The pariah femininity hierarchy: comparing white women’s body hair and fat stigmas in the United States

Abstract

The corporeal turn in the social sciences has stimulated considerable interdisciplinary research into embodied stigmas, but these theories do not account for why certain traits become more stigmatized than others. This study argues that the ‘real women’ imagery associated with the Western Body Positive movement reveals a ‘pariah femininity’ hierarchy: fat women achieve representation significantly more often than hairy women. In order to identify the stigma differential that might account for this representational difference, this study comparatively analyzes the parameters of stigma that United States viewers associate with each trait. A discourse analysis of online feedback from campaign viewers yields two important findings: (1) white women’s body hair poses a relative threat to patriarchal gender ideology and (2) viewers associate women’s body hair, more so than women’s body fat, with feminism. These two findings have important implications for academic efforts to theorize corporeal stigma, hegemonic femininity, and feminist stigma management.