Abstract
BBW culture has largely remained beneath scholarly interest. As a foundational project exploring these spaces, the choice of methodology was vitally important. In this chapter, I ground the work in feminist standpoint epistemologies before framing the specific methods used: in-depth interviewing and autoethnography. Finally, I explore the frameworks for the analysis later in the book, situating the work in qualitative approaches to thematic analysis guided by feminist frameworks.
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Notes
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For example, the private Facebook groups associated with bashes tend to create a particular emotional environment well before the bash takes place. In general, I have found these groups to maintain a flirty and sexually charged online environment. For instance, while perhaps not intentionally or explicitly, posts that ask members to post a photo of themselves and disclose their age, location, relationship status, and sexual orientation serve a number of purposes, not least of which indicating who may be open to and available for flirting and casual sex at the bash. In my experience, participating in these posts results in several private messages from men attending the bash—messages that intend to make a pre-bash connection with the hope it will turn into something more during the bash weekend. This is common and women often compare notes to see which men are messaging several women at a time. Emotions that circulate as a result: a sense of excitement, competitiveness, inadequacy, and even envy.
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Kotow, C. (2024). Methods and Epistemologies. In: Friedman, M. (eds) The Hidden Lives of Big Beautiful Women. Palgrave Studies in Mediating Kinship, Representation, and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54453-8_3
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