Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Many people consider their weight to be a personal problem; when, then, does body weight become a social problem? Until recently, the major public concern was whether enough food was consistently available. As food systems began to provide ample and stable amounts of food, questions about food availability were replaced with concerns about "ideal" weights and appearance. These interests were aggregated into public concerns about defining people as "too fat" and "too thin." Social constructionist perspectives can contribute to the understanding of weight problems because they focus attention on how these problems are created, maintained, and promoted within various social environments. While there is much objectivist research concerning weight problems, few studies address the socially constructed aspects of fatness and thinness. This book however draws from and contributes to social constructionist perspectives. The chapters in this volume offer several perspectives that can be used to understand the way society deals with fatness and thinness. The contributors consider historical foundations, medical models, gendered dimensions, institutional components, and collective perspectives. These different perspectives illustrate the multifaceted nature of obesity and eating disorders, providing examples of how a variety of social groups construct weight as a social problem.
Table of Contents
Body weight as a social problem /Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer --Children and weight control: priorities in the United States and France /Peter N. Stearns --Fat boys and goody girls: Hilde Bruch's work on eating disorders and the American anxiety about democracy, 1930-1960 /Paula Saukko --Constitutional types, institutional forms: reconfiguring diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to obesity in early twentieth-century biomedical investigation /Mark t. Hamin --Defining perfect and not-so-perfect bodies: the rise and fall of the "Dreyer method" for the assessment of physique and fitness, 1918-26 /David Smith and Sally Horrocks --Ideal weight/ideal women: society constructs the female /Nita Mary McKinley --Dieting women: self-surveillance and the body panopticon /John Germov and Lauren Williams --Fleshing out the discomforts of femininity: the parallel cases of female anorexia and male compulsive bodybuilding /Martha McCaughey --Commodity knowledge in consumer culture: the role of nutritional health promotion in the making of the diet industry /S. Bryn Austin --Meanings of weight among dietitians and nutritionists /Ellen S. Parham --Too skinny or vibrant and healthy?: weight management in the vegetarian movement /Donna Maurer --Size acceptance movement and the social construction of body weight /Jeffery Sobal.