Tag healthism:

Leftist Politics and the “Significant Burden” of Fatness

Posted on by Elisabeth Lechner

In July 2024, after 14 years of conservative Tory rule, the British Labour party won a general election. Shortly after their landslide victory, in October, an interesting case study on fat politics played out in the UK. Keir Starmer, the party’s newly elected prime minister, announced he wanted to get fat, unemployed people back onto the job market with the help of free “weight loss injections,” a new turn of the screw in dystopian diet culture. In this piece, I want to reflect on the larger politics and consequences of this policy proposal and ask: What are progressive fat politics and what role do fat politicians play in shaping fat policy-making?  According to British Health Minister Wes Streeting, the “widening waistbands” of his…

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Fat Bias and the Development of Clinical Protocols in Brazil

Posted on by Lisa Moura

Brazil is a huge, diverse country with significant social disparities. People are commonly judged and stigmatized due to their social class, race, education, gender, and body characteristics. Weight, particularly high weight, is one of the body characteristics that is used to stigmatize parts of the population, often intersecting with race and class. Similar to other parts of the world, the fat body in Brazil is seen as synonymous with ‘failure,’ ‘lack of control,’ ‘laziness,’ and ‘ignorance.’ Low-income classes believe that weight gain is related to heredity or stress, while high-income classes, especially those who are not fat, blame ‘poor’ diet and exercise choices. In reaction to this last point, the Brazilian government has propagated strategies to combat weight gain based on self-control, seeking…

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„Globesity“: On an Objectionable Narrative of Global Health

Posted on by Nina Mackert

Towards the end of the twentieth century the World Health Organization declared “obesity” a global epidemic. From 2001 onwards the term “globesity” came into use. “Globesity” is understood as a globally observable consequence of the spread of new “lifestyles” common in industrialized countries characterized by increased consumption of high-energy, industrially processed foodstuffs and low physical activity. According to this thesis, more and more people in the global North and increasingly also in the global South are “overweight” and suffer from “obesity,” measured by using the BMI. As “obesity” is classified as a risk factor for chronic, non-communicable diseases, “globesity” has been declared a public health crisis that threatens global society due to high healthcare costs and decreasing productivity. More recently,…

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Trademarks and Activists: The Complex History of Health at Every Size

Posted on by Gemma Gibson

The definition of Health at Every Size (HAES) may initially appear to be easy to understand. Many HAES advocates argue that all bodies, regardless of size, can achieve and maintain ‘good’ health. Yet, meanings and understandings of HAES have a complex and contentious history. HAES can loosely be separated into two branches. The most popularised branch has now been trademarked and was adapted and popularised by healthcare professionals such as Lindo Bacon, Deb Burgard and Lucy Aphramor. The other is perhaps lesser known to people outside of the fat activist movement but has its roots in early fat liberation where fat people were first able to discuss their dismal experiences of healthcare as part of community organisation.  Both branches argue…

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Poor Fatties Can’t Help but Make Unhealthy Decisions?: The Myth of the Obesogenic Environment

Posted on by Cat Pausé

The obesogenic environment refers to “the sum of influences that the surroundings, opportunities or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals and populations.” The obesogenic environment encompasses the infrastructural, social, and culture conditions that influence people’s ability and willingness to engage in health seeking behaviours. These include the advertising and availability of high calorie food, the lack of safe green spaces for activity and play, and the motorisation of daily life.  It represents an ecological lens for understanding and solving the ‘problem of obesity,’ shifting the responsibility for fatness from individuals to environmental factors, and highlights that certain populations (poor people; usually people of color) live in environments that put them at greater risk for fatness. Concerns over…

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