The Fat Studies Reader

Part II: Fat Studies in Health and Medicine

Part II Fat Studies in Health and Medicine Welcome to Part II of The Fat Studies Reader Fat Studies in Health and Medicine Much of the justification for the negative treatment of fatness and fat people rests on arguments related to health and medicine. Exploring the research on health and weight in detail is a project much larger than the scope of this section of The Fat Studies Reader. Instead, part 2 presents a fat studies perspective on the intersections between weight and class, race, sexual orientation, and gender; the implications of the search for the “fat gene”; and a solid introduction to Health at Every Size as an alternative to contemporary discourse regarding weight and health. After reading these chapters consider the following discussion questions: How does social class relate to weight and what relevance does that have for the pursuit of public health? What are the benefits of a Health at Every Size (HAES) model? What are the dangers of rejecting the HAES approach? How do current attitudes toward weight and health disproportionately affect people who are members of one or more racial and other minority groups? Is permanent weight loss achievable for the average person? Is this an important question? What difference should the answer make, if any, in public health policy? How does governmental Web presence influence attitudes toward weight? Does the Canadian approach to weight and health differ from other countries? If so, how? What challenges are faced by HAES professionals who want to incorporate HAES perspectives into their respective fields? What challenges are faced by individuals who want their health-care provider to adopt an HAES approach? ...