The structure of anti-fatness: An embodied social problem

• In Event: 30462 - Theory Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6. Theorizing Mind and Body

Abstract

Only in 2013 did the American Medical Association (AMA) officially declare obesity a disease; however, fatness and health have been in conversation across diverse societies for centuries. Even beyond changing definitions of health, fatness as a morally imbibed characteristic of a person changed from desirable in the 17th Century to undesirable with the onset of the 19th Century, transforming fatness into a complex social problem. Widely, this paper provides a critical analysis of literature, both in and outside of the Sociological discipline, situating fatness as a social problem. Fatness as social problem is analyzed mostly on either the interpersonal, within the theoretical areas of embodiment and stigma or on the institutional level within the theoretical areas of medicalization and, more recently, the political economy. Seldom do scholars analyze the interaction of micro and macro forces. I will argue that it is within this meeting, interaction, and/or reciprocity of the structural and interpersonal that there is an untapped opportunity to understand how fatness as social problem is perpetuated, maintained, and potentially even transformed. This analysis elaborates on the position of fatness and fat people in modern society. Lastly, I propose that Anthony Giddens’s Structuration Theory is a useful starting point for approaching this needed analysis. These micro/macro interactions are increasingly evident through the expansion of medical interventions for fatness, such as weight loss drugs, are changing the dynamics of interaction between agency and structure regarding fatness in society, creating a critical site for scholarly exploration.

Author

• Zoe Muzyczka, University of Cincinnati