Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
June 2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Religion
Advisor(s)
Gail Hamner
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | Religion
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the importance of fat religions – an umbrella term for any traditions, communities, or practices with a religious interest in fat – as sources of feminist understanding and address of the racist, affective regimes that shape human-fat intimacies in the twenty-first century United States. Examining anti-Black misogyny, or misogynoir, through the lens of a religious interest in fat, this dissertation offers a new line of inquiry for the study of religion and body size that pushes for a wider consideration of not only the negative, but also positive relationship between fat/fatness and religious sensibilities. With attention to the shifting of racist configurations of Black, fat womanhood and the Black, fat feminine body, this dissertation unfolds as an exploration of a selection of fat religions in the U.S. from the 1800s to present-day. In highlighting the positive, as well as sometimes negative, religious interests in fat, I argue that fat religions, particularly those originating in Black women’s communities, can serve as disruptive sources of otherwise possibility that can reshape the antagonistic, misogynistic, and racist medico-moral frames that shape how American society relates to fat, fatness, and fat persons.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Woodfaulk, Danae M., "Glorifying Fat: Body Size, Race, Gender, and Religion in the United States" (2025). Dissertations - ALL. 2089.
https://surface.syr.edu/etd/2089
