The Fat Studies Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814776310 ISBN 13: 9780814776315

Publisher: NYU Press, 2009

Synopsis

Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology

Winner of the 2010 Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Edited Volume in Women’s Studies from the Popular Culture Association

A milestone anthology of fifty-three voices on the burgeoning scholarly movement―fat studies

We have all seen the segments on television news shows: A fat person walking on the sidewalk, her face out of frame so she can't be identified, as some disconcerting findings about the "obesity epidemic" stalking the nation are read by a disembodied voice. And we have seen the movies―their obvious lack of large leading actors silently speaking volumes. From the government, health industry, diet industry, news media, and popular culture we hear that we should all be focused on our weight. But is this national obsession with weight and thinness good for us? Or is it just another form of prejudice―one with especially dire consequences for many already disenfranchised groups?

For decades a growing cadre of scholars has been examining the role of body weight in society, critiquing the underlying assumptions, prejudices, and effects of how people perceive and relate to fatness. This burgeoning movement, known as fat studies, includes scholars from every field, as well as activists, artists, and intellectuals. The Fat Studies Reader is a milestone achievement, bringing together fifty-three diverse voices to explore a wide range of topics related to body weight. From the historical construction of fatness to public health policy, from job discrimination to social class disparities, from chick-lit to airline seats, this collection covers it all.

Edited by two leaders in the field, The Fat Studies Reader is an invaluable resource that provides a historical overview of fat studies, an in-depth examination of the movement’s fundamental concerns, and an up-to-date look at its innovative research.

About this title

About the Authors

Esther D. Rothblum is Professor of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University. She is the editor or co-editor of over twenty books, including Overcoming Fear of Fat.

Sondra Solovay is an attorney, adjunct professor of law, content developer, and activist focusing on weight-related issues, diversity, and the law. She runs the Fat Legal Advocacy, Rights, and Education Project and is the author of Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Marilyn Wann is Founder of the FAT! SO? 'zine and author of FAT! SO?: Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size!

Reviews

With 40 essays that span an impressive array of academic and popular approaches, this book is the first to collect the essential texts of the blossoming discipline known as fat studies, which explores why the oppression of fat people remains acceptable in American culture. As contributor Bianca D.M. Wilson notes in her piece, fat studies is an arena where the personal, political and scientific converge, and with this book, readers can mount an informed challenge to the medical construction of obesity and size, the diet industry, insurance companies, public policy and popular culture. Arranged thematically, the essays survey the social and historical construction of fatness, fatness as social inequality and even size-ism in popular culture and literature. While one essay points out the North American biases of the current state of fat studies, new cross-cultural work would do well to attend to this volume first. It may be too soon for the movement to offer utopian alternatives, but these essays offer a rich supply of tools for the activist and scholar willing to start the revolution, including a fat liberation manifesto. (Dec.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814776310
• ISBN 13: 9780814776315
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 396
• Editor: Rothblum Esther, Solovay Sondra