Theorising Fatness as an Ordering Issue: A Conceptual Framework for Analysing the Construction of Fatness as Disorder

Abstract

Previous research has both implicitly and explicitly discussed, and partly shown, that fatness can be viewed as an ordering issue. In Western countries, fat bodies are constructed as deviant and as disorder, while thin bodies are constructed as normal and in order. In line with Mary Douglas’s and Judith Butler’s theorisation around separating and purifying/subsuming processes, this article develops previous theorisations around fatness and social order. Two analytical concepts for understanding processes for ordering people based on body size are suggested. Both processes aim at preserving the social order but differ in how this is achieved. The first, maintaining order, refers to the processes that maintain separation between thinness and fatness and preserve social order. The second, putting in order, refers to the processes aiming to subsume fat bodies into social order and covers various activities for weight loss. Together, these concepts allow analysis of fatness as an ordering issue.