Let's Take an Academic View--of Fat
Today's NY Times weighs in on a new kind of academic study: "Nearly 120 people, including many academics, belong to a fat studies list serve on Yahoo!, which was started in 2004 by activist Marilyn Wann, the author of “Fat!So?”
And the first “Fat Studies Reader,” an anthology of scholarly research on fat, is being shopped to university presses. It covers a range of topics, from the intersection of fat, gender, race, age, disability and class to fat heroines in chick lit, the role of fat burlesque dancers and the use of fat suits in film. Chapter titles include “Access to the Sky: Airplane Seat and Fat Bodies as Contested Spaces”: “Jiggle in My Walk: The Iconic Power of the Big Butt in American Pop Culture,” and “The Roseanne Benedict Arnolds: How Fat Women are Betrayed by their Celebrity Icons.”
Esther Rothblum, a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University, said she received more than 80 letters from people, mostly those with Ph.D.s, interested in contributing to the book, though she and Ms. Solovay, her co-editor, had room for only 45. “We were bowled over with the response,” she said.
But not everybody in academia thinks that fat studies merit their own departments.
“In one field after another, passion and venting have come to define the nature of what academics do,” said Stephen H. Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, a group of university professors and academics who have a more traditional view of higher education. “Ethnic studies, women’s studies, queer studies — they’re all about vindicating the grievances of some particular group. That’s not what the academy should be about.
Or as Big Arm Woman, a blogger, wrote: “I don’t care if people are fat or thin. I do, however, care that universities are spending money on scholarship about the ‘politics of fatness’ when half of the freshman class can’t read or write at the college level.”
But proponents of fat studies challenge the science behind those conclusions and firmly believe that obesity research is shaped by society’s bias against fat people and that the consequences of excessive weight are not as bad as scientists portray.
“It’s scientifically proven that if you’re overweight you have an increased risk of coming down with numerous medical conditions,” said Dr. Howard Shapiro, a New York weight loss specialist and author of the “Picture Perfect Weight loss” books. “It’s a no brainer, and anyone who says that it’s discriminatory is just trying to protect themselves.”
And the first “Fat Studies Reader,” an anthology of scholarly research on fat, is being shopped to university presses. It covers a range of topics, from the intersection of fat, gender, race, age, disability and class to fat heroines in chick lit, the role of fat burlesque dancers and the use of fat suits in film. Chapter titles include “Access to the Sky: Airplane Seat and Fat Bodies as Contested Spaces”: “Jiggle in My Walk: The Iconic Power of the Big Butt in American Pop Culture,” and “The Roseanne Benedict Arnolds: How Fat Women are Betrayed by their Celebrity Icons.”
Esther Rothblum, a professor of women’s studies at San Diego State University, said she received more than 80 letters from people, mostly those with Ph.D.s, interested in contributing to the book, though she and Ms. Solovay, her co-editor, had room for only 45. “We were bowled over with the response,” she said.
But not everybody in academia thinks that fat studies merit their own departments.
“In one field after another, passion and venting have come to define the nature of what academics do,” said Stephen H. Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, a group of university professors and academics who have a more traditional view of higher education. “Ethnic studies, women’s studies, queer studies — they’re all about vindicating the grievances of some particular group. That’s not what the academy should be about.
Or as Big Arm Woman, a blogger, wrote: “I don’t care if people are fat or thin. I do, however, care that universities are spending money on scholarship about the ‘politics of fatness’ when half of the freshman class can’t read or write at the college level.”
But proponents of fat studies challenge the science behind those conclusions and firmly believe that obesity research is shaped by society’s bias against fat people and that the consequences of excessive weight are not as bad as scientists portray.
“It’s scientifically proven that if you’re overweight you have an increased risk of coming down with numerous medical conditions,” said Dr. Howard Shapiro, a New York weight loss specialist and author of the “Picture Perfect Weight loss” books. “It’s a no brainer, and anyone who says that it’s discriminatory is just trying to protect themselves.”
posted by Max Hartshorne at 12:24 AM
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