Failure and fat are not linear. It is taught, learned, reminded, and internalized. Our bodies have memories that are built through repeated moments. And for me, failure has been a part of my body’s map since I was born. This project is the culmination of many failures. In this dissertation, I am examining queer failure in multiple contexts including body size, as well as religion to create a corpulent critique. I do this by examining the lineage of queer failure as well as queer temporality as it is linked to failure (Edelman; Muñoz; Halberstam; Love) with fat queer bodies serving as foundational elements. Informed by LeMaster, I understand queer failure in the context of fatness as being imbued with a potentiality for creation. In addition, Love frames my queer temporal understanding of fatness as “looking behind” even as one traverses the linearity of straight time (5). In doing this, I connect the ways in which queer and fat temporalities often exist as failures when juxtaposed to heteronormative and normative-body- size temporalities. By using critical autoethnography and cultural critique, I demonstrate the way in which my body is implicated in always-being-too-much and never-being-enough. By weaving together my stories with Lilith and Ursula, I examine how fatness and failure create a new branch of queer failure that examines how they are linked in a way that provides possibilities for revolution instead of despair.
","abstract_html":"<p>Failure and fat are not linear. It is taught, learned, reminded, and internalized. Our bodies have memories that are built through repeated moments. And for me, failure has been a part of my body’s map since I was born. This project is the culmination of many failures. In this dissertation, I am examining queer failure in multiple contexts including body size, as well as religion to create a corpulent critique. I do this by examining the lineage of queer failure as well as queer temporality as it is linked to failure (Edelman; Muñoz; Halberstam; Love) with fat queer bodies serving as foundational elements. Informed by LeMaster, I understand queer failure in the context of fatness as being imbued with a potentiality for creation. In addition, Love frames my queer temporal understanding of fatness as “looking behind” even as one traverses the linearity of straight time (5). In doing this, I connect the ways in which queer and fat temporalities often exist as failures when juxtaposed to heteronormative and normative-body- size temporalities. By using critical autoethnography and cultural critique, I demonstrate the way in which my body is implicated in always-being-too-much and never-being-enough. By weaving together my stories with Lilith and Ursula, I examine how fatness and failure create a new branch of queer failure that examines how they are linked in a way that provides possibilities for revolution instead of despair.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Olzman, Miranda Dottie"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Santhosh Chandrashekar","Bernadette M. Calafell","Erin K. Willer","Frédérique Chevillot"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:11Z","subjects":["Fat studies","Intersectionality","Performance studies","Pop culture","Queer failure","Queer temporality","Communication","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication","Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Women's Studies"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Fatty Fatty Two-by-Four—Can’t Get Through the Dressing Room Door?: An Examination of Excess as Queer Failure"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Santhosh Chandrashekar","Bernadette M. Calafell","Erin K. Willer","Frédérique Chevillot"],"dc:creator":["Olzman, Miranda Dottie"],"dc:date.available":["2023-08-04T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Failure and fat are not linear. It is taught, learned, reminded, and internalized. Our bodies have memories that are built through repeated moments. And for me, failure has been a part of my body’s map since I was born. This project is the culmination of many failures. In this dissertation, I am examining queer failure in multiple contexts including body size, as well as religion to create a corpulent critique. I do this by examining the lineage of queer failure as well as queer temporality as it is linked to failure (Edelman; Muñoz; Halberstam; Love) with fat queer bodies serving as foundational elements. Informed by LeMaster, I understand queer failure in the context of fatness as being imbued with a potentiality for creation. In addition, Love frames my queer temporal understanding of fatness as “looking behind” even as one traverses the linearity of straight time (5). In doing this, I connect the ways in which queer and fat temporalities often exist as failures when juxtaposed to heteronormative and normative-body- size temporalities. By using critical autoethnography and cultural critique, I demonstrate the way in which my body is implicated in always-being-too-much and never-being-enough. By weaving together my stories with Lilith and Ursula, I examine how fatness and failure create a new branch of queer failure that examines how they are linked in a way that provides possibilities for revolution instead of despair.
"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1970"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"dc:subject":["Fat studies","Intersectionality","Performance studies","Pop culture","Queer failure","Queer temporality","Communication","Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication","Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies","Women's Studies"],"dc:title":["Fatty Fatty Two-by-Four—Can’t Get Through the Dressing Room Door?: An Examination of Excess as Queer Failure"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:11Z"}