International Women’s Day

by thejennye Posted on March 5, 2012

I am preparing a talk for International Women’s Day (IWD) on fat activism. Why does it exist and why does it matter? In casting about for a way to explain this to members of the Mount Allison community, I came across this quote from Breakfast of Champions. I think it is a good one. I know that Vonnegut (1922-2007) was definitely not talking about fat activism here, but Kilgore Trout’s epitaph does speak to the important relationship between “health” and equity issues.

Fat activism is a demand for fair treatment and social inclusion. This might include recognition that a person can be healthy at any size, or the development of programs that acknowledge different cultural perspectives on nutrition and health. Like other groups who demand equitable health care, people who organize groups and develop social sites for fat people want to extend the definition of well-being beyond the physical body to the social, cultural and economic realm.  This movement, therefore, serves as a reminder to put humane treatment and equity issues at the forefront of health policy and discourse.

Posted in fat, fitness and sport | Leave a comment

The Fat Studies Journal, vol. 1, 1.

by thejennye Posted on January 20, 2012

The first issue of The Fat Studies Journal is now available in print and online. I’ve contributed a review article on exercise options for fat people, and I’m very pleased to be part of this new project. Building on The Fat Studies Reader (2010), the FSJ will examine the historical, social and cultural fascination with the body. I thought I would take this opportunity to post about the field, since I’m frequently asked what it is I study and why it matters.

What is Fat Studies?

Like Disability and Queer Studies, and Women’s Studies before these, Fat Studies is an activist and academic project. Scholars interested in fatness want to break down taken-for-granted understandings of fat/thin, and the relationship of fatness to health, fitness, sexuality, gender and ability. “Fat,” in this case, is not used to make fun or put down. Fat is a descriptive term for body size, and I use it to signal my participation in the project of deconstructing the medical and social history of the body.

Is fat healthy?

Fat Studies scholars approach this question from two angles. The first, as I’ve posted about before, is to suggest that fatness isn’t necessarily unhealthy. There is plenty of data to suggest that medically “overweight” and “obese” people with low cholesterol and blood pressure, and good cardiovascular capacity, can live just as long as people with a “normal” BMI. A second approach to this question, which I am exploring in my new research on body morality, examines how “obesity stigma” – the rhetoric of the obesity epidemic, the medicalization of fatness, and targeting obese children – is problematic. Given the evidence that people can be healthy at every size, this research suggests public health policies should focus on improving overall health outcomes and not on weight specifically.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Jane, Again: Fonda’s ‘third act’ and a return to aerobics

by thejennye Posted on January 8, 2012

Given my frequent posts on exercise and list of publications on aerobics, you’ll likely be unsurprised to know I follow Jane Fonda on Twitter and read her blog.

She posts frequently – links to her personal website, and announcements about her TV appearances. Fonda recently posted a TED talk. TED, tagline “ideas worth spreading,” is a both a conference and virtual space that “offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” It is worth a look, if you’re not familiar.

In any case, Fonda’s talk was about “Life’s Third Act.” Now in her 70s, Fonda is taking on aging, advocating for a new paradigm for thinking about what it means to grow older:  age as potential, rather than age as decline. The “third act” metaphor is appropriate for Fonda, though perhaps it is more appropriate to see this as her fourth or fifth life. Fonda started out as an actress in the 1960s (her first act). Though sometimes associated with the sexy and campy Barbarella (1968) , she has twice been nominated for an academy award. By the late-1960s Fonda was involved in radical proto-Marxist style politics. She starred in Godard’s Tout Va Bien (1972) which examined the class struggle – and a film about which I wrote a first year film essay. In the same year Fonda got herself into some trouble – in America at least – for her critique of the Vietnam War and (perceived) sympathies for the North Vietnamese. Of that time, Fonda has expressed both regret and frustration, with the misrepresentation of her position on the war (her second act).

Continue reading →

Posted in 1980s, pop culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Read Mindy Kaling’s Book

by thejennye Posted on November 6, 2011

Subtitle of this post: if you like the same stuff I like.

