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.
