ABSTRACT
Despite growing dialogue about body diversity, there are many disparaging depictions of people perceived as fat. In contemporary western cultures, overweight and obesity increasingly are interpreted as unattractive, downwardly mobile, physically or emotionally unhealthy, and as a lack of body and self-control (LeBesco, 2004; LeBesco, Gard, both this volume). Throughout public health discourses, obesity is conceptualized as a disease and as an epidemic (World Health Organization, 2000; see also Gard, Probyn, Throsby, all this volume). Consequences of size standards and stereotypes are especially exacting for girls and women, who encounter frequent evaluation of physical appearance as part of their social experience of gender.
