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Ideologies & Narratives in Relation to ‘Fat’ Children as Bullies, ‘Easy Targets’ and Victims
Author(s) -
SimsSchouten Wendy,
Cowie Helen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/chso.12147
Subject(s) - narrative , focus group , relation (database) , focus (optics) , obesity , psychological resilience , psychology , developmental psychology , ideology , social psychology , gender studies , sociology , medicine , endocrinology , political science , politics , literature , art , law , physics , database , anthropology , computer science , optics
In this study, we explore narratives in relation to ‘fatness’, drawing on focus group interviews with parents, early years practitioners, teachers and young people. The study is located in a larger study on bullying and resilience, with no specific focus on obesity or ‘fatness’. Analysis of the interview data highlighted a recurrent focus on ‘fatness’ within the participants’ narratives, by labelling and stigmatising the ‘fat kid’ and ‘bigger children’. We conclude that obesity and fatness, as abnormalities, are now included in commonsense talk in relation to ‘easy targets’, victims and bullies.