Date of Award

1-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bernadette M. Calafell, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Frederique Chevillot

Third Advisor

Kate Willink

Fourth Advisor

Christina F. Foust

Keywords

Fat, Feminist theory, Interpretive critique, Intersectionality, Myth narrative, Reality Television, TV

Abstract

Obesity is on the rise in the United States and reality television has also risen to the charge of representing fatness. More to Love was the first reality competition dating show to afford fat women a chance at reality show love. The purpose of the study was to look at how fat women are portrayed on reality competition dating shows. The purpose of this study is to understand how the mythic narrative of love through a feminist lens informed by LeBesco, Bordo, Hill Collins, and hooks are in conversation with each other in More to Love. This study found that the women were written into a fairy tale where they were afforded no ownership in their story. The bachelor, Luke, and their fatness controlled their destinies and their "happily-ever-afters." Their identity was portrayed through their fatness, gender, and sexual orientation over any other identifying markers. The relationships with Luke and with food were found to be the main relationships evident. The study found that the show is unsuccessful in normalizing fat women as equally afforded the myth of love as thin women. It proliferates the totalizing of the identity of fat while minimalizing any other identity.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Amy LeAnn Zsohar

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

159 p.

Discipline

Communication

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