ABSTRACT
Certain features of bodily appearance are 'read' or interpreted by oneself and others as denoting aspects of the individual within that body. The moral meanings associated with fat embodiment not only draw upon contemporary medical discourses, but have long antecedents in religious ideas about the body. The emergence of Christianity intensified the link between holiness, spirituality, asceticism and a thin body shape. Judeo-Christian ethics developed a belief system around the practices of eating and fasting as holy rituals, which themselves are built upon concepts of health and spirituality developed by the ancients. Numerous researchers have called attention to the ways in which often very negative portrayals of fat embodiment circulate in the popular media. New digital media have provided further opportunities for portrayals of human embodiment across the full spectrum to be created and shared widely. Concepts of Self and Other underpin the kinds of distinctions that are made between normative and anomalous bodies.
