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Bodily Sensibility: Vocabularies of the Discredited Male Body

  • Chapter
Debating Obesity

Abstract

When discussing the embarrassing and emasculating topic of ‘man breasts’, Longhurst (2005) draws attention to the abjection of fat men as ugly, despised, fearful and grotesque. Referring to the film Goldmember, starring Mike Myers as Austin Powers, Longhurst (2005: 175) mentions Fat Bastard who ‘has huge, rounded hairy shoulders, a large belly and ample womanly breasts’. Rather than reserved, Fat Bastard exhibits considerable bravado with sayings (spoken with a Scottish accent) like ‘I’m dead sexy!’ (Longhurst, 2005: 175). For British men, the ‘fat bastard’ label may also be publicly worn as a badge of pride, rather than shame, or at least admitted to as a part of their identity. The following ethnographic extract refers to this and other vulgarised idioms through which men, who may be medically defined as ‘obese’, construct ‘acceptable’ identities:

I was drinking with Mac and Jimbo, working-class Scottish fellas in their forties. Mac said he’s called ‘Big Mac’ at his ‘local boozer’ adding, ‘obviously, not because I’m big like, but because I’m a fat bastard’. He then quipped: ‘I’m not like you Jimbo. I admit I’m a fat bastard’. Jimbo, matter-of-factly, replied: ‘Okay, I’m a fat bastard. But if anybody called me a fat CUNT I’d do that to them!’ Jimbo, with a mad glare, then pretended to slit his throat with his index finger.

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Authors
  1. Lee F. Monaghan
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  2. Michael Hardey
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bath, UK

    Emma Rich

  2. University of Limerick, Ireland

    Lee F. Monaghan

  3. Coventry University, UK

    Lucy Aphramor

Copyright information

© 2011 Lee F. Monaghan and Michael Hardey

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Monaghan, L.F., Hardey, M. (2011). Bodily Sensibility: Vocabularies of the Discredited Male Body. In: Rich, E., Monaghan, L.F., Aphramor, L. (eds) Debating Obesity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304239_3

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