“Help curb the hunger pangs”: news media frames of weight loss during the COVID- 19 lockdown

ABSTRACT

The news media has consistently promoted weight loss as a solution to the “obesity epidemic”, despite research refuting the connection between fatness and health. In this paper, I examine the framing of weight loss in news articles during lockdown months of 2020, addressing whether healthist ideologies about weight loss persisted or declined during the pandemic. Most articles reflected a healthism lens, encouraging weight loss to achieve good health and to prevent COVID-19. However, some articles rejected weight loss or utilized a Health at Every Size perspective. This study has implications for research on body surveillance, neoliberalism, public health, and media reporting about weight loss and COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• Fat studies
• weight loss
• neoliberalism
• media
• covid-19
• surveillance

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Dr. Susan C. Dewey for reviewing a draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Fat studies scholars use “overweight”, “obesity”, “obesity epidemic” and similar terms in quotations to emphasize that these concepts are social constructions; their meanings have changed over time and are criticized by fat studies/critical weight studies scholars and activists.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.