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Fat Gets Melodramatic: The Obesity Epidemic and the News

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Fat Bodies, Health and the Media

Abstract

It is necessary to turn now to the ‘obesity epidemic’ because fat is now so co-joined with the terms ‘obesity’ and ‘epidemic’ that it seems impossible to discuss it without reference to these medicalized terms. It is certainly hard to escape the four constitutive claims of the obesity epidemic that parade across the mass media. These are, firstly, that obesity levels are continuing to rise; that, secondly, obesity is directly associated with a list of diseases and death; thirdly, that obesity presents a clear danger to all societies and communities; fourthly, that the epidemic will result in a ‘lost generation’ because obese children will die before their parents (Gard 2010). These claims have been roundly debunked in both medical and social science by what we may loosely refer to as ‘epidemic sceptics’. They point to a lack of clear evidence supporting any exponential increase in weight or that which links obesity and weight to a terrifying parade of life-changing illnesses (Oliver 2006; Flegal et al. 2013). Further criticisms weigh in to suggest that the epidemic is a recent construction that advances the commercial interests of food and weight-loss industries, the medical profession (notably public health), and may serve as a political tool in both aiding the neoliberal project of self-management (governance) and in distracting a waist-watching population from a consolidation of political and economic power in health and other spheres (Campos et al. 2006; Gard 2010; Jutel 2009). What drives ‘epidemic sceptics’ is their deep-seated concern with the iatrogenic and stigmatizing impacts of the epidemic (Monaghan 2013).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A recent meta-analysis of more than 100 studies found decreased mortality risks relating to overweight and no increase in morality risks until body mass index (BMI) scores reached 35 and over (Flegal et al. 2013).

  2. 2.

    Tina Patel (2012: 215) draws a distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ surveillance. ‘Hard’ could refer to the epidemiological data gathering, but soft surveillance is of interest here because it refers to ‘the enhanced gaze of the public in everyday interactions’.

  3. 3.

    Lucasfilm’s Star Wars is a good example. A further chapter of the space saga has just been released in the UK (17 December 2015) and there are rumours of a spin-off in the form of a backstory for Han Solo, due for release in May 2018. The Force is certainly keeping strong.

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  1. School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

    Jayne Raisborough

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Raisborough, J. (2016). Fat Gets Melodramatic: The Obesity Epidemic and the News. In: Fat Bodies, Health and the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-28887-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-28887-5_3

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