'he 'Fat' Female Body

Transcription

1 'he 'Fat' Female Body

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3 The 'Fat' Female Body Samantha Murray Macquarie University, Australia palgrave macmillan

4 * Samantha Murray 2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 198B. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging. pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Murray, Samantha, The 'fat' female body I Samantha Murray. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (alk. paper) 1. Obesity in women - Social aspects. 2. Obesity in women - Political aspects. 3. Body image in women. I. Title. RC628.M '398-dc Transferred To Digital Printing 2011

5 For my parents, Pat and Talaat

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7 Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: The 'Fat' Female Body: Pathological, Political 1 and Phenomenological Imaginings Part I Pathologising Fatness: Medical Authority 11 and Popular Culture Chapter 1 Positioning 'Fatness' in Our Cultural Imaginary 13 Chapter 2 The 'Normal' and the 'Pathological': 'Obesity' 44 and the Dis-eased 'Fat' Body Chapter 3 'Fat' Bodies as Virtual Confessors and Medical 69 Morality Part II 'Fat' Backlash: Activism and Identity Politics 85 Chapter 4 Fed Up with Fat-Phobia: Coming Out as 'Fat' 87 Chapter 5 Fat Pride and the Insistence on the Voluntarist 106 Subject Chapter 6 Fattening Up Foucault: A 'Fat' Counter-Aesthetic? 122 Part III 'Fat' 'Being': Rethinking the 'Body-Subject' 135 with Merleau-Ponty Chapter 7 Throwing Off Discourse? Questions of 137 Ambivalence and the Mind/Body Split Chapter 8 (,Fat') 'Being-In-The-World': Merleau-Ponty's 147 Account of the 'Body-Subject' Chapter 9 Embodiment as Ambiguity: 'Fatness' as it is Lived 169 An Afterword: 'Fat' Bodily Being? References Index vii viii

8 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Associate Professor Nikki Sullivan (Department of Critical & Cultural Studies, Macquarie University) for mentoring me since the beginning of my doctoral project, and throughout the process of converting it into this book. I want to sincerely thank Nikki Sullivan for always encouraging me to push my ideas further, for her supervision that was always supportive, engaged, insightful and considered, and her friendship. I would also like to thank Associate Professor Joseph Pugliese, also of the Department of Critical and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University, for his support of my project, and belief in my work. Thanks also go to Jessica Cadwallader (Critical & Cultural Studies, Macquarie University) for her help with the preparation of this manuscript. I would especially like to thank my partner Joe Seisdedos for his unending patience and encouragement during the writing process, for his love and support, and for his uncanny ability to make me laugh at myself and my various (sometimes unflattering) idiosyncrasies. Most importantly, I want to thank my mother and father, who have been so patient with me, and have always given me their unconditional love and support. Thank you for giving me the occasional kick along when I needed it, for living through my moods, anxieties, fears and successes, and for being there for the good and the bad, every step of the way. viii