Re-framing weight-related stigma: From spoiled identity to macro-social structures

A burgeoning literature explores the putative problem of ‘excess’ weight or fatness, including the management of spoiled identity. A separate literature re-frames health-related stigma with reference to macro-social structures and logics within globalized capitalism. This paper aims to promote furth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social theory & health 2017-05, Vol.15 (2), p.182-205
Main Author: Monaghan, Lee F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Body fat
Capitalism
Critical realism
Ethnicity
Frame analysis
Globalization
Goffman, Erving (1922-1982)
Health problems
Medical Sociology
Neoliberalism
Obesity
Original Article
Scapegoating
Social conditions
Social identity
Social Sciences
Social structure
Social theories
Social Theory
Sociology
Stigma
Theorists
Weight reduction
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Summary:A burgeoning literature explores the putative problem of ‘excess’ weight or fatness, including the management of spoiled identity. A separate literature re-frames health-related stigma with reference to macro-social structures and logics within globalized capitalism. This paper aims to promote further dialogue on such matters among social theorists of health and critics of the war on obesity. To this end, the paper first outlines Goffman’s influential legacy in ‘the fat field’ before extending Scambler’s ‘jigsaw model’ to weight-related stigma and efforts to reduce it. Informed by critical realist tenets, this sociological model furthers the analysis of stigma as a process entwined with macro-structural relations (e.g. class, command, gender and ethnicity), neoliberal ideology and scapegoating. In conclusion, the paper supports calls for a post-individualistic account of stigma, underscoring the relevance of such thinking when furthering the obesity debate, critical social theory and health.
ISSN:1477-8211
1477-822X
DOI:10.1057/s41285-016-0022-1