OUT OF STYLE: HEGEMONIC CONSTRAINTS ON FAT MAN’S SELFPRESENTATION THROUGH FASHION

Fashion has functioned to produce and maintain hegemonic discourses of beauty
and size by privileging thin, white, upper-classed and heteronormative standards. While fatness opposes these expectations, past research has yet to fully account for fat men who take an active role in using fashion. Neither their purpose nor their reasoning for using fashion has been extensively detailed. I ask three questions: (1) Are fat men able to manage fat stigma through their engagement with fashion? (2) How do fat men use fashion as part of their presentation of self? (3) What role does intersectionality play as these men use fashion in their presentation of self and possibly in managing stigma?
Using a content analysis of four hundred Instagram posts and twenty-two semi-structured interviews, I found that given fatness’s stigmatized position in fashion, men rely on their abilities to adhere to masculine standards in downplaying their fat identity. Furthermore, Black gay men’s hyper-marginalized position makes it more difficult for them to adhere to the same masculine standards. These findings show that the fashion industry actively prevents fat men from fully participating due to their size. Yet the way they use fashion is dictated by their ability to adhere to hegemonic masculine standards. Black gay men are most affected negatively as they have a hyper-marginalized status due to the intersection of their identities. As a result, popular accounts for “plus size” male fashion contribute to reproducing and reinforcing hegemonic standards of masculinity, and Black gay men who push boundaries in both gender and body presentation are left invisible.