From humor to harm
Fat stigma and body esteem in South Asian children’s cartoons
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19228252 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Salma Khatoon (0000-0003-0711-5145, Government College University, corresponding author), Asma Khatoon (0000-0003-2704-7776, Government College University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-8 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Fat Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2160-486X • E-ISSN: 2160-4851 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21604851.2025.2596466 |
| OpenAlex | W7163538512 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
This article reads how fatness has become a composite local cultural metaphor for Fat excesses and disability in South Asian societies. In South Asian cultural discourses, fatness is stereotypically linked to laziness, greed, and incapacity, associations reinforced in media portrayals such as Commander Safeguard. It focuses on the intersection of indigenous experience of fatness and aims to mobilize the way media portrays fat bodies as disgusting while drawing on Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection in analyzing fat characters in children’s indigenous South Asian cartoon series Commander Safeguard by Procter and Gamble, Ltd. Kristeva’s theory of abjection, as propounded in Powers of Horror, emphasizes repulsion caused by bodily experience and explains resultant behaviors in social attitudes. This theory has been analyzed in a psychoanalytic framework to read its impact on the minds of children. My focus is on the cartoon series which celebrates fat as funny, Fat as filthy, and Fat as flagrant. This article concerns itself with the aspect of the body image from Kristevan lens which has not been probed earlier with reference to the portrayal of South Asian fat children’s characters in films/cartoons/kids series. It is in this indigenous context of fat-shaming and body acceptance that I locate the research on the Commander Safeguard series
Asian Indian · Context (archaeology) · Indigenous · Intersection (aeronautics) · Metaphor · Psychoanalytic theory · South asia · Stigma (botany) · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Obesity and Health Practices · South Asian Cinema and Culture
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| Highly cited | No |
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