two groups along gender lines because to do otherwise would create
gendered peer pressure. I felt that if the interview groups were mixed, then the girls
and boys might revert into socialised roles that would produce counter-productive
results.
Analysis of interviews

Media

An analysis of my interviews has led me to the following conclusions for the
participants of this class: for the most part, the girls have not been completely

70

"
indoctrinated into the cult of thinness; similarly, the boys have not been completely
indoctrinated into the cult of 'buffness' 19 • The girls do not want to look like ultra-thin
models, but they show concern about how people will treat them or think about them if
they do not look like the women they see in the media. They "kind of" and "sort of" feel
like they have to look a certain way. They are also concerned about the ramifications of
growing up and not looking a certain way.
When I asked them how they would feel if they did not end up looking like the
women they saw in television or movies, some of the girls responded in the following
manner: "I might think that I'm not cool or that people would bug me and stuff," "I'd be
afraid of what other people thought of me," "I would save up all my money and get my
stomach stapled." Alternatively, they do not put the same pressure on others to change
how they look in order to 'fit in.' When I asked if they felt that others needed to change
the way they look if they did not look like a movie star, some of the girls responded "I
don't think they should, only if they want to," "you should like yourself," "I look at them
and I say 'whoa,' that's the way they are." It would seem that these girls put much more
pressure on themselves to look a certain way than those around them.
Contrary to the girls, the boys did not think that there was a lot of pressure on
them to look like the men in the media. They also felt that there was a diverse range of
male body types visible in mass media. When I asked what kind of difference there was,
one student responded, "like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey is
scrawny and Arnold Schwarzenegger is buff." Perhaps they felt less pressure to

19

By buffness, I mean to imply a muscular form typified by the images of male models in popular
muscle magazines.

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conform to the images presented to them in the media because there is a diverse range
of body types visible to them.
When I asked the boys about people on television like Drew Carey, one
participant responded "the big guys on t.v. like Drew Carey and stuff, they usually just
make fun of themselves." I asked them if they thought skinnier men made fun of
themselves too. The boys responded that it was "just the fat guys." When I asked them
why they thought that only fat guys made fun of themselves, they responded "because
it is more embarrassing" and that "the guys that are muscular and big, it's just good to
be big and muscular."
While not every jester on television shows are played by fat men, most of the fat
men on television tend to play jesters. Are these the only roles available to them? My
conclusion is that, while the boys' role models from the mass media may not make them
feel that they have to conform to a specific body type, mass media is still sending these
boys negative message about fat men.
Peers

Peers have an interesting influence on the children I interviewed. When I asked
the boys if students got teased for being fat, they all enthusiastically responded "yah"
and one boy plainly stated that, "it's just a fact of life." At one point in the interview, the
boys proceeded to tell me about a girl who used to be in their class; she was teased all
the time for being fat. It was like the interview was hit with a jolt of lightning. The boys
became energised. They all started fidgeting and could not talk fast enough about this
girl. It was like they were revisiting the 'good old days'. When describing this girl, one
boy stated, "She was-like-huge. She was tall and was-like-that wide." He gave a
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visual description by stretching his arms as wide as he could. He continued by restating
"She was-like-huge."
When I asked the boys if they thought it made this girl feel good to be teased in
this manner, they all responded "no." Interestingly, at this point in the interview, the
boys then became somewhat defensive. They seemed to justify their actions by letting
me know that she was, in fact, the instigator. That she would push people around;
therefore, they had cause to call her fat.
Both interviews clearly demonstrated that teasing was a part of going to school,
like having to take math or gym. The girls and the boys were very aware of the
derogatory association of the word fat as the boys's story illustrates. They did not make
fun of this girl because she was tall even though they also described her as being tall-

they made fun of her because she was fat.
The use of the word "fat" and other words like "pig" or "huge" that carry a similar
derogatory association were common and accepted methods of insult. They knew that
using words like "fat" inflicted pain on others. The girls' responses when asked how
they felt when these words were used against them illustrates this point: "I feel out of
place," "It makes me feel like they are better than me or stuff. Or they are more popular
than me ... ," "I feel like a pig." When I asked the boys how they thought others would
feel if they got called fat they responded "they feel kinda low," "they're embarrassed,"
"very embarrassed." What I find interesting is that they know this word hurts but they
use it anyway.
It was clear from my interviews that students did not actually have to be fat to be

called fat. Many of the girls had reported being called "fat" although none of the girls I

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interviewed would actually be considered fat by society's standards. At present, we live
in a society that abhors fatness; this 'innocent' form of teasing may establish a pattern
within these students that promotes fear and insecurity. If these girls are called fat but
are not actually fat, this teasing may contribute to a potential lifetime battle against their
bodies-resulting in constantly watching what they eat, counting calories or
compulsively exercising in order to 'get thin'.
Extrapolating to western society in general, what about the fat girls? What longterm effect does it have on them to either be teased for being fat or witnessing thinner
girls being called fat? These two scenarios illustrate that the discourse on fatness is
clearly a complicated one. In our society, fat is demonised; however, this does not mean
that only fat people fall prey to the ramifications of being called fat. Both 'thin' and 'fat'
alike are affected because the concept and interpretation of 'fat' varies across different
social relations.
Family

When I asked the students about their families, it was as if another lightning bolt
had struck our interview. During each interview, all participants simultaneously
reported with a resounding "yah" that they had heard their moms either talking about
needing to lose weight or being too fat. One girl reported "my mom, she's kinda fat, she
keeps on saying that she should stop eating junk food and stuff because she's big and
that she should start going back to the family Y 'cause she quit. But I think that she
should stop smoking."
Another girl stated "my mom always goes 'oh,look at my belly, I need to lose
weight' She went on a cruise and she didn't want to get any fatter so she'd walk around

74

the deck like ten times every morning." During the interview with the boys, when
talking about their mothers, their comments included: "Yah, she used to be-like-'I'm
too fat ... ,"' and "They weigh themselves and they think that they are too fat." Of the
girls interviewed, their fathers seemed less interested in dieting or worrying about
being too fat. During the boys's interview, the subject of their fathers did not come up.
This section of the interviews-discussing family-was extremely revealing to
me. It showed me that simply giving a workshop to students is not going to solve the
problem. How effective is a one-time, one-hour workshop going to be when students
then go home to their parents who talk about being too fat, needing to lose weight, or
linking exercise solely to burning calories? I was not naive enough to believe that an
hour-long workshop would suddenly make everyone love their bodies; however, the
students' responses about their parents did illustrate that outreach desperately needs to
occur on many different levels. My message is going to be much less effective if teachers
and parents reinforce fatphobic messages as soon as I am out of the classroom.
My interviews demonstrate that these students have been negatively influenced
by mass media and their families such that they believe fat to be a bad quality. Evidence
of this comes from the teasing they have participated in and experienced. Why else
would they feel bad about themselves when they were called fat and why else would
they use the word fat as a form of teasing if they have not developed this association?
Both the influence of the mass media and family have played an important role
in this development and because discussion of both these institutions arose in my
interviews, critical conclusions were drawn about them. However, I do not believe that
blame should be placed solely on these two environments; there are other people and

