The Hidden Lives of Big Beautiful Women

This book is a deep dive into the largely unexplored space of BBW bashesmulti-day gatherings of fat women and their admirers. Using a range of feminist theories of embodiment and affect, the project is guided by autoethnography and in-depth interviews with twelve participants. Participant experiences are first analyzed with a key focus on experiences that cause grief and disenfranchisement; subsequently, the book looks at experiences that may be radical or revelatory. The book does not seek to either villainize or valorize BBW spaces but instead sheds a bright light on the experience of this cultural subspace and all it may offer to analyses of fat life.

Explores BBW bashesmulti-day gatherings of fat women and their admirers Considers a range of feminist theories of embodiment and affect, autoethnography and interviews with twelve participants Analyses the cultural subspace of fat life and experience of grief and disenfranchisement that are radical or revelatory

Autorentext

The incomparable Crystal Kotow was a brilliant writer, activist, and educator whose research explored fat women's relationships with their bodies. She got her PhD from York University and was a self-identified fat feminist killjoy who practiced radical vulnerability in her activism, storytelling, and community building.
May Friedman is a faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University. Much of May's work explores issues of fat activism and weight stigma in many different settings. Using a range of arts-based methods including digital storytelling as well as analyses of treasured garments, May has explored meaning making and representation in relation to embodiment and experience.

Klappentext

This book is a deep dive into the largely unexplored space of BBW bashes multi-day gatherings of fat women and their admirers. Using a range of feminist theories of embodiment and affect, the project is guided by autoethnography and in-depth interviews with twelve participants. Participant experiences are first analyzed with a key focus on experiences that cause grief and disenfranchisement; subsequently, the book looks at experiences that may be radical or revelatory. The book does not seek to either villainize or valorize BBW spaces but instead sheds a bright light on the experience of this cultural subspace and all it may offer to analyses of fat life.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Ways of Knowing and Seeing Fat.- Chapter 3: Methods and epistemologies.- Chapter 4: Interrupting EmbodimentNormalizing Gazes and Diet Culture in BBW.- Chapter 5: Bashes as Spaces for Healing Everyday Trauma of Fatphobia.- Chapter 6: Conclusion