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same thematic treatments as her obese, unintelligible body did. In this paradoxical move,
bodies that matter suddenly become complicated by their own discursive strategies.
Wilson's body spoke back to culture…improperly. It was rude and arrogant by
skipping all procedures and protocols. It took on a surgical action, skipping the culturally
condoned steps of diet, physical stress and strain, and consumer regulated weight loss. By
speaking its mind quickly and effectively through a surgical procedure, Wilson's body
has cheated. It has taken on the borders of intelligibility through the improper channels
and cultural discourse is not only punishing her for it, but culture is also rendering such a
thin body, achieved by such means, one that doesn't yet matter.
Clearly, the two bodies changed over time and interestingly, popular press
continued to chronicle their transformation. Gold's bodily struggle transforms into a
healthy well being, a personal success, and an individual moment--one she doesn't "enjoy
talking about" (Wolf, 1993, p. 25). Wilson's struggle, however, moves from first, a
desperate and necessary beginning to one that positions her as a public role model who
"lectures about her struggles nationwide" (Scott, p. 102).
What Wilson and Gold's cases help to illuminate is though the two bodies act
similarly in producing discourse about them, their stories are told differently. And though
they are similarly outside the bounds of intelligibility, as theorists argue both the plus-
size and the anorexic are hyperfeminine and excessive, the anorexic is positioned as
lingering barely within the realm of the intelligible, a position of needing to be pulled
back in, saved. The plus-size or obese form, however, is positioned as continually trying
to enter cultural space, feeling the pressure to conform and constantly being forced out
through expense, criticism, or social pressure. The parallel struggles in discourse
Convention