75

social factors in children's lives that have influence over them as well. Therefore, I
believe that a variation of this workshop must be facilitated at many different levels:
with teachers on Professional Development days, parents, medical professionals, clergy,
coaches, and even during prenatal classes20 • If society is going to permanently change,
change must occur at many different levels.
Research

Upon reviewing texts that would influence Body Pride, I realised that the
information I had compiled could be organised around two different concepts: Inside

The Body and Outside The Body. I placed the following topics under the heading Outside
The Body: media literacy, teasing, diversity, and physical activity. I placed the following
topics under the heading Inside The Body: puberty, deprivation, nutrition, and
predetermination. At this point, I would like to briefly discuss why I felt that each topic
warranted inclusion in my workshop.
The texts that were influential in helping me to develop the workshop are: The
Body Image Workbook: An 8-step program for learning to like your looks, Am I Fat?
Helping Young Children Accept Differences in Body Size, British Columbia Eating
Disorders Association: School Outreach Program Training Manual, and Healthy Body
Image: Teaching Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies Too! From these texts, I was able to
create the eight topics which that I am about to describe.

20

Terry Poulton reports that "11 percent of the respondents in a recent survey said that, if genetic
predisposition to obesity was identified in their unborn children, they would opt for abortion" (17). What
type of an influence-negative or positive-are these parents going to have on their children regardless
of whether they are predisposed to be fatter or thinner?

76

Outside the Body

Mass media has an influence on all of us, regardless of age. My interviews
illustrate this point. Why else did the boys think that fat men on television were funny?
Therefore, I felt that it was important to give the students media literacy training. This
training would help them to filter the subtle and not-so-subtle messages imposed on
them by mass media. "With practice, individuals can filter and change what the media
presents by questioning, challenging and contradicting-or supporting and
reinforcing-what they see and hear" (British Columbia 46).
Teasing was the second point that I wanted to address in the workshop because
it was so highly reported and so commonly expected by the students. In Am I Fat:

Helping Young Children Accept Differences in Body Size Ikeda and Naworski write,
"... teasing contributes to low self-esteem and poor body image" (37). Therefore, I felt
that it was necessary to attend to this issue.
Diversity of body types is the third topic in this category. I felt that celebrating,
rather than fearing, diversity would go a long way in counteracting the homogenous
expectations that exist within western society. Therefore, I believed that helping
students to embrace diversity would assist them in embracing their own bodies.
The final topic in this category was physical activity. Fatter people (both children
and adults) are generally perceived as inactive and unhealthy. Conversely, all thin
people are perceived as fit and healthy. While some fat people may be both inactive and
unhealthy, this does not mean that all fat people are this way; conversely, not all thin
people are healthy and it is this stereotype that I want to dispel. This topic is related to

77

both outside the body and inside the body because it is also important to discuss the
physical benefits of staying active regardless of size.
Inside the Body

The first topic that is important to discuss is puberty. As stated in Chapter One, I
believe that helping youth to positively interpret the changes their bodies undergo as a
result of puberty will help them develop positive body image.
The second topic is deprivation. This is an important category because the
information presented helps the students to understand the physical effects of dieting
on their bodies.
Predetermination is the third topic in this category. Getting the workshop
participants to understand the role that genetics plays in predetermining the general
size and shape of their bodies would help them to understand why there is a
diversification of body type in humans and why they do not need to conform to an
'acceptable' body type. I wanted them to be able to link body size to characteristics like
eye or skin colour. They know that they cannot change their eye or skin colour.
Therefore, if they could transfer this information to body size, I thought that it might

help take some of the pressure off the need to control their body size.
Finally, I wanted to tackle nutrition. In our society, food is no longer just food. It
has become dichotomised: society believes there are good and bad foods. Emotions
such as guilt are associated with food consumption because of this dichotomisation. In
addition, many of us have forgotten how to eat in the age of dieting. We can no longer
read the 'hungry' and 'full' cues that our bodies sends us. Sometimes we eat because we

78

are bored, not when we are hungry. Sometimes we do not eat or we do not eat enough
because diets control what and when we eat.
As I began to build the workshop, I realised that it would be impossible to
include all of the topics that I felt would be informative: I had enough information to
facilitate, not a one-hour workshop, but a three-day workshop. I had to narrow my
focus. Initially I wanted my workshop to concentrate on the physical effects of puberty
on the body. Ironically, after doing more research and compiling a list of topics, I
decided not to incorporate puberty at all. Instead, I decided to focus predominantly on
the topics deprivation and predetermination. While I still believe that puberty is an
important topic to cover, given the time constraints of the workshop, I made the right
choice in eliminating it. Primarily focusing on puberty would be like teaching the
participants to run before they knew how to crawl and then walk. As well, the content
of the workshop does incorporate the topics of diversity, teasing, and physical activity,
albeit in a fairly superficial manner.
When this workshop was in its infancy, the idea seemed simple: talk to youth
about their bodies. However, as my literature review progressed, I began to realise that
it was not that simple. When I sat down to create this workshop, I had very specific
ideas. I wanted to develop a workshop that was consciousness-raising, creative, and
interactive. I wanted to take the students on a journey that would help them become
comfortable in their bodies and accepting of other bodies, regardless of shape or size. I
knew what I did not want: to stand up at the front of the class and lecture to students
about why they should love their bodies. In the end, I think that I landed somewhere in
between these two positions.

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During the production of this workshop, I went on my own journey. I learned
many things about myself. For instance, thinking you are comfortable talking about
fatphobia and actually talking about it with a group of 12-year-olds are two very
different things. I also learned things that had to do more with the technical details of
producing a workshop. For example, being a guest speaker in a classroom on a Friday
afternoon may not be the most appropriate time to reach students as they are anxious to
start their weekend. However, when the workshop was over, I was optimistic about the
its efficacy. While I was nervous about getting feedback from the teacher, those
emotions quickly dissipated as I spoke to her.
She was thrilled with the workshop; she thought that the information was
extremely valuable and she enjoyed the different components of it. The only critique she
made had to do with its structure-she felt that I should use a larger space. My
confidence in this workshop has been reinforced as she has since invited me back to
facilitate the workshop with her new class. What follows is a detailed account of the
workshop.
Workshop

Before I began Body Pride, I asked the students to rearrange the classroom so their
chairs would be in a semicircle. I felt that this method would be more conducive to
interaction. The content of the workshop incorporated both information, interaction and
physical activities.
I began the workshop by defining body image. I then asked the class to come up
with some rules that would make the classroom a safe space to talk about body image. I
wanted to let them know that we were equals in this venture, that if the workshop was

