FAT TALK AND RELATED CONVERSATION:
WHAT WOMEN HAVE IN MIND WHEN THEY ENGAGE
IN FOOD AND BODY DISCOURSE

By

Karin M. Kratina

December 2003

Chair:  Leslie Lieberman

Major Department:  Anthropology

Many women in the United States monitor their food intake and body size closely. These behaviors are typically considered common sense approaches to enhancing health and appearance, and are accepted as natural and culturally correct behavior.

To better understand this behavior, this research was designed to reconstruct the conceptual metaphors that women use to discuss food and body and examine tacit, largely unexamined cultural values. Cultural models, which direct, rationalize and disguise behavior while remaining implicit, unacknowledged and very often denied, were constructed based on discourse analysis.

Ten Caucasian women, aged 30 to 50 years, who did not have eating disorders were interviewed extensively regarding their relationship with food and body. The transcripts were analyzed for use of metaphor and reasoning.

The discourse of those with low intent to lose weight was compared to those with high intent to lose weight though no significant differences between these groups were found. However, four patterns emerged that differentiated the women.

These patterns allowed the development of a core cultural model with three variations. The four patterns consisted of women who

1. were not closely monitoring their food intake and body weight and, for the most part, let the body manage it;

2. those who actively monitored and controlled the impact of their food intake on the way their body functioned;

3. those who actively monitored and controlled the impact of their food intake on their weight;

4. those who actively monitored and controlled the impact of their food intake on the way their body functioned and their weight.

The women with Pattern 1 liked their bodies regardless of whether they conformed to societal standards for eating or body weight.

All women in Patterns 2, 3, and 4 conceptualized the body as a battleground and were involved in a constant battle to get their food intake right (as judged by bodily function and/or weight), a process that was cast as moral in their discourse.

A critical difference was that women with Pattern 1 went through a transition in their lives in which they vehemently rejected societal standards for women regarding food, eating and body weight, resulting in a less conflicted relationship with food and body.