Size positive studies and journal articles?

[icedemon428]

Hey all,

It's coming down to the end of the semester for us college folk, and I've been assigned to write a literature review about a subject I feel passionate about. I've been pondering the various topics I could choose, and I felt a paper about the issue of size acceptance and the various dilemas the movement faces.

The problem that I'm facing right now is that most of the studies i'm finding are heavily biased toward portraying obesity as an epidemic, a major health problem and the like. I need five solid studies from accredited journals to fulfill the requirements of the paper, and currently I have two.

So, I'm tapping the one resource at my disposal in an attempt to catch a lead. I'm not asking for journal articles specifically, although they are greatly appreciated. However, I am asking for any nudge in the right direction that would help put a positive spin on this paper. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ice

[Jay West Coast]

Here you go Ice, roughly in decending order:

Check out The Obesity Myth by Paul Campos. There is good, solid medical discussion in there, as well as discussion of why fat-hysteria is so overwhelmingly popular (economics, of course!). Loads of great anti-diet stuff in there, and very well researched. This guy is more on our side than theirs, and he sports a careful argument against the mainstream.

Also: Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession by Dan Kubrick and Anne Menely. This book shows both sides of the issue, but takes a fairly objective "scientific" tone. But, hey, and book that begins with, "what would it be like to live in a place where women strive to be as fat as possible?" is probably going to be a decent read.

Real Women Don't Diet! by Ken Mayer takes on the FA's point of view, and was the first piece of pro-fat non-fiction I read. Some parts are very, uh, personal, but there might be some good stuff you can use in there too.

Such A Pretty Face by Lee Martindale also talks directly about the NAAFA, if I remember correctly. This is a relatively fat-positive piece too, I think, but the edition I read was a bit old. There is also A Fat Girl's Guide To Life, by Wendy Shanker, but I haven't read that one. Oh, and Fat! So? is another title you might check out.

Hope that helps a bit. I definitely recommend looking at the first title...it just might write your paper for you.

Good Luck,

Jay West Coast

PS: These are all books, I don't know about journals. Maybe Slate Magazine's article "America's Waistline" by Laura Kipnis at http://www.slate.com/id/2128999/
might help.

[Jes]

You want I should poke around? Sometimes, I have extra special resources at my fingertips. Because I'm magic.

Can you tell me more specifically what sort of arguments (or data) you're looking for? Medical obesity studies aren't it, so can you more fully explain what is?

(the nice thing about that, even though this is a lit. review, is that if you scour the sources and don't find what you want, you can always make that point in your paper)

PM me (or post here, I'll try to remember the thread)

[LillyBBBW]

You might want to try these out and see if they fill in some blanks for you.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/artic...fm/article/161
http://www.techcentralstation.com/120204D.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2128999/

[MissToodles]

Big Fat Lies which deals with health issues is a good source too.

[kropotkin_fan]

Check out The Obesity Myth by Paul Campos. There is good, solid medical discussion in there, as well as discussion of why fat-hysteria is so overwhelmingly popular (economics, of course!). Loads of great anti-diet stuff in there, and very well researched. This guy is more on our side than theirs, and he sports a careful argument against the mainstream.

Don't get me started on him. First, he's not even a doctor, but a lawyer, so he really isn't qualified to decide whether science is accurate or not. Second, as a lawyer and hense a capitalist, it is very hypocritical of him to criticize people who say fat is bad as being classist.

Suffice to say, the laws of physics make it quite clear that a good diet and excersize can make you lose weight. Denying that is attacking the very foundation of science. I don't mean to flame or anything, I'm just pointing out the facts, like it says in my signature.

[Tragdor]

Originally Posted by kropotkin_fan

Second, as a lawyer and hense a capitalist, .

ummm correct me if I am wrong but to be a capitialist in the Marxian sense of the word (which I am assuming your using since your name includes Kropokin, and yes I know Kropotkin was an anarcho-communist and not a Marxist) don't you actualy to own the means of production?

[kropotkin_fan]

ummm correct me if I am wrong but to be a capitialist in the Marxian sense of the word (which I am assuming your using since your name includes Kropokin, and yes I know Kropotkin was an anarcho-communist and not a Marxist) don't you actualy to own the means of production?

Good point, it's more accurate to say that he's an agent of capitalism, as it were, rather than an actual capitalist. There really needs to be a word for someone who supports capitalism but isn't necessarily a capitalist themselves. "Supporter of capitalism" is rather awkward to say everytime.

Still, as a lawyer, he really doesn't seem qualified to make these kinds of judgements. It takes a lot of specialized knowledge to decide this sort of thing. I may deal with this issue in more detail eventually, though.

[MissToodles]

KF, we're all agents of "capitalism" and there isn't something as pure politics. Unless you're the unabomber or decide to be a primtivist, objectivity is relative.

[pani]

I have to comment on the post that claims Paul Campos is not qualified to write a book about health and obesity. What most people do not realize is that many of the studies done on obesity are not clinical, but self-reported surveys or audits of*peoples' health records. What is critical here is that fat people and thin people are equal in every single way that might affect their health. Therefore, anyone familiar with demographics, statistics, and social patterns is absolutely qualified to critique studies. I get the same thing from doctors who feel that a sociologist can't possibly contribute to the debate. In fact, most doctors have not taken research *methodology*. And many who do are lacking knowledge in the social sciences, which is why their research is so mediocre. They find a correlation - higher weights with higher rates of disease, and can't get beyond that to see how the life experiences of fat people might affect their health differently than those thin people. Furthermore, many of the studies are funded by the pharmaceutical companies and it takes a researcher to discover that. Attorneys have highly developed analytical and detective skills which is absolutely necessary in teasing out confounding variables. This book made some outstanding revelations. The poster is entitled to his opinion, but anyone who thinks the doctors have the monopoly on epidemiology in this area simply does not know how things work.

[icedemon428]

Thank you all for your help. I'm going to submit these sources to my professor and see if they fall under his guidelines. Hopefully they are reputable enough to be used, as from what I've read so far, they're sure to solidify my paper's points a hundred times over.

I'm still searching for back-ups, on the chance that my teacher doesn't accept these sources. If anyone has any accredited journal sources, such as the Journal of Psychology or the New England Journal of Medicine, to name only a select few, those would be more than acceptable as well.

So far, Google Scholar has come up dry for me, and I'm having trouble narrowing down the specifics as to what to focus on...

Thanks again for everything,
Ice

[Jay West Coast]

If he doesn't approve these sources, tell him to come see me.

<cracks knuckles>


Jay "The Punisher" West Coast

[Jes]

Ice, I've emailed you a WAD o' stuff. JAMA, New England J of Med., I got it all. Hopefully some of it will be something, as I like to say. E-me if you have questions.

[Jay West Coast]

Originally Posted by Jes

Ice, I've emailed you a WAD o' stuff. JAMA, New England J of Med., I got it all. Hopefully some of it will be something, as I like to say. E-me if you have questions.

Damn. Now if only I could just find some recent articles about the short and long-term economic effect of American-style urban sprawl and equity-stripping in foreign markets, especially a case study of the urban design-economy relationship of a certain Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela....






Jay West Coast

[Jes]

Originally Posted by Jay West Coast

Damn. Now if only I could just find some recent articles about the short and long-term economic effect of American-style urban sprawl and equity-stripping in foreign markets, especially a case study of the urban design-economy relationship of a certain Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela....






Jay West Coast

my new slogan
will share mad librarian skillz for you-know-what!

(ps: personal to you: if you ever take the test, I have a surefire success tip for you!)

[icedemon428]

Ok, Google Scholar is a lot friendlier than I expected it to be, at least once I got my searc categories narrowed down. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions - I may not have used most of them, but you guys certainly did help me focus myself a good deal.

You guys rock!
Thanks,
Ice