Interpreting Weight - The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness

This text focuses on how people construct fatness and thinness, examining different strategies used to interpret body weight, such as negotiating weight identities, reinterpreting weight, and becoming involved in weight-related organizations.

List of contents

Part 1 Introduction: the social management of fatness and thinness, Donna Maurer, Jeffery Sobal. Part 2 Weight identities: the adoption and management of a "fat" identity, Douglas Degher, Gerald Hughes; identity management among overweight women - narrative resistance to stigma, Gina Cordell, Carol Rambo Ronai; fighting back - reactions and resistance of the stigma of obesity, Leanne Joanisse, Anthony Synnott. Part 3 Redefining weight: from "dieting" to "healthy eating" - an exploration of shifting constructions of eating for weight control, Gwen E. Chapman; medical discourse on body image - reconceptualizing the differences between women with and without eating disorders, Susan Haworth-Hoeppner; weight and weddings - the social construction of beautiful brides, Jeffery Sobal et al. Part 4 Organizational processes in weight management: let go and let God - religion and the politics of surrender in overeater's anonymous, Rebecca J. Lester; fat world/thin world - "fat busters," "equivocators," "fat boosters," and the social construction of obesity, Karen Honeycutt; creating "uniformity" - the construction of bodies in women's collegiate cross country, Elizabeth Ransom. Part 5 Reinterpreting weight: pounds of flesh - weight, gender, and body images, Thomas F. Cash, Robin E. Roy; re-evaluating the weight-centred approach toward health - the need of a paradigm shift, Jeanine C. Cogan. Biographical sketches of the contributors.

About the author

Jeffery Sobal

Summary

What is "too fat?" "Too thin"? Interpretations of body weight vary widely across and within cultures

Product details

• Authors: Donna Maurer, Jeffery Sobal, Jeffrey Sobal, Jeffrey Maurer Sobal
• Assisted by: Donna Maurer (Editor), Jeffery Sobal (Editor), Jeffrey Sobal (Editor)
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.1999
• EAN: 9780202305776
• ISBN: 978-0-202-30577-6
• No. of pages: 274
• Series: Social problems & social issues; Social Problems & Social Issues S.; Social Problems & Social Issues
• Subjects: Guides > Health > Diet; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Social structure research; PSYCHOLOGY / Personality, Anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, MEDICAL / Nutrition, Dietetics & nutrition, The self, ego, identity, personality, Psychology: the self, ego, identity, personality, Social issues & processes, Behavioural theory (Behaviourism), Dietetics and nutrition, Social and ethical issues, Behaviourism, Behavioural theory, PSYCHOLOGY / Psychotherapy / Behaviorism