| dc.description.abstract | This research project explores my journey as a Mestizo Latinx Immigrant woman in
Canada and how, with a body transformation, I came to realize that I have an internalized anti-fat
bias. As an autoethnographer, I delve into my life experiences, feelings, and memories to
discover when this started and how much family, cultural context, education, and healthcare
systems influenced its development. In this thesis, I discuss themes such as intersectional
oppression, immigration, colonization, family interactions, and anti-fat stigma and bias, mostly in
my home country, but also what I have experienced in two years of living in Canada. The
findings of this research show: how the lack of attention on topics such as body and food
relationships in the educational system affects the later development of a distorted body image
and possible eating problems; how the colonization system influenced centuries of history such
that a family can be led to grow with anti-fat stigma and bias; and how many racist ideals are
perpetuated and enforced in younger generations, which in my case meant being forced into
restricted dieting all my life. Finally, through the literature and analysis, this thesis examines and
deconstructs how I reached the point where “fat” became a liberating word, a word of power,
rather than a negative descriptor used to make me feel inferior. Through research, I built a new,
powerful definition that empowers my body image, heals my journey, and leads me to advocate
for a more diverse and inclusive world with different body shapes and sizes. | en_US |
