“Deeply immersed in the dramatic and mundane of everyday high school life, Taylor’s access, insight, and interpretive skill beautifully reveal our cultural preoccupation with the ‘obesity epidemic’ as it is played out in hallways, locker rooms, and cafeterias Schooled on Fat adeptly disentangles how teenagers talk about their bodies, themselves, and each other from overarching disciplinary discourses of morality, sexuality, health, and consumption A must for the undergraduate classroom!” Lisa Jean Moore, author of The Body: Social and Cultural Dissections, Purchase College, SUNY “Schooled on Fat is an innovative and critically important ethnography that will change the conversation about teens and body image Taylor’s careful study reveals that teenagers are far more than simply passive recipients of cultural messages about ‘thin’ and ‘fat,’ but are active participants in their creation As such, they are also potential allies for change This book could have far-reaching implications for the mental and physical well-being of young people; a rare and commendable accomplishment.” Rebecca Lester, Washington University in St Louis “This book offers an intimate portrait of the everyday lives of teen-aged girls and boys, exploring what it means to grow up in an increasingly obese society that idealizes slenderness and stigmatizes fat Taylor provides vivid accounts of what goes on in the halls of a public high school and behind the closed doors of locker rooms, where ideas of acceptable and unacceptable body image are negotiated on a daily basis This engaging ethnography brings a fresh and nuanced voice to the obesity debate and is a must read for educators, parents, policy makers, and young adults.” Mimi Nichter, author of Fat Talk: What Girls and their Parents Say about Dieting, Professor, University of Arizona Schooled on Fat Schooled on Fat explores how body image, social status, fat stigma and teasing, food consumption behaviors, and exercise practices intersect in the daily lives of adolescent girls and boys Based on nine months of fieldwork at a high school located near Tucson, Arizona, the book draws on social, linguistic, and theoretical contexts to illustrate how teens navigate the fraught realities of body image within a high school culture that reinforced widespread beliefs about body size as a matter of personal responsibility while offering limited opportunity to exercise and an abundance of fattening junk foods Taylor also traces policy efforts to illustrate where we are as a nation in addressing childhood obesity and offers practical strategies schools and parents can use to promote teen wellness This book is ideal for courses on the body, fat studies, gender studies, language and culture, school culture and policy, public ethnography, deviance, and youth culture NicoleTaylor is an anthropologist who explores contemporary social issues related to education and health through the analytic lens of language practices She is Director of Scholar Programs at the School for Advanced Research, and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico Innovative Ethnographies Series Editor: Phillip Vannini, Royal Roads University The purpose of this series is to use the new digital technology to capture a richer, more multidimensional view of social life than was otherwise done in the classic, print tradition of ethnography, while maintaining the traditional strengths of classic, ethnographic analysis Available Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place, and Time on Canada’s West Coast by Phillip Vannini Digital Drama: Teaching and Learning Art and Media in Tanzania by Paula Uimonen Concrete and Dust: Mapping the Sexual Terrains of Los Angeles by Jeanine Marie Minge and Amber Lynn Zimmerman Water in a Dry Land: Place Learning Through Art and Story by Margaret Somerville My Father’s Wars: Migration, Memory, and the Violence of a Century by Alisse Waterston Off the Grid: Re-Assembling Domestic Life by Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart Schooled on Fat: What Teens Tell Us About Gender, Body Image, and Obesity by Nicole Taylor Schooled on Fat What Teens Tell Us About Gender, Body Image, and Obesity Nicole Taylor Please visit the companion website at www.innovativeethnographies.net/schooledonfat/ First published 2016 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Taylor & Francis The right of Nicole Taylor to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Taylor, Nicole Schooled on fat : what teens tell us about gender, body image, and obesity / by Nicole Taylor — 1 Edition pages cm — (Innovative ethnographies) Includes bibliographical references and index Body size—Arizona—Juvenile literature Body image—Arizona—Juvenile literature I Title RC569.B65.T39 2015 616.3’98—dc23 2015023357 ISBN: 978-1-138-92420-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-92421-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68450-5 (ebk) Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro and Copperplate by FiSH Books Ltd, Enfield For David and Oliver CONTENTS PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION ABOUT MY STUDY “YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR FAT SHOWING” “GUYS, SHE’S HUMONGOUS!” “WHEN I RUN MY LEGS JIGGLE” “IT’S ALL GOING TO TURN INTO FAT” SO WHAT? WHAT NOW? APPENDIX REFERENCES INDEX PREFACE When people ask me about my research and I explain that I am a linguistic anthropologist who studies body image and obesity, the next question is almost always, “What does language have to do with body image or obesity?” To which I answer, “A lot.” Language is powerful—it shapes our worldview, our perception of reality It is a primary means through which humans relate to each other and make sense of the world around us Everyday conversation among people in communities all over the world has the capacity to soothe, hurt, connect or divide people, and influence how we think, behave, interact with others, and interpret our experiences Think back to a time when you were teased by someone, a classmate, friend, romantic partner, family member, or complete stranger Perhaps you were teased for being too fat or too thin, having dark skin, wearing glasses, being gay, having acne, or wearing clothes that weren’t cool enough Maybe you were teased to your face, or perhaps you were gossiped about behind your back and you later found out about it Close your eyes and recall how those words felt at the moment of impact It still stings, doesn’t it? I grew up white among white people in middle-class suburbs throughout the South and West In seventh grade, I attended a middle school in Littleton, Colorado, where, for the first time in my life, I was teased for the way I looked, specifically for the color of my skin One day, while I was walking alone to class, three boys encircled me and began chanting “Taco! You’re such a taco!” I don’t remember much about those boys except that they were white with blond hair and blue eyes and wore stylish, expensive-looking clothes, all markers of the popular crowd They seemed to materialize out of nowhere to taunt me that day We did not have any classes together or share any friends or acquaintances that I was aware of At the time I had no idea what their words meant, but I understood that I was being insulted by the tone of their voices and the way they sneered In that moment I felt confusion, shame, embarrassment, anger, and fear The boys did not stop there For weeks, they continued to taunt me, calling me “taco” when they passed me in the hallway or saw me at recess One day they stood near me outside my classroom, and one boy said to another, “Hey, would you ever go out with that taco?” The boy yelled in response, “No way I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole.” His words resonated throughout the hallway and caught the attention of nearby students, who stopped talking with ... Mimi Nichter, author of Fat Talk: What Girls and their Parents Say about Dieting, Professor, University of Arizona Schooled on Fat Schooled on Fat explores how body image, social status, fat stigma and... as fat stigma, ideas about personal responsibility, engagement in and attitudes toward exercise, food-consumption behaviors, and social relationships among teens I found that these issues converged... obesity as a civil rights and social justice issue), and the Fashion-Beauty Complex (consumerist focus on obesity as an aesthetic issue) Based on survey data, they conclude the most culturally resonant beliefs about obesity are that fat is ugly (Fashion-Beauty Complex frame), obesity is