Humankind and Fat. Attraction, Repulsion, Health and Politics

Résumé 0

Fat that our bodies accumulate, fat we consume, our representations of fatty foods and bodies… The relationships between humankind and fat are a fascinating topic for social and medical scientists. They are highly variable according to the places and the times and, often, much more nuanced and complex that the dominant discourse suggests. Not very so long ago, European peasants valued fat. Today, their urbanised descendants have panic attacks if they have to move a hole in the belt! However, even if they are lipophobic, they are still linking some traditional fatty foods with festival meals. Western canons of beauty radically changed since the time when Romanian sayings went that a beautiful woman had to be fat or that a fat man was healthy. Entertainment media teach us that perfect people are thin. Nevertheless, the apparent triumph of this ideal of the body beautiful does not mean that fatter bodies totally lost their sex appeal or their power of fascination. Out of Europe, the relationships between humankind and fat can obviously differ, even in our globalized world.