Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

Geographies of Maternal Obesity, Eugenics, and the Clinical Space

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 9))

  • 952 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors draw on the results of qualitative research conducted with 24 women at two sites in Canada to explore the effects of maternal obesity discourse on women considered “overweight” and “obese.” In particular, the authors concentrate, here, on the affective and spatial effects of maternal obesity discourse by analyzing the ways in which it is mobilized in and through the bodies of fat women in the clinical space. Through an analysis of semi-structured interviews, the authors show how health practitioners, mainly physicians and nurses, deployed affects of risk that defined, contained, and restrained their patients’ bodies, the result of which was at the extreme to prevent fat women from conceiving children. As such, we add to critical literature on maternal obesity by demonstrating how affects produced and circulated in the clinical space actively materialize bodies or, conversely, foreclose that materialization. We end by arguing that further research and writing is necessary to explore fat women’s experiences of reproductive care, in particular to establish whether or not the kind of practices performed in the clinical spaces outlined here can be considered eugenic.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 289.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abraham, C. (2011a). Goodbye, thrifty gene, and hello to a new prime suspect behind the global upsurge in obesity and diabetes: The womb. The Globe & Mail, 5 March, F6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abraham, C. (2011b). Canadian MDs consider denying fertility treatments to obese women. The Globe & Mail, 20 Sept. Available from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/canadian-mds-consider-denying-fertility-treatments-to-obese-women/article595016/. Accessed 1 Oct 2012.

  • ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists). (2013). Committee opinion: Obesity in pregnancy (Number 549). Obstetrics & Gynecology, 121(1), 213–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S. (2010a). The promise of happiness. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, S. (2010b). Happy objects. In M. Gregg & G. J. Seigworth (Eds.), The affect theory reader (pp. 29–51). Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (2010). Modulating the excess of affect: Morale in a state of ‘total war.’ In M. Gregg & G. J. Seigworth (Eds.), The affect theory reader (pp. 161–185). Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • CFAS (Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society). (2012). Nursing assessment of individuals presenting for fertility evaluation. Available from http://www.cfas.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=471&Itemid=255. Accessed 1 Oct 2012.

  • Barton, A. (2009). Food for thought/overweight abuse. The Globe & Mail, 3 Aug, L3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beausoleil, N, & Ward, P. (2010). Fat panic in Canadian public health Policy: Obesity as different and unhealthy. Radical Psychology, 8. http://www.radicalpsychology.org/vol8-1/fatpanic.html

  • Bell, K., Salmon, A., & McNaughton, D. (2011). Alcohol, tobacco, obesity and the new public health. Critical Public Health, 21, 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell, T. (2012). Obesity puts fetus at risk. National Post, 13 Apr, A4. [9 Sept 9 2013].

    Google Scholar 

  • Blum, L. M. (2007). Mother-blame in the Prozac nation: Raising kids with invisible disabilities. Gender & Society, 21(2), 202–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boero, N. (2009). Fat kids, working moms, and the “epidemic of obesity”. In E. Rothblum & S. Solovay (Eds.), The fat studies reader (pp. 113–119). New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordo, S. (1993). Unbearable weight: Feminism, western culture, and the body. Berkeley: University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braziel, J. E. (2001). Sex and fat chics: Deterritorializing the fat female body. In J. Braziel & K. LeBesco (Eds.), Bodies out of bounds: Fatness and transgression (pp. 231–256). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of ‘sex.’ New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campos, P. (2004). The obesity myth: Why America’s obsession with weight is hazardous to your health. New York: Gotham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canadian Obesity Network. Canadian Obesity Network. http://www.obesitynetwork.ca/. Accessed 1 Oct 2012.

  • Clough, P. T. (2010). The affective turn: Political economy, biomedia and bodies. In M. Gregg & G. J. Seigworth (Eds.), The affect theory reader (pp. 206–225). Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • College of Midwives of Manitoba. (2011). Guidelines for providing care to women with a high Body Mass Index. Available from http://www.midwives.mb.ca/policies_and_standards/guideline-providing-care-women-w-high-body-mass-index.pdf. Accessed 1 Oct 2012.

