Interrupting Embodiment: Normalizing Gazes and Diet Culture in BBW Bash Spaces

Bash spaces are as problematic as any other spaces, open to forces such as white supremacy and heterosexism and functioning within objectifying and fetishizing male gazes. In this chapter I blend autoethnographic accounts with data drawn from in-depth interviews to establish some of the problematic discourses which pervade bash spaces. Considering the bigger context of fat life in general, I explore the proliferation of diet culture including a focus on “weight loss” surgeries as well as the hierarchies of normalization which operate in these spaces.