ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the biopolitics of weight and body size; the biomedical paradigm; the medicalisation of fatness and the idea of "normal weight"; and the relationship between fatness and health. It talks about the obesity epidemic discourse (OED) and how it has been instrumental in the medicalisation and construction of fatness as a "social disease" and as a "metaphorical illness". The OED has been promoted in transnational organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), and national governmental bodies have also helped to legitimise it as the dominant approach to fatness over the past decade. The OED is a unique political phenomenon regarding health and the body, as it has been unusually global in nature. The overt goal of biopolitical government is to sustain the life of the population by improving its health, preventing illness, and eliminating risks. This duty is usually given to specific national public health institutions or other related governmental agencies.
