Bariatric surgery, family, and identity: an autoethnographic investigation

Abstract

ABSTRACTUsing autoethnography and configuring narrative reflections, this article interrogates my personal experiences as a man whose body has been changed by bariatric surgery. The autoethnographic account engages questions relating to family, health history, community, and identity. The narrative reflections are embodied memories that testify to a family history of obesity and diabetes that foreground the challenges faced by those who are faced with the radical option of weight-loss surgery to save their lives. The narrative reflections propose to transform our understanding of bariatric surgery and is consistent with others’ stories in communication scholarship that privileges personal experience within health care. Questions for future research include the unresolved roles of gender and biological sex in the creation of an altered narrative understanding of the obese self.