80

going to move forward, it was because everyone participated. I felt that getting their
participation right from the start was key to the success of the workshop. Of course, if
the students were too shy to participate at this point, I was prepared to share my list of
rules.
Together we devised a list that included being a respectful listener, never
laughing unless a person means their statement to be a joke, no teasing, being able to
ask questions, being aware that answers are not personal attacks towards anyone, and
finally, the rule that I thought was most important, having fun.
I then did an exercise with the students called Point And Turn 21 • There are three
parts to this exercise. Part one requires the students to find a space in the room and
stand in a relaxed position with their legs shoulder width apart. Next, they have to raise
their right arm and turn their body clockwise as far as they can without straining. Then,
they return their arm back to the starting position and maintain the relaxed position.
Part two requires the participants to close their eyes and visualise that they are
repeating the exercise. However, they must visualise that they can turn their body
further than they could when they were physically doing the exercise. Participants
visualise this action approximately three times, each time seeing themselves turn
progressively further around their body. For Part three, participants open their eyes and
physically complete the exercise again. Generally, most people find that they can turn
their body further the second time they perform the activity.
This exercise illustrates how the power of our minds can overcome obstacles and

21

This exercise was taken from Diamond, A Joker's Guide: Theatre For Living (insert).

81

bring about change. I hoped that the students could transfer the experience from this
exercise to how they felt about their bodies; that it would help them to be able to break
down the rigid ideas about bodies that our society presents to us and allow them to
expand their ideas of acceptable bodies. I discussed this idea with them after the
exercise. Based on their reaction to this exercise, they thought that it was 'cool.' As well,
this exercise was also useful because it provided an effective ice breaker.
I then got the youth to return to their chairs. The Statue exercise was the next
component of the workshop. When they were settled, I asked for three volunteers. To
my amazement, almost every student put up their hand. I quickly pointed to three
students, took them aside and gave them their instructions. I asked them each to strike a
pose in the centre of the circle. I told them that it could be as wild or as tame as they
liked. I then asked the class to tell me how the three students looked different and how
they looked the same. I received a list that included height, hair style and colour,
gender, size, clothing, eye colour, skin colour, and style of pose. The point of this
exercise was to demonstrate that bodies are not identical. That we come in different
shapes and sizes, just as we come with different hair, skin, and eye colours.
Following this exercise, I talked to the students about why I was so interested in
body image. I did this by telling them a story from my past. I wanted to let the students
know that this issue was important to me because of what I had gone through when I
was close to their age. I told them how, when I was a teenager, I felt that I was too fat
and needed to lose weight. That I would go on diets, but I would feel like a failure
because I could not stay on them long enough to lose weight or I would end up gaining
back any weight that I had lost.

82

I told them that I had felt like there was something wrong with me because all
the information around me, in television and magazines, was telling me that it was
possible and simple to succeed at losing weight. I then told them that when I got older
and I started talking to my friends about their experiences, I found out that many of
them had also felt like failures and that it was at this point that I began to question
whether we were all failures or if there was something or someone else at fault. I used
this section as a segue to talk about the research that I had done.
Next, I discussed predetermination. I wrote the word on the board and asked the
students if they knew what it meant. I then properly defined it for them and asked them
to give me characteristics about our bodies that they felt were predetermined. We came
up with a list that included sex, eye colour, hair colour and texture, skin colour, blood
type, height and size.
Following this discussion, I changed gears slightly. I showed the students some
pictures that I had taken from some teen magazines. I asked them what they felt the
similarities were between all of the pictures. Once they responded, I told them my
impression. I told them that I noticed that all of the girls had similar body types and
that the same was true for all of the boys.
I then asked them a question which I posed hypothetically. I asked, "What if in
all of the magazines and all of the television shows and all of the movies, everyone had
thinner bodies? How do you think that might make you feel?" Following their answers,
I talked to the students about how when I younger I was confused about my body and
that I felt that I was inadequate because I did not look like all the women I saw in
magazines, movies, and television.

83

I then returned to discuss predetermination. I let them know that body size is
also a characteristic that is predetermined. I explained to them how that does not mean
that we can tell exactly how much a person is going to weight when they become an
adult. Rather, that it means that our bodies are predetermined to be either fatter, thinner
or in-between.
At this point in the workshop, one of the students commented that it was
possible to change hair or eye colour through hair dyes or coloured contact lenses. This
gave me the opportunity to talk about how one could make these changes, but that they
were all temporary. One could dye or perm one's hair, but the hair would always grow
out with the original texture and colour returning. Similarly, one could also wear
coloured contact lenses but upon removal, one's eyes would return to the original
colour. I hoped that some students might make the connection that while it may be
possible to initially lose weight, because one's size is predetermined, change is only
temporary.
Afterwards, I talked about how one body type is not better than another, just
different. I discussed teasing and how calling someone fatter or thinner should only be
used to describe a body type and never a way to judge a person as 'good' or 'bad' as if
they were doing something 'right' or 'wrong.' I explained how this would be the same
as judging someone based on their eye or skin colour. I asked them how it sounded
when I made comments like, "hey, curly hair" or "you are so blue-eyed." We all agreed
that this type of teasing sounded silly.
Because I felt that it was important to incorporate physical activity into the
workshop, we played Follow The Leader. This activity allowed the students to

84

experiment with their bodies, moving them at different speeds and in different styles
(crouching, walking, swaying). Also, I placed this game halfway through the workshop
because I believed that the students would be more receptive to the rest of the
workshop if they had had an opportunity to stand up and stretch.
Everyone formed a big circle and I explained the rules. With music playing in the
background, the group moved clockwise around the room following each other. There
was a leader and she or he would decide how the group would move around the room.
For example, she or he might pick a movement like jumping jacks or the front crawl.
Once the entire group had mimicked this movement, the leader had to pick someone
else in the circle to replace her or him and the new leader had to pick a completely
different movement.
The game continued until everyone who wanted a turn had taken one. I would
not make the students do anything that I was not prepared to do myself, so I went first.
By the end, all of the students and the teachers had taken a turn and we were all out of
breath, laughing and having fun. While some of the students were nervous about taking
the lead and picking a movement, it seemed that, in the end, they all enjoyed
themselves.
Once everyone had calmed down, we moved back to our chairs to discuss our
next topic-deprivation. Essentially, deprivation allowed me to talk about the negative
effects of dieting. To introduce this section, I talked to the students about how we all
have physical needs that have to be met in order to survive.
Together we carne up with a list of basic needs which included water, air, food,
shelter, sleep, and warmth. I then talked about how these needs were so strong we are

