Eric Oliver is speaking todayin the American Society and Politics Workshop on “fat politics.” Here’s the paper and here are some paragraphs from it:

In truth, the only way we are going to “solve” the problem of obesity is to stop
making fatness a scapegoat for all our ills. This means that public health officials and
doctors need to stop making weight a barometer of health and issuing so many alarmist
claims about the obesity epidemic. This also means that the rest of us need to stop
judging others and ourselves by our size.

Such a change in perspective, however, may be our greatest challenge. Our body
weight and fatness is a uniquely powerful symbol for us – something we feel we should
be able to control but that often we can’t. As a result, obesity has become akin to a
sacrificial animal, a receptacle for many of our problems. Whether it is our moral
indignation, status anxiety, or just feelings of general powerlessness, we assume we can
get a handle on our lives and social problems by losing weight. If we can only rid
ourselves of this beast (that is, obesity), we believe we will not only be thin, but happy,
healthy, and righteous. Yet, as with any blind rite, such thinking is a delusion and
blaming obesity for our health and social problems is only going to cause us more injury
over the long haul.

So how might we change our attitudes about obesity and fat? As with any change
in perspective, the first place we must begin is in understanding why we think the way we
do. In the case of obesity, we need to understand both why we are gaining weight and,
more importantly, why we are calling this weight gain a disease. In other words, if we
are to change our thinking about fat, we need to recognize the real sources of America’s
obesity epidemic.

Oliver continues:

This book seeks to help in this effort. It is divided roughly into two parts. The
first part, examines how and why our growing weight has come to be characterized as an
“obesity epidemic.” Chapters 1 and 2 examine the role of the health professions, drug
companies, government, and diet industry in promulgating the idea that our growing
weight is a dangerous disease. After reviewing both the scientific evidence and the
history of “obesity” as a health concept, it becomes clear that America’s “health
industrial complex” is far more responsible for the obesity epidemic than any other
source. But the health warnings about obesity have not fallen on deaf ears and if
Americans are truly worried about obesity it is because of their receptivity to the various
health pronouncements. Chapters 3 and 4 examine why we in the West hate fatness so
much, particularly in white women, while the rest of the world tends to celebrate it. As
we’ll see, our attitudes about fatness have much more to do with our concerns about
social status, race, and sex than they do with health.

The second half of the book examines why we are gaining weight and what this
weight gain signifies. Chapter 5 looks at the science of fat and what the genetic sources
of weight tell us about our expanding waistlines and our health. Chapters 6 and 7 review
the charges and evidence concerning food, exercise, and our growing weight. As we’ll
see, the most commonly accused culprits (fast food, high fructose corn syrup, television,
and automobiles) are merely accessories to the “crime”; meanwhile, the real source of our
growing weight (snacking) goes largely unnoticed. Chapter 8 reviews the politics behind
the various obesity initiatives coming from our state and federal governments. Not only
are most of these policies unlikely to help us lose weight, they also reveal the
fundamental problems with making weight-loss a target of government action. In
Chapter 9, the conclusion, I discuss what I think our growing weight really means and
what we can do to address the real problems of obesity in the United States.

This sounds interesting; I’d like to see the quantitative analysis. Also, of course, I wonder what Seth would think of this.

The talk is in 270 International Affairs Bldg at 4:15, unfortunately a time that conflicts with one of my classes.