A High-Risk Body for Whom? On Fat, Risk, Recognition and Reclamation in Restorying Reproductive Care through Digital Storytelling

Abstract

This paper explores issues of weight stigma in fertility, reproduction, pregnancy and parenting through a fat reproductive justice lens. We engage with multimedia/digital stories co-written and co-produced with participants involved in Reproducing Stigma: Obesity and Women's Experiences of Reproductive Care. This mixed methods research project which took place between 2015-2018 used interview and video-making methods with women-identified and trans people, as well as interviews with healthcare providers and policymakers to investigate perceptions and operations of weight and other stigma in fertility and pregnancy care. We consider the ways in which reproductive risk is typically storied in healthcare and culture, and analyse multimedia/digital stories made by participant-video-makers which story reproductive wellbeing differently. We examine three major themes-on risk, on recognition of weight and other stigma, and on reclamation of bodies-that emerged as critical to these storytellers as they navigated fatphobia in reproductive care. We argue that just as healthcare practitioners strive to practice evidence-based care we must also put into practice storied care-to believe, respect and honour fat people's stories of their bodies and lives as fundamental to achieving equity and justice in reproductive healthcare.

What a body can do: Rethinking body functionality through a feminist materialist disability lens

“…Developing research protocols that do not reproduce normal/abnormal binaries, centre the mythical norm, or equate disability with deficiency can be developed by thickening understandings of body function. We use the word thicken intentionally here, in line with fat studies scholars and fat activists (Cooper, 2016;Rinaldi et al, 2020), who argue for reclaiming such language to dispel its negative charge; further, "thick" in Anglo-Black popular culture is not always a negative descriptor and in many cases, comprises an effort by Black women to redefine their own body standards (Friedman et al, 2020). Thickening means designing scales and interventions that orient to the potentialities of bodies of difference, exploring how people with disabilities and other embodied differences experience their worlds in diverse ways regardless of their disabilities, and how they use their own creative alternative forms of sensory perception/communication (i.e., haptic, visual, aural) and movement (e.g., by crawling, rolling, or moving skilfully in other ways in sync with their mobility devices).…”

“…Arts-based interventions such as photovoice, digital storytelling, and videomaking might also invite participants to capture the ambiguity and complexity of their embodied experiences (Rice et al, 2018;Rice, Pendleton Jimenez, et al, 2020;Friedman et al, 2020). One example is a project that engaged a diverse group of young women and gender non-conforming people to develop and test an online storytelling application that seeks to widen repertoires for thinking about body image (Ensslin et al, 2020).…”

New Zealand hospice staff perspectives on ‘Xcellent Gowns’ for big bodied palliative care patients: a qualitative study

“…Ill-fitting hospital gowns are just one part of the broader discrimination against BBPs in health care. [28][29][30][31] The Xcellent Gowns project gives an opportunity for a hospice service to signal and show that BBPs are valued, regarded and welcomed and that their comfort and dignity are a priority. This seems particularly critical in a hospice setting where health care for some can be undertaken over a prolonged period of time.…”

Slow Story-Making in Urgent Times

“…Douglas & Carless, 2020;Zaragocin, 2019). Since 2012, the Re•Vision Centre has led hundreds of digital/multimedia storytelling workshops with minoritized and majoritized groups (for some of these iterations, see P. Douglas et al, 2021;Friedman et al, 2020;Rice, Dion, Fowlie, & Breen, 2020;Rice, Dion, Mündel, & Fowlie, 2020;Rice et al, 2015Rice, Pendleton Jiménez, et al, 2020;Viscardis et al, 2019). Recently, Re•Vision has advanced this method by emphasizing "multimedia story-making," as "multimedia" encompasses diverse media forms and "making" emphasizes the storied nature of knowledge claims (Rice & Mündel, 2018).…”