This doctoral dissertation investigates resistances in online body positivity activism in Finland in the latter half of the 2010s. In this work, body positivity activism entails deliberate actions aiming to end the systemic discrimination against fat people. The thesis’ main focus is on the different resistances taking place in the online body positivity activist movement in Finland: extra-movement, intra-movement, and intrapersonal. In addition, I carry out a cross-cultural comparison of the resistances in the Finnish body positivity activist arena and those in a non-Finnish one, represented by a Danish stand-up comedian and fat activist Sofie Hagen. The dissertation is based on online activist content – columns, blog posts, YouTube videos, podcasts, and Facebook posts – created in 2015–2020. To scrutinize the different resistances, I apply multiple case study methodology. In terms of theory, this dissertation draws from fat studies, gender studies, and queer studies. I employ several methods of data analysis: qualitative content analysis, discourse analysis and discursive strategies, reparative reading, as well as dialogic thematic analysis. The results of this study shed light on the aforementioned three types of resistance. First, extra-movement resistance (directed at those who are not body positivity activists) occurs mainly through four discursive strategies: confrontation, instruction, seeking harmony, and introspection. Second, meaning negotiations and resistance also happen inside the movement, that is, among body positivity activists themselves. Issues such as intersectionality and intra-movement marginalization are brought to the fore. Third, intrapersonal resistance takes place as well, which means that activists experience ambivalence regarding their position, on one hand, as human rights advocates and, on the other hand, as persons who recognize the societal pressure (and a personal wish) not to be fat. Finally, cross-cultural convergences between the Finnish and non-Finnish resistances exist, yet they appear in varying degrees in the activists’ work.

Keywords: fatness, body positivity, fat activism, online activism, resistance, gender, intersectionality, fat studies