Fat Bodies in Thin Books: Information Bias and Body Image in Academic Libraries

Abstract

The authors discuss the impact that the organization of information has on radical fat politics and a fat-positive feminist agenda. In particular, they explore the classification and categorization of books by the Library of Congress, as their cataloging decisions have a profound influence on information retrieval patterns of library users worldwide. At the root of the project is the belief that humans' worth and treatment by others should not be related to their size.

Keywords:

• body image
• cataloging
• discrimination
• fat studies
• libraries
• medicalization