War on fat in postwar Finland: A history of fat-shaming

ABSTRACT

By the twenty-first century, obesity has become a focus of medical concern, moralizing statements, and most significantly, alarmist rhetoric. As a case in point, the Finnish people were in danger to turn into a fat nation already in the early 1950s – or that was the claim of the anti-fat activists organized as the Association to Combat Obesity [ACO] (Liikalihavuuden vastustamisyhdistys). Founded in 1950, the ACO’s aim was principally educational. However, the association did much more than spread ostensibly unbiased information – in fact, we argue that they became opinion leaders at the forefront of fat-shaming. In this article, we examine the interconnectedness of health education and fat-shaming in postwar Finland. As the ACO was started by the initiative of one man, the attack on fat seemed personal. The ACO’s anti-fat activism also left a controversial legacy. The history of the ACO hence shows how the stigmatization of fat people and personal reactions to it change over time to reflect prevailing cultural climates and social and political environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Fat-shaming
• history of fatness
• health propaganda
• medicalization
• Finland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. English-language fat studies uses the terms “fat” and “fatness” to instill them as value-free descriptions of body size. Similarly, Finnish fat studies prefer the term lihava (“fat”) to ylipainoinen (“obese”) to challenge the medical hegemony over fatness (Harjunen and Kyrölä 2007). In general, we use the same terminology, but we also use the words “obese” and “overweight” to accurately present the historical terminology.

2. Notable members and/or affiliates included professor of physiology Alvar Wilska (1911–1987), life-reformer and agriculturalist Toivo Rautavaara (1905–1987), assistant professor of anatomy Martti Mustakallio (1891–1968), the pioneer of physiotherapy, Saima Tawast-Rancken (1900–1983), and the Nobelist and chemist Artturi I. Virtanen (1895–1973).

3. Fat-shaming is an act which subjects people perceived as fat to criticism or mockery. It contributes to anti-fat bias in society and healthcare and enforces negative stereotypes (Puhl and Hauer 2009; Vogel 2019).

4. Michael Gard and Jan Wright define the war on obesity as a moral panic around the idea that modern “Western” lifestyles have caused an urgent health crisis against which “nothing short of an all-out war will do” (Gard and Wright 2005, preface).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Academy of Finland [AF 336449].

Notes on contributors

Eve-Riina Hyrkäs

Eve-Riina Hyrkäs is a historian of sciences, ideas and medicine working in the multidisciplinary Fibrobesity project at the University of Oulu. The project studies, among other things, the socio-cultural and behavioral factors related to obesity. Hyrkäs focuses on the history of overweight in Finland and the history of obesity science.

Mikko Myllykangas

Mikko Myllykangas is a historian of sciences and ideas at the University of Oulu.