Abstract

CHRISTIANSEN, María L.. “Homo Caloricus”: The epistemological construction of lipophobic stigma in public health media discourses. Salud colect. [online]. 2018, vol.14, n.3, pp.623-637. ISSN 1669-2381.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18294/sc.2018.1602.

The case of obesity in Mexico constitutes an emblematic example of how, in the messages emitted by public health television campaigns, strong beliefs regarding the issue of body weight prevail. The main objective is to reflect on certain epistemological effects that abound in biomedical media narratives related to obesity. To do so, aspects of the rhetoric employed in two initiatives of the Ministry of Public Health - Muévete y Métete en Cintura [Move Around and Slim Down] in 2008 and the 5 Steps Program in 2011 - are analyzed, as is the discourse surrounding the tax measure introduced by the Mexican tax service in 2017. This study also looks at other similar practices that, although taking place outside of Mexico, stoke the fires of lipophobism, such as the “Cormillot industry” in Argentina. As a result, a strong discursive influx stemming from a reductionist vision of bodily diversity has been identified, supported by the pathologization of fat bodies through moral prejudices and biased generalizations.

Keywords : Body Weight; Body Mass Index; Communications Media; Government Programs; Mexico.

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