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

Abstract

Over the last decade intense concern has developed about what has been characterised as an obesity epidemic in the West. This concern has been accompanied by equally intense debates over the validity of this characterisation. Many critics see the epidemic designation as part of an intensifying 'moral panic' about fat in which emotions about fat shape the public and scientific debate. In this article we explore the critical literature on the obesity epidemic, noting the way in which it draws attention to the role of the emotions in discourse on the epidemic. We argue that the action of emotions in this context invites further theorisation, and that this theorisation needs to be undertaken via concepts that: (1) explicitly integrate the body and the emotions with the materialisation of political discourse, (2) avoid individualising and psychologising accounts of the emotions and (3) analyse the action of emotion in political debate without implying the need to eradicate emotion in generating more just and accurate perspectives. To this end, we turn to the work of Sara Ahmed, who has developed a sophisticated account of the role of the emotions in constructing social collectivities through their engagement with ideas of the body. We argue that this theory can be used to illuminate both the general relationship between public discourse and subjectivity, and the specific relationship between the self, the body and the oftentimes unmet imperative to slimness.

The Barker hypothesis and obesity: Connections for transdisciplinarity and social justice

“…Stereotypes that fat people are uneducated, weak-willed and immoral (Campos et al, 2006;Boero, 2007;Throsby, 2007) in 'choosing' to be fat or denying their 'real' eating and exercising habits (Herndon, 2008) occlude the 'epidemic' in moral panic (Fraser et al, 2010;Rail et al, 2010). The war on obesity therefore attaches significant social stigma to fatness.…”

Re-Reading “Lipoliteracy”: Putting Emotions to Work in Fat Studies Scholarship

“…The impetus for this article is my desire to see fat studies continue to develop as a strong, political project that finds unique ways to challenge healthism and mitigate its social impacts. My departure point is the compelling argument by Suzanne Fraser et al (2010) in "Between bodies and collectivities: Articulating the action of emotion in obesity epidemic discourse." The authors feature a number of researchers (e.g., Campos et al 2006) who have called for more restrained responses in scientific "obesity" discourses; they are particularly concerned about the frequency with which these critiques of the sensationalized "obesity epidemic" rely on the notion of "moral panic."…”

“…As a solution to the restrictive moral panic response, Fraser et al (2010) suggest that these cultural critiques ought better retain a conception of emotion as useful, and analyze how it functions in these exchanges. They offer as a theoretical model Sara Ahmed's (2004a) article "Collective Feelings: Or, the Impressions Left by Others," stressing how Ahmed eschews humanistic conceptions of emotion as originating within individuals and radiating out to a group or circulating among group members and then adopted by individuals.…”

Debating, theorising and researching ‘obesity’ in challenging times

“…The penultimate paper, by Fraser et al (2010), focuses on emotions and theorising emotions as collective social processes. For these authors the often repeated reference to 'moral panic' within critical writings on the obesity epidemic invites further theorisation.…”