Whats Wrong with Fat?

Posted on 25 October 2018 by Abigail C. Saguy

The United States, we are told, is facing an obesity epidemic a battle of the bulge of not just national, but global proportions that requires drastic and immediate action Experts in the media, medical science, and government alike are scrambling to find answers What or who is responsible for this fat crisis, and what can we do to stop it Abigail Saguy argues that these fraught and frantic debates obscure a important question How has fatness come to be understood as a public health crisis at all Why, she asks, has the view of fat as a problem a symptom of immorality, a medical pathology, a public health epidemic come to dominate positive framings of weight as consistent with health, beauty, or a legitimate rights claim in public discourse Why are heavy individuals singled out for blame And what are the consequences of understanding weight in these ways What s Wrong with Fat presents each of the various ways in which fat is understood in America today, examining the implications of understanding fatness as a health risk, disease, and epidemic, and revealing why we ve come to understand the issue in these terms, despite considerable scientific uncertainty and debate Saguy shows how debates over the relationship between body size and health risk take place within a larger, though often invisible, contest over whether we should understand fatness as obesity at all Moreover, she reveals that public discussions of the obesity crisis do harm than good, leading to bullying, weight based discrimination, and misdiagnoses.Showing that the medical framing of fat is literally making us sick, What s Wrong with Fat provides a crucial corrective to our society s misplaced obsession with weight. Download Whats Wrong with Fat? – kino-fada.fr I think there are at least two kinds of truly fabulous books those that articulate something you ve thought or felt, but never seen anyone say before or say so well , and those that overturn the way you think and create new categories and ways of seeing This book was fabulous, for me, in the second way.I stayed up late reading The author is smart, and the writing is clear and nuanced She does a good job of explaining technical terms in academic sociology, and of explaining the notion of fr I think there are at least two kinds of truly fabulous books those that articulate something you ve thought or felt, but never seen anyone say before or say so well , and those that overturn the way you think and create new categories and ways of seeing This book was fabulous, for me, in the second way.I stayed up late reading The author is smart, and the writing is clear and nuanced She does a good job of explaining technical terms in academic sociology, and of explaining the notion of frames the meta ways we ...Here in New England Puritans settled here a long time ago and we have been a nation of morals scolds since the that time We moralize sex, drugs and rock and roll we crusade against alcohol in the 1920s by introducing prohibition We want to reform people and wag the finger at people we believe do not show personal responsibility Thin bodies are not only a symbol of health and beauty but have been moralized into a moral virtue and fat bodies a moral vice Many ...I ve read books about fat acceptance fat rights in the past When I saw this book in the library and read the blurb on the inside cover, I thought I would read something in a similar vein While this book refutes the idea that being overweight or obese is automatically unhealthy and challenges the concept of the obesity epidemic , it sacademic and less polemical in nature than other books I have read on this issue The title of the book is a hint of what Saguy aims to do in this book She I ve read books about fat acceptance fat rights in the past When I saw this book in the library and read the blurb on the inside cover, I thought I would read something in a similar vein While this book refutes the idea that being overweight or obese is automatically unhealthy and challenges the concept of the obesity epidemic , it sacademic and less polemical in nature than other books I have read on this issue The title of the book is a hint of what Saguy aims to do...I read this book for a class, and it was a fascinating read I would have finished it regardless of the course requirements The author did a good job of explaining in clear language any academic terms she used That made it easy to read even for someone with a background in sociology.The author disputes the cultural assumptions about the negative effects of being overweight and the idea of an obesity epidemic While doing so, she draws attention to the way findings from specific studies can be I read this book for a class, and it was a fascinating read I would have finished it regardless of the course requirements The author did a good job of explaining in clear...If I were the type of reader to highlight whole paragraphs, this would be the book in which I d do so.One of the most important revelatory things I learned while studying history in college is that it doesn t matter if something is true or not what matters is if people think it s true and what they do about it Abigail Saguy follows a similar line of thought in What s Wrong with FatShe doesn t test the veracity of claims that obesity is a public health crisis instead she explains how If I were the type of reader to highlight whole paragraphs, this would be the book in which I d do so.One of the most important revelatory things I learned while studying history in college is that it doesn t matter if something is true or not what matters is if people think it s true and what they do about it Abigail Saguy follows a similar line of thought in What s Wrong with FatShe doesn...An excellent analysis of the ways in which fat is framed in the US, challenging the reader to consider how mainstream society s framing of fat and the obesity crisis actually increases the stigma against people of size, which runs completely contrary to promoting the mental ...A fascinating book that explores the frames around fat bodies The attention to race and class is excellent, alongside a recognition of the pressure placed on children to conform to an undefined norm The health at every size movement is well revealed in this book and b...Sharp writing and a must read for anyone interested in the politics of body size Saguy makes a compelling argument that our culture s growing anti fat stigma isharmful to both individuals and society than fatness itself, or the so called obesity epidemic.Reveals how exactly, by whom, for whose gain, and whose harm, the obesity epidemic was constructed.I ve been looking for a book on this topic for a while since I went to a lecture last fall on the obesity paradox The paradox is that obese people arelikely to be diagnosed with a wide variety of conditions but once they are diagnosed, they are likely to have a better outcome than a normal weight person with the same condition There are an increasing number of papers about situations in which higher body weight is protective The author is a sociologist and does not try to address the I ve been looking for a book on this topic for a while since I went to a lecture last fall on the obesity paradox The paradox is that obese people arelikely to be diagnosed with a wide variety of conditions but once they are diagnosed, they are likely to have a better outcome than a normal weight person with the same condition There are...

English
25 October 2018

Abigail C. Saguy