RT Article
T1 Sin or Slim?: Christian morality and the politics of personal choice in a secular commercial weight loss setting
JF Fieldwork in religion
VO 8
IS 1
SP 92
OP 109
A1 Bacon, Hannah 1978-
LA English
PB Equinox
YR 2013
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1692977458
AB Is fat a sin? Popular ‘knowledge' about obesity which frames fat as an avoidable behavioural condition would certainly suggest it can be blamed on the fat person. Discourses of health reproduced within public policy and media reporting assist in the pathologization of fat bodies, insisting that fat is the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices. It is, however, not simply medical interpretations of fat that facilitate this moral discourse. Religion also provides an important source of moral judgment. This paper draws on my qualitative research inside a UK secular, commercial slimming group to consider how the Christian moral language of sin functions within this setting to construct a politics of choice that holds the dieter personally responsible for her fat. Interpreting weight loss and weight gain as a measure of moral character, this theological language assists in the operation of ‘normative conformity', conforming women's bodies to cultural knowledge about fat.
K1 Syn/sin
K1 Choice
K1 fat
K1 Morality
K1 weight loss
DO 10.1558/firn.v8i1.92