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A Feminist Analysis of Anti-Obesity Campaigns: Manipulation, Oppression, and Autonomy
- IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 10, Number 2, Fall 2017
- pp. 61-78
- Article
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Some kinds of public health messages are unjust and unethical, and feminist analyses of oppression and autonomy can assist in explaining why. Using public health anti-obesity campaigns to provide context, I explore, in this paper, how manipulative public health campaigns oppress the targets of these messages and undermine people’s ability to be self-directed decision makers. I begin with an analysis of what it means to communicate in a manipulative way. This leads to the argument that such campaigns are both oppressive and incompatible with the self-authorization required for health-related behavioral changes.