C1 Book
Neoliberal Bodies and the Gendered Fat Body (2017)
Harjunen, H. (2017). Neoliberal Bodies and the Gendered Fat Body. Routledge. Routledge Research in Gender and Society, 52. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315583976
JYU authors or editors
Publication details
All authors or editors: Harjunen, Hannele
ISBN: 978-1-4724-3140-0
eISBN: 978-1-315-58397-6
Journal or series: Routledge Research in Gender and Society
Publication year: 2017
Number in series: 52
Number of pages in the book: 117
Publisher: Routledge
Publication country: United Kingdom
Publication language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315583976
Publication open access: Not open
Publication channel open access:
Abstract
In recent decades the rise of the so-called "global obesity epidemic" has led to fatness and fat bodies being debated incessantly in popular, professional, and academic arenas. Fatness and fat bodies are shamed and demonised, and the public monitoring, surveillance and outright policing by the media, health professionals, and the general public are pervasive and socially accepted.
In Neoliberal Bodies and the Gendered Fat Body, Hannele Harjunen claims that neoliberal economic policy and rationale are enmeshed with conceptions of body, gender, and health in a profound way in contemporary western culture. She explores the relationships between fatness, health, and neoliberal discourse and the role of economic policy in the construction of the (gendered) fat body, and examines how neoliberal discourses join patriarchal and biomedical constructions of the fat female body. In neoliberal culture the fat body is not just the unhealthy body one finds in medical discourse, but also the body that is costly, unproductive and inefficient, failing in the crucial task of self-management.
With an emphasis on how neoliberal governmentality, in its many forms, affects the fat body and contributes to its vilification, this book is essential reading for scholars of feminist thought, sociology, cultural studies and social theory with interests in the body, gender and the effects of neoliberal discourse on social attitudes.
In Neoliberal Bodies and the Gendered Fat Body, Hannele Harjunen claims that neoliberal economic policy and rationale are enmeshed with conceptions of body, gender, and health in a profound way in contemporary western culture. She explores the relationships between fatness, health, and neoliberal discourse and the role of economic policy in the construction of the (gendered) fat body, and examines how neoliberal discourses join patriarchal and biomedical constructions of the fat female body. In neoliberal culture the fat body is not just the unhealthy body one finds in medical discourse, but also the body that is costly, unproductive and inefficient, failing in the crucial task of self-management.
With an emphasis on how neoliberal governmentality, in its many forms, affects the fat body and contributes to its vilification, this book is essential reading for scholars of feminist thought, sociology, cultural studies and social theory with interests in the body, gender and the effects of neoliberal discourse on social attitudes.
Keywords: gender; body; obesity; social norms; neoliberalism
Free keywords: fatness
Fields of science:
Contributing organizations
Ministry reporting: Yes
Reporting Year: 2017
JUFO rating: 3
