JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
FIGURE 1
BLOGGER GABI GREGG ON YOUNG, FAT, AND FABULOUS.
is, however, a partial overlap between membership in the.
Fat Acceptance and Fatshionista communities, and most of.
the latter endorse basic principles of the Fat Acceptance.
Movement, in particular acceptance of their body size (Kinzel.
2010).
Online posts by consumers concerned with fashion and.
the limited plus-size options available have grown steadily.
over the past 5 years. These posts are often illustrated with
photos of carefully produced outfits that seem meant to illustrate.
attractive images of plus-sized women wearing fashionable.
clothing (for an example, see fig. 1). Fashion bloggers
and those who converse about their posts are central.
to our study, which we now describe.
METHOD
A qualitative study of the Fatshionista bloggers 'and followers'.
quest to change the plus-size fashion market was.
conducted in order to answer our research questions: What.
triggers prompt consumers to seek great inclusion in mainstream.
markets and a more satisfactory set of offerings from.
mainstream marketers? What strategies will consumers use
when they seek greater inclusion and choice?
We initially set out to understand the broader context.
around which the Fatshionistas operate: the Fatosphere. In
order to do so, we conducted a netnography, following the.
recommendations of Kozinets (2010). For more than 3 years,
we followed the online interactions of bloggers and their.
audiences in the Fatosphere by observing, reading, and archiving.
selected posts and comments published in various.
blogs. We observed as full as possible an array of blogs.
addressing fat acceptance in order to achieve a rich understanding.
of the issues of importance for those who identify.
with the movement as a whole. We also participated by
posting questions and commenting online. In addition, we