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‘That’s a Bit Drastic’: Risk and Blame in Accounts of Obesity Surgery

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Gender and Interpersonal Violence

Abstract

Obesity surgery refers to a burgeoning constellation of interventions into the fat body with the goal of reducing stomach capacity and/or intestinal length in order to restrict the consumption and absorption of food. It is an intervention of last resort for those experiencing extreme and intractable obesity, and has the potential to produce significantly higher and more enduring degrees of weight loss than other antiobesity interventions (Baxter, 2000; Mitka, 2006; Sjostrom et al., 2004). However, it also carries significant risks, including infection, digestive problems, diarrhoea, vomiting, malnutrition, and in a small number of cases, death (see, for example, Ackerman, 1999). It is also a profoundly gendered technology, with approximately 80% of all obesity surgery being performed on women (Ellis et ah, 2006), raising important questions about how this burden of risk is distributed.

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Authors
  1. Karen Throsby
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warwick, UK

    Karen Throsby

  2. University of Aberdeen, UK

    Flora Alexander (Formerly) (Formerly)

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© 2008 Karen Throsby

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Throsby, K. (2008). ‘That’s a Bit Drastic’: Risk and Blame in Accounts of Obesity Surgery. In: Throsby, K., Alexander, F. (eds) Gender and Interpersonal Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230228429_6

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