PERFORMING FAT: THE CREATION OF THE “FAT” FEMALE IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICA

The body of the “fat” female in America is a place of convergence for many different conflicting social ideas. Feminist social theory has only recently begun to recognize the “fat” female body as a battleground where social anxieties and inequalities have not only been built, but justified as well. While current academic research has explained the modern “fat” woman and the Freak Show “Fat Lady” separately, rarely has there been a line connecting them theoretically. The purpose of this research is to critically analyze and contextualize the created role of “fat” women throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through this work I use studies of history and media culture to show how this characterization has been modified through the 20th century to reinforce American society’s changing attitudes and ideas about “fatness” and to show that the creation of “fatness” is a representation of white, upper class, patriarchal control.