Consumption and Embodiment Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by reptilia888

Anorexia nervosa is typified as a white, middle­-class condition. Its medica­liz­ation obscures some of the causes and potential treatment (O'Con­nor). "­Cli­nicians failed to see how normative such behaviour had become­" (Bordo 266).

The simplistic explan­ations for anorexia include: an underlying psycho­logical or medical condition, family dysfun­ction, the influence of the media and beauty industry, a fear of fat and desire for thinness, and unhealthy relati­onships to food. Anorexia takes many different forms and types, and atypical anorexia may be as common as anorexia nervosa.

Fat studies is interd­isc­ipl­inary. Fat Studies attempts to reclaim the word “fat”. By using the word “fat”, scholars are encouraged to strip the word of its discri­min­ating ideals and place it at the forefront of research, in a place of value as opposed to worthl­ess­ness. The word “overw­eight” in inherently anti-fat. It suggests that there are only two types of bodies: “normal” and “overw­eight”. If the use of the word “overw­eight” is acceptable or preferred, this means that weight prejudice and bias is also accepted and preferred. BMI is often skewed when taking into consid­eration aspects like race, gender, and age, as the baseline for the scale was middle aged white U.S. men. The Biggest Loser is intensely gendered and reaffirms many of the proble­matic ideas about where “fat” comes from and how it can be elimin­ated.