Fatness as a Difference, Gaze and Outgrowth Issue: A Feminist Discussion on the Worlds of Emotions and Experiences Attached to Women’s Fatness

Abstract

This article makes a feminist discussion about the life experiences and emotional worlds of fat women. The data discussed in the article is based on a field study conducted with a qualitative method. Within the scope of the research, in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty fat young women. In the study, the life stories of women shaped by being fat are investigated. The article is theoretically grounded on feminist body politics literature. This literature, especially since 1970’s, argues that an important aspect of women’s oppression and subordination is the patriarchal relations that control women’s bodies, restrict them, and judge them according to certain criteria, images, and forms. Being fat is lived as an experience that imprisoned women into their bodies under the custody of others. In addition, obesity, which is the subject of cruel judgments of others, inspires negative emotions in women. According to the results of the field research on which this article is based, fat women’s ability to love their bodies and themselves is injured, on the one hand, due to the pressure of the slender body ideal, and on the other hand, the endless criticism and advice of others about their bodies. Women experience being fat as a difference that is a source of sadness. Being fat, which is shaped under the effect of the gaze and words of others, in front of the mirror, in public space, in public transportation, at family tables, is experienced with emotions such as anger, regret, boredom, despair, and joylessness.