  • Colls, R., & Evans, R. (2009). Introduction: Questioning obesity politics. Antipode, 41(5), 1011–1020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crang, M., & Tolia-Kelly, D. P. (2010). Nation, race, and affect: Senses and sensibilities at national heritage sites. Environment and Planning A, 42, 2315–2331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, J., & Milligan, C. (2004). Embodying emotion sensing space: Introducing emotional geographies. Social & Cultural Geography, 5(4), 523–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ernsberger, P. (2009). Does social class explain the connection between weight and health? In E. Rothblum & S. Solovay (Eds.), The fat studies reader (pp. 25–36). New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, B. (2010). Anticipating fatness: Childhood, affect and the pre-emptive “war on obesity”. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35, 21–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, B., Colls, R., & Horschelmann, K. (2011). ‘Change4Life for your kids’: Embodied collectives and public health pedagogy. Sport, Education and Society, 16(3), 323–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farquhar, C. M., & Gillett, W. R. (2006). Prioritising for fertility treatments – Should a high BMI exclude treatment? [Commentary]. BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 113(10), 1107–1109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fee, M. (2006). Racializing narratives: Obesity, diabetes and the “aboriginal” thrifty genotype. Social Science and Medicine, 62, 2988–2997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flegal, K. M., Graubard, B. K., Williamson, D. F., & Gail, M. H. (2007). Excess deaths associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity. Journal of the American Medical Association, 293(15), 1861–1867.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flegal, K. M., Kit, B. K., Orpana, H., & Graubard, B. I. (2013). Association of all-cause mortality with overweight and obesity using standard Body Mass Index categories. JAMA, 309(1), 71–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. (2012). Fat is a social work issue: Fat bodies, moral regulation and the history of social work. Intersectionalities, 1(1), 53–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gard, M., & Wright, J. (2005). The obesity epidemic: Science, morality and ideology. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gingras, J. (2006). Throwing their weight around: Canadians take on health at every size. Health at Every Size Journal, 19(4), 195–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthman, J. (2011). Weighing in: Obesity, food justice, and the limits of capitalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, E., & Rail, G. (2011). “Silhouettes of a pregnant belly”: Investigating young pregnant women’s discursive constructions of the body. Aporia, 3(1), 6–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, E., & Rail, G. (2012). Gaining the right amount for my baby”: Young pregnant women’s discursive constructions of health. Health Sociology Review, 21(1), 69–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herndon, A. M. (2005). Collateral damage from friendly fire? Race, nation, class and the “War Against Obesity”. Social Semiotics, 15(2), 127–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herndon, A. M. (2010). Mommy made me do it: Mothering fat children in the midst of the obesity epidemic. Food, Culture and Society, 13, 331–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, P. (2012). Everyday politics of fat. Antipode, 44, 1227–1246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IOM (Institute of Medicine) and NRC (National Research Council). (2009). Weight gain during pregnancy: Reexamining the guidelines. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jette, S. (2006). Fit for two? A critical discourse analysis of oxygen fitness magazine. Sociology of Sport Journal, 23(4), 331–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jette, S. (2009). Governing risk, exercising caution. Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jette, S., & Rail, G. (2013). Resisting, reproducing, resigned? Low-income pregnant women’s discursive constructions and experiences of health and weight gain. Nursing Inquiry. doi:10.1111/nin.12052.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krakowiak, P., Walker, C. K., Bremer, A. A., Baker, A. S., Ozonoff, S., Hansen, R. L., & Hertz-Picciotto, I. (2012). Maternal metabolic conditions and risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Pediatrics, 129(5), 1121–1128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwan, M.-P. (2007). Affecting geospatial technologies: Toward a feminist politics of emotion. The Professional Geographer, 59, 22–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladd-Taylor, M., & Umansky, L. (Eds.). (1998). “Bad” mothers: The politics of blame in twentieth- century America. New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, J. (2014). Bodies over borders: The sized body and geographies of transnationalism, Gender, Place, and Culture, 21(1), 123–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longhurst, R. (2001). Bodies: Exploring fluid boundaries. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Longhurst, R. (2007). Maternities: Gender, bodies and space. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Longhurst, R. (2010). The disabling affects of fat: The emotional and material geographies of some women who live in Hamilton, New Zealand. In V. Chouinard, E. Hall, & R. Wilton (Eds.), Towards enabling geographies of health: “Disabled” bodies and minds in society and space (pp. 199–216). Surrey: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorimer, H. (2008). Cultural geography: Non-representational conditions and concerns. Progress in Human Geography, 32, 551–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (2013). Fat. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (1995) The imperative of health: Public health and the regulated body. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massumi, B. (2010). The future birth of the affective fact: The political ontology of threat. In M. Gregg & G. J. Seigworth (Eds.), The affect theory reader. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormack, D. P. (2003). An event of geographical ethics in spaces of affect. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 28, 488–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNaughton, D. (2010). From the womb to the tomb: Obesity and maternal responsibility. Critical Public Health, 21(2), 179–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhail, D. (2009). What to do with the ‘“Tubby Hubby’”? ‘“Obesity,’” the crisis of masculinity, and the nuclear family in early Cold War Canada. Antipode, 41, 1021–1050.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhail, D. (2013). Resisting biopedagogies of obesity in a problem population: Understanding of healthy eating and healthy weight in a Newfoundland and Labrador community. Critical Public Health, 23(2), 289–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhail, D., Chapman, G. E., & Beagan, B. L. (2011). ‘Too much of that stuff can’t be good”: Canadian teens, morality, and fast food consumption’. Social Science & Medicine, 73(2), 301–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhail, D., Chapman, G. E., & Beagan, B. L. (2013). ‘The rural and the rotund? A critical interpretation of food deserts and rural adolescent obesity in the Canadian context’. Health & Place, 22(1), 132–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhail, D. & Bombak, A. E. (2014). Fat, queer and sick? A critical analysis of ‘lesbian obesity’ in public health discourse. Critical Public Health. 25 (5): 539–553.

