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The Fattening House: A Narrative Analysis of the Big, Black and Beautiful Body Subjectivity Constituted On Large African American Women

Prater, Angela Denise
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1223829051

Abstract Details

2008, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Communication Studies.
This study examines the ways in which the binaries of a constitutive subjectivity and social reality constrain the identities of large African American women. This constitutive subjectivity is called the Big, Black and Beautiful Body (B4) narrative. The B4 narrative positions large African American women as having high body esteem regardless of current social messages that promote thin body image standards. To explain the operation and power of the B4 narrative, the fattening house, an old Nigerian custom, is used as a metaphor to demonstrate the house's roots to past racist stereotypes. This dissertation employs narrative analysis to critically access twenty in-depth interviews of large African American women and situate their lived experiences within the metaphorical fattening house. Findings reveal these women simultaneously resist and accept the B4 subjectivity and struggle between the binary of the B4 and their social reality. As such, the constitutive B4 subjectivity constrains their lives through four prominent narratives presented here as rooms within the fattening house. This study suggests large African American females constantly negotiate their identity to fit within the B4 subjectivity, although their social reality is not the same. It offers insight into how the large African American female subjectivity is overlooked and the B4 narrative functions to uphold past racist conceptions of black womanhood.
John T. Warren (Committee Chair)
Khani Begum (Committee Member)
Sung-Yeon Park (Committee Member)
Thomas Mascaro (Committee Member)
138 p.
African Americans; African History; American History; American Studies; Ancient Civilizations; Archaeology; Black History; Cognitive Therapy; Communication; Cultural Anthropology; Developmental Psychology; Epidemiology; European History; Folklore; Gender; Health; Health
African American Women; Body Image; Feminism; Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Narrative Theory; Critical Cultural Theory; Qualitative

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Prater, A. D. (2008). The Fattening House: A Narrative Analysis of the Big, Black and Beautiful Body Subjectivity Constituted On Large African American Women [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1223829051

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Prater, Angela. The Fattening House: A Narrative Analysis of the Big, Black and Beautiful Body Subjectivity Constituted On Large African American Women. 2008. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1223829051.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Prater, Angela. "The Fattening House: A Narrative Analysis of the Big, Black and Beautiful Body Subjectivity Constituted On Large African American Women." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1223829051

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1223829051
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© 2008, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.