I like popular culture that deals with regular people and everyday concerns. So, Mindy Kaling’s new book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? was a treat to read. The book is short, mostly biographical, and includes some sharp observations about beauty and the body in contemporary (North) America. For example, Kaling rightly observes that the word “fat” means so many different things to different people that it has become meaningless. She then offers a tongue-in-cheek breakdown of categories of fatness from “chubster” to “obeseotron” to explain the different types of large bodies we see (or don’t see) in popular culture. I suspect some folks on the Fat Studies listserv will have something to say about Kaling’s commentary on body size, but I see it as satire, especially because of the fun and funny critical commentary on women in popular culture that comes later in the book.

Continue reading →

Posted in fat, pop culture, Silly | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Fitness for Every Body

by thejennye Posted on October 7, 2011

I’ve been working on a review article for a new journal, Fat Studies, on recent exercise DVDs for larger people. The DVDs (Yoga, Belly Dancing, Scuba) are all great – I won’t pre-empt the review here.

A drawing by Ingrid Laue for the Large as Life Fitness Program, c. 1981-2.

Instead, I’ll note that in preparation for writing the article I reviewed some new and older medical studies on the benefits of exercise for people who are defined medically as “obese.” This research, published in places like The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that exercise, cardiovascular health and blood pressure, rather than weight and food intake, are key determinants of health.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1980s, fat, fitness and sport | Tagged | Leave a comment

Drop Dead Diva

by thejennye Posted on July 19, 2011

Drop Dead Diva is one of a handful of American television shows featuring a full-figured lead actor. The premise of the show is quite silly – Deb, a wannabe Price is Right model dies in a car accident and hits the “return” button at the Pearly Gates when the bureaucrat she meets is trying to decide where to send her. Jane is a successful attorney who gets shot in the crossfire during an altercation at her office. As Jane lies dying on an operating table Deb’s soul enters her body and – voila – Deb is now Jane – a skinny model “trapped” inside the body of a full-figured attorney.

Continue reading →

Posted in fat, pop culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

CFP – Obesity in Canada: Historical and Critical Perspectives

by thejennye Posted on June 23, 2011

Proposals for papers are invited for a symposium and an edited collection of essays on critical perspectives on Obesity in Canada. In Canada estimated obesity rates have risen over the course of the twentieth century, though the measurement and criteria for being obese have also changed during this time (Mitchinson 2009). Particular groups in Canada, notably low income people, are more likely to be labelled obese, and yet a glance through newspapers, magazines and television shows suggests that fatness and staying slim are the preoccupations of the middle class (Raine 2004). In 2003 the World Health Organization  (WHO) reported that “almost all countries” around the world were experiencing an “obesity epidemic” as a result of increasing industrialization, mechanization and urbanization (WHO  2003).  WHO’s report legitimized escalating fears that the world’s population was growing fatter and provided a focus for more general concerns about normal body weight and shape.

Continue reading →

Posted in conference, fat | Tagged | Leave a comment

A post about romantic comedies, and Queen Latifah in particular

by thejennye Posted on June 18, 2011

In my last post I mentioned I have a soft spot for Queen Latifah movies. I’m not sure I’ve ever said that out loud before, and now it is on the internet forever. Oh well. Over the weekend I’ve been trying to decide what it is about QL that I find so compelling, aside from the obvious, which is that she is one of the only full-figured actresses in Hollywood. I also took a look at one of QL’s latest films Just Wright, where she plays Leslie Wright, a physiotherapist who trains New Jersey Nets player Steve McKnight back to health just in time for playoff season.

Continue reading →

Posted in fat, pop culture | Leave a comment

Popstars: Stop the inanity!

by thejennye Posted on April 14, 2011

One of the dilemmas I sometimes experience is between my love for pop culture (including, but not limited to fashion magazines, CBC’s Being Erica, the films of Queen Latifah and Robyn) and my commitment to gender equality.

I think many people think the feminist critique of popular culture is that it is bad for women or demeaning to women. A lot of the time I don’t feel that way at all. I think it is okay to take pleasure in make-up, fashion, TV and the like. I think popular culture is fine because most people know that there is a difference between reality and idealized images, and have figured out whether they care. It is also the case that images of women in popular culture are more nuanced now than they were – say – thirty years ago…

Continue reading →

Posted in 1980s, pop culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment