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ABSTRACT
Using autoethnography and configuring narrative reflections, this article interrogates my personal experiences as a man whose body has been changed by bariatric surgery. The autoethnographic account engages questions relating to family, health history, community, and identity. The narrative reflections are embodied memories that testify to a family history of obesity and diabetes that foreground the challenges faced by those who are faced with the radical option of weight-loss surgery to save their lives. The narrative reflections propose to transform our understanding of bariatric surgery and is consistent with others’ stories in communication scholarship that privileges personal experience within health care. Questions for future research include the unresolved roles of gender and biological sex in the creation of an altered narrative understanding of the obese self.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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Notes on contributors
D. S. Brown
D. S. Brown, Jr. (PhD, Louisiana State University) is professor of communication studies at Grove City (Pennsylvania) College. Brown’s research specialties include rhetorical criticism and media law. This article was prepared during a sabbatical leave generously provided by the Office of the Provost at the College. An earlier version of the article was presented at the Eastern Communication Association’s annual conference meeting in Boston in November 2016. The author acknowledges the valuable critique and direction given by two anonymous colleagues.