    Google Scholar 

  • McPhaild, D., & Bombak, A. (2015). Fat, queer and sick? A critical analysis of ‘lesbian obesity’ in public health discourse. Critical Public Health, 25(5), 539–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moran, L. J., Dodd, J., Nisenblat, V., & Norman, R. J. (2011). Obesity and reproductive dysfunction in women. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 40, 895–906.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, C., Johnston, L., & Longhurst, R. (2013). Critical geographies of love as spatial, relational and political. Progress in Human Geography, 37(4), 505–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, S. (2008). The “fat” female body. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nash, M. (2012). Weighty matters: Negotiating “fatness” and “in-betweenness” in early pregnancy. Feminism & Psychology, 22(307), 307–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orpana, H. M., Berthelot, J. M., Kaplan, M. S., Feeny, D. H., McFarland, B., & Ross, N. A. (2010). BMI and mortality: Results from a national longitudinal study of Canadian adults. Obesity, 18(1), 214–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasquali, R., Patton, L., & Gambineri, A. (2007). Obesity and infertility. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Obesity, 14(6), 482–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paul, D. B., & Moore, J. (2010). The Darwinian context: Evolution and inheritance. In The Oxford handbook of the history of eugenics (pp. 27–42). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • PHAC [Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information]. (2011). Obesity in Canada: A joint report from the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Ottawa: Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Available from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/hl-mvs/oic- oac/assets/pdf/oic-oac-eng.pdf. Accessed 6 Sept 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pile, S. (2010). Emotions and affect in recent human geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35, 5–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poudrier, J. (2007). The geneticization of aboriginal diabetes and obesity: Adding another scene to the story of the thrifty gene. CRSA/RCSA, 44, 237–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rail, G. (2012). The birth of the obesity clinic: Confessions of the flesh, biopedagogies and physical culture. Sociology of Sport Journal, 29(2), 227–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rail, G., & Lafrance, M. (2009). Confessions of the flesh and biopedagogies: Discursive constructions of obesity on Nip/Tuck. Medical Humanities, 35, 76–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • RANSZCOG (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2013). Management of obesity in pregnancy C-Obs 49. Available from http://www.ranzcog.edu.au/womens-health/statements-a-guidelines/college-statements-and-guidelines.html?showall=&start=1. Accessed 6 Sept 2013.

