TY - JOUR
T1 - Civilising recalcitrant boys' bodies
T2 - Pursuing social fitness through the anti-obesity offensive
AU - Monaghan, Lee F.
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Obesity discourse provides a commonly recycled rationale for multiple, ostensibly well-intended, interventions. Formal educational settings sometimes operate as sites for these biopedagogies which putatively promote 'good health' among young people as they transition to 'responsible' adulthood. Yet, regulation and control, or the pursuit of social fitness, may be more pressing concerns. Drawing from an ethnography of a 'Health and Youth' college initiative in Northeast England, directed at recalcitrant boys who risked school exclusion, this article considers how the war on obesity provided a rationale for middle-class efforts to instil civility. Despite educators' best intentions, the initiative also provided a stage and props for cruder forms of bullying among the boys. This article critiques (un)civilised fat oppression in this setting as part of a larger interrogation of the state sponsored anti-obesity offensive. Connections are made with literature on the civilising process, obesity discourse, boys' bodies, health and education.
AB - Obesity discourse provides a commonly recycled rationale for multiple, ostensibly well-intended, interventions. Formal educational settings sometimes operate as sites for these biopedagogies which putatively promote 'good health' among young people as they transition to 'responsible' adulthood. Yet, regulation and control, or the pursuit of social fitness, may be more pressing concerns. Drawing from an ethnography of a 'Health and Youth' college initiative in Northeast England, directed at recalcitrant boys who risked school exclusion, this article considers how the war on obesity provided a rationale for middle-class efforts to instil civility. Despite educators' best intentions, the initiative also provided a stage and props for cruder forms of bullying among the boys. This article critiques (un)civilised fat oppression in this setting as part of a larger interrogation of the state sponsored anti-obesity offensive. Connections are made with literature on the civilising process, obesity discourse, boys' bodies, health and education.
KW - Boys' bodies
KW - Civilising process
KW - Elias
KW - Obesity discourse
KW - Oppression
KW - Regulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905252596&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13573322.2012.716034
DO - 10.1080/13573322.2012.716034
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84905252596
SN - 1357-3322
VL - 19
SP - 691
EP - 711
JO - Sport, Education and Society
JF - Sport, Education and Society
IS - 6
ER -