Fat and trans: Towards a new theorization of gender in Fat Studies

The aim of this chapter is to explore how and why bringing Fat Studies and Transgender studies together could produce new ways of thinking about gender in Fat Studies. On the face of it Fat Studies and Trans Studies appear to have much in common; they are both interdisciplinary fields, both oriented towards anti-oppressive goals and they both have a common interest in elaborating theoretical accounts of non-normative embodiments. However, despite this shared ground the two fields have, as yet, rarely intersected and as I will argue, this has resulted in accounts of gender in Fat Studies which both exclude the experiences of fat transgender people and limit understandings of the relationship between fat and gender. Finally, this chapter offers a critique of existing work in Fat Studies, not to castigate it, but to suggest that its cis-centrism precludes a full realization of fat’s central role in the production and destabilization of binary gender