ABSTRACT
From the late 70s through the 80s and into the 90s, though of course many women struggled with their weight, the overall climate was not as harsh and punitive about fat as it is today. Susie Orbach published Fat is a Feminist Issue in 1978. William Bennett and Joel Guerin published The Dieter’s Dilemma, a book grounded in medical research, in 1983. Carol Shaw launched Big Beautiful Woman magazine in 1979. A flurry of books and pamphlets from what was called the Fat Liberation Movement began fat acceptance. All of these publications, and others, urged fat women to listen to their bodies, presented research showing that dieting is in fact a losing battle, one in which most will regain all weight lost and often more. The magazine gave fat women their first chance to see women like themselves modeling beautiful clothes, and even lingerie and bathing suits, images of women none of us ever saw in mainstream fashion magazines. It is no small matter to be able to see images in a glossy fashion magazine of fat women, women like me. By no means did these publications and others similar to them mean that there was no bias against fat or that it was a kind of Camelot for fat people, but there was nothing like a war being waged against fat and fat people like there is today. In the 90s something changed and any softening of the climate toward fat ended. By the beginning of this 10century war on fat was declared, a war that continues unabated. As Betty Meador tells us,
The influence of the culture is so great that the individual internalizes its precepts and expectations to such an extent that they become an unconscious and pervasive influence in everyday life, hidden like the blood in our veins, but shaping our identity, opinions, and behavior.
(Meador, 2004, p. 172) In order to explore the development and intensity of what is now called the War on Obesity from a Jungian perspective, thus to explore what this means, we must turn to consider what complex is at work here. Jungians are familiar with complexes. A complex is an emotionally charged group of ideas or images. When an individual or group is in the grip of a complex, their vision is distorted by the ideas and images of the complex. A person caught in a complex has a “sore spot” which leads to behavior that is automatic and stereotypical. The same response appears in every triggering situation, whether it is appropriate and helpful or not.