We Shall Overeat

THE SKINNY ON FAT STUDIES

Academia has latched onto a new and powerful victim group by introducing “Fat Studies” on several American campuses.

But . . . does this subject area qualify as a scholarly endeavor—or is it merely a sob-sister counterpart to “Women’s Studies?”

To author/commentator John Leo, these courses fall into the category of gripe sessions that push “identity politics, the airing of grievances and demands for protection from the oppression of the non-fat world.”

Stephen Balch, who heads up the National Association of Scholars, agrees, and was quoted in the Althouse blog as saying that “ethnic studies, women’s studies, queer studies — they’re all about vindicating the grievances of some particular group. That’s not what the academy should be about.”

And yet, a recent study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University showed that discrimination against the overweight was off the charts, and suggested that legal recourse might be in the works, like ensuring some level of “weight diversity” in the workplace.

One indication that “Fat Studies” has been embraced by academia was its inclusion in last year’s National Conference of the Popular Culture Association.

The conference website describes Fat Studies as an emerging “interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary field of study that confronts and critiques cultural constraints against notions of ‘fatness’ and ‘the fat body;’ explores fat bodies as they live in, are shaped by, and remake the world; and creates paradigms for the development of fat acceptance or celebration within mass culture”

Although the growth of these programs has attracted a slew of professors as purveyors of fat pride and body acceptance, it can take a negative turn when health concerns intervene.

Marymount Manhattan College Professor Kathleen LeBesco recently dropped 70 pounds after a scare over the possibility of developing Type 2 Diabetes. “I made my public name as a fat person,” noted Ms. LeBesco, adding that “I’m worried that losing weight is going to kill my credibility as a scholar.”

Deborah Lambert writes Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

Deborah Lambert