Using feminist poststructuralist and postcolonial lenses, we investigate
how young Lebanese-Canadian women discursively construct health in the
current context of a dominant obesity discourse. Participant-centered
conversations on the topic of health were conducted with 20 young Lebanese-
Canadian women. Results attest that the participants construct health as a
matter of physical appearance and more specifically on the basis of being “not
fat.” While doing so, they generally show disgust for overweight and obese
bodies although some participants express compassion as they see obesity as a
deterrent to health and a serious “disease.” Our results address the language
used by participants to construct their multiple and shifting subjectivities as
they speak about health. We reflect on such language and the impact of diasporic
spaces on young women’s changing and complex subject positions.