Bariatric Biosociality: Pushed Together, Pulled Apart

Abstract

This article explores the postoperative experiences of weight loss surgery patients. More specifically, it investigates why bariatric patients seek out and form connection to similarly situated others in online and in-person support forums. Based on a thematic analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews with individuals who have had bariatric surgery, it is argued that the experience of having been medically classified as obese or severely obese, a long history of failed dieting attempts, fears of future morbidity and mortality, and then undergoing bariatric surgery serve as an axis around which some individuals interact, create identity, and form community. The perceived lack of postoperative support from home bariatric clinics, inadequate provider knowledge about the particularities of bariatric bodies, and the fact that patients must “work with” their surgeries to avoid postoperative adverse events are additional drivers for the formation of such bariatric kinship. It is argued that Paul Rabinow’s concept of “biosociality” provides a helpful theoretical frame for understanding these processes. However, just as the aforementioned factors push bariatric patients together, tensions around the type of bariatric procedure undergone, the amount of weight loss, and economic access to reconstructive plastic surgery cause conflict, leading to the formation of subgroups within bariatric communities. It is argued that, ultimately, bariatric biosocialities are spaces in which bariatric patients collectively work to achieve normative health and aesthetic standards. However, these spaces also reflect highly complex, sometimes divergent and conflictual, and often ambivalent frameworks of understanding and experience.