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

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.