ABSTRACT
In recent years, obesity has been presented as a major epidemic of the western world. In Norway, obesity is also considered a growing problem and health authorities and medical professionals continuously remind people to exercise to avoid weight gain. Women (in particular) seem to be accused of becoming obese as a result of poor self-control or lack of adequate knowledge about exercise and diet. At the same time, several researchers have pointed to the ways exercise has become a part of consumerism: exercise is primarily performed to achieve physical change, the ‘healthy-looking body’ (Berry 2008; Dworkin and Wachs 2009; Sassatelli 1999, 2007). In Norway, where fitness in the 1990s was characterized by a strong focus on health and functionality, there has also been a shift toward the looks-orientation of other westernized countries (SteenJohnsen 2004, 76). Feminist researchers (Engelsrud 2009; Haravon Collins 2002; Lloyd 1996; Maguire and Mansfield 1998; Markula 1995) have criticized fitness activities aimed at women accusing them of promoting sexual commodification rather than empowering women to be ‘healthy.’ This chapter takes a critical approach to the growing public interest in obesity, pointing to the negative, ‘unhealthy’ aspects of the current fitness and exercise movement. Large women are often caught between contradictory meanings of the ‘healthy-looking’ body. In this chapter, we will show how large women deal with obesity in a Norwegian exercise context.
