Reproduce “Building Solidarity Amid Hostility: Experiences of Fat People in Online Communities” on OpenResearch
Turn your favorite coding agents into research agents that review literature, develop hypotheses, and run experiments.
Universal app for Apple silicon and Intel. Requires macOS 11 or later.
About this paper
Blakeley H. Payne, Jordan Taylor, Katta Spiel, Casey Fiesler
This qualitative study explores the complex online experiences of fat individuals, demonstrating how digital communities foster solidarity and identity re-conceptualization while simultaneously exposing users to harassment and discriminatory algorithmic design. The research highlights the need for HCI to recognize fatness as a marginalized social identity and to design more equitable online platforms.
Key insights
- Online communities serve as crucial spaces for fat individuals to engage in "consciousness raising," helping them understand systemic anti-fat oppression and re-conceptualize their personal identity struggles as societal issues.
- Fat people utilize online platforms for practical support, such as finding fat-friendly healthcare and clothing recommendations, thereby navigating an anti-fat physical world.
- Significant sociotechnical harms include direct harassment and "concern trolling," under-moderation of anti-fat hate speech, and algorithmic biases that misclassify fat bodies or promote harmful stereotypical representations.
Summary by alphaXiv.
Tip: change arxiv.org to autoarxiv.org in any arXiv abstract link to open the paper here.