---

Within western culture, most women largely identify themselves, and are substantially identified by the greater society, via their bodies. Body identity has been established as a core component of identity, especially for Caucasian, middle class women living within the United States. Many studies have examined body identity, but few have focused on weight identity. Therefore, an exploration of weight identity is integral to understanding how women subjectively define themselves. This research examines role-related weight identity in very fat women. Working from a psychosocial perspective, this study places role-related weight identity within the late modern context to understand how very fat women, that is, women who have a body mass index rating of 40 or higher, conceptualize their sense of themselves. This study defines weight identity as a role in which an individual constructs a sense of self-addressing their body mass and physical representation to the world. Using interview data, this study examined the construction,maintenance, and revision of role- related weight identity in very fat women.

---

Cat Pausé, PhD is a Fat Studies researcher at Massey University, New Zealand. Her research focuses on issues related to fat identity construction, maintenance, and revision. Dr. Pausé also maintains a presence in the Fatosphere with her blog, on Tumblr, and through her podcast, ´Friend of Marilyn´.

---