Narrative and obesity: Managing weight stigma associated with bariatric surgery

Abstract

The present study examined how individuals who have been clinically diagnosed as obese explain their decision to undergo bariatric surgery and how they deal with the stigmatization that such a decision may entail. A total of 23 participants (15 women and 8 men) who were awaiting bariatric surgery within the Spanish healthcare system, were interviewed about their weight trajectory and their decision to undergo this surgery. In order to examine the participants’ stories, a narrative analysis of the interviews was conducted, with attention to both content (what they told) and structure (how they told) and examining the stories in line with the socially and culturally available narratives that they had access to, and the context in which the stories were produced. The participants explained their weight trajectory through the origin of their weight, the failure to control it, and their decision to have surgery to solve the weight problem. The narrative of a sick body that needs to be restored appeared to function as a schema or script through which participants attempted to defend themselves from anti-fat narratives that assume personal failure while at the same time presenting themselves as deserving to be operated on. Through their narratives, they positioned themselves as undeserving of stigma but did not challenge the stigma itself.