ABSTRACT

In this chapter we show that the sensations of fat against lips and tongue are not of themselves sufficient to engender distaste. Distaste is shaped by the interplay of multiple material, sensory and symbolic factors. In media and policy representations, fat often becomes discursively associated with laziness and obesity, and by extension with working-class bodies. Visceral encounters influence tastes, but so do knowledge, beliefs and structural framings. Drawing on the concepts of habitus, disgust and stickiness, we demonstrate that accounting for distaste can help better understand and theorise fatty eating practices as entangled with situated performances of classed belonging.