  • Reynolds, R. M., Allan, K. M., Raja, E. A., Bhattacharya, S., McNeill, G., Hannaford, P. C., Sarwar, N., Lee, A. J., Siladitya, B., & Norman, J. E. (2013). ‘Maternal obesity during pregnancy and premature mortality from cardiovascular even in adult offspring: Follow- up of 1 323 275 person years. BMJ, 347, f4539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rice, C. (2007). Becoming the fat girl: Emergence of an unfit identity. Women's Studies International Forum, 30(2), 158–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E. (2010). Obesity assemblages and surveillance in schools. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23, 803–821.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E. (2011). “I see her being obsessed!”: Public pedagogy, reality media and the obesity crisis. Health, 15, 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (2007). Politics and life. In The politics of life itself: Biomedicine, power, and subjectivity in the twenty-first century (pp. 41–76). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruhl, L. (1999). Liberal governance and prenatal care: Risk and regulation in pregnancy. Economy and Society, 28(1), 95–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saguy. (2011). What’s wring with fat? London: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon, A. (2011). Aboriginal mothering, FASD prevention and the contestations of neo-liberal citizenship. Critical Public Health, 21(2), 165–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seigworth, G. J., & Gregg, M. (2010). An inventory of shimmers. In M. Gregg & G. J. Seigworth (Eds.), The affect theory reader (pp. 1–28). Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, I. (2004). Doing their jobs: Mothering with Ritalin in a culture of mother-blame. Social Science & Medicine, 59(6), 1193–1205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thein, D. (2005). After or beyond feeling? A consideration of affect and emotion in geography. Area, 35(4), 450–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. (2004). Intensities of feeling: Towards a spatial politics of affect. Geografiska Annaler, 86(1), 57–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. (2008). Non-representational theory: Space, politics, affect. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolia-Kelly, D. P., & Crang, M. (2010). Guest editorial. Environment and Planning A, 42, 2309–2314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, S., & Zhan, H. (2010). Enhancing teaching and learning with digital storytelling. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 6(2), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wann, M. (2009). Foreword: Fat studies; an invitation to revolution. In E. Rothblum & S. Solovay (Eds.), The fat studies reader (pp. xi–xxvi). New York: NYU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, P., (2016). Obesity, risk, and responsibility: The discursive production of the ‘ultimate at-risk child’. In D. McPhail, J. Ellison, & W. Mitchinson (Eds.), Obesity in Canada: Critical perspectives. Toronto: UT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warin, M. (2014). Material feminism, obesity science and the limits of discursive critique. Body & Society, 21(4), 48–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warin, M., Turner, K., Moore, V., & Davies, M. (2007). Bodies, mothers and identities: Rethinking obesity and the BMI. Sociology of Health & Illness, 30(1), 97–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warin, M., Zivkovic, T., Moore, V., & Davies, M. (2012). Mothers as smoking guns: Fetal over nutrition and the reproduction of obesity. Feminism & Psychology, 22(3), 360–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weir, L. (2006). Pregnancy, risk and biopolitics. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO. (2013). Health topics: Obesity. Available from: http://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en/. Accessed 9 Sept 2013.

  • Zivkovic, T., Warin, M., Davies, M., & Moore, V. (2010). In the name of the child: The gendered politics of obesity. Journal of Sociology, 46(4), 375–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Deborah McPhail & Anthony Huynh

  2. College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, 66 Chancellors Cir, R3T 2N2, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Deborah McPhail

Authors
  1. Deborah McPhail
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anthony Huynh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah McPhail .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Bethan Evans

  2. Centre of Children and Youth, The University of Northampton, Northampton, United Kingdom

    John Horton

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore Department of Geography, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

About this entry

Cite this entry

McPhail, D., Huynh, A. (2016). Geographies of Maternal Obesity, Eugenics, and the Clinical Space. In: Evans, B., Horton, J., Skelton, T. (eds) Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-51-4_20

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation