title: A discursive look at large bodies--implications for discursive approaches in nursing and health research.
abstract: This article illuminates discursive constructions of large bodies in contemporary society and discusses what discursive approaches might add to health care. Today, the World Health Organization describes a current "epidemic of obesity" and classifies large bodies as a medical condition. Texts on the obesity epidemic often draw upon alarming perspectives that involve associations of threat and catastrophe. The concern we see for body size in contemporary discourse is not new. Understandings of body size in Western societies are highly cultural and normative and could be different. The way we approach large bodies affects health care practice as well as subjects' self-perceptions.
authors: Institute of Health, Nutrition and Management, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway and Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors: Ingrid Ruud
authors: IR
authors: Knutsen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research; D009765:Obesity / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012931:Social Environment; D014944:World Health Organization