The medicalization of body size and women's healthcare.

Full Abstract

In this article we explore the issue of what it means to be "fat" for women in Western (British/North American) society. Contemporary gendered biomedical discourse currently dominates attitudes toward body shapes and sizes (Bordo, 1995). Further, under the rhetoric of "health," a large body size has come to be symbolic of self-indulgence and moral failure. In this article we argue this may lead women to question both their sense of self and their rights to adequate health care. Our aims are threefold:
first, to challenge rigid hegemonic biomedical perspectives on "fatness" and the oppressive unequal power relations they may create; second, to examine the process by which such perspectives come to be the only legitimate discourse; third, to consider the impact of pathological medicalised definitions of "obesity" on women's perceptions of their bodies and experiences of health services.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Wray, Sharon (S); Deery, Ruth (R);

Affiliation: School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, England. s.wray(-atsign-)hud.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Health care for women international (Health Care Women Int), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 29 (issue 3) : pp 227-43

Dates: Created 2008/03/19; Completed 2008/05/09;

PMID: 18350426, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Australia
Body Image
Body Mass Index
Body Weight
Europe
Female
Great Britain
Health Education - organization & administration
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Promotion - organization & administration
Humans
North America
Obesity - ethnology; prevention & control
Self Concept
Social Environment
Social Values
Women's Health - ethnology

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

The ethics of cesarean section on maternal request: a feminist critique of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' position on patient-choice surgery. 30 Oct 2007
Medicalization of women's sexual problems: a different story? 29 Sep 2007
Health policy approaches to population health: the limits of medicalization. 30 Aug 2007
Environmental contexts of menopause in Spain: comparative results from recent research. 29 Jun 2007
[Socioeconomic inequalities in the provision and uptake of prenatal care] 30 Dec 2005
The shifting engines of medicalization. 27 Feb 2005
Medicalization, reproductive agency, and the desire for surgical sterilization among low-income women in urban Brazil. 29 Jun 2006
Female genital cutting and reproductive experience in Minya, Egypt. 30 May 2006
[Medicalization without physicians] 23 Apr 2007
[Adverse effects of medicalization] Mar 2005

See 100+ related articles.