Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Department
Women's & Gender Studies
Language
English
Publication Title
Body Politics – Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte
Abstract
Contemporary narratives about fatness focus incessantly on the mother, yet recent fat studies literature has only slightly addressed this phenomenon of motherblame and fat stigma. By extending the research that I touched upon in Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York University Press, 2011), this essay explores the roots of motherblaming in early 20th century psychology— particularly in the work of Hilde Bruch and Phillip Wylie—and the connections to more recent narratives in US film, literature and popular culture that link mothers to the horrific spectacle of the fat child and fat mothers to the destruction of their families and communities.
Recommended Citation
Farrell, Amy E. '“When I Was Growing Up My Mother Cooked Dinner Every Single Day”: Fat Stigma and the Significance of Motherblame in Contemporary United States." Body Politics – Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte 3, no. 5 (2015): 95-109.
Included in
Cultural History Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Comments
This published version is made available on Dickinson Scholar with the permission of the publisher. For more information on the published version, visit Body Politics - Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte's Website.