ABSTRACT
Having outlined the instructional dimensions of obesity discourse in the previous chapter, our attention now turns to its regulative dimensions. Our focus builds on Burry’s observation that the imperative to monitor one’s weight has become an ethical matter. We explore the ethical dimensions of current health policy and practice, particularly regarding guidelines relating to weight issues, documenting how contemporary representations of obesity rely on medical ‘facts’ and create social meanings which influence how schoolchildren, their parents/guardians and family members are to be viewed and assessed as embodied subjects.
