My-Fault Diabetes: American Narratives on the Origins of Type 2 Diabetes

• In Event: 322 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 21. Patienthood

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that American popular discourses about diabetes emphasize universal risk and illustrate the perception that illness arises when one treats the body in ways that are “unnatural.” The road to health is imagined to be a life closer to natural rhythms, in contrast to the stress- and temptation-filled lives that are possible in modern America. This powerful American narrative on the origins of the type 2 diabetes epidemic emphasizes universality of diabetes risk to all citizens of modernity, alongside the idea that groups associated with certain lifestyles put themselves at higher risk. Diabetes is frequently related to obesity, with moralistic overtones that overshadow the socioeconomic and genetic patterning of diabetes risk.

Author

• Mari Armstrong-Hough, Meiji Gakuin University