“I have to go the extra mile”. How fat female employees manage their stigmatized identity at work

Amsterdam, Noortje van; Eck, Dide van

doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2018.10.002

Cited by 23 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Saguy and Ward 2011; Barlösius and Philipps 2015; Monaghan 2017). We address these power structures in another publication in which we analyse the identity work strategies that our participants used to cope with fat stigma in the context of their employment (Amsterdam and van Eck 2018). The current paper focuses on the affective dimension of our participants' experiences that seems to get lost easily in conventional academic prose.…”

Section: Excess Flesh In Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper is developed based on a larger research project that explores the experiences of fat individuals in the context of their employment but also in their daily lives outside of their employment (see also Amsterdam and van Eck 2018). For this project we conducted in-depth interviews with 22 women who self-identified as full-figured, fat, overweight or obese.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many also face marginalization and discrimination at work related to their size (Puhl and Brownell 2006;Levay 2013). As such, fat employees' excess flesh seems to exclude them from qualifying as legitimate organizational bodies (Kelly, Allender, and Colquhoun 2007;Johansson, Tienari, and Valtonen 2017;Amsterdam and van Eck 2018). Yet there is little qualitative research that focuses on the experiences of fat people in relation to employment (Levay 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In the flesh: a poetic inquiry into how fat female employees manage weight-related stigma

Amsterdam

Eck

2019

Culture and Organization

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Section: Excess Flesh In Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In the flesh: a poetic inquiry into how fat female employees manage weight-related stigma

Amsterdam

Eck

2019

Culture and Organization

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“…Warhurst & Nickson, 2007) to the seemingly more disembodied worlds of academia or finance (Fotaki, 2013;Riach & Cutcher, 2014), experience 'looking the part' as a job requirement (Waring & Waring, 2009). They buy into the symbolic value of the body (Shilling, 1993) -for example, physical fitness signifies discipline and responsibility (Trethewey, 1999;Johansson, Tienari & Valtonen, 2017;van Amsterdam & van Eck, 2018).…”

Section: Bodies As Sites Of Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

When Shame Meets Love: Affective pathways to freedom from injurious bodily norms in the workplace

Pouthier

Sondak

2019

Organization Studies

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We explore organizational members' affective experiences to elucidate how and when the reproduction of oppressive bodily norms can be interrupted. We leverage the exceptional access to hitherto overlooked affective dynamics in one organizational context made possible by the introduction of a video art installation in a commercial art gallery. The artwork enabled both the all-female staff and the researchers to observe, feel and reflect on both the invisible force of body shame and the empowering forces of communal laughter and reciprocal generosity. Our analysis reveals how the repetition of loving encounters around the artwork moved the staff away from crippling individualized anxiety and shame and towards more joyful and carefree possibilities. It further suggests that the organization's feminist culture and climate of psychological safety facilitated the trajectory from shame to joy through love. By surfacing and explaining such affective pathways to freedom as an important form of emancipatory politics in the context of injurious, discriminatory bodily norms, we contribute to both scholarship on bodily discipline in the workplace and recent work on the critical potential of affect.

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“…, comparison between individuals(Amsterdam and Eck 2019;Huzell and Larsson 2012;Meriläinen, Tienari and Valtonen 2015), expressing professional value(Kelly, Allender and Colquohon 2007;Riach and Cutcher 2014), or expressing loyalty to an employer(Cederström and Spicer 2015, 32). Instead, participants aimed at coping with work, also by restricting the resources spent on it:Kimmo: I think I have gone through a change in the last two years.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

1 Care for the Self – But Not for the Career? Men’s Perceptions of Work-related Self-care

Hyvönen

2020

Men, Masculinities and the Modern Career

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Research into men's health has found that the potential conflict between health awareness and masculinity centred on paid work has been replaced by men's understanding of health as a competitive edge in working life. In contemporary organisations, being healthy, demonstrating high performance and expressing a willingness to participate in workplace health promotion voluntarily promote one's career. This chapter describes men's agentive encounters with health-related social expectations in Finnish working life. The study focuses on how and why men care for their health in the context of work. The material consists of 18 interviews of men concerning work-related self-care. The study shows that the most prevalent aim of self-care was personal wellbeing, understood as a situation in which most areas of life are enjoyable in a sustained way. To this end, the men coopted disciplined practices that aimed to change or maintain certain qualities of the body and mind. However, this goal of personal wellbeing was supplemented by an aspiration for a balance between work and non-work. The majority of participants felt that self-care was addressed repeatedly in both the workplace and in the media. When participants co-opted recommended practices, this was done critically and for the sake of personal benefit. Thus, the study shows how men practice resistance when they navigate expectations surrounding working life. Concurrently, the participants perceived masculinity as more broadly defined and less binding than before. Besides contributing empirical data to the literature on men's health, this chapter challenges men and masculinity scholars to focus their analytical gaze on men's agency.

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“I have to go the extra mile”. How fat female employees manage their stigmatized identity at work

Cited by 23 publications

References 77 publications

In the flesh: a poetic inquiry into how fat female employees manage weight-related stigma

In the flesh: a poetic inquiry into how fat female employees manage weight-related stigma

When Shame Meets Love: Affective pathways to freedom from injurious bodily norms in the workplace

1 Care for the Self – But Not for the Career? Men’s Perceptions of Work-related Self-care

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