A sociologist's view of fat characters on book covers

As a sociologist who studies the body, I see concepts like health and fatness as social constructions. That is, they vary from society to society, from culture to culture, and may change over time. Erving Goffman theorized that people use frames in order to define certain situations and guide their behavior. In other words, you might act a certain way, dress a certain way, and use certain vocabulary at work and then act, dress, and speak differently at home. If you are meeting your partner’s parents for the first time, you know from how you were socialized that you need to be on your best behavior so as to make a good impression. The way in which you frame that situation in your mind has implications for what you do and do not focus on.

            In her book, What’s Wrong with Fat? , sociologist Abigail Saguy uses framing as a means to explain how society deals with fat. Most of the frames are taken for granted and seem natural because these frames are used over and over again. For example, one frame Saguy examines is the medical frame. The medical frame sees fatness as something pathological, a public health crisis that must be solved. The idea that fatness signifies a lack of health and a propensity toward illness is socially constructed. In other words, it is not natural, but this story of fat as bad and unhealthy has been repeated so many times that it appears to be natural and just plain common sense. Saguy points out that there are other frames for fatness, namely fat as healthy, fat as beautiful, and fat as a basis for civil rights claims. These frames obviously do not hold the dominance that the medical frame does. Indeed, even Michelle Obama’s campaign to get people to drink more water is built on the medical frame of fatness.

             “One could try to imagine a world in which fatness signified neither health nor illness but was seen as a relatively neutral form of human variation, such as, say eye color,” Saguy poses in the introduction to What’s Wrong with Fat? “In such a world, one would not assume that it is possible to predict how a person eats, the extent to which a person exercises, or a person’s risk of disease based on body size.” That world is not currently the United States, or much of Western culture. Instead, most people do make assumptions about how a person eats, exercises, and their risk of disease based on what they look like. Most of the time, these assumptions bear out anti-fat prejudice. When fat people are shown on television (that is, when they are not on a weight-loss program), they are often shown from the neck down. These “headless fatties” are a unique sort of objectification. Objectification in general serves to dehumanize the person and is applied to both men and women of all sizes. The “headless fatty” objectification, however, emphasizes the stigma of being a certain size. Those are not real people with feelings in the frame – they are objects of disgust and moral failing.

            Our reliance on frames and our steadfast belief in their being natural states make it difficult to receive contradictory information, such as seeing fat as an indicator of human diversity rather than disgusting. I think this is why people have taken issue with the book covers. If the dominant frame sees fat bodies as less than human or only represented as a “before” picture, it makes sense that a book cover with a full fat body (albeit a headless one, although I am personally not sure what a good alternative would be[1]) is not approved because it is deemed “unattractive.” On the other hand, representation in media is important. There are many young women who resemble the alternative cover and, I believe, would think it is nice to see someone like themselves represented. I know when I saw a billboard for the show Huge in Times Square in 2010, I took at least a dozen pictures because I thought the imagery was so bold and, well, like me. So often images of fat women are not depicted – even in plus-size clothing catalogs – and they are made invisible.

Fatness does not have to be indicative of a state of “disaster” or health. It is all in how it is framed. Exposure to different ways of framing fat has the opportunity to affect people’s attitudes toward fat people and about fatness. Advocating for the increased representation of fat people in media, including on Young Adult book covers, may help decrease anti-fat prejudice in society.[2]


Amanda Fehlbaum is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma.

Footnotes:
[1] Neither book cover really solves the problem of objectification; however, I cannot think of a better alternative. I am reminded of the storm of controversy from the cover of Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism, which shows the torso of a thin, light-skinned woman. 

[2] Of course, the perpetuation of objectification of fat bodies may also hurt the cause to end anti-fat prejudice. It depends, again, on how the fatness is framed and interpreted by readers. Will readers say, “Hey! This is like me! This is awesome!” or will readers say, “Eww, gross. Fat arms? Fat body? Not for me.”


 Discussion of this topic from its inception:

To read a literary agent's perspective on on the debate, click here. To read the initial post on this topic "No Fat Girls Allowed (on book covers?)", click here. For the survey results and our preliminary conclusions, click here.
To read a summary of voices calling for a shift in thinking regarding this issue, click here.