Factionalized Fatshionistas: Dynamics within Collectives of Stigmatized Consumers Engaged in Marketplace Change Efforts

Consumer researchers have typically studied stigmatized consumers as individuals facing powerlessness, constrained product choices, discrimination in customer service, and higher risk in market interactions (Adkins and Ozanne, 2005; Henry and Caldwell, 2006). The focus of this work has tended to be on understanding experiences of marginalization and the tactics individual consumers use to cope with stigma. Researchers have noted, for instance, that instead of withdrawing into an enclave, stigmatized consumers may challenge the stigma by making attempts to participate in mainstream markets (Henry and Caldwell, 2006). Recently, some attention has been directed toward understanding the factors that may lead stigmatized consumers who face marginalization in a particular marketplace to mobilize collectively and to engage in efforts to gain access to the goods and services they desire (Scaraboto and Fischer, 2013). Thus far, however, we lack an understanding of what happens to the collective of stigmatized consumers when they engage in market change efforts. In this study, we address this gap. We ask: What are the consequences, for the collective of consumers who consider themselves to suffer from the stigma, of engagement by stigmatized consumers in efforts to participate in mainstream markets? To address this research question, we have engaged in ongoing online archival research in the network of Fatshionista bloggers and followers that we studied in our earlier work.