85

driven to satisfy them. I also talked about how there are predictable consequences if we
do not satisfy our needs. To illustrate the predictable consequences of depriving oneself
of a physical need I picked one of the categories from the list we had compiled. I
wanted the students to recognise a pattern-that there were definite consequences of
deprivation and that they were similar across the list we had compiled. First I talked
about sleep deprivation •
22

I started out by asking them how they would feel the next day at school if they
did not get enough sleep the night before. They responded that they would probably
feel a little tired and that it might be hard to concentrate. I then asked them how they
thought they might feel if their parents woke them up three hours early every day for
an entire week. They responded that they would always be thinking about how tired
they were; that it would be hard to concentrate on anything else; that they would be
craving sleep; and that they would probably be short-tempered.
I then asked them how they thought they might feel if they missed three hours of
sleep for an entire month. The students responded that they would have the same
experiences as the previous question except the emotions would be intensified.
Finally I asked them what they thought would happen if, after a month, their
parents finally let them return to their regular sleep pattern? I asked if they thought
they would sleep their usual eight hours or if they thought they would sleep extra
hours to make up for the lost sleep. The majority of the students suggested that they
would probably sleep more than what they normally slept. I told them that they would

The following discussion on sleep deprivation was taken from Kater, Healthy Body Image:
Teaching Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies Too! (page 119).
22

86

probably sleep many more hours than the number they were used to and that it would
probably happen a few nights in a row. I then told them that this would be called a
sleeping binge.

I then reviewed what would happen to a person if their basic needs were not
met. In order to reinforce the consequences of deprivation, I had put the answers on a
piece of Bristol board and asked individual students to read the answers (see
Appendix 9). These included being very preoccupied with what is needed, difficulty
concentrating or think about anything else, having a powerful craving to satisfy the
need, being uncomfortable or irritable, and consuming more than the normal amount
when the need was finally met.
I asked the students if they thought the same consequences would occur if they
did not satisfy their hunger because of dieting. This question provided me with a segue
into the final exercise: The Air Dief3 •
I used this exercise as a way to reinforce the consequences of depriving oneself of
basic needs, especially food. While I wanted to give the students an exercise that helped
them to understand the consequence of dieting, it was not possible, nor ethical, to
actually starve the students during the exercise to make my point. The air diet was the
best alternative.
'lJhe exercise went like this: l told the students that I thought they should go on a
little air diet because they had been breathing entirely too much and that their cheeks
were entirely too rosy. I proceeded to tell them that the latest style was to have a bluish

This exercise was taken from Kater, Healthy Body Image: Teaching Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies
Too! (page 121).
23

87

hue to their skin and that it was the oxygen that gave their cheeks that rosy glow. I then
told them they would all be better looking if they all cut back on their oxygen intake so
their face colouring would be bluer. Of course, I told them, they would need some air to
live. But surely, I said to them, you could cut back a little. It would be worth it to have
the right look.
There are three phases to this exercise: first the students just sit in their seat and
breathe; then they get up and calmly walk around the classroom; finally, they have to
quickly move around the room. The exercise was originally designed to make the
students breathe through a straw while they plug their noses. Instead of getting the
students to breathe through a straw, I asked them to plug one of their nostrils. Because
of the feedback I received, I have since decided that this is a better way to do the
exercise.
As I introduced each phase of the exercise, I explained that our days are filled
with different levels of activities: we experience periods that are calm and periods that
are hectic. Nevertheless, if we are going to succeed with our 'air diet,' and achieve the
'right look,' we have to be able to make it through the entire day on our allotted amount
of air.
Through out the exercise, I taunted them by telling them that they were not
allowed to cheat on their air diet and that that laughing was a form of cheating so they
were not allowed to laugh. I would tease those that dropped out of the exercise. I would
ask them what was wrong with them; what was wrong with their willpower because
everyone else could stay on their air diet. I also repeated how important it was to stay
on the 'air diet' because it was important to achieve the 'right look.'

88

After the exercise, we talked about how they felt while they were on their 'air
diet'. Both the students, the teacher and the interpreter commented on how they felt
anxious or panicky and that they could only concentrate on their breathing. As well,
none of the participants enjoyed being mocked for quitting the exercise.
When I asked what happened to their breathing once the exercise was over and
they were allowed to breath through both nostrils, they commented on how they had to
gulp for air to get their breath back.
Following this exercise, we again reviewed the consequences of deprivation
specifically related to food. I had hoped that the repetitious component of this
workshop in combination with the experiential component would drive home the point
about the negative consequences of dieting. *'
To conclude this workshop, I thanked the students for their co-operation,
participation, and patience. Then, I gave them two handouts. The first was a letter to
give to their parents (see Appendix 10). Essentially, this letter thanked their parents for
allowing me to enter their child's class and both interview their child and facilitate the
workshop. I also provided the parents with three short tips that might help their
children grow up comfortably in their bodies.
The second handout was for the students. It was a paper fortune game that had
positive body image affirmations on it that touched on different components of the
workshop (see Appendix 11). At the conclusion of the workshop, my intention was to
give the class a short survey to fill out. I wanted to get some feedback from the students
about the workshop. Unfortunately, there was no time available to complete this
component.

89

Recommendations
In creating a workshop, one may have to facilitate it a few times to get the

components of the workshop just right. While I am pleased with the first run, I do
believe that I need to tweak it in order to improve upon it. For example, my intent was
to develop a workshop that was interactive. I thought that the students would absorb
the material better if they participated in the lesson. However, in the end, I felt that I
had done more talking during the workshop that I would have liked. This may have
simply been a reflection of the type of workshop that was needed for this class at this
specific time. As I have already mentioned, I did facilitate it on a Friday afternoon, a
time-slot that I will try to avoid in the future. As well, I have come to realise that each
workshop will not be identical and I will have to adapt to the dynamics of the class.
Because of the prevalence of diet talk in our society, I think that it would also be
valuable to give the students a forum to talk about the mixed messages they receive.
However, that could not occur in this workshop due to the time constraints. The
dissemination of mixed messages also illustrates the need to do body image workshop
for different groups people within society.
The one conclusion that I can make from creating this workshop is that this
experience has only strengthened my drive to pursue further research in this area and
to modify it so I can facilitate it with a variety of different groups, as well as continuing
to facilitate it with children.

