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1) The emergence of overweight as a disease entity: Measuring up normality
Social Science & Medicine, Volume 63, Issue 9, November 2006, Pages
2268-2276
Annemarie Jutel
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=GatewayURL&_method=citationSearch&_uoikey=B6VBF-4KF6BSK-1&_origin=SDEMFRASCII&_version=1&md5=bc8fa3efd4073d0c0ef681999f7a56f8


Abstract
As Charles Rosenberg [(2002). The tyranny of diagnosis. The Milbank
Quarterly, 80, 237–260] has recently written, clinical diagnosis
contributes to imposing structure on cultural reality in a manner which is
not unproblematic. A social power resides in the process of naming
diseases—one, which legitimises concerns, explains reality, naturalises
deviance and imposes status. But clinical entities are not static, as both
the concerns of society, and the technological ability of practitioners
change (what Rosenberg refers to as the “iatrogenesis of nosology”), so too
do the range of labels available for identifying disease.

In this paper, I argue that being “overweight,” once predominantly an
adjectival descriptor of corpulence, a physical sign or a symptom, and
even, in some cultures, a sign of wealth and status, is undergoing the
transformation to disease entity. I suggest that evidence of this is
present in both the frequency and the way in which the term is being used
by the media, the medical establishment and the laity. I argue that this
change stems from the convergence of two particular phenomena. The first is
the belief in the neutrality of quantification, and the objectivity that
measurement brings to qualitative description. The second is the importance
attributed to normative appearance in health. I discuss some of the
implications of this evolution and its impact on health practices,
including the exploitation of this purported disease state for commercial
benefit.

Keywords: Overweight; Obesity; Diagnosis; Medicalisation

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