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ScholarWorks > Arts & Sciences > English > COMPDR > Vol. 60 (2026) > Iss. 3

 

Making Weigh for the Monster: Finding Hope for Fat Liberation in the Work of Celesta Geyer and Veronika Merklein

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Those of us who have been known since antiquity as "monsters" and more recently as "freaks" defy the ordinary and mock the predictable, exciting both anxiety and speculation among our more banal brethren. Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body1

The fat body has often been figured as monstrously abnormal, as bodily excess brings it into a type of (in)visibility predicated on narratives that can be traced back hundreds of years, notably to the American freak show circuit of the 19th and 20th centuries. Though the terms freak and monster are distinct and denote different meanings, both terms indicate a state of abject otherness and are often deployed to render the subject inhuman in order to establish normative control of the abnormal and unruly body—whether that be in the context of medical science or sideshow entertainments. The role of the fat lady in the freak show is still recognizable today even as circus and freak show circuits fade out of existence and social awareness around issues of disability, class, and race increases. Despite a perceived rise in body positivity, fat performance genealogies work to showcase fat theatrical histories while pointing towards hopeful fat performance futures. With spectacles like Disney's The Greatest Showman and TLC's My 600-pound Life, fat bodies are continually put through a process of enfreakment for entertainment purposes. This process, in which fat performers are forced to navigate a theatrical world that echoes the anti-fat systems of wider society, is one that has been alive and well since the 1800s.

Comparative Drama is carried by JSTOR and Project MUSE.

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