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Chapter Five

Conclusion

W-e live in a panoptic environment in which we are regulated by systems of
normalisation, such as measuring techniques like the BMI and fat calipers. These
systems of normalisation are reinforced through disciplines or rational procedures, such
as job discrimination, small seats, and limited access to retail clothing outlets. They rely
on biased research that creates myths about fat and fat people. The philosophy that it is
unhealthy to be fat and that permanent weight loss is possible serve as evidence to this
point.
Within our society, we can turn to four categories of discourse that are used as
tools to promote weight loss. These categories include the anorexic woman, the chubby
child, the health conscious couple, and the obese adult. Even so, not only is this
discourse responsible for creating the fat body, it has also contributed to increasing the
size and number of fat bodies in western society.
As the experiences of the women in Chapter Three demonstrate, the fat body is
subject to ridicule. Weight-loss discourse has contributed to this ridicule and to the
many neuroses we have about our bodies. However, given the range of current
strategies, including reverse discourse, visual arts, parody, exposure, and theatre, a
space has been created for an alternative discourse on the body: one that challenges
current myths and stereotypes about the fat body.
Through reverse discourse, those in the fat liberation movement" ... began to
demand that its legitimacy or 'naturality' be acknowledged, often using the same
vocabulary, using the same categories by which it was medically disqualified" (Sexuality
101). The appropriation of medical discourse by those in the Fat Underground and

91

NAAF A, such as re-exploring the causal connection between poor health and fat, serves
to illustrate this fact.
The 1960s, in combination with Radical Feminism and Radical Therapy, created
the perfect environment for the Fat Liberation Movement. The Fat Underground, the
first organisation to come from the Fat Liberation Movement, engaged in a variety of
different activities including the publishing of articles, facilitating consciousness-raising
and support groups, engaging with the media, and attempts at educating women's
health groups. As active as they were, the death of Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the

Papas served as a catalyst for the Fat Underground. Straying from fat stereotypes, which
the media and the medical profession relied on, the Fat Underground turned to dieting
rather than obesity to explain her death. Reverse discourse created this opportunity.
The Fat Underground disbanded by 1983; however it did not completely
disappear without leaving a legacy through the publishing of Shadow on a Tightrope and
the current fat activism that exists around the world. Evidence of this legacy can be seen
through the different types of organisations that have formed to fight fatphobia, the
activist theatre and sports groups, artists such as Sabrina Ovesen who incorporate fat
politics into her work, the activism on the World Wide Web, and the variety of
literature that is written on this topic.
The workshop that I created to help pre-pubescent children develop positive
body image directly contributes to the fat liberation movement. It does so because it
challenges current notions of acceptable bodies. In so doing, I am contributing to a new
discourse that young women and men can deploy in their everyday world to feel good
about themselves and combat the current field of negative representations.

92

The interviews that I undertook to help create the workshop brought forth some
interesting observations. The girls seemed to put much more pressure on themselves to
look like the women in the media as opposed to girls around them. Alternatively, the
boys did not feel like there was a lot of pressure on them to conform to specific looks or
body types. One could speculate that this has to do with the fact that there is a more
diverse range of male body types present in the media •
24

My interviews clearly demonstrate that peers have a profound influence in and
outside of the classroom. All the students seemed to take for granted that teasing was a
part of going to school. As well, they also took for granted that there was a negative
association with the word fat. They did not enjoy being called fat, yet they would still
call others fat. Of particular interest to me is the long term affect that this type of teasing
will have on students. Thinner children are being ridiculed for being fat. This illustrates
that the discourse on fatness is an extremely complicated one.
The discussion of families during my interviews was particularly revealing.
Specifically, this section reinforced the need for workshops on body image to be
facilitated at many different levels. Going into classrooms is beneficial. However, if
those with influence over children, like teachers, coaches, and parents, reinforce
fatphobic messages, these benefits will be diminished.
If women are going to stop chasing the illusive carrot, fat must be embraced by

society, unconditionally. This is the only way that this aspect of the ideal woman is going
to disappear. For this to happen, we must erase the imaginary line that dictates which
bodies are deemed acceptable and which bodies are deemed repulsive. As this happens,

24

For an examination of masculinity, see Segal.

93

the definition of fat will shift. The present meaning of fat is destructive. It causes us to
constantly police our bodies and the bodies of those around us, regardless of whether
we are thinner or fatter. Once fat takes on new meaning, it will release both thinner and
fatter people from self-regulating behaviour and allow fatter people to take their place
in society.

94

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100

Appendix 1

Starving Stars
-

Nasty new

book shatters
95·yeOI1·old·
Bob Ho e

101

f--.1

N

0

.. She o

~ lu pleal'!c cn:ryonc -

"Vhen:""r she goe.a.
her

"Besides uoorldng l7-hou r days:, &he 111 beslegl!d by !aaa and .autugnph huunds

10 the on<;e-pcrkv brunelte.

.

~u r.

o~~ of

~~

;

CJJi:ua. N.rnpl)'

~r r tu. . .tt.

----'-

~ Wd t

u

WQ!'k' or to walk her do~
WP.b.!ter.

·WAms;''tQ make·
~ t the·
i un shir.u. That's •·hy
~
ghi.'lg ·Al.Jy McBeal' he; all."'
A •oun":e r. o ~ tn hf".r atklmt
-f'niU,ln rartlv leaves h.t.r
ou ~ except lO go tO,

t rou~ u d give hfor bt.>st.
!"She's \'r.ry :awa..re lhat ihls
IS het big break- and she

.biUght to V."Ol'k bard, ll'e tliit!t,:lii

·As,<t :-vwlg !.'irl, .C.Wsta wa10

~

pleccty agtii.:l.U. her (pi!1.." .said

r.~ ..

make her ICIPfile m·en

·

Pals fear
killer work ''
schedule

radio O.Js tl'l laundl n.
'"!.leah: L'lr Mcllcal '-' cam·

~

eatiJlG'

~~ ~o ~~~ dou ~

tloe! not h.a\'1: ~

Alth.c;> ugh FOX honcho
Pcte.r Rotb1 says the Stir

think I need lD ea\,. Cur. vou
believe th:t.f!' '"
·

_lbta sr..ld 'Mv fans send me
food up ~ becuu:te lhey

~~~ ~

handful of eooponc. out o!

~

"She l'&rried a sn1all
backpucll: as a purse- 11nd
it looked ~ it wu ~ o to ,

r

f!,.,V crrcnll!.-th.1t b:arelyC'On·
Ceai'L'tl her spiod_le-)ike

. ..t:allsta was weartng bat:·

f<Uow shopper.

p ~~ r~ ~~~ ~ ~
~~~~~ ~ ~~ ~~~~ ~

~~ ~ . ~

.• •

tu ~ t .

her !'ted-like neck; which

pal. -''It .tlso

tooktd-liki:- ·it could tlrarell:
,bold up her ~ d .
~

r ~~~~~ ~~ .~~~p~

L

~~ ~ ~ ,-.:. ·..~uo
. .... .......
~
___ _ , 10

r ~rr~~ ~

dress: revealed her bare,
bofl)' hack. and Jon& stick·
lite ann:;,'" "-id her ~~

~~ t~ t~~~ ~~~

~~~~

Skinny a-s a s:<areerow,

t ~ looked

r ~ ~~ r~~~~~~ t~~

M

:;epU:mber:

tt .

it

r reas:.

looking at her <r.lly
u~
tbP.)' n!cot.<nix'-'d htr from ~
-"1\u.t Uut was little con·
soi11tion for ~ t .
·T he p·ublic pod t ~

SUred hP.r Ulll poopte:...~

'

~.

"' _,

~ .

_.,. , ,.,.

.

t

~

~t

.

t ~r~

her

~ lta5

lor --

•

rnlgbtgelit!'"

~ ou

.

.

"

r. u~

you

~~~ ~~~o ~ r u~ ~~~
old
~ ·De . r~u ';l,'hlt

$1reuiul. 1 know ~ tt d
I'll he uut of work ar.d l'il

ind that bd.Dg a ~t r is w

,-·.

