Fat-Bodied Learners And College Websites: Will I fit in?

• In Event: Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual iPresentation Only: Division J - Section 6: Society, Culture, History, and Change Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

If language is a marker for treatment of fatness within institutions, then a review of the external website is the beginning of interrogating the existence of anti-fat bias at institutions of higher learning. Focusing on how fatness is framed on an external website informs the treatment of fatness on campus for anyone viewing the site. For fat-bodied learners the website may be the first opportunity to engage with the campus understanding from which lens fatness is viewed. Is fatness conflated with healthfulness? Is anti-fat bias coded as wellness? Is fatness pathologized? These questions frame the lens from which fatness is viewed, and ultimately deemed welcome on a college campus. For this paper a Midwestern community college served as the research setting.

Author

• Sara Lucas, Northern Illinois University