“Toda gordinha tem o direito de se vestir bem e estar na moda”

A emergência dos chamados “fat studies” permite tratar as questões relacionadas ao corpo a partir de categorias políticas associadas à formas de vida e reivindicações sobre um modo de presença. Este artigo delineia alguns aspectos das intersecções entre moda plus size e as representações dos corpos em grupos virtuais de troca e páginas de lojas especializadas na rede social Facebook. A partir da análise dos descritivos de 16 “fanpages” ou grupos voltados a essa temática, foi possível delinear três discursos de dissenso a partir (1) da afirmação da beleza do corpo plus size e do direito de se vestir bem; (2) do reconhecimento e da denúncia de um discurso normativo prévio e (3) da crítica não apenas ao padrão vigente, mas ao arbitrário de qualquer padrão. Esses pontos são discutidos a partir de perspectivas que aproximam política e identidade.

Non-Normative Gender Performances Fat Video Game Characters

While video games unquestionably became more diverse and inclusive in the past decade, there is still a striking underrepresentation of characters whose bodies do not conform to the heterosexist concept of normativity, including those perceived as fat. My article begins with the introduction of fat studies as the interdisciplinary field concerned with the ways media construct fat people as unattractive, undesirable, and asexual. Next, it discusses how these prejudices are reflected in a medium in which fat has been historically coded as villainous and monstrous. The last part includes two case studies of positive fat representation: Ellie from the mainstream game Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software 2012) and the eponymous character from the independent title Felix the Reaper (Kong Orange 2019). Their gender performances are coded equally as non-normative.

Degrading Bodies in Pandemic Times: Politicizing Cruelty During the COVID-19 and Obesity Crises

Mass communications frame fatness and COVID-19 as a dual threat. This discourse furthers well-established tendencies to degrade bodies labelled overweight or obese, positioning them as deficient and requiring correction. Empirically, this article draws from an online US right-wing news media platform, Campus Reform, including readers’ comments (n = 135) on an article denouncing professors working in fat studies during the COVID-19 lockdown. This status degradation ceremony—backed by ‘big money’ that funds campus culture wars—not only targeted fat people but also academic disciplines, expertise, universities and social justice agenda. Analytically, this study draws from ethnomethodology and literature on media and bodyweight, meddling or health fascism, weaponized stigma and the politics of cruelty. Going beyond the flesh and a particular case study, it also challenges the ways in which cruelty enacted towards those deemed fat (especially women) can spiral into corrosive nationalist discourse in pandemic times.

Whiteout and the reproduction of (fat) white normativity :a critical discourse analysis of the presence of whiteness in fat studies literature

This Major Research Paper consists of a critical discourse analysis of the operation of whiteness in the field of fat studies, focusing on how it becomes invisible and consequently manifests in emergent theorizing, especially at its establishment as an academic discipline. Two fat studies readers were selected, one published then and one written more recently, with six chapters selected from each. Using a dialectical-relational approach, these texts were analyzed both individually and intertextually to look at the origin stories of the field, the use of language to obscure whiteness, and the need for critical race/intersectional approaches. Findings show that fat studies has, and predominantly continues to, find itself in a self-imposed state of ‘whiteout’, through which Black, Indigenous, and Racialized people, voices, and experiences are sanitized, marginalized, or erased altogether. To challenge this, fat studies must take up whiteness and white supremacy toward its goal of fat liberation for all.

Whiteout and the reproduction of (fat) white normativity :a critical discourse analysis of the presence of whiteness in fat studies literature

This Major Research Paper consists of a critical discourse analysis of the operation of whiteness in the field of fat studies, focusing on how it becomes invisible and consequently manifests in emergent theorizing, especially at its establishment as an academic discipline. Two fat studies readers were selected, one published then and one written more recently, with six chapters selected from each. Using a dialectical-relational approach, these texts were analyzed both individually and intertextually to look at the origin stories of the field, the use of language to obscure whiteness, and the need for critical race/intersectional approaches. Findings show that fat studies has, and predominantly continues to, find itself in a self-imposed state of ‘whiteout’, through which Black, Indigenous, and Racialized people, voices, and experiences are sanitized, marginalized, or erased altogether. To challenge this, fat studies must take up whiteness and white supremacy toward its goal of fat liberation for all.

Understanding the “Grievance Studies Affair” Papers and Why They Should Be Reinstated: A Response to Geoff Cole

In April, 2020, Dr. Geoff Cole published, “Why the ‘Hoax’ Paper of Baldwin (2018) Should Be Reinstated.” We are the authors of the “Baldwin” paper published in Fat Studies. The paper satirized theoretical ideas within Fat Studies as part of a larger project to demonstrate the lack of rigor in certain theoretical approaches to cultural studies. In this response, we agree with Cole that our project should not be understood as hoaxes and that the retracted article should be reinstated, but defend our methods.