ABSTRACT

This chapter demonstrates how the ideologies of weight closely parallel ideologies of woman-hood, how fat stigmatization enforces conformity to the requirements of the ideal woman, as well as to ideal weight, and how being fat may function as a form of resistance to gender ideologies for women. It identifies some of the important components of the cultural constructions of the ideal woman, including those dealing with femininity norms, presentation norms, maternity norms, and sexual norms, utilizing examples from popular culture, various psychological and sociobiological theories of gender, and feminist writings on gender. The chapter shows how construction of the ideal woman as maternal parallels construction of ideal weight, so that thinness, not a lush body, is associated with maternity norms. It describes how these sexual norms parallel constructions of ideal weight. The chapter argues that fat women have the potential to challenge both constructions of ideal weight and especially constructions of ideal women.