ABSTRACT
Postfeminism and Health. Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans, Martine Robson. Chapter 2 . This chapter considers relationships between health and citizenship. Body mass index is analysed as a form of government through desire (governmentality) and a significant critique of it as a measure of health is developed, highlighting the relationships between commercial interests and governments that led to a focus on weight over other issues that might be more relevant to health. The chapter develops a gendered analysis of Crawford’s healthism, arguing that if neoliberal healthism is an address to all citizens, it interpellates women in specific ways that make weight management a postfeminist issue. The chapter also evaluates alternative discourses that seek to avoid conflating health with weight or self-control. >>
