Fat studies?

[Drake Tungsten]

Even as science, medicine and government have defined obesity as a threat to the nation’s health and treasury, fat studies is emerging as a new interdisciplinary area of study on campuses across the country and is gaining interest in Australia and Britain. Nestled within the humanities and social sciences fields, fat studies explores the social and political consequences of being fat.

For most scholars of fat, though, it is not an objective pursuit. Proponents of fat studies see it as the sister subject — and it is most often women promoting the study, many of whom are lesbian activists — to women’s studies, queer studies, disability studies and ethnic studies. In many of its permutations, then, it is the study of a people its supporters believe are victims of prejudice, stereotypes and oppression by mainstream society.

“It’s about a dominant culture’s ideals of what a real person should be,” said Stefanie Snider, 29, a graduate student at the University of Southern California, whose dissertation will be on the intersection of queer and fat identities in the United States in the 20th century. “And whether that has to do with skin color or heritage or sexual orientation or ability, it ends up being similar in a lot of ways.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/fashion/26fat.html?ex=1322197200&en=3f0b85a6db5b71a8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Seriously, WTF is this? Women's studies, queer studies, disability studies, etc. are already ridiculous enough, but this is just unbelievable. I mean, seriously, fat studies? Christ, this makes me ashamed to have gone to college...

[snoopy369]

I have no problem with women's studies, studies of various sexual groups ... disability/fat studies in the medical sense, fine, in a sociological sense, simply not a large enough subject. Ultimately we need to stop breaking down sociology so much - sociology is useful largely in the applicability to and interaction with other societal aspects, so you shouldn't study only a small part of society.

[Cyclotron]

simply not a large enough subject

Well, I would think that fat studies would be a pretty large subject...

[SlowwHand]

The government gives grants for studies of all kinds of weird bull****.

"Following 3 years of study, it has been concluded that an apple falling from a tree will hit the ground."

[Zkribbler]

Re: Fat studies?

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
... this makes me ashamed to have gone to college...

I'm sure they were even more ashamed to have you.

[Datajack Franit]

Women were treated as useless beings since the beginning of time until Emancipation. FACT.
Fat people were treated as useless beings that were eaten alive during famine, while today they´re actually trying to convince us that being fat is something you should live with, instead of practising a little and stop whining about it. FACT.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
...Fat people were treated as useless beings that were eaten alive during famine ...

Alive?!? Wouldn't all the thrashing about and screaming interferred with the diners' enjoyment of their meal??

[Aeson]

I don't see why looking at social implications of obesity are any more/less important than looking at social implications in other areas. In the US, it's one of the more prevailent social stigmas. Better understanding the social dynamics involved, especially the ones that lead to or reinforce weight gain, could have rather a rather large impact on our productivity and health (mental and physical) as a nation.

[SlowwHand]

I'm not fond of droolers.

[snoopy369]

Have any of you read the OP?

"Fat Studies" does not refer to doing studies of fat people. Fat Studies refers to having a field in sociology called "Fat Studies" - ie a major for a college student, classes, etc.

The social implications of a lot of things are important to study, but I don't see how obesity deserves classification on the level of gender studies, which to my opinion as a group (womens, mens, GLBT) is the only 'studies' really big enough to deserve its own seperate branch of the field.

[SlowwHand]

So? I'm still not fond of droolers, and the government still gives weirdass grants.
I'm in the clear.

[Aeson]

Yes, I read the OP. If there is an area worth studying, having those who specialize in those studies is worthwhile as well.

The number of overweight people in the US has already overtaken the number of men or women as a group, and obesity affects almost a third of the population. How can an issue that affects the health and happiness of more than half the population be "too small" an area?

[Datajack Franit]

It can be a "too stupid" area

[Aeson]

If it were "too stupid" then the problem wouldn't exist to such a large extent. We'd have already figured out how to solve it.

While we have answers on the individual level which are rather obvious, such as "eat less, exersize more", as well as some genetic explainations, we have failed miserably at using that information to effect a positive change in our society in regards to health and weight. Why that is so, and how we can change that are not easy questions to answer...

[Mrs. Tuberski]

never mind