Queering Fat

Abstract

Thus, there is an organic connection among fat, black, and queer as cultural signifiers of otherness. This phenomenon is frequently depicted semiotically in representation in various cultural texts. Tracy Turnblad’s alliance with the black characters in Hairspray is one example, and I will explore the link between fat white women and black bodies further in my discussion of fat actress Kirstie Alley. Furthermore, as I pointed out in some of the plays from earlier chapters, we frequently see an implicit association with fat and gay characters, such as Vicky and James in My Fat Friend, or Maggie and Jerry, the gay cop in Fat Chance. And in Ma Rainey, Wilson is sure to include the character of Dussie Mae, Mis lesbian lover. This is based on biographical fact, of course, but it is remarkable that the playwright opts to make that detail explicit in the narrative, which otherwise has nothing to do with Ma being lesbian. Andrea Elizabeth Shaw reminds us of the implied connection between black female bodies and deviant sexuality. “[T]he fat black woman’s sexuality is sometimes positioned in tandem with culture’s other sexual issues and beyond the scope of her individual behavior. As a result her “freakishness” is resituated from the site of her body onto the site of the popular body politic and becomes a reflection of her culture’s sexual taboos. Her body is a venue of expression of cultural anxieties related to bodily transgression, particularly those that are sexual.”¹ Certainly homosexual behavior can be lumped into these cultural anxieties, and a fat black lesbian would be the ultimate transgressor.