The Childhood Obesity Epidemic as a Burgeoning Site of Social Stratification

This article deconstructs the childhood obesity epidemic, examining the anthropological, social, and political meanings of the constructs of fatness, obesity, and epidemic. It chronicles the emergence of a speciously objective obesity construct that preserves the underlying moral significance of a fatness construct. The political deployment of the obesity construct marginalizes certain groups, such as low socioeconomic-status (SES), racial-minority, and ethnic-minority families, in ostensibly scientific terms. So too, the political deployment of the epidemic construct secures the ascendancy of childhood obesity on the policy agenda. The article argues that social workers are obligated to deconstruct the constructs of obesity and epidemic.