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Scientific American: "The racist roots of fighting obisity
by prckov Thu 29 Dec - 11:26
The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity - Scientific American
While there has been a massive public health campaign urging fat people to eat right, eat less and lose weight, Black women have been specifically targeted.
This heightened concern about their weight is not new; it reflects the racist stigmatization of Black women’s bodies. Nearly three centuries ago scientists studying race argued that African women were especially likely to reach dimensions that the typical European might scorn. The men of Africa were said to like their women robust, and the European press featured tales of cultural events loosely described as festivals intended to fatten African women to the desired, “unwieldy” size.
The most effective and ethical approaches for improving health should aim to change the conditions of Black women’s lives: tackling racism, sexism and weightism and providing opportunity for individuals to thrive.
While there has been a massive public health campaign urging fat people to eat right, eat less and lose weight, Black women have been specifically targeted.
This heightened concern about their weight is not new; it reflects the racist stigmatization of Black women’s bodies. Nearly three centuries ago scientists studying race argued that African women were especially likely to reach dimensions that the typical European might scorn. The men of Africa were said to like their women robust, and the European press featured tales of cultural events loosely described as festivals intended to fatten African women to the desired, “unwieldy” size.
The most effective and ethical approaches for improving health should aim to change the conditions of Black women’s lives: tackling racism, sexism and weightism and providing opportunity for individuals to thrive.
_________________
What looks like politics, and imagines itself to be political, will one day unmask itself as a religious movement (Soren Kierkegaard)
prckov- Posts : 34561
2014-04-19
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