Gorda demais para existir? Uma análise dos afetos mobilizados pelo corpo da influenciadora Thaís Carla no Instagram

Abstract

This research aims to investigate which affections are mobilized in the comments of internet users on two posts by the fat influencer Thaís Carla on Instagram: the first, published before her bariatric surgery, and the second, posted after the procedure. The comparative analysis of these two moments makes it possible to understand which affections are mobilized by a fat body in the digital environment. The hypothesis is that the comments on Thaís Carla’s posts mobilize contradictory affections, at times reinforcing body representativeness on the internet, at other times feeding the persistence of stigmas related to dissident bodies. This highlights that the platform profits both from resistance and from controversy, while the fat body is converted into a product that serves a logic of consumption and surveillance. The approach was exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative. The specific objectives were: to create similarity graphs based on the comments made by internet users on two posts by Thaís Carla; to analyze the color clusters present in the graphs; to categorize the comments according to Content Analysis (Bardin, 2016), relating these categories to Spinozian affections; and, finally, to conduct a comparative analysis of the affections mobilized. The results showed that, in the first post, insults and derogatory comparisons prevailed, mobilizing sad affects such as hatred, fear, and indignation; in the second post, compliments increased, but with the expectation of weight loss, revealing how discourses are permeated by the logic of aesthetic entrepreneurship. However, it was demonstrated that the exposure of dissident bodies is capable of generating communities of collective support. Thus, compliments and insults coexist and can both be captured as commodities by the algorithmic logic, which instrumentalizes both admiration and repulsion to maintain engagement. In this way, the fat body can be simultaneously celebrated and attacked, but never escapes surveillance or judgment.