The Body as Spectacle?: Fat Shaming and/or Claiming in Contemporary Ghana.

In Ghana, for the most part, an overweight woman is not likely to be viewed as one deserving scorn, but one to be admired. There are, however, limits to how overweight one is allowed to get on the African continent, Ghana being no exception. Terms like ‘obolo’ and ‘cargo’ convey a sense of unacceptable body imagery in Ghana. It is based on this background that we examined the maiden edition of the Di Asa reality show, which is a dance reality show created in 2017 for overweight and obese market women. We investigated whether the Di Asa show is a fat shaming platform which ‘commodifies’ overweight and obese market women for entertainment, or a fat claiming platform for these women.