Confusing constructions: Exploring the meaning of health with children in “obesity” treatment

ABSTRACT

Fat studies scholars challenge the notion of the “obesity epidemic,” explicating how “obesity” discourse serves to shape our views of health and the body. It is argued that childhood “obesity,” in particular, has been constructed as a modern day scourge that threatens the future health of populations. The authors provide an examination of the embodied experiences of children enrolled in an “obesity” treatment program in a Canadian hospital. Utilizing a feminist poststructural framework, they provide narratives illustrating how these children construct their meanings of health and how “obesity” discourse restricts fat children’s opportunity to identify as healthy.

KEYWORDS:

• Biopedagogies
• body
• children
• discourse
• fat
• feminist
• health
• obesity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pamela Ward

Pamela Ward is faculty member at the Centre for Nursing Studies and an adjunct professor in the Division of Community Health and Humanities in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she engages in critical feminist research exploring constructions of health and the body.

Natalie Beausoleil

Natalie Beausoleil is a feminist scholar, artist, and professor of social sciences and Health in the Division of Community Health and Humanities in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and focuses on the social production, representation, and experiences of the body and health.

Olga Heath

Olga Heath is a faculty member in the Faculty of Medicine (Director of the Centre for Collaborative Health Professional Education) and the Student Wellness and Counselling Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland whose research interests are related to optimizing interprofessional team work in healthcare and including the client as a pivotal member of the team with particular reference to complex, chronic health conditions.