:

t

~~~t r ~~

A distraught Ca.lititA told
th'- insider: " I ~ r .rt-.al·

before
t~
craek lip.''

~ ~

she doesn't ~
n plVblc>:m.

b«n a quiUcr. F\l.rtht'rmof"P.,

(l•ft} - sparking •puu·
latlon 1hGt soh•'• ,ufftr·
ing from anarcxla .

: bonc--r.t¥eoling drcn
sent 1ongue.t wogging at
lnd month' • Emrnrs

. SCARECROW

'.

ELTD.O WN

;;;·

l'M't !low down qr' quit laer Jut
show. 11l<lt. would cut . com -

life - ·very few frienm., no
boyfrit.nd. nothiog huidf!A ht.r
Jcillf!r wort lebcdule.""

~~~r ~~~~

. ~~ ~~~

·CallsJa 's (ril"nds fur
she'll . t. d . ~ sot:i.:llly

~ looks
~ . slnngy
t~. imd
~~~~r
~ '~
thui.

lOne hlill

~~ ~~

u ~ u.

f.b.ri:circlei. Her ~

~~~ ~

lft"t" eheoe.b are

~~ ~ .~~~

By SUZANN E ELY.. JIM

G------------··-----. . ._.

-

u ~ ~ ~~
~~
t.t ~ ~to~ r od gaur.t.

~~~~ u~ ~~ ~ t~
h:.d :t whi.rl....;od ytar.

oo r

to J.l.r1 poww:ts anti i hc do t~ t t lr'IOk hfl:altt;_y "
A d ~ pall!ddcd: -%1th U1c criticaLand

~ t ~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~u ~~~ . ro

lt\t)·'re sl rcued out, Craliiila responc.b to

~ l.,..ycar-old actres'" eats UL:e a bird. dropping to a
~~
JQ2 JHlunds on hf:r
S-{MT.·B !Tame.
. ~tt alwt)'li ....anted 1.0 be a stu. But
bouts, her ramily. hr !unJ, bt.>neli' -: Ol.()d
~ t finding lhal SUt'CCU jo Holi)wood b: ~
doublc-crlgcd sword," u.id a.-s in.Si.dcr el03c t ~~~ ~ r ~~~~o~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ when

The "Ally McBeal" cutie has lost 20 pounds in t ~ pa,s t year - t~ d
pals fear the waif-like .star is 'headed for a brealidown.
Overwhelm•d ~ her newfound popularity and. tile pressure- of a break'
ne<k filmlllg schedule, Calista has turned .into a wvrkaholic With no JlilNlOn·
al life. in.siders say.

Fame is eating Calista Flockhart alive!

1--'

VJ

0

t

~
~

a1d the-n d~ t
for the rest of

., .. .,,l ...,a ..........

in veart )Ut,the ·

en we:tr a S.t.e 16 or

r est.nted )V the Rarh1e
doll -is a ;Ue R. And onethird o( all \.meriea.n wom, ':t.

we.:m:: 11 d;e u dru.s.
Eve n
~
so·c:alled
d o~
womm - as rep-- ..

.:. " ?Jch$ ..fO pounds· and

American voman Iss-root-

oa siu 2, Uu: average

~~~~ ~ ~~~~t ~ ~~~t~~~

~ d:ty.''

eat

of Chedo;, thinkl she's

too. 1'ori uhsr.s wuy too
rnllr.y nu:::Cs. She's a girl

who aumelrncs ents a bag

(Continued from Page 271
iams added. ~ r
tremendous
Jressure on ·models and actresses
;o stay thin. If your image is based
Jn your looks, ·then Y0\1 r
~o
inake staying thin a part of your
job. It- becomes a:n all-consuming
obsession. Karen Carpenter is a
classic case- she literally starved
herself to death.
~ o
dieters take as many as
60 over-the-counter Jaxatiy_e s a
day, Ws tou~ to diagnose
r ~
ics and bultmics because t
r~
not willing "to admit what they're
doing.'"
· ··
\\'"hal's worse, it's easy to accideotally push an actress into starv,
ing herself, added Dr. Williams, .a
UCLA professorand director of Ad·
diction and 'freatment Services. at
St. Joseph .Hospital in Orange
Co.unty. Calif.
.
·
"Sometimes a simple remark can
set somebody off. One .of my :t>'a·
tients was working on her high.
scllool yearbook ~ another.st\1·
dent said, 'f'm 5.0 glad thaes not my
.picture. Look how fat your face ,
looks."
"So if an actress' agent or dir,ec-'tcir says something like. 'Put .on a
f.ew .pounds, have you?' an actress
- whose bread and butter depends
on her appearance - may· start
!lating in a \vay thal can lead to an
e·ating disorder.''
Hollywood diet guru and
author Nikki Haskell - an
adyocate of safe weight
loss- reve'ated: ''In Ho!Jvit's almost mandalo·
ry:tl).at you be thin .-All the

wood,

.
F

e.\vei:." British a. ctr. ~ are caught up in
:. the -Stl\rvatjQp qaze - because they
tend to pride themselves on their skills
t;tther 'than their shapes, says a HollyWood
-fashiQii. stvlist.
. . ~ r .. staJ· Kate 'Vioslet is ~ to b¢ a
little ~ . She's proud of herself. as an actress
and thhiks she looks great with a little meat on

her bone's.' ·

, •

"Kate··iried losing'\veight to excess io be the
movie"business' defirlition of thin for vears, but
ultiniaiely-giive up. .
.
·
$
..Shtrtlecided she ~ ~. herself the way she ·was.
5
" 'Good' Will Hunth1g' star 1\Iinnie Driver is an·
~
other Brltlsl! actress wiui looks goQd. She pri<les
~
herself ori being ali ~ tr
and doesn't feel she
z .
r ~d . to'l>e·l! re.ed tQ 'm ake it on ttic silver screen.
0 '
'' Helen,HlJnl of 'Mad About You' is au Ameri·
~
can actress·who eiits'healthy and works out, btit
isn't thin to excess."
·
28 ___________ .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .; ; ; ; ;

104

Before and After

Appendix 2
.

.

,, " ,._.

.

