肥胖污名認同的形成與受壓迫經驗

Abstract

社會對身體分類的權力運作影響身體意象及其自我認同，最能彰顯於肥胖者。Goffman（1963）污名理論指出烙印在人前表現自我嘲謔行為，其生存地位即滑稽角色的扮演。本文採質性訪談、自我敘說與焦點團體座談，以Goffman群體內聯盟心態尋找四位過往肥胖者，藉由其對身體意象詮釋探索肥胖污名認同的形成與受壓迫經驗。研究發現肥胖者經歷不堪其辱的肥胖污名、人格污名，以及受壓迫經驗如肥胖受害者的自我譴責、成就無法彌補的創傷、自我壓迫的胖靈魂、自我揶揄的丑角。肥胖污名與受壓迫經驗伴隨成長而烙印靈魂深處，回復常態體型的過往肥胖者迄今心中仍居住著胖靈魂。本文個案均來自中產階級家庭未出社會的研究生，自我知覺過胖但受訪時已瘦身成功者，故在理論層次與方法面向亦有限制。

The politics of body categorization in the modern society has impact on people’s body image and their self identity. This is mostly exemplified in the obesity whose body attributes were felt to be unordinary and unusual. Goffman’s (1963) stigma theory notes that a stigmatized individual acts out before normals the behavior of self-minstrelization， thereby consolidating a life situation into a clownish role. The study， initiated by the researchers’ self-awareness of obesity that affects one’s mind and spirit， explores the identity formation of obesity stigma. Adopting Goffman’s “in-group alignments” as sampling strategy， this study conducted individual interviews with four research students who experienced obesity. Narrative data were collected from the obesity’s interpretation of their body images and their oppressed experiences when they were overweight. A heterogeneous focused group discussion interview was then conducted with the obesity and the non-obesity to collect the interactive perspectives. This study concludes that obesity as a social stigma is associated with decreased quality of life and personality. Growing up with the oppressed experiences such as victim blaming， self-oppression， and self-minstrelization， they have already stigmatized a spirit of obesity even if no more obese attributes are attached to them now. The conclusion is however limited to the homogeneous sampling strategy in this research.