Fattitude the Movie: Theory and Praxis of Creating a Documentary
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Fattitude The Movie: Theory and Praxis of Creating a Documentary that Examines Fat Representation and Fat Social Justice by Lindsey Averill A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL August 2017 Copyright by Lindsey Averill 2017 ii Acknowledgments On occasion, writing a dissertation feels like being lost in a desert sand storm. You’re alone; it’s ominous; the stakes are high and there is so much debris swirling around you that you can’t see the way through to where you want to be. Luckily, in this metaphoric desert scenario, you’re not trudging along, eyes down with no defense against the elements. In the desert storm that is a dissertation, you are lucky to be equipped with an intellectual and emotional support team who make weathering the storm possible. My journey to this moment was long, and those who picked me up and encouraged me to forge ahead were plentiful. There was of course my diligent, patient, and annoyingly intelligent dissertation committee: Dr. Jane Caputi, who threw open the doors of feminist theory for me, directed me towards my first fat studies paper and worked tirelessly to coach me on refining each and every chapter you see here; Dr. Taylor Hagood, who agreed to work with me even though we’d never met and took on my research like it was his own; Dr. Lisa Swanstrom, who makes me laugh while pushing me to think deeper and focus my theoretical ideas; and finally, A. Papatya Bucak, M.F.A. who figuratively saved my life by coming on board right at the end and reminded me that I am, at heart, a creative voice. I cannot thank the four of you enough for supporting my project and helping me ground it in theory so that others might realize that the brutality of fat oppression is legitimate and needs to end. In addition to these FAU folks that I am eternally grateful to, there are some others that I couldn’t have done this without. So, thank you Leonard ‘Papasan’ Averill iv for your infuriating phone calls to see if I was writing, for your ability to open your mind to this work, despite a lifetime in a medical world that struggles to understand the existence of fat oppression and of course, for your donated hours as, “Len, the official Fattitude Driver.” Thank you, Lisa Averill for always, always telling me that I can do it, that I’m strong enough and smart enough – no matter what it is, and much more literally thank you for your help – for reading my work, for being our crew, for making breakfast and reminding us to take our vitamins, for being there as a witness and cheerleader to my life, always. Thank you, Randy Harden for weathering this journey by my side, for wrapping your arms around me when it felt like it was all too much and for listening and being inquisitive as I blabbered on about how I was going to structure and restructure my argument as we walked around the lake at Centra time after time. I am so lucky to have the three of you. (And, you too, Ike-face, because you are all the good things.) And finally, to Viridiana Lieberman – thank you for Fattitude. Thank you for being willing to go on this harebrained journey with me. Thank you for your endless editing hours and our ‘we are such a good team’ chats. Thank you for rocking out to “Uptown Funk” and for stair-shoe tripods. Thank you for being a springboard, a backboard, a diving board – whatever was needed. You are my business partner – but so much more importantly you are a true friend - and while writing this dissertation could at times be imagined as being lost in a lonely sandstorm – making Fattitude never was. v Abstract Author: Lindsey Averill Title: Fattitude The Movie: Theory and Praxis of Creating a Documentary that Examines Fat Representation and Fat Social Justice Institution: Florida Atlantic University Dissertation Advisors: Dr. Jane Caputi and Dr. Taylor Hagood Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Year: 2017 This dissertation explores the making of and research for the film, Fattitude, a social justice based documentary that looks to awaken viewers to the reality of weight bias in media representation. This dissertation reviews the filmmaking process and then engages with the nature of stereotypes about fat bodies. Deeply tied to feminist and fat studies theory, the work here seeks to categorize and shape the understanding of weight bias in the media by linking fat tropes to clearly understood images of oppression, for example the monstrous, the fool, they hypersexual and the asexual. The work also seeks to present theory on the nature of creating media representations of fatness that are not oppressive – making note of current media created by grassroots movements for body acceptance and fat positivity. vi Fattitude The Movie: Theory and Praxis of Creating a Documentary that Examines Fat Representation and Fat Social Justice Fattitude in Context: Locating a Fat Studies Social Justice Documentary in the Big Picture ................................................................................................................ 1 Fattitude in the World of Documentary Film ............................................................. 19 Locating Fattitude’s Ideas in an Academic Context ................................................... 28 The Filmmaking Process: Fattitude from Origin to Post-Production ............................... 40 Production ................................................................................................................... 42 Post-Production ........................................................................................................... 61 Stereotypes, Pathology and Dysfunction: Understanding Representations of Fat Bodies in the Mainstream Media .................................................................................................. 83 Thin vs. Fat: The Divisive Nature of Generalizing Stereotypes ................................. 85 Fat as Symbol of Dysfunction and Disease .............................................................. 101 Monsters, Fools and Sexual Deviants: Fat Tropes as Examples of Oppressive Media .............................................................................................................................. 112 Fatness as the Monstrous .......................................................................................... 113 Fatness as Fool .......................................................................................................... 121 Female Fatness, Desirability, and Sexuality ............................................................. 134 Attempting to Overcome Thin-Thinking: Contemporary Fat Positive Representations ............................................................................................................... 151 Transforming Beauty ................................................................................................ 157 vii Transforming Health ................................................................................................. 176 Transforming Injustice .............................................................................................. 189 Conclusion: Fattitude’s Solutions through Praxis: Media Creation and Little Daily Acts of Activism in a Very Mobile World .............................................................................. 204 Fattitude: More than a Movie ................................................................................... 204 Future for Fattitude ................................................................................................... 208 Fattitude, Fat Activism and Beyond ......................................................................... 210 Notes ............................................................................................................................... 214 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 215 viii Fattitude in Context: Locating a Fat Studies Social Justice Documentary in the Big Picture Ultimately, this is the story, the background, the research, the conversations and all the theory that came together to inspire Fattitude, a documentary film. I'm one of the co-creators of this film. Film is never work you do alone. However, Fattitude was born from my academic work and originates with me, so I’m going to begin by telling you my story, the story of growing up fat and loved in a fat-hating world. I’m telling you this story because I genuinely believe that strong theoretical thinking is linked to our experiences, not severed from them. I don’t believe political and theoretical legitimacy and argument must be birthed from an austere, clinical, objective perch. Or, if you want to get theoretical, in the context of second wave feminism, I proceed from the observation that the “personal is political” and to dismiss, hide or quiet my personal voice and experiences would be an act of dishonesty and, furthermore, the squelching of some of my strongest evidentiary sources, my experiences. In 1978, I was lucky to be born to a warm, generous, and (also) thin upper-middle class family. In most ways, my life was the definition of privilege. My father is a successful, Ivy-League educated M.D. and my mother is a smart and very beautiful woman, who managed his office. We lived in Westchester County, NY in a big house with a pool, a day-lily-filled