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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: August 10, 2004
Reviewed:
Latest Update: August 10, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Obesity and Its Correlates
- Introduction
Why I chose to share this reading.- Focus:
Main point of this reading.- Reading
Full identification of source for reading AND excerpt.- Concepts:
Concepts and Key Words.- Discussion
Discussion questions.- Conceptual Linking to Substantive Courses
What this has to do with our class.* * *
- I wanted to share this activity on assessing our out-of-awareness reactions to obesity because the issue is so wide spread today that none of us can escape it. What does it mean to each of us, fat, thin, or somewhere in between? How do we bring that to awareness?
- I would like you to come away from this activity with a sense of the complexity with whcih major sound bite constructs are caught up in cultural life styles and manipulated by the dominant culture.
- shared reading: Up soon.
- Go back and ask yourself why you reacted as you did?
Did the hair color affect your decision? Did the skin color, even though no attempt at realism was made? Did the indication of a facial characteristic or smile? Did the type of clothing? Make a note of what you were thinking, because the images are very abstract. That means that we were able to see different things in them. We'd like to see how many different things each of us saw.
- If food is caught up the infrastructure of class,how do we handle that sensitively in our national drive against obesity?
Consider the importance of "awareness" and "answerability." Consider the "laying on of alternatives." Consider that if we're going to live together in peace, we're going to need to respect differences. We really are all quite different from one another.
Apply the concept of control through expression to obesity.
Consider what it implies when you call someone fat. You have immediately excluded them for something. From what? How does that lead to control? Consider that what government expresses is somehow legitimized. If government expresses NOT-fat as "good," then that gives a moral victory to those who are NOT fat. You control through the fear of labeling.
Conceptual Linking to Substantive Courses:
- Agencies:
Sample linking:When schools and health clinics start telling children that they are "overweight," how's that going to enter our diverse life styles?
- Criminal Justice:
Sample linking: How does the issue of weight, particularly given the institutional diet, come up in prison? Is it a health issue? Is it a cosmetic issue? What about body building?
- Law:
Sample linking:If airlines are permitted to charge obese persons foran extended safety belt, what effect does that have upon dominant discourse expression and control over others. Consult Karst.
- Moot Court:
Sample linking:Does weight in any of its forms affect the effectiveness of an argument? Consider the issue of "presence". Consider the issue of "little."
- Women in Poverty:
Sample linking: What are the corrrelative factors that affect weight amongst the poor? Consider how privilege affects the choice of foods.
- Race, Gender, Class:
Sample linking: How do different body types enter the issue. Consider icons of thinness or weight. A thin Santa Claus? A Santa Claus who can't come this Christmas because he had to have a knee replacement?
- Religion:
Sample linking: Food plays a part in most religions. How does that interact with cultural differences? Do all cultures accept "fast food"?
- Love !A:
Sample linking: The giving and sharing of food, the "breaking of bread" implies love and caring and gestures of friendship. Consider the importance of being able to have a food stuff to offer easily and at minimal cost. Think that has anything to do with the continuing popularity of smoking, despite its dangers?
