The moralizing of obesity: A new name for an old sin?

Abstract

The obesity epidemic is a significant issue for health and social policy, with major ramifications for economic productivity across the globe. In Western industrialized countries, however, it impacts on the population along traditional lines of economic disadvantage, its incidence being inversely related to income and education. As a health issue and matter for policy intervention, obesity is frequently presented in public discourse within an existing moral framework which links illness with moral failure. This is reminiscent of the historical treatment of poverty. It will be argued in this paper that the convergence of moralized discourses around poverty and illness is represented most visibly and powerfully in the issue of obesity, resulting in policy which addresses these moral 'shortcomings' at the expense of attention to the structures which create ill health and poverty. An alternative social-structural perspective will be proposed as a potentially more helpful frame for addressing the obesity issue.