All the News that’s Fat to Print: The American “Obesity Epidemic” and the Media

Abstract

In the last twenty years scientific, medical, and public health interest in obesity has skyrocketed. Increasingly the term "epidemic" is being used in the media, medical journals, and public health policy literature to describe the current prevalence of fatness in the U.S. Using social scientific literature on epidemics, social problems, and feminist theories of the body, this paper traces the historical emergence of the "obesity epidemic" through an analysis of 751 articles on obesity published in The New York Times between 1990 and 2001. Through the identification and analysis of three discursive pairings I argue that the "obesity epidemic" is a part of a new breed of what I call "post-modern epidemics," epidemics in which unevenly medicalized phenomena lacking a clear pathological basis get cast in the language and moral panic of "traditional" epidemics. I show how this moral panic together with the location of the problem within the individual precludes a more macro level approach to health and health care delivery at a time when health care services are being dismantled or severely cut back.

Morality and Health: News Media Constructions of Overweight and Eating Disorders

“…Previous research has shown that the news media frame obesity as a moral problem of gluttony and sloth (Boero 2007) and overwhelmingly blame bad individual choices (Saguy and Almeling 2008), despite increasing discussion of social-structural factors over time (Lawrence 2004). Extant work, however, has been limited either analytically-by, for instance, not examining the role of gender, class, or race (Lawrence 2004)-or methodologically, by relying heavily on a small (Boero 2007) or nonrepresentative sample (Saguy and Almeling 2008).…”

“…In recent years, a few scholars have begun examining media reporting on the so-called "obesity epidemic" (Boero 2007;Lawrence 2004;Saguy and Almeling 2008). Natalie Boero (2007) finds that news reporting has largely framed obesity as a moral problem of gluttony and sloth.…”

“…In recent years, a few scholars have begun examining media reporting on the so-called "obesity epidemic" (Boero 2007;Lawrence 2004;Saguy and Almeling 2008). Natalie Boero (2007) finds that news reporting has largely framed obesity as a moral problem of gluttony and sloth. Abigail C. Saguy and Rene Almeling (2008) find that body size is predominantly blamed on individual choices rather than social or biological factors, while Regina Lawrence (2004) shows that there is increasing discussion of social-structural factors over time.…”

“…For instance, Lawrence (2004) does not examine how views about gender, race, or class inform news media reports of obesity, while Boero (2007) draws heavily on qualitative analysis of seven article published in the fall of 2000 as part of a series on the "Fat Epidemic," thereby limiting the generalizability of her findings. Saguy and Almeling's (2008) analysis of news reporting on two special issues on obesity published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1999 and 2003 allows for a systematic examination of how scientific research is popularized by the news media, but does not constitute a representative sample of reporting on the topic of overweight/obesity.…”

Between bodies and collectivities: Articulating the action of emotion in obesity epidemic discourse

“…This is not our point. Nor do we argue that the examples described above constitute the entire critical literature on the obesity epidemic discourse, or comprehensively exemplify its diversity and sophistication (other fine critical work includes Colls, 2006;Guthman and DuPuis, 2006;Boero, 2007). Notwithstanding this range, however, we maintain that, as with the examples discussed above, this broader literature leaves open space for explicit theorisation of the action of emotion.…”