 | |
| Author | Sabrina Strings |
|---|---|
| Subject | sociology |
Publication date | May 2019 |
| ISBN | 9781479819805 |
Fearing the Black Body is a 2019 non-fiction book by American sociologist Sabrina Strings about the history of fatphobia, which Strings argues is rooted in anti-Black racism. It was published by New York University Press under the full title Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. [1] [2]
In Fearing the Black Body, Strings, associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, writes of the history of fatphobia and its intersection with anti-Black racism in Europe and the United States from the sixteenth-century to the present day. Strings explores the influence of various factors in the development of anti-fatness and its connection to racism, including the Atlantic slave trade, Renaissance art, scientific racism, and Protestantism, among others.
Fearing the Black Body was published in May 2019 by NYU Press. [1] The cover features an illustration depicting Sarah Baartman. [3]
Fearing the Black Body was well received in academic circles. Positive reviews of the book were published by Meshell Sturgis in Lateral, [4] Etsuko Taketani in The Journal of American History, [5] and Amelia Earhart Serafine in the Journal of Interdisciplinary History.
In Social Forces , Laura Jennings praised the accessibility of Strings's prose and the depth of her research, but noted that Strings occasionally falsely conflated physically descriptive terms like "obesity" with behavioral terms such as "gluttony." Jennings also noted that Strings's analysis of recent history is less extensive than her analysis of earlier centuries. [6] In the European Journal of Women's Studies , Kathy Davis complimented the book's innovation, readability, and breadth, but expressed her wish that Strings had gone further in her analysis of the epidemiology of obesity as it relates to black women. [7]
The book won the 2020 Sociology of Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award from the American Sociological Association. [8]
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that the human species can be subdivided into biologically distinct taxa called "races", and that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Before the mid-20th century, scientific racism was accepted throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer considered scientific. The division of humankind into biologically separate groups, along with the assignment of particular physical and mental characteristics to these groups through constructing and applying corresponding explanatory models, is referred to as racialism, race realism, or race science by those who support these ideas. Modern scientific consensus rejects this view as being irreconcilable with modern genetic research.
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Mankind Quarterly is a journal that has been described as a "cornerstone of the scientific racism establishment", a "white supremacist journal", and "a pseudo-scholarly outlet for promoting racial inequality". It covers physical and cultural anthropology, including human evolution, intelligence, ethnography, linguistics, mythology, archaeology, and biology. It is published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research, which was presided over by Richard Lynn until his death in 2023.
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Anti-Black sentiment, also called anti-Black racism, anti-Blackness or Negrophobia. It is characterized by prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination or extreme aversion towards people who are considered Black people, such as sub-Saharan Africans, as well as a loathing of Black culture worldwide. Caused, among other factors, by racism and traumatic events and circumstances, symptoms of this form of xenophobia include, but are not limited to: the attribution of negative characteristics to Black and Coloured people; the fear or strong dislike or dehumanization of Black and Coloured men; and the objectification of Black and Coloured women.
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Internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study The Psychology of Racism, Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes that internalized racism involves both "conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy in which a presumed superior race are consistently ranked above other races. These definitions encompass a wide range of instances, including, but not limited to, belief in negative stereotypes, adaptations to cultural standards, and thinking that supports the status quo.
Joe Richard Feagin is an American sociologist and social theorist who has conducted extensive research on racial and gender issues in the United States. He is currently the Ella C. McFadden Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University.
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The sociology of race and ethnic relations is the study of social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of systemic racism, like residential segregation and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups.
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The social stigma of obesity, can be defined as the systemic oppression of and discrimination against people who may be considered overweight, obese, or fat. Fatphobia exists in many forms and presents itself in both institutional and interpersonal circumstances. According to numerous academics, fatphobia or general anti-fat bias is common and pervasive. Fatphobia negatively impacts the attitudes and behaviours of individuals towards those considered to be overweight or obese. Employment, relationships, and medical care are some facets of daily living that are all known to be negatively impacted by fat-phobic rhetoric or anti-fat assumptions. Fatphobia is produced and spread in many ways, including through advertising and popular media such as television shows. According to a number of scholars, television shows in North America both underrepresent and misrepresent fat people which (re)produces fatphobic rhetoric
An anti-fatphobia organization is an organization that works to address the social stigma of obesity. Anti-fatphobia organizations typically define themselves by their desire to end fatphobia in whichever contexts they focus on. Anti-fatphobia organizations in the United States are closely tied to the fat acceptance movement with anti-fatphobia activism in general, which begun around the 1960s. The fat acceptance movement can be described as a movement which centres fat people in order to address the oppression they face in society for being fat. The fat acceptance movement calls for societal recognition of a need for systemic change. Anti-fatphobia organizations often take an intersectional approach, and address how fatness is experienced at varying intersections of identity. In the United States, there are two main anti-fatphobia organizations. These organizations are NOLOSE, or the National Organization of Lesbians of Every Size, and NAAFA, or the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.