Shuffling toward oblivion: The long walk of the fat body. Issue 3 (2nd September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kemerly, Tony; Brandt, Jenn
• Is Part Of: Fat studies. Volume 6:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 294
• Page End: 303
• Publication Date: 2017-09-02
• Subjects: Bodily performance -- body binary -- body ideology -- body privilege -- fat bodies; Obesity -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Obesity -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; Overweight persons -- Periodicals; Body weight -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; 362.196398
• DOI: 10.1080/21604851.2017.1298947
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2160-4851

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The authors use poststructuralist analysis to examine the portrayal of the fat body as "flawed" through the lens of Stephen King's The Long Walk, a novel about the contestants of an annual walking competition held in a dystopian, totalitarian version of the United States. The story can be read as an allegory of the way society treats bodies coded as "fat, " where the pejorative myth of the fat body is used to force "help" on these individuals as a result of their physicality being perceived as a moral weakness.