Table of Contents

Introduction: The 'Fat' Female Body: Pathological, Political and Phenomenological Imaginings

PART 1
Positioning 'Fatness' in Our Cultural Imaginary
The 'Normal' and the 'Pathological': 'Obesity' and the Dis-eased 'Fat' Body
'Fat' Bodies as Virtual Confessors and Medical Morality

PART 2
Fed up with Fat-Phobia: Coming Out as 'Fat'
Fat Pride and the Insistence on the Voluntarist Subject
Fattening Up Foucault: A 'Fat' Counter-Aesthetic?

PART 3
Throwing Off Discourse? Questions of Ambivalence and the Mind/Body Split
('Fat') 'Being-In-The-World': Merleau-Ponty's account of the 'body-subject'
Embodiment as Ambiguity: 'Fatness' as it is Lived

Afterword: 'Fat' Bodily Being

Promotional Information

"This is a courageous, poignant, honest, passionate, angry book - rare qualities in a work of scholarship." - Bioethical Inquiry "As Murray notes, her ambition has not been to offer a new model for "fat" embodiment, but to look for new ways to understand it. Murray has succeeded in her task admirably. By moving the examination of the "fat" female body into the realm of the philosophical, she has been able to take the theory of fatness in a new exciting direction." - Hannele Harjunen, Social Semiotics "...extremely interesting and thought-provoking..." - Melanie Latham, Social and Legal Studies Journal

About the Author

Samantha Murray is a Senior Researcher in the Gendered Violence Research Network at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to this, Samantha lectured in Cultural Studies at Macquarie University, Australia, and later worked in the not-for-profit sector. She has published several journal articles and book chapters on embodiment, and the discursive constructions of normalcy and pathology.

Reviews

“I especially appreciated how Murray was able to weave her personal experiences as a fat woman with her philosophical argument. Her stories brought a much-needed personal touch to the book. Despite the fact that the book was originally published in 2008, it is still a timely and important work for anyone who is interested in the field of fat studies and theorizing the fat female body. … I would highly recommend that anyone studying in this area read this book.” (Jeannine A. Gailey, Fat Studies, Vol. 5 (2), August, 2016)
"This is a courageous, poignant, honest, passionate, angry book - rare qualities in a work of scholarship." - Bioethical Inquiry

"As Murray notes, her ambition has not been to offer a new model for "fat" embodiment, but to look for new ways to understand it. Murray has succeeded in her task admirably. By moving the examination of the "fat" female body into the realm of the philosophical, she has been able to take the theory of fatness in a new exciting direction." - Hannele Harjunen, Social Semiotics

"...extremely interesting and thought-provoking..." - Melanie Latham, Social and Legal Studies Journal