Deny, Reassure, and Deflect
Evidence and Implications of Forms and Norms of Fat Talk
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24315204 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cindi L Sturtzsreetharan (0000-0001-7528-8991, Arizona State University), Monet Ghorbani (Arizona State University), Alexandra Brewis (0000-0003-3769-4205, Arizona State University), Amber Wutich (Arizona State University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 2-3 |
| Pages | 99-124 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cross-Cultural Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1069-3971 • E-ISSN: 1552-3578 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10693971231199373 |
| OpenAlex | W4386447966 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 53 |
Fat talk is a conversational interaction recognized through comments like “Does this make me look fat?” In the US, based on psychological lab-based investigations, fat talk is defined as highly damaging for women and actively targeted for various interventions. Using a discourse completion task (DCT), we present normative responses ( N = 313) to fat talk prompts testing women’s fat talk patterns across diverse languages and socio-cultural contexts. Based on replies from the DCT deployed in seven countries, we find that the normative response in all sites is always denial (“No, you aren’t!”) and often followed by additional reassurance (“you look good”). The consistency of findings suggests fat talk is an emergent global conversational form with shared, recognized rules among casual acquaintances. The normative denial response suggests positive functions where interactional fat talk reaffirms and reassures peer affiliation and membership. Ultimately, we suggest that fat talk may serve as a mundane rejection of everyday fatphobia; interventions posing fat talk as always harmful may simply reaffirm experiences of fat stigma by attempting to restrict the interpretation to only negative.
conversational norms · cross-cultural comparison · discourse completion test · fat talk · fatphobia · peer affiliation · reassurance · Weight stigma · Women · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Obesity and Health Practices
Biological Citizenship
Structures of Social Action
Politeness
Research Methods in Interlanguage Pragmatics
The Stigma of Obesity
The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data
Language in use
Exploring adolescent girls’ experiences of body talk in non‐aesthetic sport
The Complexity and Variability of Self-Deprecation in Korean Conversation
Cross-Cultural Differences between Japanese and American Female College Students in the Effects of Witnessing Fat Talk on Facebook
Speech Acts Across Cultures
Fearing the Black Body The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia
Obesity stigma as a globalizing health challenge
The Lumps and Bumps of Aesthetic Labor
Effects of witnessing fat talk on body satisfaction and psychological well-being
Fat in four cultures
Negotiating Popular Obesity Discourses in Adolescence
I need to lose some weight”
If You’re Fat, Then I’m Humongous!”
Fat Talk Among College Women is Both Contagious and Harmful
Gender Comparisons of Fat Talk in the United Kingdom and the United States
Gender Differences in Fat Talk Among American Adults
Prospective associations of co-rumination with friendship and emotional adjustment
A contrastive study of compliment responses among Australian English and Mandarin Chinese speakers
The demographics of fat talk in adult women
Weight-related stigma is a significant psychosocial stressor in developing countries
Fat talk
Responding to compliments A contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers
Social distance and speech behavior
Belly of the Beast
Universal and Culture-Specific Properties of Greetings
Food Insecurity and Body Norms among Rural Guatemalan Schoolchildren
Body Norms and Fat Stigma in Global Perspective
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |