Farrell Lucy C, Warin Megan J, Moore Vivienne M, Street Jackie M
School of Public Health, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Discipline of Gender Studies and Social Analysis, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Sociol Health Illn. 2016 May;38(4):543-58. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12378. Epub 2015 Nov 13.
Intense concern about obesity in the public imagination and in political, academic and media discourses has catalysed advocacy efforts to implement regulatory measures to reduce the occurrence of obesity in Australia and elsewhere. This article explores public attitudes towards the possible implementation of regulations to address obesity by analysing emotions within popular discourses. Drawing on reader comments attached to obesity-relevant news articles published on Australian news and current affairs websites, we examine how popular anxieties about the 'obesity crisis' and vitriol directed at obese individuals circulate alongside understandings of the appropriate role of government to legitimise regulatory reform to address obesity. Employing Ahmed's theorisation of 'affective economies' and broader literature on emotional cultures, we argue that obesity regulations achieve popular support within affective economies oriented to neoliberal and individualist constructions of obesity. These economies preclude constructions of obesity as a structural problem in popular discourse; instead positioning anti-obesity regulations as a government-endorsed vehicle for discrimination directed at obese people. Findings implicate a new set of ethical challenges for those championing regulatory reform for obesity prevention.
公众想象以及政治、学术和媒体话语中对肥胖问题的高度关注，推动了在澳大利亚及其他地区实施监管措施以减少肥胖发生率的倡导工作。本文通过分析大众话语中的情绪，探讨公众对实施解决肥胖问题的监管措施的态度。借助澳大利亚新闻和时事网站上发布的与肥胖相关新闻文章所附的读者评论，我们研究了公众对“肥胖危机”的焦虑以及针对肥胖个体的尖刻言辞，是如何与对政府适当角色的理解一同传播，从而使解决肥胖问题的监管改革合法化的。运用艾哈迈德的“情感经济”理论以及关于情感文化的更广泛文献，我们认为，在以新自由主义和个人主义肥胖观念为导向的情感经济中，肥胖监管措施获得了大众支持。这些经济模式在大众话语中排除了将肥胖视为结构性问题的观念；相反，将反肥胖监管措施定位为政府认可的针对肥胖者的歧视手段。研究结果给那些支持预防肥胖监管改革的人带来了一系列新的伦理挑战。
