Reading Sarai Walker’sDietland: Body Positivity and Power Feminism Through Chick-Lit Narratives

Abstract

Sarai Walker’s Dietland foregrounds the issues of Body image, beauty and Body positivity while portraying the difficult process of self-actualization undertaken by the protagonist. The paper seeks to explore how Walker has critiqued representations in the media and its role in circulating a beauty myth which has been engendered by patriarchy. The paper also tries to establish that contrary to the motifs of the chick lit genre, contemporary women have the power to create separate standards of beauty and foster body-positivity by working as a cohesive sisterhood. Female subjectivity must be negotiated from a position of power rather than from the position of being a victim.