Media promote the ideal of a thin body, regularly emphasizing that being overweight is undesirable. And the weightloss industry perpetuates the idea that fat people can and should do something to lose...

Media promote the ideal of a thin body, regularly emphasizing that being overweight is undesirable. And the weightloss industry perpetuates the idea that fat people can and should do something to lose weight, showing fat bodies as the shameful “before” image to avoid at all costs. In the context of such prevalent stigma, fat acceptance blogs—what bloggers refer to as the “fatosphere”—offer a social world where a heavy body is not a source of shame. Instead of exclusion and blame, the fatosphere provides an experience of inclusion and support. Such support takes three distinct forms: