Are we ’fat-phobic’? New book says yes

On television they are often represented as headless torsos plodding about the screen, or worse, in shows such as The Biggest Loser , fat people are humiliated and endure punishing diet and exercise routines. The unspoken theme is that they are unloved and sad, and deserve both our pity and contempt. A new book by University of Sydney researcher Deborah Lupton explores why the 'fat body' has become so reviled and, in extreme cases, viewed as diseased. "Whether or not we identify as 'fat', it is difficult to escape the prevalence and dominance of anti-obesity discourse and fat phobia", says Lupton, an Honorary Associate in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy. Fat (Routledge, 2012) explores the stigmatisation of body fat and surveys the burgeoning field of fat activism, also known as the fat-acceptance movement. "Interest in fat studies is such that there is now a new journal called Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society and regular conferences devoted to this topic," says Professor Lupton. "Taking its name from other critical areas of interdisciplinary study such as gender, queer, black and postcolonial studies, those who designate themselves as part of this field prefer the terms 'fat' or 'fatness' to what they view as the medicalised terms 'overweight', 'obese' or 'obesity'," says Professor Lupton.