Concerns about young people's (read, young women's) body dissatisfaction in schools have resulted in the introduction of programs promoting positive body Image in an effort to reduce eating disorders. These programs, informed by psychological or socio-psychological notions of the relations between self and bodies, seem to have considerable credibility in schools and in the academic Iiterature because of their authoritative underpinnings. In this chapter, we want to examine the ways in which such programs engage with discourses around bodies, fat, and size. For example, do they challenge discourses of weight-based oppression, create safe spaces for learning about weight and size, and/or (re)produce normative notions of individual responsibility and health?
History
Citation
Wright, J. & Leahy, D. (2016). Moving beyond body image: A socio-critical approach to teaching about health and body size. In E. Cameron & C. Russell (Eds.), The Fat Pedagogy Reader: Challenging Weight-Based Oppression Through Critical Education (pp. 141-149). New York, United States: Peter Lang.