scholarly journals Spratt,T. and Dolezal, L. ‘Fat Shaming’ under Neoliberalism and COVID-19: Examining the UK’s ‘Tackling Obesity’ Campaign

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanisha Spratt ◽  
Luna Dolezal
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Excess Weight ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Problematic Use ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Normative Models ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

This article explores the dynamics between fat shaming, neoliberalism, ideological constructions of health and the ‘obesity epidemic’ within the UK, using the UK Government’s recent Tackling Obesity campaign in response to COVID-19 as illustrative. We draw attention to the ways in which ‘fat shaming’ as a practice that encourages open disdain for those living with excess weight operates as a moralising tool to regulate and manage those who are viewed as ‘bad’ citizens (LeBesco, 2004). In doing so we begin by outlining how the ideological underpinnings of ‘health’ have been transformed under neoliberalism. We then consider the problematic use of fat shaming discourses that are often used as tools to promote ‘healthy’ lifestyle choices by those who view it as not only an acceptable way of communicating the health risks associated with obesity, but also a productive way of motivating people with overweight and obesity to lose weight (Brown and Baker, 2013, p. 24). Drawing on Graham Scambler’s theoretical framework regarding shame and blame (2020), we discuss how ‘heaping blame on shame’ has become a ‘wilful political strategy’ under neoliberalism, particularly as it relates to individuals with excess weight or obesity, and how the Tacking Obesity campaign leverages concerns around ‘choices’ and ‘costs’ as a means to encourage normative models of self-care and self-discipline.

Understanding ‘fat shaming’ in a neoliberal era: Performativity, healthism and the UK’s ‘obesity epidemic’

2021 ◽  
pp. 146470012110483
Author(s):  
Tanisha Jemma Rose Spratt
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Excess Weight ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Problematic Use ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

This article explores how ‘fat shaming’ as a practice that encourages open disdain for those living in larger bodies operates as a moralising tool to regulate and manage those who are viewed as ‘bad citizens’. It begins by outlining the problematic use of fat shaming language that is often used as a tool to promote ‘healthy’ lifestyle choices by those who view it as not only an acceptable way of communicating the health risks associated with obesity, but also a productive way of motivating people with overweight and obesity to lose weight. I then go on to discuss how shame as it relates to body image and excess weight is culturally produced through both objective conceptualisations of deviance and subjective judgements about the moral character of those who are living with excess weight. Adopting a feminist theoretical perspective, this article further considers the reciprocal nature of fat shaming by calling attention to how shame as a felt emotion is dependent on understandings of oneself in relation to others, as well as the relationships that one forms with others. In this way, I argue that shame in general, and fat shaming in particular, is performative to the extent that it exists as a relational construct that is iteratively produced through the language and actions that give it meaning.

scholarly journals “If you start again, don’t worry. You haven’t failed”. Relapse talk and motivation in online smoking cessation

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Thérèse Rudolf von Rohr
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Work Strategies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

In this article, I explore how relapse following initial smoking cessation is discursively construed and how participants position each other to enhance motivation in two different settings: smoking cessation forums and websites from the UK. In my qualitative discourse analysis, I focus on identity construction and relational work to pinpoint how users are re-motivated when they have not managed to reach their goal of becoming smoke-free. Results show an imbalance regarding how extensively relapse is covered in a selection of smoking cessation forums and websites. Relapsing is constructed as a normal part of a quitting journey and not as a deviation from it. Similarly, the moral obligation of making healthy lifestyle choices influences the construction of the relapsed self. My analysis also revealed that writers resort to face-enhancing relational work strategies to console readers and connect with them. Further, while referring to personal experience was a means of normalizing relapses in forums, websites used numerical evidence to back up their informational statements. In both settings, relapsing is transformed into a beneficial learning experience, thereby positioning quitters as having an advantage over new quitters. The findings suggest that there is a common discourse of how relapsing is conceptualized, both on professional and peer-to-peer sites. This paper adds to previous studies of online health practices, providing a different angle by not focussing on success stories. It adds interesting insights by comparing peer-to-peer practices to monologic websites, and it shows that an interpersonal pragmatic approach allows investigating how participants try to impact each other’s decision-making.

scholarly journals Perceptions of Preventive Health Care and Healthy Lifestyle Choices for Low Income Families: A Qualitative Study

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sasha A. Fleary ◽  
Reynolette Ettienne-Gittens ◽  
Robert W. Heffer
Keyword(s):  
Head Start ◽  
Protective Factors ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Preventive Health Care ◽  
Preventive Health ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

This paper examines Head Start parents’ perceptions of preventive health and healthy lifestyle choices and Head Start administrators’ perceptions of the needs of parents they serve. To address the preventive health of the population, it is necessary that we explore perceptions, risks, and protective factors of preventive health. Focus groups were conducted with parents and administrators to elicit this information and to obtain suggestions for improving preventive health and healthy lifestyle choices among this group. Overall, nutrition and physical activity emerged as themes in parents’ definition of preventive health and healthy lifestyle choices. They further identified social support and education as major protective factors for engaging in preventive health and healthy lifestyle choices. Results of this study can be used to inform research and practice to develop interventions to increase preventive health and healthy lifestyle choices among low income families.

Passport to Health: An Innovative Tool to Enhance Healthy Lifestyle Choices

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Vaczy ◽  
Brenda Seaman ◽  
Kathleen Peterson-Sweeney ◽  
Carol Hondorf
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Innovative Tool ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

scholarly journals Cholesterol versus Inflammation as Cause of Chronic Diseases

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panchal ◽  
Brown
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Disease ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Inflammatory Mediators ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Platelet Activating Factor ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Tsoupras and colleagues have postulated, in a recent review in Nutrients, that the key to reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease is to control the activities of inflammatory mediators such as platelet-activating factor (PAF) by diet, exercise, and healthy lifestyle choices [...]

scholarly journals Healthy lifestyle choices: could sense of coherence aid health promotion?

2007 ◽  
Vol 61 (10) ◽  
pp. 871-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. W J Wainwright ◽  
P. G Surtees ◽  
A. A Welch ◽  
R. N Luben ◽  
K.-T. Khaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

scholarly journals The effect of active occupational stress management on psychosocial and physiological wellbeing: a pilot study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomislav Jukic ◽  
Alojz Ihan ◽  
Vojko Strojnik ◽  
David Stubljar ◽  
Andrej Starc
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Stress ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Compliance Rate ◽  
Psychological Evaluation ◽  
Continuous Variables ◽  
Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Abstract Background The aim of the study was to address the working population with an occupational stress prevention program using mHealth solution and encourage them for healthy lifestyle choices. Methods Seventeen participants were randomized from the corporate setting. A 24alife app with a good compliance program was selected. Test battery has been designed to test the physical readiness, psychological evaluation and biological blood markers for stress. Participants were followed up after 30, 60 and 90 days, respectively, within the intervention period. Weight of participants was tracked three times per month. Univariate analysis compared the continuous variables by One-Way Repeated-Measures ANOVA test when the data were normally distributed, or Wilcoxon rank sum test for abnormal distribution of variables. Results Participants used the app with a compliance rate of 94.1%. The psychological evaluation revealed higher motivation for work, lower burnout scores and participants gave subjective responses of better general wellbeing. Some of the participants lost up to four kg of body mass. Physical readiness has also improved. Conclusions Results of mHealth projects on corporate could include primary health care institutions and health ministry to extend the existing system to patients’ pockets where they can monitor their disease and increase the ability of self-care.

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