Framing the Fat Body: Contested Meanings between Government, Activists, and Industry*

Abstract

Sociologists have long recognized that social problems do not derive solely from objective conditions but from a process of collective definition. At the core of some social issues are framing competitions, struggles over the production of ideas and meanings. This article examines competing cultural meanings about the fat body. Through frame analysis of organizational materials, I map the contested field of obesity and document three cultural frames—medical frame, social justice frame, and market choice frame—as represented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), and the food industry group the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), respectively. Using the “framing matrix,” I explore each frame's key signature elements and discuss its social and cultural significance. Notably, each frame leads to different outcomes for social equality and how society thinks about fat bodies, health, and public policy.

Local Actors’ Frames of the Role of Living Conditions in Shaping Hypertension Risk and Disparities in a Colombian Municipality

“…As a result, they may serve to increase, reduce, or legitimatize social disparities in health. 19 In sum, a frame approach allows for the exploration of the frameworks local actors currently bring to their understanding of hypertension and a deeper understanding of the potential to frame solutions across a full range of options suggested by an ecological model.…”

Health promotion viewed in a critical perspective

“…Because overweight people are being classified as problem people in need of some sort of treatment, we need to look critically at the lines of division, concepts, categories and definitions of problems that have become so taken for granted that the bodies of our fellow citizens with excess weight are "naturally" being transformed into problem bodies in which a complex set of psychological problems is imagined to be contained [5][6][7]21,22]. A "container" view of the body is a problematic way to make sense of different bodies today.…”

“…Of course, not everyone explains and sees excess weight in those terms, but empirical anchored studies show that relating excess fat to problematic personality traits is common [e.g., [5][6][7]21,22]. Because overweight people are being classified as problem people in need of some sort of treatment, we need to look critically at the lines of division, concepts, categories and definitions of problems that have become so taken for granted that the bodies of our fellow citizens with excess weight are "naturally" being transformed into problem bodies in which a complex set of psychological problems is imagined to be contained [5][6][7]21,22].…”

“…evidence from sociological inspired empirical studies of the situation of overweight people shows, however, that another way of explaining excessive weight is to link the weight "problem" of this group of citizens to imagined negative personality characteristics such as being lazy, being unable to set limits, lacking selfcontrol, having had a difficult childhood, having dysfunctional relationships or simply having a problematic personality [4][5][6][7][8][9]19,21,22]. These sociological studies clearly show that the overweight body represents more than a body that has a too large calorie intake measured against physical activity; for many, the overweight body has also become equivalent to a container of psychological problems.…”

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9]. I discuss health promotion in relation to overweight citizens because a) they are growing in number, with more and more citizens in Western countries becoming overweight; b) an increasing number of intervention programs are being developed with the goal of helping overweight individuals lose weight; c) there is overwhelming interest in the lives of overweight individuals in general, not least in the pharmaceutical industry, which has an economic interest in turning overweight citizens' lives into a medical problem that needs a (costly) pharmaceutical solution, and in television shows that focus on overweight individuals as problem persons [10]; and d) there is a strong focus on the risk of being overweight among both lay persons and experts, despite some medically based knowledge showing that it is only obese citizens who have a BMI above 30 and do not exercise who have a higher risk of death [11,12].…”