Fearing the black body : the racial origins of fat phobia / Sabrina Strings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strings, Sabrina, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)--Social aspects--United States.

Feminine beauty (Aesthetics).

African American women--Social conditions.

African American women.

Overweight women--United States--Social conditions.

Overweight women.

Obesity--Social aspects--United States.

Obesity.

Black or African American.

Female.

Obesity--Social aspects.

Social conditions.

Social aspects.

United States.

Medical Subjects:

Obesity.

Black or African American.

Female.

Physical Description:

283 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [2019]

Summary:

"There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor black women are particularly stigmatized as "diseased" and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago. Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals--where fat bodies were once praised--showing that fat phobia, as it relates to black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of "savagery" and racial inferiority. The author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early twentieth century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity. An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues convincingly that fat phobia isn't about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice."--Amazon.com.

Contents:

Introduction : the original epidemic

Being Venus

Plump women and thin, fine men

The rise of the big black woman

Birth of the ascetic aesthetic

American beauty : the reign of the slender aesthetic

Thinness as American exceptionalism

Good health to uplift the race

Fat, revisited

Epilogue : the obesity epidemic.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781479819805

1479819808

9781479886753

1479886750

OCLC:

1050457278