Mothering Out of Bounds: Inequality and Resistance in Fat Motherhood

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorByers, Lyla Elliott Eatonen
dc.contributor.committeechairHarrison, Anthony Kwameen
dc.contributor.committeememberBrunsma, David L.en
dc.contributor.committeememberLabuski, Christineen
dc.contributor.committeememberReichelmann, Ashley Veronicaen
dc.contributor.committeememberWilliams, Heidi M.en
dc.contributor.departmentSociologyen
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-23T08:00:38Zen
dc.date.available2023-05-23T08:00:38Zen
dc.date.issued2023-05-22en
dc.description.abstractWhat happens when "child bearing hips" become 'too' wide and layered with fat? The medicalization of weight and body size pathologizes difference as deviance, framing fat women as a danger not only to themselves but to society at large when daring to reproduce. This dissertation seeks to uncover the long term impacts of weight stigma at different intersections in order to expand sociological understandings of fatness, health, gender, and inequality in motherhood. It highlights parallel mechanisms of surveillance (for example, between fat and poor mothers) to show how society constructs who "should" and "should not" be parents. Based on a series of 36 in-depth interviews with 18 mothers conducted in the first half of 2022, findings illustrate that the negative social and medical perception of fat motherhood has a significant detrimental impact on the lived experiences of fat mothers. Findings also pull from material culture in the form of representational artifacts from motherhood brought by participants in order to understand how medical and social anti-fatness impacts identity and experiences, and contributes to inequality in fat motherhood.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralWhat happens when "child bearing hips" become 'too' wide and layered with fat? The medicalization of weight and body size pathologizes difference as deviance, framing fat women as a danger not only to themselves but to society at large when daring to reproduce. This dissertation seeks to uncover the long term impacts of weight stigma at different intersections in order to expand sociological understandings of fatness, health, gender, and inequality in motherhood. It highlights parallel mechanisms of surveillance to show how society constructs who "should" and "should not" be parents. Based on a series of 36 in-depth interviews with 18 mothers conducted in the first half of 2022, findings illustrate that the negative social and medical perception of fat motherhood has a significant detrimental impact on the lived experiences of fat mothers. Mothers were also invited to bring objects that were of importance to them to discuss the ways in which society's negative views about weight impacted their experience.en
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophyen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:37703en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/115149en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectfaten
dc.subjectmotheringen
dc.subjectfat studiesen
dc.subjectinequalityen
dc.subjectweight stigmaen
dc.titleMothering Out of Bounds: Inequality and Resistance in Fat Motherhooden
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineSociologyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Byers_LE_D_2023.pdf
Size:
929.23 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Doctoral Dissertations