In the new Listener, on sale July 7, 2012

By Toby Manhire| Published on July 6, 2012 | Online Only

Heavyweight academic explodes the weight loss myths.

Has the weight fixation been overdone?
From Joanne Black‘s cover story for the new Listener:

The weight-loss industry, [Massey academic Andrew Dickson - the chap there he is quadricate on the cover] contends, creates a belief among those who are fat, or who struggle with their weight, that BMI is a measure of normal people.“The weight-loss industry is really the weight-anxiety industry and the basis of its profit is exacerbating anxiety.

“If you watch Good Morning or read Healthy Food Guide, they are predominantly skinny, white, young, female, privileged nutritionists and dietitians writing and talking about their life experiences, and that’s an incredibly isolating and alienating experience for anyone who’s had any serious issues with weight, or about weight anxiety. All that experience does is polarise people into thinking, ‘I’m no good.’”

Further, says Dickson, those in the relatively new academic discipline of fat studies would also say overweight people are labelled as lazy, sloppy, slobbish and unintelligent. He says there is a feeling that even if fat people are good people, they still must be undisciplined or they would not be overweight. “There’s always that partition, and adding a certain stigma. For me, that polarising experience prevented me ever thinking about my body as anything other than bad. And I’m still exactly like that now.”

Elsewhere in the new issue, Gareth Morgan peeks across the demilatrised zone and into North Korea, while Karyn Scherer speaks to a North Korean defector.
Rebecca Macfie talks to he man who revitalised Melbourne, an advocate of human-scale cities that put people at the centre.
In arts: Sue Orr, Fiona Kidman, Jenny Pattrick, Lawrence Patchett and Martin Amis; Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson, Patti Smith, Neil Young & Crazy Horse; Sub-Topical Heat; Black Confetti.
Plus the usual fleet of political and lifestyle columnists.