The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gendered Labour, and Crisis: Lived Experiences of the Collapse of the Political Economy of Social Reproduction

Obesity has soared to 'epidemic' levels in Britain over the last decade. The latest UK Government
statistics estimate that over a quarter of adults and one fifth of children are either obese or overweight
(Baker, 2018). As the most serious, costly and widespread public health issue in British Society, obesity
is a risk-factor for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and osteoarthritis and is on track to overtake
smoking as the most prevalent cause of cancer (Cancer Research UK, 2018). Historically, obesity has
been a disease of affluent societies. However, rising obesity rates over the last two decades correlate
specifically with growing inequality, with high rates of obesity spatially clustered amongst deprived
populations. Impoverished children are twice as likely to be obese than their wealthier peers, and adults
living in the most deprived areas of England are 46% more likely to be obese than adults living in the
least deprived areas (Baker, 2018: 9). Given this structural and spatial correlation, why is obesity
represented by the media and public health campaigns as a consequence of individual lifestyle choices
rather than socio-economic factors such as money for and access to healthy food? Particularly, why is
obesity represented as an individualised social pathology, a stigma, rather than a social problem of
inequality?