The Lumps and Bumps of Aesthetic Labor: Rethinking Fat Talk in Plus-Size Retail

Abstract

ABSTRACTFat scholar’s studying the lives of fat individuals are often perceived as biased further excluding fat people’s experiences from the production of knowledge. However, it is our social standpoint and social location as fat researchers that make it possible for us to offer a more critical perspective regarding presupposed “facts,” giving voice to a marginalized population. In this paper, I use autoethnography and standpoint theory to reflect on my own social location and experiences as a young, fat woman finding my voice in fat activism while working in the plus-size retail store, Equally Plus. I, like many of my fat coworkers, was disappointed in the extensive diet talk and fat talk used by customers and fellow coworkers at Equally Plus. We found ourselves taking on emotion work to manage our own nagging commitments to fat talk, in addition to aesthetic and emotional labor. To combat internalized fat phobia, I show how emotional and aesthetic labor can be used as an act of resistance by “flipping the script” on fat talk by acknowledging and accepting fat in a way that challenges diet talk and fat-shaming in a more concrete and personally meaningful way. My insider and outsider positionality and social location enabled me to place fat individuals at the center of my activism by engaging in subversive behavior that raised awareness, yet still benefited the corporation.