Digital media and body weight, shape, and size: an introduction and review

In this introduction to the special issue on digital media and body weight, the author brings together fat studies and critical social analyses of digital media to discuss the manifold ways in which body weight, size, and shape are represented and performed in and with these media. A proliferation of diverse voices and images receive expression in these media and in the use of these devices, often in direct opposition to each other. These include fat activism, body positivism, fat shaming and stigmatization, pro-anorexia, thinspiration, and fitspiration discourses and practices. The author reviews the previous literature and suggests areas for further research.