Monstrualne demonstracje : kulturowa reprezentacja otyłości

Abstract

The Latin etymology of the word “monster” refers to traditions of folk performances and public exposition of otherness. A horrifying and, at the same time, inspiring monstrosity has become “a performance of pleasure”, a fascinating “madness of visibility” to quote Linda Williams or a “pornography of degenerations” to refer to a teratological term by Rosi Braidotti. In a feministic conception of post-humanistic subjectivity, the figure of monster is becoming a promise of total transgression, overcoming the categories of binary oppositions and deconstructing tight borders of the human and the non-human. Still, though, we observe the expansion of Cartesian subjects, the cultural representation of which assumes the proportions of an unattainable ideal of the beauty. Between the centre of the “identity policy” understood as a unified biding and universal standard and the margin of monstrosity femininity captured within the frames of the excessive figure weaves while obesity remains a darkened phenomenon and not subject to any rules of representation. The aim of the article is to trace any manifestations of obesity in the western country in which fat is still perceived as an abject substance; an internalized form of what is non-human, an intuitive nature of foreignness. What promise does the monstrosity of obesity bring then? Can a representation of “misfitted” bodies lead to loosening a tight standard limit and become a counterbalance to the hegemony of representation? Does a monstrous demonstration of obesity exist and, if so, where does it lead to?