It's Not Because I'm Fat: Perceived Overweight and Anger Avoidance in Marriage

Employed married Israeli women responded to questions about their perceived weight, their husbands' evaluation of their appearance, and their expression of anger in marriage. Our data, based on 125 questionnaires and five in-depth interviews, supports the possibility that women who perceive themselves as overweight, that is, "fail" to live up to the standards of female beauty in society, often suppress their anger and express it in limited areas. Our findings suggest that women who have not been able to resist the appearance-directed normative imperative in the constitution of their feminine self have to work harder to meet gender norms that require "emotion work" in the form of anger avoidance.