ABSTRACT
Using an autoethnographic format, this chapter examines the construction of “morbidity” as it is applied to fat bodies via the BMI. The language of the BMI leads to a sense of causation, when in actuality, it is constructing ill-health by causing anxiety, fear and robbing individuals of the calm enjoyment of healthy activities, such as movement. Further, this chapter explores the negative health impact of stigma on the fat body, and how the effects of fat in the body and the effects of the socially stigmatized fat body are not readily separable. The chapter ends in a hopeful analysis of how language and self-definition are malleable and community connections – the ability to help one another in specific – can heal.
