On judgement day: Anorexic and obese women’s phenomenological experience of the body, food and eating

Abstract

In contemporary Western society, both anorexic and obese 1 bodies are regarded to be ''out of bounds.'' Although scholars have enhanced our understanding of anorexia and obesity, these ''disorders'' have most often been studied in isolation from one another. In this article, we examine the similarities and differences in the embodied experiences of anorexic and obese women. Informed by the phenomenological research tradition, we follow in the footsteps of other scholars who have already begun to depart from binarized, polarized views by describing how women living with anorexia and obesity in two Canadian provinces experience the body, food and eating. Anorexic and obese women described a vast range of intense emotional experiences to characterize their relationship to food, the body and eating. Shame marked the bodies of these women. Family relationships also changed how the women experienced the body and food over time. The women ascribed a diverse array of complex meanings to the body and food. We hope that our study opens new phenomenological terrain to dialogue with and for anorexic and obese bodies in a relational way, recognizing that both of these bodies hurt in a remarkably similar manner. In a judgement day of sorts, both anorexic and obese bodies carry the heavy burden of culture's expectations to fit within a narrow range of normative slenderness.

Obesity, stigma and reflexive embodiment: Feeling the ‘weight’ of expectation

“…In the same way that the absence of a limb may not stop the experience of pain, the absence of weight did not stop participants feeling the weight they expected their ill-discipline would equate to. In line with Moola and Norman’s (2017) finding that the affective experiences of anorexic and obese women are remarkably similar, the weight of expectation demonstrates further similarity in the phenomenological experiences of these seemingly paradoxical bodies. Part of the anorexic experience has been characterised as irrationally feeling fat and/or heavy.…”

“…Her stated interest is ‘the question of feeling big’ or, in other words, ‘the question of embodiment rather than representation’ (Probyn, 2009: 119, emphasis original). Following this line of inquiry, Moola and Norman (2017) approach the experience of the body, food and eating phenomenologically and, by focusing on their participants’ ‘sensate experiences’, are able to delineate overlap in the anorexic and obese experience (p. 6). They argue that ‘thin and fat bodies both often experience a pressing sense of bodily shame’ and relate that ‘this common experience of shame is often not considered within the dominant reading of these bodies’ (Moola and Norman, 2017: 6).…”

“…Following this line of inquiry, Moola and Norman (2017) approach the experience of the body, food and eating phenomenologically and, by focusing on their participants’ ‘sensate experiences’, are able to delineate overlap in the anorexic and obese experience (p. 6). They argue that ‘thin and fat bodies both often experience a pressing sense of bodily shame’ and relate that ‘this common experience of shame is often not considered within the dominant reading of these bodies’ (Moola and Norman, 2017: 6). Logically, a common embodied experience of weight stigma appeared to inform this otherwise paradoxical accordance.…”

Comparación de mujeres jóvenes con obesidad y normopeso: vivencia corporal, hábitos saludables y regulación emocional

“…Se ha observado que las experiencias afectivas corporales más potentes que presentan tanto mujeres con anorexia como con obesidad, son sensaciones apremiantes de vergüenza. La vergüenza y un imperfecto sentido de la moralidad influían no solo en cómo veían sus propios cuerpos, sino cómo imaginaban a los demás que los miraban 22 .…”

Stigmatisering og skam – en kvalitativ studie om å leve med fedme

“…The norm in Western societies is to be slim, and those who suffer from obesity are constantly confronted with this ideal (10)(11)(12)(13). Society's rhetoric in the description of obesity is itself stigmatising, with wording such as 'an obesity epidemic', 'the fight against obesity' and 'the war on the obesity epidemic' (14, 15).…”