Weighing Health: The Moral Burden of Obesity

Abstract

Abstract This article explores how a contemporary fixation with body fat and its containment takes its origins in historical sources. Despite the fact that the thin body has not always been the coveted norm, strong cultural beliefs about the significance of appearance provide a foundation for the preoccupation with calorie-counting, body sculpting, exercise and diets. These practices are based on three important premises. First, in the range of senses, vision ranks highest. What we see is somehow more reliable than what we hear, taste or feel. Second, from this follows the notion that appearance mirrors the "true" inner self, and reflects a supreme order. And finally, food contains and conveys moral value to the person who eats it, a value that may be witnessed in physical appearance. This article briefly reviews how these beliefs have, over many centuries, merged into an aesthetic of health, setting the standards that lead our contemporary society to an over-reliance on weight as an indicator of health. Keywords: Obesityweightbeautyappearancefoodbody image