Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes the testimonies of shame for one’s body shared by people who encountered fat shaming; it explores how they perceive and conceptualize their responsibility for fat and narratively cope with the feeling of shame for the body.

Paper long abstract:

According to the WHO, we live in the era of globesity. As the number of people with overweight and obesity grows, so does the fat shaming narrative, which spreads across social media, causes (cyber)bullying, and even penetrates public healthcare (Brewis et al., 2018; Talumaa et al., 2022). Experts warn that fat shaming can lead to negative health impacts, trigger eating disorders, and contribute to discrimination and isolation. Although fat shaming can target both men and women, female bodies experience more intensive disciplinization in terms of body image and are thus more exposed to body-related comments (Kłonkowska, 2015).

Weight stigma builds on attributing the responsibility for fat to the person herself, even though it has been widely discussed that being overweight can be caused by factors beyond one’s control, such as epigenetics, environmental exposure, and socioeconomic inequality. Still, deviating from the socially acceptable body normativity is perceived as a personal failure and a sign of out-of-control behavior (Trainer et al., 2021).

While the consequences of fat shaming are intensely studied and discussed, the shame itself remains under-examined. Drawing on personal testimonies shared with the initiative “Moje tělo je moje” (My body is mine), this paper analyzes how fat shaming becomes fat shame (Schülter et al., 2021). It examines how the responsibility for fat is redistributed through the narratives of self-responsibilization, medicalization, normalization, and gendered relations. It further explores the coping strategies of the subjects of (self)blaming, including the role of collective action and campaigns in body positivity.