Rethinking Obesity by Monaghan, Lee F.; Rich, Emma; Bombak, Andrea E.;

Short description:

Rethinking Obesity invites readers to reconsider the medical and public health framing of population weight (gain) as a massive global problem, epidemic or crisis. Attentive to social values, scientific uncertainty and possible harms, the book furthers critique of the weight-centered health paradigm and world war on obesity.

Long description:

Theoretically informed and empirically grounded, Rethinking Obesity invites readers to reconsider the medical and public health framing of population weight (gain) as a massive global problem, epidemic or crisis. Attentive to social values, scientific uncertainty and possible harms, the book furthers critique of the weight-centred health paradigm and world war on obesity. Building upon existing international literature from critical weight studies, fat studies and critical obesity research, the book advances scholarship with reference to body politics and health policy, epidemiology and obesity science, media reporting and weight-related stigma.

The authors resist the common moralised narrative that ‘the overweight majority’ are lazy, gluttonous, and personally responsible for their actual or potential ills and the solution ultimately necessitates individual lifestyle change. Critique is also extended to seemingly compassionate public health interventions that putatively avoid victim-blaming through an appeal to ‘the obesogenic environment’, a consequence of modern living. Empirical case studies are grounded in women’s repeated and often frustrating experiences of dieting and schoolgirls’ encounters with fat pedagogy, which challenges dominant obesity discourse. Recognising that declared public health crises may become layered and cascade through society, this book also includes timely research on the COVID-19 pandemic response amidst concerns about lockdown weight-gain, heightened risk of infection and death among people deemed overweight and obese.

Rethinking Obesity interrogates how social injustice is reproduced not only through cruelty but also through seemingly benevolent representations, pedagogies and policies. Alternative approaches and action, ranging from weight-inclusive health paradigms to broader social change, are also considered when seeking to foster collective hope in crisis times. This is valuable reading for students and researchers in medical sociology, social and population health sciences, physical education, critical weight and fat studies, and the social dimensions of the body.

Table of Contents:

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Series Editors’ Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The Global Obesity Crisis: Situating Critique in a Broader Context








2. Critical Perspectives: Key Themes and Meta-Critique








3. Pedagogising Obesity Knowledges and the Recontextualisation of Policy







Part 2: Researching Matters of Fat







4. Obesity, Bodily Change and Health Identities: A Study of Canadian Women








5. Exploring Fat Pedagogy and Critical Health Education with Schoolgirls: Rethinking ‘Britain’s Child Obesity Disgrace’








6. Degrading Bodies in Pandemic Times: Politicising Cruelty during the COVID-19 and Obesity Crises







Part 3: Critically Exploring Alternatives, Fostering Collective Hope







7. Tired of Diets? From HAES® to a More Radical Approach








8. Rethinking Obesity in the (Post) COVID Society: Paving the Way for More ‘Rounded’ Knowledge and Collective Action

Epilogue: Resist TINA, Recognise TARA