The Phenomenology of Fat Men's Health

This dissertation examines the social meanings of size, sexuality, masculinity, and healthism. Healthism here refers to the felt cultural and social responsibility of surveilling and monitoring health through individual action. In conducting 19 phenomenological interviews with self-identified fat men, I investigate how social meanings of healthism in “non-normative” bodies impact health behaviors and individuals’ agency to act within healthist structures. Findings indicate some fat men have strongly internalized healthist values, such as losing weight through dietary restriction and increased physical activity, whereas others are unable or unwilling to perform these practices. Three major themes emerged from the data a) bodily ambivalence throughout weight loss b) Physical and social exclusion c) fat sexual hybridization practices. Coinciding with phenomenological goals, the overall finding of this research points to the theoretical implication that fat men enact agency through embodied negotiations. Embodied negotiations link the lived body to the discursively produced body to explain how participants are not “cultural dopes” who unchallengingly accept all healthist messaging. Instead, they adhere to embodied negotiations within and through their bodies, revealing a process of agency that includes feelings of health, embodied histories, and cultural meanings of fatness. Experiences of exclusion explain how men differentially enact agency and point to the overall negative impact of healthist ideals. I conclude this dissertation with a discussion of fat futurities and implications for practitioners and instructors to provide better care for this population.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Neumann, Elyse Michelle

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Donovan, Brian

• Fatness
• Health Behaviors
• Healthism
• Phenomenology
• Sexuality

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/29319875

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/38231