The (Re)presentation of Fat Female Protagonists and Food Addiction in Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Literature does not reflect an already-existing reality but presents a version or a vision of reality with the potential to influence our emotional responses, our understandings, and our convictions (Apol, 1998;Koppelman, 2009). It contributes to the constructed worlds we inhabit, yet many of us rarely consider the sociocultural, material, and historical contexts that influence its production and its reception. Literature provides versions of reality that readers may perceive as "natural and common-sense" to the extent that they are "invisible and unquestioned" (Bloome, et al., 2008, p. 28). In this study, I analyzed eight novels with fat female protagonists to determine how they are constructed and (re)presented to adolescent readers: to determine and make visible the version of reality they convey. To establish the constructed world in which these novels were produced and read and in which the analysis took place, I begin by briefly considering the rhetoric of the obesity epidemic in the United States, the pervasiveness of the culturally constructed ideal female body, and disordered eating as an addiction as they are advocate for public acceptance and use of the word fat to push back against prejudice, discrimination, and stigmatization and to claim fat as a neutral descriptor of personal and political identity. Furthermore, fat studies scholars often bracket the word obese with "scare quotes" and disclaim it as an arbitrary and contested term (Wann, 2009). I use obese in the discussion of the obesity epidemic, however, since it is the term used in mainstream culture to describe this perceived phenomenon.

An Examination of Mental Illness, Stigma, and Language in My Friend Dahmer

“…I use also use critical discourse analysis (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002) to analyze and categorize how mental illness is represented in My Friend Dahmer. Critical discourse analysis has been used successfully as a research methodology in recent scholarship in YAL (Curwood, 2013;Glenn, 2008;Parsons, 2016). In this study, I engage in thematic analysis, a form of discourse analysis in which the researcher examines a text while considering whether specific repeated themes can be identified from the words included (Mogashoa, 2014).…”

“…In this study, I engage in thematic analysis, a form of discourse analysis in which the researcher examines a text while considering whether specific repeated themes can be identified from the words included (Mogashoa, 2014). Specifically, I follow the approaches of Glenn (2008) and Parsons (2016) to develop "a broad understanding of the context" and probe for key themes related to portrayals of mental illness.…”

“…Thaller (2015) considers how characters in the classic young adult novel Go Ask Alice (Sparks, 1971(Sparks, /2006) and the contemporary text Liar (Larbalestier, 2009) are portrayed and points to the dangers of criminalizing and animalizing those with mental illness. Parsons (2016) uses critical discourse analysis to examine how fat, female protagonists in eight young adult novels are (re)presented. Her findings suggest that the protagonists are portrayed as "obsessed with and/or addicted to food," which perpetuates the stigma associated with fat females and contributes to the (single) mythic construct of an ideal female body (p. 11).…”

“…This study aims to expand the scope of research in YAL by focusing on how an examination of the language used in My Friend Dahmer can help us understand Dahmer's behaviors, actions, emotions, and positioning within his community, as well as how stereotypes about mental illness might have mitigated Backderf's characterization of his "friend" Dahmer. My goal is to build on the work of Rose et al (2007), as well as Parsons (2016), Thaller (2015), and others, to bring readers' focus to how language reflects and constructs reality, even in a graphic novel where images are the emphasis.…”

We need bigger mirrors: the importance of fat fiction for young readers

“…There are countless stories of the bullying, discrimination and violence fat students face throughout their time in the schooling system that studies have shown severely limit fat students' success within and after school (Stover, 2009;Weinstock and Krehbiel, 2009). The pervasiveness of anti-fatness leads many fat people to internalize this messaging and, in turn, believe they deserve this marginalization (LeBesco, 2004;Parsons, 2017). Anti-bullying policies within schools are a requirement for most states, but body size as a protected identity is often absent from these policies (Tutt, 2022).…”