| Abstrakt: |
This article examines how cultural representations of deviant bodies vary based on the historical legacy of stigmatized groups and explores contemporary cultural narratives of bodily difference. Using historical accounts and content analysis of the reality television programs, Little People, Big World and Ruby, I contrast historical and contemporary representations of dwarfism and obesity. Over time, dwarfism has become constructed as an identity project with the aim of bodily acceptance, whereas obesity is now regarded as a body project with the goal of body transformation through weight loss. Contemporary representations of both dwarfism and obesity have remarkable parallels to their freak show predecessors. The mostly positive historical characterizations of dwarfs allowed them to easily adopt the tenets of the Disability Rights movement as they evolved from freak show performances to television as an educational platform. They have adopted a social model of disability, positive social identity, self-acceptance, and full social participation. By contrast, the past and contemporary representations of obesity have been overwhelmingly negative. Obese freak show performers were openly mocked, and classifying obesity as a disability has yet to fully gain traction as a civil rights movement. Instead, obesity is viewed through the lens of individual responsibility where limits of social participation are emphasized and body modification through weight loss constructs an identity based on self-change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
