Measuring Fatness, Governing Bodies: The Spatialities of the Body Mass Index (BMI) in Anti‐Obesity Politics

Abstract

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is the dominant means of defining and diagnosing obesity in national and international public health policy. This paper draws on geographical engagements with Foucault's work on biopower and governmentality to question the power afforded the BMI in obesity policy. With reference to a UK public health intervention involving the measurement of children's bodies within schools, the paper questions the multiple materialities and spatialities of the BMI with reference to both its role in the construction of geographies of obesity and its (in)ability to capture the fleshy, material, and experiential bodies of those individuals involved in the process of measurement. The paper contributes to poststructuralist health geographies through writing fleshy, active bodies into a Foucauldian reading of health and illness, thus questioning the justifications and implications of an obesity politics focussed on the BMI.

Manipulating practices: A critical physiotherapy reader

“…Other research with children and adolescents has shown that repeated body testing can result in diminished self-worth . Moreover, measurement in a group setting unavoidably elicits comparison regardless of the sharing/not sharing of results (Evans & Colls, 2009). We see this in Alva and Hannah's accounts where they compared themselves to others in the program.…”

“…This, in turn can create a competitive and evaluative space where bodies can be compared to each other and/or a norm. Thus the stage is set for the possibility of success or failure (Evans & Colls, 2009). With the continued focus on testing, these young women learned to connect their sense of achievement and self-worth (at least partially) to external measures.…”

“…There is burgeoning literature that demonstrates the relative ineffectiveness of lifestyle programs (Doutketis, 2005;Franz et al, 2007). Given the lack of evidence to its efficacy, in addition to the blame and shame involved in measuring weight, the ethics of recommending weight loss within the healthcare realm has been critiqued elsewhere (Glenn, 2013;Hoffmann, 2016), including within "lifestyle" weight loss programs for adolescents and children (Holm et al, 2014;Evans & Colls, 2009;Foresight, 2007).…”

‘The Medical’ and ‘Health’ in a Critical Medical Humanities

“…At the same time, choice is directed and governed through a host of measurements and assessments of outcomes (Miller and Rose 2008). Researchers have challenged the ways in which bodies are governed through such calculative techniques and technologies in relation to the policy attention given to obesity (Evans and Colls 2009) and alcohol (Jayne et al 2011); the ways in which different bodies are positioned as more, or less, capable of acting responsibly in contemporary public health (Colls and Evans 2008;Evans 2010;Evans et al 2011) and the ways in which particular forms of bodily matter (such as fat) come to matter (Colls 2007).…”

Governing the fisher body – safety as body-politics and fisheries governance

“…BMI is used to measure physical condition and health, at both individual and population levels, and is a driver of national and international anti-obesity policies (Evans and Colls 2009;Helsedirektoratet 2010). In 2009 and 2010, 511 and 450 seamen lost their seaman's licences, respectively (Rapp 2010;Antonsen and Andersen 2011).…”