Killer Fat: Media, Medicine, and Morals in the American "Obesity Epidemic"
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Description
In Killer Fat, Boero examines how and why obesity emerged as a public health concern and national obsession in recent years. Using primary sources and in-depth interviews, Boero enters the world of bariatric surgeries and diet programs to show how common expectations of what bodies should look like help determine what interventions and policies are considered urgent in containing this epidemic.
Boero argues that obesity, like traditional epidemics of contagion and mass death, incites panic, a doomsday scenario that must be confronted in a struggle for social stability. The “war” on obesity, she concludes, is a form of social control. Killer Fat ultimately offers an alternate framing of obesity based on the insights of the “Health at Every Size” movement.
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Publication Date
8-8-2012
Publisher
Rutgers University Press
