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Week 13 Readings: Fatness and Health - Coggle Diagram
Week 13 Readings: Fatness and Health
Fatuous Measures: The Artificial Construction of the Obesity Epidemic
Artificial Constructivism: techniques, laboratory practices, conventions, observational methods, instrumentation, and measurements that produce scientific facts
This theory does not deny that a phenomenon materially exists, but acknowledges that tools bring it to being
"Obesity Epidemic" is not wrong but is painted in a way to overdramatize certain elements and under specify others
Use of BMI to measure adiposity
categories to mean rates of obesity
fractions to establish excess deaths
Bell curves to define normality
There are discrepancies in studies of obesity deaths which lead some to say it is socially constructed
In the real world, variation is normal and averages are abstractions
Neoliberalism, Public Health, and Moral Perils of Fatness
War on obesity (relationship between weight and health) may undermine human wellness
We live in an "obesogenic environment" which is not the best way to preserve good health
Public health strategies currently target behavior and appearance of individual bodies
examples: proposed legislation to combat obesity by excluding obese people from eating at certain establishments, actions of weighing students in schools
Fatness is equated with unhealthiness
False notion: Fitness is better health indication than fatness
Draper Case: example of "othering" and marginalization of not conforming to lifestyle and medical norms
Negative consequences of school practices include decreasing individual self-esteem
School lunch reform simple about obesity, not array of other issues
"Healthism": elevates healthy lifestyles to a high moral calling