Unpacking the ‘anti-diet movement’: domination and strategies of resistance in the broad anti-diet community

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how those who adopt an ‘anti-diet’ stance use strategies to challenge weight-loss dieting norms. We used a qualitative survey to examine how a heterogenous collective of feminists, fat activists and health professionals (and those on the margins of these groups) define the source(s) of power underlying diet culture and discuss the strategies they use to challenge it. One hundred and eighteen people (M_age = 36.67, SD = 10.50) took part. Most were female (n = 112), heterosexual (69%), and residing in Australia (59%). A small proportion (13%) had a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background. Thirty-seven per cent were health professionals, and over half identified as non-diet activists (52%). We generated three themes in our thematic analysis: ‘Describing diet culture: Unpacking cultural and material forms of power,’ ‘Self-care as a political strategy: Refusals and ambivalence in the anti-diet community,’ and ‘Relational strategies: Challenging diet culture in work and everyday interactions.’ Participants viewed diet culture as being reinforced through internalized multi-institutional patriarchal, Eurocentric and capitalist systems. They challenged cultural norms and institutions that reinforce diet culture by being critical of gender norms and rejecting consumerist dieting practices. We argue that the self-care and relational strategies used by participants across communities signify an awkward but unified ‘anti-diet movement.’ Future research should recruit a more culturally and ethnically diverse sample and examine the ‘anti-diet’ movement beyond the Global North context.

KEYWORDS:

• Diet culture
• anti-diet movement
• multi-institutional politics approach
• awkward social movements

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to our Project Advisory Committee for assisting in the design of our qualitative survey, and give a special thank you to Professor Kay Cook, who read over our final draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funder

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, through a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE200100357) awarded to the corresponding author.

Notes

1. The HAES approach is a public health approach that de-emphasises weight loss as a health outcome. Instead, HAES practitioners promote weight-inclusivity (accepting body diversity), health enhancement (through health practices, policies and services), respectful care (avoiding weight stigma and acknowledging systemic oppression), eating for well-being (based on hunger cues rather than external prescriptions), and life-enhancing movement (supporting physical activity based on ability; Bacon, 2011).

2. The term ‘anti-diet’ movement will be used throughout this paper to refer to the broad collective of fat-acceptance, body-positivity and weight-neutral approaches to health that have challenged weight-loss dieting culture.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DE200100357].

Notes on contributors

Natalie Jovanovski

Dr Natalie Jovanovski is a DECRA research fellow and health sociologist. Her research focuses on identifying and critiquing the gendered systems that adversely affect women’s relationships with food and their bodies, and understanding how women and health professionals challenge ‘diet culture’.

Tess Jaeger

Tess Jaeger is a PhD candidate in psychology whose research focuses on self-beliefs in obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.