'LOSING'WEIGHTi'lnvesti'''
,, t
~ ':··· -. } - . < ga-tion
~ &fa·
'+>'''DiScov··
-.:, ~t':·· . ~

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.~pt t

~t~
:.• o
•.

t ~t ~
''-'.;

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r d

.

'·

~

~

o

.

~~

.

..... ... .

~

~

.~

. o~ He.·

Woman to.~
~ t

d.~.

· •·••.·. •.

~

~ot r p.~ p melt awa:y-alotal.of9S,789 pounds
o

r~ r.
.

o .~

105

·

, '. ;

.·~

~~
·

~ . .

_..;___ _......_.;....;__ __ _ _ ,ADVJ:RTl.S EMEtUI-bypotli.11:uuus.

~

.

~ ~

.. .t

. d tr
o ~~ ~~ ~ ~.
~ ~t. . ~ .~
ro~
rrica.
mind. Bw ls!i4 f¥:11 u . d
r ~u ..mill.paduge,coot:umngpr. ~r
rec
you ~ ~
t t ~t
. '·
, :..Ptr. :i)ong.with_ih< 3
~ u ~ . t. ~.
ThtS dt ~ ~ wfl mn mor: ~ . ; . ~r
~ Dr. HlJ$>.h s
iblebecausc lldJdn'unvolve
esrs ,.. dlsCQ\-ery to my pellOilal doctor. He W:ts
o d~ £r$ed ii li:suheil in
lOU lmrne1liarelj ~ td . ii'Wd it!il\lglf
. t r
orr ~ ~t~ in):
~
~~
~ ~
op
~ r
Jt was

·

!"l'"' tUtuhl' · •

'

Yes. Mj u.W life ~ru t:hatin'omiij, • '
Dec(mber 13,,.1993.'<i
·· · '' '
On January).rt; Ili<gn'!'USlng the
., . .•
Slim
~ t ~~ a.{imj!(:at.U .:· , .
I couldn' t believe' k at fl<>l. 11 seemed
roonice:indsim"letQ
.
or~ o .
bciat#'lii< r.
. ' ~~
~ r
~ .,.
kind. l w
... ~~ d'e.:plpk
..
~

til!

r.

LOSE WE}GHT:''br-.

.:3,000.Mor.eJ; ...,.,.,.,......,...
o~ ~ t ~.
Risk-Free
Trial..of
~

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''

Appendix 3

Initial Letter to Principal

October 11, 1998

Suzie Tepperman
4335 Horsefly Ave.
Prince George, B.C.
V2M 5C4
(250) 612-0084
tepperma@ unbc.ca

Principal-.
-Elementary School
Dear M r . -:

I am writing this letter to provide you with an outline of the interviews that I would like to hold with the students in
- · s class. But first, you may be interested in a little background information about my focus of study.
Through mass media, children are bombarded with images that tell them that there is only one way to look and
only one size to be. There is immense pressure for children to conform to this image. However, the image
presented in television, movies, and magazines is virtually impossible for most people to attain. If children
translate their inability to conform as personal failure this can lead to negative self-esteem, disordered eating
and, potentially, eating disorders.
For a component of my Master's degree, I am going to develop a workshop that I can give to kids in grades 4
through 6 about body image. I believe that an important first step in designing any program is interacting with
the people at whom the program is targeted. Because I am not a child, I cannot assume to know what the body
image issues are for children. This is where ··sclass comes into play.
The interviews that I propose to hold with ··s class will provide me with crucial information that will allow me to
shape the body image workshop later on. Essentially, I plan to use a semi-structured interview format to ask the
kids about body image. I will guide the interview with a few specific questions but I will not control the overall
direction of the interview. Because of the potential sensitivity of the subject, I intend on talking to the girls and the
boys separately; however, the nature of both interviews will be the same.
The interviews will last no more than one hour each and the direction of the interviews will be as follows: first, I
plan to introduce myself to the students and explain what I am doing at UNBC and why I need their help.
Second, I plan to talk to them in order to find out what they believe the strongest body image issues to be,
where they believe the strongest body image pressures to be coming from, and how they relate to their bodies.
In other words, do they feel at home in their bodies? As well, I would also like to find out how they cope with
these issues and if they can recommend any solutions to this problem. I plan to tape the sessions so I will be
able to refer back to the interviews; however, at no point in the process of my thesis production will the names of
students be used. They are assured complete anonymity.
I would like the interview with ··s class to occur some time in January, at a date that is convenient for her.
After that, I would like to return in March, having incorporated the students' responses into my workshop, and
provide the body image workshop to the class. Following the workshop I would like the student to answer a
short survey so they can provide feedback to my workshop.
I would like to thank you very much for your co-operation in this process.

Sincerely,

Suzie T epperman

107

Appendix 4

Initial Letter to Parents

November 3, 1998

Suzie Tepperman
4335 Horsefly Ave.
Prince George, B.C.
V2M 5C4

Dear Parents:

(250) 612-0084

tepperma@ unbc.ca

My name is Suzie Tepperman and I am a Master's Student at UNBC. I am writing this
letter to inform you about an interview that I would like to hold with the students in - · s class. But first, you may be
interested in a little background information about the focus of my study.
Through mass media, children are bombarded with images that tell them that there is only one way to look and only one size
to be. There is immense pressure for children to conform to this image. However, the image presented in television, movies,
and magazines is virtually impossible for most people to attain. If children translate their inability to conform as personal
failure this can lead to negative self-esteem, disordered eating and, potentially, eating disorders.
For a component of my Master's degree, I am going to develop a workshop that I can give to kids in grades 4 through 6 about
developing positive body image. I believe that an important first step in designing any program is interacting with the people
at whom the program is targeted. Because I am not a child, I cannot assume to know what the body image issues are for
children. This is where ··sclass comes into play.
The interviews that I am proposing to hold with ··s class will provide me with crucial information that will allow me to shape
my workshop. Essentially, what I plan to do is talk to the kids about body image. The interview will last no more than one hour
and the direction of the interview will be as follows: first, I plan to introduce myself to the students and explain what I am doing
at UNBC and why I need their help.
Second, I plan to ask the kids a few specific questions in order to guide the discussion. Sample questions that I plan to ask
include:
•
•
•
•
•

What do you think the strongest body image issues are for kids your age? For example, are they not being thin enough
or maybe not being tall enough?
Where do you think the strongest body image pressures are coming from? For example, television, magazines etc.
How do you cope with these issues? For example, talking with friends or teachers?
Can you recommend any ways to ignore the message that we all have to look the same?
What do you like and disllike about gym class?

