Fattening Up Foucault: A ‘Fat’ Counter-Aesthetic?

Abstract

I would like to begin my discussion here with an account of a personal humiliation: an intense experience of my own ‘fat’ body’s ‘look-at-edness’. Just over a year ago, I attended a seminar in a series of papers on sexuality. In this particular session, the paper delivered explored issues relating to masculinity. A colleague had conducted interviews with young male cadets training at the Australian Defence Force Academy, where a number of young men talked openly about their sexual experiences and practices. One of the young cadets relayed the story of an apparently common sexual activity known as the ‘Rodeo’.