Anti-Fatness in the Age of Ozempic: Shame and Rhetorics of Empowered Neoliberal Subjectivity

In analyzing mediated discourses emergent from the “age of Ozempic,” modern rhetorical constructions of “obesity” and weight loss represent a recharacterization of body/weight shame towards empowered conduct. I argue this constitutes an affective shift which calls forth biomedicalization and capacitation of fat bodies towards the thin ideal, reframing “good” neoliberal citizenship through a lens of progress. Positioning this rhetoric in the context of neoliberal self-governance demonstrates state interest in maintaining thinness, particularly as it intersects with racial and gender identities. Writing across multiple different fields/sub-disciplines, this thesis presents an assemblage of theoretical perspectives including biopolitics and -medicine, constitutive rhetoric, invitational rhetoric, phenomenology, and feminist studies. Thus, the interdisciplinary nature of this work advances the ability to consider affective and capitalist entanglements of the health and wellness industry, while also furthering rhetorical critique on the primacy of disciplining and maintaining fat embodiment in Western culture.