FROM #BODYPOSITIVE TO #WEIGHTLOSSJOURNEY – EXPLORING WEIGHT LOSS NARRATIVES WITHIN THE FAT COMMUNITY

Resumen

The body positive and fat activist community is an extensive online network crossing many social media platforms, particularly active on Instagram and TikTok. Social media platforms provide “offer opportunities to support, community and practical solutions to issues” (Kyrölä, 2021, p. 113), and a space for resistance (e.g. Puhakka, 2023) for the body positive and fat acceptance movements. Even though there is not a commonly agreed set of rules for body positivity or fat activism, the idea of intentional weight loss has largely been rejected by the fat community in favor of encouraging health promoting behaviors without the need for weight loss. However, the previously unified activist front has started to crack as prominent figures within the fat community have taken a sharp turn from #bodypositive content to documenting their #weightlossjourney. Drawing from heory on master narrative, counter narratives and narrative resistance (Bamberg, 2004; Bamberg & Wipff, 2020; Hochman & Spector‐Mersel, 2020; McLean & Syed, 2015; Meretoja, 2020; Ronai & Cross, 1998), as well as fat studies, I explore online social media weight loss narratives of members of the fat community, as well as the responses from the fat community. More specifically, using digital ethnographic methods, I examine how the weight loss narratives on Instagram and TikTok negotiate between hegemonic narratives and narratives emerging from the fat community. The analysis of #weightlossjourney narratives shows how online activist communities can be splintered when versions of the master narrative the communities have collectively resisted become adapted by members of the community.