Table Of ContentEducation, Disordered Eating and
Obesity Discourse
Eating less, exercising more and losing weight seem the obvious solution for the
oncoming ‘obesity epidemic’. Rarely, however, is thought given to how these
messages are interpreted and whether they are, in fact, inherently healthy.
Education, Disordered Eating and Obesity Discourseinvestigates how ‘body-
centred talk’ about weight, fat, food and exercise is recycled in schools, enters
educational processes and impacts on the identities and health of young people.
Drawing on the experiences of young women who have developed eating disorders
and research on international school curricula and the media, the authors challenge
the veracity, substance and merits of contemporary ‘obesity discourse’. By con-
centrating on previously unexplored aspects of the debate around weight and
health, it is revealed how well-meaning advice can propel some children towards
behaviour that seriously damages their health.
This book is not only about ‘eating disorders’ and the people affected but the
effects of obesity discourse on everyone’s health as it enters public policy,
educational practice and the cultural fabric of our lives. It provides both a radical
and challenging perspective on health issues that will interest students, teachers,
doctors, health professionals and researchers concerned with obesity and weight
issues.
John Evansis Professor of Sociology of Education and Physical Education in the
School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.
Emma Richis Lecturer in The Body and Physical Culture in the School of Sport
and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.
Brian Daviesis Emeritus Professor of Education at Cardiff University, UK.
Rachel Allwoodis a doctoral research student in the School of Sport and Exercise
Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.
Education, Disordered 1
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Eating and Obesity
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Discourse
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Fat fabrications 8
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John Evans, Emma Rich, 13
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Brian Davies and Rachel Allwood
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First published 2008 by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
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©2008 John Evans, Emma Rich, Brian Davies and Rachel Allwood
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Education, disordered eating and obesity discourse : fat fabrications /
John Evans...[et al.].
p. ; cm.
1. Obesity in children–Prevention–Social aspects. 2. Eating disorders in
children–Social aspects. 3. Health education. 4. English language–Discourse
analysis. I. Evans, John, 1952 Oct. 16–
[DNLM: 1. Obesity. 2. Adolescent. 3. Eating Disorders. 4. Health Education.
5. Health Policy. 6. Social Environment. WD 210 E24 2008]
RJ399.C6E383 2008
362.198’92398–dc22
2007048093
ISBN 0-203-92671-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–41894–1 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–41895–X (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–92671–4 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–41894–2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–41895–9 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–92671–0 (ebk)
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‘Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd’ 13
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1
Contents
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Foreword: body pedagogics, society and schooling 13
by Chris Shilling ix 14
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Acknowledgements xvi
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Abbreviations and acronyms xvii
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1 Introduction: the rise and rise of the child-saving movement 1 19
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2 Body pedagogies, obesity discourse and disordered eating 10 21
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3 Sacred knowledge, science and health policy: obesity as
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instructional discourse 32
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4 Fatethics: obesity as regulative discourse 51
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5 Popular pedagogies: popular culture and media lifestyle
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advertising 62 30
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6 Solving the obesity crisis? Health P/policy in totally 32
pedagogised schools 78 33
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7 Class, control and embodiment: what schools do to 35
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middle-class girls 92
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8 Affective pedagogies: emotion and desire in learning to
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become ill 109
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9 Alternativepedagogies: rethinking health 125
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10 Health education, weight management or social control? 137 44
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viii Contents
Appendix 150
Notes 152
Bibliography 156
Index 174
1
Foreword
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Body pedagogics, society and
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schooling 5
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Chris Shilling 8
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Introduction
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The manner in which bodies are marked, modified, nourished, educated and experi- 15
enced has long been considered key to understanding the central characteristics of 16
a society’s culture. Anthropologists have demonstrated this in their analyses of 17
how ritual feasting, fasting, tattooing and scarification reflect status differences and 18
serve as corporeal boundaries between tribal groups (Douglas, 1970). Sociologists 19
have also been interested in how such corporeal processes can be interpreted as 20
actual indicators of social reproduction and change (Shilling, 2008). Emile 21
Durkheim (1995 [1912]), for example, argued that the emotional effervescence 22
generated when embodied subjects met in the presence of ‘the sacred’ shaped how 23
people related to their own bodies and affected the development of the social body. 24
Writing from a contrasting theoretical perspective, Max Weber’s (1991 [1904–5]) 25
explorations into the Protestant ethic identified the development of a historically 26
distinctive habitusas a corporeal foundation for the advance of rational capitalism. 27
Studies such as these have been interpreted in various ways (e.g., as investi- 28
gations into social symbolism, as demonstrations of the determining power of 29
social facts, or as evaluations of meaningful social action), but what they have in 30
common is an explication of the social importance of what we might refer to as 31
the cultural body pedagogics characteristic of a society. This shared interest in 32
body pedagogics is based on the recognition that culture is not just a matter of 33
cognitive or symbolic knowledge but entails an education into socially sanctioned 34
bodily techniques, dispositions and sensory orientations to the world (Mauss, 35
1973 [1934]). In seeking to explicate the full implications of this insight for 36
both social groups and individuals, however, the study of body pedagogics goes 37
beyond the simple but important recognition that ‘bodies matter’. Instead, it 38
highlights the reciprocal interactions that occur between embodied subjects and 39
the collectivities in which they live via its concern with the primary pedagogic 40
means through which a culture seeks to transmit its main corporeal techniques, 41
skills, norms and beliefs, the experiences typically associated with acquiring or 42
failing to acquire these attributes and the actual embodied outcomesresulting from 43
this process. These corporeal outcomes provide the basis on which cultures and 44
the societies in which they are based are subsequently either consolidated or 45
