Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: The ‘obesity epidemic’ is widely accepted as a major public health threat in the United States. This paper provides a critical examination of the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity’s action plan that is foundational to First Lady Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign. The report reveals ideological anxieties about race, American citizenship, changing gender roles and women’s bodies. The framing of obesity as a personal problem and individual failing reflects the merger of American individualism and neoliberalism. Self-regulation and responsibility (and the mother’s responsibility for her children) are key in prescriptions to manage obesity, reflecting biopolitical techniques of governance and a new model of ‘the healthy American citizen.’
Author: Jeanne Firth
Institution: Tulane University
Language: English
Topic: Obesity and Health Practices
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2994373243