ABSTRACT
Exploring fat in relation to reproduction exposes key questions that are central to Fat Studies: around fat and health, around autonomy and responsibility, and around both physical and social aspects of reproduction and reproductive labour. Furthermore, a consideration of fatness and reproduction sits at the core of many intersections, around race, poverty, ability, sexuality, madness and beyond. This chapter seeks to examine Fat Studies literature as well as other writing around fat and parenthood/motherhood to expose the tensions and opportunities afforded by considering fatness in relation. Beginning with the literal sharing of flesh in the context of fat pregnancy, this chapter will consider the role of epigenetics as well as the increasing surveillance and regulation of pregnant people. Moving away from physical conjoinment, the chapter will then explore the implications of parenthood for both fat kids and fat parents and the ways that parental responsibility is exposed, surveilled and confronted when larger bodies are at play, especially when those bodies sit at the intersection of multiple oppressions. Finally, this chapter will consider the role of Fat Studies as a discipline and a practice, exploring what a fat positive approach to parenthood might look like, and considering the possibilities for shifting discourses around size oppression through parental labour, societal change and responses from the discipline as a whole.
