Fat liberation’s Jewish past—and future: A new wave of activists advocates for legal and cultural change

IF 0.8 Q3 SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY Fat Studies-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society Pub Date : 2021-04-19 DOI:10.1080/21604851.2021.1902703
Merissa Nathan Gerson
{"title":"Fat liberation’s Jewish past—and future: A new wave of activists advocates for legal and cultural change","authors":"Merissa Nathan Gerson","doi":"10.1080/21604851.2021.1902703","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this collection of interviews with Jewish fat liberationists, Merissa Nathan Gerson traces the centrality of Jewish women to the beginnings of the fat liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s. She links the history of Jewish women’s involvement in fat liberation to radical black queer fat acceptance in the 1960s. Incorporating the theorizing of Sabrina Strings, Merissa underscores how fatphobia began during the Enlightenment as a way to associate fatness with savagery and racial inferiority. This led to the racist creation of the BMI and the continuation of white supremacy within WASP-centered beauty norms. Jewish women especially have internalized these white American esthetic ideals, leading to what Rabbi Minna Bromberg terms “diet culture as idolatry.” Many of the interviewees, who come from a diverse range of religious practices and professions, describe the ways their Jewish mothers emphasized dieting as a way to control “Jewish wildness.” They challenge the idea that fat is unhealthy and maintain that Jewish communities must confront their fatphobia. Three key Jewish ideas are interwoven throughout: bezelim elohim, tikkun halev, and tikkun olam [made in God’s image, healing the self or the heart, and healing the world]. These three tenets articulate how Jewish traditions already include the philosophies needed to go beyond fat acceptance to advocate for fat liberation.","PeriodicalId":37967,"journal":{"name":"Fat Studies-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society","volume":"83 1","pages":"138 - 146"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2021-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Fat Studies-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2021.1902703","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this collection of interviews with Jewish fat liberationists, Merissa Nathan Gerson traces the centrality of Jewish women to the beginnings of the fat liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s. She links the history of Jewish women’s involvement in fat liberation to radical black queer fat acceptance in the 1960s. Incorporating the theorizing of Sabrina Strings, Merissa underscores how fatphobia began during the Enlightenment as a way to associate fatness with savagery and racial inferiority. This led to the racist creation of the BMI and the continuation of white supremacy within WASP-centered beauty norms. Jewish women especially have internalized these white American esthetic ideals, leading to what Rabbi Minna Bromberg terms “diet culture as idolatry.” Many of the interviewees, who come from a diverse range of religious practices and professions, describe the ways their Jewish mothers emphasized dieting as a way to control “Jewish wildness.” They challenge the idea that fat is unhealthy and maintain that Jewish communities must confront their fatphobia. Three key Jewish ideas are interwoven throughout: bezelim elohim, tikkun halev, and tikkun olam [made in God’s image, healing the self or the heart, and healing the world]. These three tenets articulate how Jewish traditions already include the philosophies needed to go beyond fat acceptance to advocate for fat liberation.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
脂肪解放的犹太人的过去和未来:倡导法律和文化变革的新一波活动家
在这本采访犹太脂肪解放主义者的文集中,Merissa Nathan Gerson追溯了犹太女性在20世纪70年代和80年代脂肪解放运动开始时的中心地位。她将犹太妇女参与脂肪解放的历史与20世纪60年代激进的黑人酷儿对脂肪的接受联系起来。结合萨布丽娜弦乐的理论,梅里萨强调了在启蒙运动时期,肥胖恐惧症是如何开始的,它是一种将肥胖与野蛮和种族自卑联系在一起的方式。这导致了BMI指数的种族主义创造,以及白人至上主义在以wasp为中心的审美标准中的延续。犹太女性尤其内化了这些美国白人的审美理想,导致了拉比米纳·布朗伯格所说的“偶像崇拜的饮食文化”。许多受访者来自不同的宗教信仰和职业,他们描述了他们的犹太母亲强调节食是一种控制“犹太野性”的方式。他们挑战肥胖不健康的观念,坚持犹太社区必须面对他们的肥胖恐惧症。三个关键的犹太思想交织在一起:bezelim elohim, tikkun halev和tikkun olam(以上帝的形象创造,治愈自我或心灵,治愈世界)。这三个信条清楚地表明,犹太传统已经包含了超越接受肥胖、倡导肥胖解放所需要的哲学。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
1.80
自引率
20.00%
发文量
32
期刊最新文献
“My heart’s fine as long as my stomach’s not empty”: patriarchal horror, women’s excess, and fat liberation in Criminally Insane War on fat in postwar Finland: A history of fat-shaming (Re)presenting The Big Grrrls Fat talk: parenting in the age of diet culture The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1