Introduction
A note on the word "Fat"
“In fat studies, there is respect for the political project of reclaiming the word fat, both as the preferred neutral adjective (i.e., short/tall, young/old, fat/thin) and also as a preferred term of political identity. There is nothing negative or rude in the word fat unless someone makes the effort to put it there; using the word fat as a descriptor (not a discriminator) can help dispel prejudice.”
(Wann, Marilyn. “Foreword: Fat Studies: An Invitation to Revolution.” The Fat Studies Reader, New York University Press, 2009, pp. ix–xxvi. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814777435.003.0003.)
Introductory Books
The Routledge International Handbook of Fat Studies by ISBN: 9781003049401Publication Date: 2021-04-18The Routledge International Handbook of Fat Studies explores the epistemology, ontology and methodology of fatness, with attention to issues such as gender and sexuality, disability and embodiment, health, race, media, discrimination and pedagogy.
The Fat Studies Reader by ISBN: 9780814777435Publication Date: 2009-11-01From the historical construction of fatness to public health policy, from job discrimination to social class disparities, from chick lit to airline seats, this collection covers it all. Edited by two leaders in the field, The Fat Studies Reader is a resource that provides a historical overview of fat studies, an in depth examination of the movement's fundamental concerns, and an up-to-date look at its innovative research.
Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession by ISBN: 1585423866Publication Date: 2005-01-13An unconventional and unprecedented examination of fat as a concept, a substance, and a lifestyle. Fat steers the conversation away from the heavily trodden ground of health, cosmetic concerns, and cheap jokes, and moves it in a completely different direction, dissecting familiar institutions like Starbucks, Spam, pornography, medicine, religion, high school, and more.
Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression by ISBN: 9780520935518Publication Date: 2001-01-01Since World War II, when the diet and fitness industries promoted mass obsession with weight and body shape, fat has been a dirty word. In the United States, fat is seen as repulsive, funny, ugly, unclean, obscene, and above all as something to lose. Bodies Out of Bounds challenges these dominant perceptions by examining social representations of the fat body.
Fat by ISBN: 9781351029025Publication Date: 2018-05-15Fat is a book about why the fat body has become the target of such intense discussion and debate about ways to reduce its size down to socially and medically acceptable dimensions. It is about the lived experience of fat embodiment: how does it feel to be fat in a fat phobic-society?
Historicizing Fat in Anglo-American Culture by ISBN: 9780814211359Publication Date: 2010-09-02Historicizing Fat in Anglo-American Culture is the first collection of essays to offer a historical consideration of fat bodies in Anglophone culture. In developing their histories in a self-conscious way that addresses the pervasive fatphobia of the present-day Anglophone culture, Historicizing Fat suggests ways in which scholarship and criticism in the humanities can address, resist, and counteract the assumptions of late modern culture.
Fat Planet by ISBN: 9780826358004Publication Date: 2017-04-01Making use of an array of social science perspectives applied in multiple settings, the authors examine the interplay of weight, wealth, history, culture, and meaning to fat and its social rejection. Fat Planet explores the notion of symbolic body capital—the power of non-fat bodies to do what people need or want. In so doing, they illustrate the complex and quickly shifting dynamics in thinking about fat—often considered personal yet powerfully influenced by and influential upon the broader world in which we live.
Text credits
All descriptive texts are adapted from the original resources, unless otherwise noted.