Many people consider their weight to be a personal problem; when, then, does body weight become a social problem? Until recently, the major public concern was whether enough food was consistently available. As food systems began to provide ample and stable amounts of food, questions about food availability were replaced with concerns about "ideal" weights and appearance. These interests were aggregated into public concerns about defining people as "too fat" and "too thin."
Social constructionist perspectives can contribute to the understanding of weight problems because they focus attention on how these problems are created, maintained, and promoted within various social environments. While there is much objectivist research concerning weight problems, few studies address the socially constructed aspects of fatness and thinness. This book however draws from and contributes to social constructionist perspectives.
The chapters in this volume offer several perspectives that can be used to understand the way society deals with fatness and thinness. The contributors consider historical foundations, medical models, gendered dimensions, institutional components, and collective perspectives. These different perspectives illustrate the multifaceted nature of obesity and eating disorders, providing examples of how a variety of social groups construct weight as a social problem.
Jeffery Sobal is Professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University. He is on the board of directors of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and he has Cornell University Graduate Field Membership in the areas of Nutrition, Development Sociology and Epidemiology.
Donna Maurer is John S. Knight Postdoctoral Fellow in the Writing Program, Cornell University. She also serves on the board of directors of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and is an adjunct professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland University College.
Drs. Sobal and Maurer are coeditors of a companion volume, Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, and Eating Agendas: Food and Nutrition as Social Problems

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Weighty issues : constructing fatness and thinness as social problems

The Struggle for the Organization of Europe

The Foundations of the European Union

R. H. Lieshout

Aldine De Gruyter, c.1999,

Aldine Transaction

Taylor & Francis (Unlimited), London, 2017

United States, United States of America

1, PS, 1999

June 1999

producers:
ABBYY FineReader 10

{"isbns":["0202305805","9780202305806"],"last_page":273,"publisher":"Routledge","series":"Social Problems and Social Issues"}

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks -- Nita Mary McKinley
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks -- Nita Mary McKinley -- John Germov and Lauren Williams
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks -- Nita Mary McKinley -- John Germov and Lauren Williams -- Martha McCaughey
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks -- Nita Mary McKinley -- John Germov and Lauren Williams -- Martha McCaughey -- S. Bryn Austin
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks -- Nita Mary McKinley -- John Germov and Lauren Williams -- Martha McCaughey -- S. Bryn Austin -- Ellen S. Parham
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer -- Peter N. Stearns -- Paula Saukko -- Mark T. Hamin -- David Smith and Sally Horrocks -- Nita Mary McKinley -- John Germov and Lauren Williams -- Martha McCaughey -- S. Bryn Austin -- Ellen S. Parham -- Donna Maurer
Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer-- Peter N. Stearns-- Paula Saukko-- Mark T. Hamin-- David Smith and Sally Horrocks-- Nita Mary McKinley-- John Germov and Lauren Williams-- Martha McCaughey-- S. Bryn Austin-- Ellen S. Parham-- Donna Maurer-- Jeffery Sobal.

Cover 1
Half Title 2
Title Page 4
Copyright Page 5
Table of Contents 6
Preface 8
Part I Introduction 14
1 Body Weight as a Social Problem 16
Part II Historical Foundations 22
2 Children and Weight Control: Priorities in the United States and France 24
3 Fat Boys and Goody Girls: Hilde Bruch's Work on Eating Disorders and the American Anxiety about Democracy, 1930-1960 44
Part III Medical Models 64
4 Constitutional Types, Institutional Forms: Reconfiguring Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approaches to Obesity in Early TwentiethCentury Biomedical Investigation 66
5 Defining Perfect and Not-So-Perfect Bodies: The Rise and Fall of the "Dreyer Method" for the Assessment of Physique and Fitness, 1918-26 88
Part IV Gendered Dimensions 108
6 Ideal Weight/Ideal Women: Society Constructs the Female 110
7 Dieting Women: Self-Surveillance and the Body Panopticon 130
8 Fleshing Out the Discomforts of Femininity: The Parallel Cases of Female Anorexia and Male Compulsive Bodybuilding 146
Part V Institutional Components 170
9 Commodity Knowledge in Consumer Culture: The Role of Nutritional Health Promotion in the Making of the Diet Industry 172
10 Meanings of Weight among Dietitians and Nutritionists 196
Part VI Collective Processes 220
11 Too Skinny or Vibrant and Healthy?: Weight Management in the Vegetarian Movement 222
12 The Size Acceptance Movement and the Social Construction of Body Weight 244
Biographical Sketches of the Contributors 264
Index 268

"Many people consider their weight to be a personal problem: when, then, does body weight become a social problem?".
"The chapters in this volume offer several perspectives that can be used to understand the way society deals with fatness and thinness. The contributors consider historical foundations, medical models, gendered dimensions, institutional components, and collective perspectives. These different perspectives illustrate the multifaceted nature of obesity and eating disorders, providing examples of how a variety of social groups construct weight as a social problem."--BOOK JACKET.

Addressing the need for an understanding of the problematic nature of body weight for society, the contributors to this volume present the historical foundations of weight as a social issue, along with current empirical research drawn from other lines of analysis such as gender studies, social history, and collective behavior. Weighty Issues is an essential text for courses in food and society, social problems, social history, food sciences, and dietetics.

2021-09-18