ABSTRACT
Today there seems still to be an assumption that “fat equals lazy, weak-willed and unattractive” (Large 2006: 1). According to this view “obesity [is] the fault of weakwilled, gluttonous individuals” (Metcalf 2006: 53). Yet are the “3.2 million New Yorkers who are overweight or obese . . . all lazy, weak-willed people?” (Louis 2006: 21). For many it is clearly the obese who are at fault for their state: “Fat people are thought to be gluttonous, lustful, greedy, lazy, weak-willed, and lacking any kind of self-control. If fat people are targets of our contempt, it is only because they have brought this on themselves with their unwillingness to take responsibility for their own actions” (Oliver 2005: B01).
