ABSTRACT
There are various perspectives circulating about fat bodies in the expert, popular and academic literature. The most well known, the ‘anti-obesity’ perspective, argues that fatness is a significant health and social problem which must urgently be treated and prevented. Yet a number of other perspectives have emerged which challenge this view for various reasons. After a brief review of the anti-obesity position, the remainder of the chapter addresses these different critical stances on fat, including discussion of the critical biomedical, libertarian, ethical, critical weight studies/fat studies and fat activism perspectives.
