Abigail C. Saguy

This book presents each of the various ways in which fat is understood in America today, examining the implications of understanding fatness as a health risk, disease, and epidemic, and revealing why we've come to understand the issue in these terms, despite considerable scientific uncertainty and debate.

Examines how several different populations are using the term “coming out” to resist stigma and mobilize for social change, as part of a multi-case project. Analyses how and why the undocumented youth movement talks of “coming out” as undocumented, by drawing on in-depth interviews. 

Shows that reading news articles about the “obesity epidemic” increases reported weight-based prejudice and discrimination, based on an experimental design. 

Draws on in-depth interviews with women working in the male-dominated trades. Examines how tradeswomen face specific forms of discrimination and develop diverse strategies for responding to them, depending on their sexual orientation, gender presentation, race, and body size. 

Examines how several different populations are using the term “coming out” to resist stigma and mobilize for social change, as part of a multi-case project. Draws on in-depth interviews and textual analysis of blogs, memoires, and list servers, to analyze how and why fat acceptance activists talk of “coming out” as fat and what it means to “come out” as fat.

Expands on legal, corporate, and media definitions in the U.S. and France and why they are so dramatically different.