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The Bariatric Bodies Project

Stevens, Corey Elizabeth
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1542104863252499

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Sociology.
How do bariatric patients make sense of the medical, aesthetic, and moral discourses related to fat, health, and illness? How are patients’ identities shifted as their bodies change throughout the bariatric surgery process? To answer these questions, I interviewed 35 bariatric patients at various stages of their bariatric careers. I divide my findings into three chapters. First, I describe the bariatric process using Goffman’s concept of the moral career and Foucault’s ideas about discipline. The moral career of the bariatric patient proceeds through 4 stages: the pre-surgery process, recovery, the honeymoon stage, and the struggle stage. I argue that bariatric surgery utilizes two types of disciplinary technology: (1) a discursive process where patients are socialized into health behaviors and must prove themselves morally worthy of surgery; (2) an embodied process where patients’ digestive tracts are modified to punish them for straying from “the program.” Next, I focus on the illness experience of bariatric patients. Before surgery, patients experience their bodies as chronically ill and lacking in freedom. They describe fitness and pain issues which limit their day-to-day mobility. They also count down their prescription medications as an important symbol of health and illness. After surgery, patients do not view the symptoms of bariatric surgery (such as vomiting, chest pain, diarrhea, constipation, hair loss, etc.) as illness but instead as worth it in the end, as something to adjust to, and as useful tools for weight loss. After that, I explore the relationship between health, appearance, and stigma, and how this relationship is impacted by intersecting identities of race, class, gender, and age. Bariatric patients describe their often-contradictory experience of the Western aesthetic of health; bariatric patients carry a highly visible fat stigma which is believed to convey their health status, yet they often view appearance as less important than health. Even after losing weight, many patients continue to carry a discreditable identity, in part due to the visible markers of their former obese status on their bodies—i.e., loose skin and plastic surgery scars. Finally, I tie my findings together using the concepts of obese embodied identity and bariatric embodied identity. I conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications and limitations of this study and propose future research.
Clare Stacey (Committee Chair)
Kathy Feltey (Committee Member)
Susan Roxburgh (Committee Member)
Manacy Pai (Committee Member)
Isa Rodriguez-Soto (Committee Member)
Mary Triece (Committee Member)
251 p.
Sociology
Bariatric Surgery, Obesity, Fat, Stigma, Medicine

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stevens, C. E. (2018). The Bariatric Bodies Project [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1542104863252499

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stevens, Corey. The Bariatric Bodies Project. 2018. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1542104863252499.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stevens, Corey. "The Bariatric Bodies Project." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1542104863252499

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

akron1542104863252499
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© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.