I plan to audio tape the sessions so I will be able to refer back to the interviews; however, at no point in the process of my
thesis production will the names of students be used. They are assured complete anonymity.
I plan to interview · · sclass some time in January. After that, I would like to return to her class in March, having incorporated
the students' responses into my workshop, and provide the completed body image workshop to the class. Following the
workshop I would like the student to answer a short survey so they can provide feedback about my workshop.
Should you have any further questions, I can be contacted at 612-0084. Or, you can contact my thesis supervisor, Julia
Emberley, at 960-6658.
Both the parenVguardian and the child must sign the attached consent form for he/she to participate in the interview.
However, at the time of the interview the child has the right not to participate in the study even if the parenVguardian has
signed the consent form.
I would like to thank you very much for your co-operation in this process.
Sincerely,

Suzie Tepperman

108

Appendix 5

Principal•s Acceptance Letter

December 11, 1998

The Ethics o

t.t~

Uni\·ersity ofNpnhcrn B.C.
~ r t Way
Prince George, B:C.
V2N4Z9

3333

To Whom t ~

p

~

Re: Ms. Tepperman

Student lntervieW$lFollow-:up Wqrkshop

·PleaSe be·:advised that ,Ms. -Tepperman '·s propos·al to gather:ipformation from ·students
-utilizing a . tru tor d~ rtt
approach and que:stions a:s outiined in the:attached letter,
is approved but rnade c;onditional !JpQn
upt~ student p rt p~~. o -and t .
~d
con$ent/approval pfhls.lher parent
'
Sincere! Y.,

109

UNBC Ethics Approval

Appendix 6

THE UNIVERSITY OFNORTHERNJ3RITlSH COLUMBIA

~

~ t r ~t

D. Max Blouw, Ph.D.

{'f.e. •••rch)& J)ean of c>raduate Studies

Professor, Bfa/pgy[Flshertes
Tel: (250) . o~ o
·

BC

u'{IJ
·

~ Pri!JCftGeorge,BC; Canada V2N4Z9

· . · .
..

.

.

FA)(; (250) .90,0-574.fJ

ec-mail biocrwW).unbr:..cf!
UNBC Ethics Committee

Janpary 26, 1.999

Suzie Tepperrmm
433.5 Horsetry Ave.

Prince Georg:e, 8c
V2M5C4

Dear Ms. Teppel'mi:m:
The UNBG Ethi.c;s Co:mmittee met on J;anuary 22, 1999to review your revised
ethfcs proposal 'eritftled, 'Thesis Proposal".
·

The Committee approved your proposal and you may proceed with your
re.search.
·
·
Sincerely,

·J

~~

f.r-( Max Blouw
I

DMB:dk

110

•

Appendix 7

Consent Form

Consent to Participate in Interview and Release Interview Information
I agree to allow my child to participate in an interview about fostering positive body
image.
He/ she will participate in the interview under the following conditions:
1. The student's participation is voluntary and will only be allowed with the signed

2.

3.

4.
5.

consent of the parent or guardian. At the time of the interview, even if the parent or
guardian has given consent, the child can refuse the interview.
I will allow the interview with my child to be tape-recorded. I understand that the
interview is being taped so that nothing my child says is missed and so my child's
words are not changed or misunderstood. My child can tum off the recorder
anytime during the interview.
I agree to allow Suzie Tepperman to use the information from the interview in the
research project, report, and publication and any future research that she may be
involved in. However, I understand that my child's privacy and confidentiality will
be protected by disguising names and any other identifying information.
I understand that my child has the right to receive and review a written transcript of
the interview. After reviewing and discussing the transcript with Suzie, my child can
suggest modifications for accuracy, clarity, or new information.
I am aware that contact information for Suzie Tepperman and Julia Emberley, her
thesis supervisor, has been provided on the letter that she has written for the
parents/ guardians. As a parent or guardian of a participant, I or my child can
contact Suzie Tepperman or Julia Emberley in case any questions arise or to get a
copy of the research results.

I give my permission for _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _to participate in the discussion
on body image
I do not give my permission for _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _to participate in the
discussion on body image
Signature of parent or guardian_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Signature of student_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Date:

111

Appendix 8

Interview Questions -

February 2, 1999

1.

Who are your favorite movie stars?
Why do you like them?
What makes them beautiful?

2.

Do you guys like magazines?
Which ones are your favorite?
What do you like about them?
(pass pictures)
Do you think most pictures in magazines look like these?
Do you want to look like these women/men when you get older?

3.

Do you think that things like t.v, movies, and magazines put pressure on you to look a
certain way?

4.

Watching t.v, movies are only one part of your life. Are there any other areas in your life
where you feel pressure to look a certain way?

5.

Do your parents talk at all about being too fat or needing to lose weight?
Are either of them on a diet?

6.

How important is it to be thin?
Do you do anything now to try and stay thin?

7.

(If their favourite entertainer was described as thin)
Would you like her/him if she was fat?

8.

How do you cope with the pressure to be thin?

9.

What are some stereotypes about fat people/thin people?

10.

Do kids name call in your school?
Have kids ever used the word fat?
Has anyone ever been called fat before?
How does it make you feel?

11.

Do you like gym class
Do you have it with the boys/girls?
What don't you like about it?

12.

What pressures do you think boys/girls face?

112

Appendix 9

Results of Air Diet Exercise

1. You will be very preoccupied with what is needed.
2. It will be hard to concentrate or think about anything else.
3. There is a powerful craving to satisfy the need.
4. Until satisfied, the craving will be very uncomfortable. You may become irritable or selfcentered. It will be hard to think about anyone else's feelings.
5. When the need is finally met, more than a normal amount will be needed.

113

Appendix 10

Letter to Parents

May 28, 1999.
Dear Parents,

Earlier this school year, as a condition of my Master's thesis, you signed a consent form that
allowed me to interview your child about body image and give a workshop to your child's class
which focused on helping kids develop positive body image. I completed the interviews earlier
this year and I returned to the school today (May 28, 1999) to give the workshop. I am very
excited about the outcome of this process and would like to take this opportunity to thank you
once again for allowing me to go into your child's class and do this work. Today, we spent an
hour discussing body image issues and I would like to give you three tips that will help your child
grow up comfortable in his/her body.

1. Examine closely your dreams and goals for your children and other loved ones. Are you
overemphasizing beauty and body shape, particularly for girls? Avoid conveying an attitude
which says in effect "I will like you more if you lose weight, don't eat so much, look more like
the slender models in the ads, fit into more slimmer clothes, etc."
2. Make a commitment to exercise for the joy of feeling your body move and function
effectively, not to purge fat from your body or compensate for calories eaten.
3. Learn about and discuss with your sons and daughters, (a) the dangers of trying to alter
one's body shape through dieting; (b) the importance of eating a variety of foods in wellbalanced meals. Avoid dichotomizing foods into "good/safe/no-fat or low-fat vs.
bad/dangerous/fattening." Be a good role model in regard to sensible eating, sensible
exercise, and self-acceptance.

Sincerely,

Suzie T epperman

114

Fortune Game

Appendix 11

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same thing as being

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