English Ph.D. Dissertations
Title
Fat Cyborgs: Body Positive Activism, Shifting Rhetorics and Identity Politics in the Fatosphere
Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
English/Rhetoric and Writing
First Advisor
Kristine Blair (Advisor)
Second Advisor
Sue Carter-Wood (Committee Co-Chair)
Third Advisor
Lee Nickoson (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Michael Arrigo (Other)
Abstract
"Fat Cyborgs: Body Positive Activism, Shifting Rhetorics and Identity Politics in the Fatosphere" is a project that illuminates how activist groups intersect technology with their activism. I observe and investigate the ways that Fat Acceptance (FA) and Health at Every Size (HAES) supporters and allies build and sustain an activist community online. I do this in order to understand how fat activists negotiate identity and the body online, a space often considered sans corpus. This project involves examining and extrapolating activists' literate and rhetorical practices for creating and sharing knowledge. I am most interested in understanding the ways in which fat activists use the Fatosphere to develop alternatives to oppressive and discriminatory discourses. I explore the issues that are raised by the FA movement, particularly in how FA and HAES takes shape in a subversive way in an online environment. In doing so, I develop a critical skill-set to talk about and negotiate the body and its relationship with technology, and in particular, the digital, personal/political heterotopias and affect more positive discourse.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Aimee N., "Fat Cyborgs: Body Positive Activism, Shifting Rhetorics and Identity Politics in the Fatosphere" (2016). English Ph.D. Dissertations. 15.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/eng_diss/15