Francis Ray White

Fat/Trans: queering the activist body

This article argues for a new approach to the intersection of fat/trans identities that moves beyond “additive” accounts or those that simply highlight parallel struggles. The analysis addresses the divergent accounts of the “malleability” of the body in fat and trans political discourses and how these might shape the lived experience of the fat/trans individual. However, rather than thinking of trans and fat as distinct phenomena, the article asks what it would mean to recognize their inextricability and suggests that this could be a productive way of imagining a queer fat politics that seeks not to reproduce exclusionary norms.

Fucking failures: The future of fat sex

In the context of the obesity ‘epidemic’ fat people’s sex lives are cast as sterile, sexually dysfunctional or just plain non-existent. This article analyzes medical discourses of obesity and sex in order to argue that fat sex is constructed as a type of failure. Using insights from antisocial queer theory, fat sex is further shown to be queer in its failure to adhere to the specifically heteronormative dictates of what Edelman (2004) calls ‘reproductive futurism’. The analysis finally engages with Halberstam’s (2011) notion of queer failure to demonstrate how deconstructing notions of success and failure might offer fat political projects new ways to imagine the future of fat sex.

‘We’re kind of devolving’: visual tropes of evolution in obesity discourse

In recent years, analyses of mainstream media constructions of the obesity ‘epidemic’ have proliferated within fat studies. Of less attention has been the visual representation of obesity. This paper presents an analysis of one particular form of graphic representation of obesity, that of the ‘fat (d)evolution’ image. This image parodies the iconography of the ‘march of progress’ – a series of figures of ascending height illustrating the evolution of mankind from ape to modern man. The fat (d)evolution image features an additional fat figure (and in some cases a final stage represented by a pig) frequently of declining height, thereby visualising obesity as a ‘kind of’ devolution. The paper analyses a sample of 18 such images that have appeared on book covers, websites and in media reports. It explores the confluence of discourses that produce the images’ multiple meanings and locates them within narratives of evolution and the ‘obesogenic environment’. Given the often comedic intent of the images, the analysis subsequently discusses the function of this humour, before considering how the images’ construction of fatness is also underpinned by discourses of gender, race and class. The findings suggest that the rhetorical success of these images relies on a radical ‘othering’ which intensifies the dehumanisation of fatness.

Fat gay men: girth, mirth, and the politics of stigma

and breast buds surgically removed because, in her parents’ opinions, this would make Ashley’s future (and their care work for Ashley) easier. Kafer states ‘Ashley’s parents and doctors had to hold her future body – her imagined future body – against her, using it as a justification for the Treatment’ (p. 48). Exploring this forced intervention makes evident the foreclosures on the possibilities of Ashley’s future sexuality, pleasures, and desires. This chapter exemplifies the connections between time, futurity, disability, and sexuality that Kafer makes meaningful throughout the entirety of her work. Some of the most compelling aspects of Kafer’s writing are reflected in her willingness to explore the messiness within representations of disability, embodiment, and empowerment narratives. Chapter 4 is entitled ‘A future for whom? Passing on billboard liberation.’ In this chapter, Kafer examines billboards created by the Foundation for a Better Life (FBL) that espouse the belief that social salvation lies in one’s ability to overcome any obstacle (such as illness, disability, poverty, and so on) while using inspirational celebrities (like Christopher Reeve) to further their message. Kafer states ‘[i] n the FBL worldview, disabled people thrive not because of civil rights laws and protection from discrimination, but because of their personal integrity, courage, and ability to overcome obstacles’ (p. 89). These ‘supercrips’ come to embody the ways in which some bodies are able to overcome disability, while others must simply ‘give up’ on trying to be ‘normal’. Kafer’s critiques offer a reimagining of discourses of ‘courage’ and ‘heroism’ to reposition the mainstream priorities to instead prioritize embodied protests, unified action, and the importance that should be placed on collective, rather than individual, responsibility. While Kafer’s work is clearly in dialog with contemporary disability scholars, her work here can also be used as a primer for those new to disability studies. The only difficulty with this text is that those who are new to this field may be intimidated by the conceptual language that is used throughout; however, Kafer does an excellent job of making accessible how she is deploying key ideas and theories. This text can also be useful to those outside of disability studies, such as critical scholars in fields of gender, race, age, and sexuality studies who are interested in further explorations of the intersections of identity, embodiment, and social interactions. There is no denying that Feminist, queer, crip is a pinnacle work that will be relied, studied, and expanded upon for years to come.