The Philosophy of ‘The Gap’: Feminist Fat and Corporeal (Dis)connection

Abstract

The title of this article is multi-faceted: the ‘gap’ is the name attributed to a hollow space between the thighs that has become an essential part of the contemporary female body beautiful, but my usage also indicates the disparity between different feminist discourses of libratory corporeality and excessive body fat. Considering a somatechnical approach to body fat in terms of Foucauldian dispositifs, it investigates discourses of fat and discussions of anorexia both in the works of feminists who combat the contemporary beauty ideals, such as Naomi Wolf and Susie Orbach, and some Deleuzean and queer feminists, who look to the productive and transgressive potentials of emaciation. In this discussion between academic fat studies, feminist theory and queer theory, one central question emerges: what is it about body fat that makes it such a charged cultural concept? Why is this very essential bodily substance at all considered in terms of desirability? This article argues that the physical qualities of body fat – and the hollows that are formed when it fails to appear – take part in constructing it as concept directly linked to desire. Exploring the dichotomy built between the presence and absence of fat, it explores the philosophical background to this erotic potential.