Katariina Kyrölä: Questions of Size. Fat Bodies in the Media and the Politics of Difference
In project: Disturbing Differences. Feminist Readings of Identity, Location and Power
My PhD research focuses on contemporary, popular representations of fat bodies in the media, and on gendered, sexual, ethnic, age-related power relations embodied in these representations. Until lately, the field of obesity or fatness studies has been dominated by medical health research. The cultural and social meanings of fatness have been much overlooked and under-theorized. My PhD research is situated in this gap and looks into the conventions and possibilities of representing, visualizing, and narrating fat bodies in the media. The research is divided into three strongly overlapping sets of questions:
- First, how fat-condemning discourses relate to fat-accepting discourses in the media?
- Second, how fat bodies are used and perceived as narrative and affective tools in the media?
- Third, how body size as a category of difference intersects with and differs from other axis of difference, such as gender, race, sexuality, age and class, in the popular media and in feminist discussions?
The research material consists of a varied selection of printed press stories, television series, films and Internet material in Anglo-American and Finnish contemporary contexts. The study is located in the fields of feminist theory, cultural studies and film and television studies.