Analyzing Intersectional Ableist and Fatphobic Discourses in Digital Spaces. The Case of TikTok

Medicalized definitions of obesity and disability classify them as conditions under which people experience serious physical and psychological pathologies affecting the body (WHO, 2022a, 2022b), having severe implications in their daily lives and forcing them to face inequalities at the personal, social, political, and cultural levels. There is currently no agreement on whether obesity is a disability (Puhl et al., 2021); nevertheless, ableism and fatphobia frequently intersect (Flint & Snook, 2015), accentuating weight and disability stigma in offline and online environments (Balirano & Hughes, 2020a; Nisco, 2020; Hughes & Nisco, 2022; Raffone, 2022a, 2022b; Nisco, 2023). As Goffman (1963: 3) points out, stigma is “an attribute that is deeply discrediting” and it is caused by stereotypes and mental models embedded in society. Hate Speech against fat people has been attested in literature, especially concerning their representation in the press (Brookes & Baker, 2021; Coltman-Patel, 2023) and in social media spaces (SMSs) (Chou et al., 2014; Balirano & Hughes, 2020b). Indeed, although social media have become places where counteracting narratives around these issues are shared, and several anti-discrimination laws have been spread over the years, Hate Speech Online (HSO) is still pervasive. Despite the abovementioned research, to the best of our knowledge, no investigations have been conducted so far on fatphobia at its intersection with ableism in SMSs. Accordingly, this paper will examine an under-researched form of HSO, namely discriminatory behaviours against fat people with disabilities, through a quantitative (Kilgarriff, 2012; Kilgarriff et al., 2004) and qualitative (KhosraviNik, 2017; van Dijk, 2014) approach, to provide insights into how hateful intersectional discourses on disability and obesity/fatness are construed and enacted, focusing on how social media users participate in the process of meaning production.