Weight of Images

Dr. Katariina Kyrölä is Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Turku, Finland. Her current research involves the concept of body image in feminist scholarship, body activist media, pornography, difficult to watch or ‘triggering’ images, and queer indigenous studies. Her work has also appeared journals such as Sexualities, International Journal of Cultural Studies, lambda nordica: the Nordic journal of LGBTQ studies, and is forthcoming in Feminist Theory. She is the co-editor-in-chief of the Finnish Journal of Gender Studies.

'... Kyrola’s new text marks a theoretical contribution to the field of Fat Studies...' Fat Studies 'The Weight of Images brings new and useful theoretical frameworks to bear on fat studies. Kyrola offers nuanced close readings of media representations of fatness, aptly noting how they animate power structures as they interact with viewing bodies. Her analysis of our affective engagements with fat - our fear, disgust, shame, pride, laughter and more - illuminate feminist media studies as well.' Kathleen LeBesco, Marymount Manhattan College, USA 'The representation of fat bodies within media is investigated through an intersectional and feminist lens in The Weight of Images. Special attention is paid to the visceral response that portrayals of fatness invoke in the observer, and how these responses reinforce existing power structures and normative narratives around bodies. The Weight of Images is an important text for critical scholars.' Cat Pausé, Massey University, New Zealand '... psychologists who have been primarily interested in media representations and not fat ones will find that this focus is revelatory. So, too, will people from public health, sociology, communications, media studies, women’s and gender studies and, of course, from cultural studies. ... This book throws open media doors to show a profusion of images of fatness and an abundance of ideas about their psychological concomitants. ... it is worth digesting.' PsycCritiques'The book’s thoughtful approach to the concept of body image – understood from a phenomenological approach that is inspired by feminist philosopher Gail Weiss’ excellent work on intercorporeality – will appeal to interdisciplinary scholars who are more broadly interested in understanding corporeality both as it is imaged and as it is lived.' Somatechnics

• Chapter 1 Introduction: The Weight of Looks; Chapter 2 Threatening Information: Politics of Fear in the News; Chapter 3 Inciting Transformation: Dieting Away Disgust and Shame?; Chapter 4 Disturbing Incongruity: Laughter as Corporeal Training; Chapter 5 Intruding Explosions: Stretching Bodies and Death; Chapter 6 Affirming Positivity: Desire and Fat Acceptance; Chapter 7 Expanding Body Images: Conclusion;