Between the slender and the obese: narratives of women who have had bariatric surgery

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the self meaning-making in people who underwent bariatric surgery to reduce their weight. Guided by the narrative approach, we apply the concept of position to understand the meaning-making process about the self. Two adults who underwent bariatric surgery at a hospital in the Metropolitan Region of Recife are part of the study. Narrative interviews were used as a technique and positioning analysis was the analytical strategy employed. We suggest the research participants position themselves as obese people who are socially constrained, who feel inadequate about how they look, who cannot dance, who cannot wear certain clothes; (2) thereby they reaffirme the dominant narrative of the slim contour as “the norm”; (3) for the research participants, the bariatric surgery served as a tool of empowerment that promotes a transformation in their sense of self from being at the margins to feeling a sense of social belonging and personal acceptance.