Extra Credit Event 2 - What's Wrong with Fat? Author Meets Critics

(Figure 1 Me in front of the room)

For my second extra credit event, I attended What’s Wrong with Fat? Author-Meets-Critics on December 6^th, which was held Royce 314. The purpose of this event was for author Abigail Saguy and critics, Bianca Wilson, Tamar Harwich and Ed Walker to discuss Saguy’s book, What’s Wrong with Fat?.  Since this event did not go into great detail about the books plot, I did some research online. What’s Wrong with Fat?  looks at how obesity has become framed as a public health crisis which has been blown out of proportion. “Saguy says that when we talk about an obesity epidemic we assume moving non-obese to obese is like moving from health to illness”, according to Detrick.

(Figure 2 Me at  the Conference Room)

Although the relation of this event to art is clear, I was a little lost on its connection to technology at first. However, I eventually realized that it is not the event that relates to technology, but the book itself.   A large portion of this book is devoted to a study of the media and its thirst for sensational headlines about an impending epidemic, and although the headlines may be dramatic they offer little knowledge about healthy living. 

(Figure 3 Conference Room)

Throughout the evening, three critics discussed Saguy’s book, and offered many examples from the book where Saguy successfully addressed the issue about the difficulty of talking about fatness, the way being fat is framed as a problem, and the potential for removing the stigma. However, after listening to the critics for a while I realized that they were not necessarily “critics”, but people describing the book in a different perspective. Although some people may find it dull listening to people talk about a book, I was surprised at my level of interest throughout the event.  Since each critic offered a unique insight on the book, I was constantly kept drawn in. 

Works Cited

Detrick, Paul. "UCLA Professor Abigail Saguy on What's Wrong with Fat?." reason.com. Reason Foundation, 18 Mar 2013. Web. 13 Dec 2013. <http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/03/18/ucla-professor-abigail-saguy-on-whats-wr>.

Figure 1. Sanders, Leigh. Me in front of the room. 2013. Photograph. n.p. Web. 13 Dec 2013.

Figure 2. Sanders, Leigh. Me at the Conference Room. 2013. Photograph. n.p. Web. 13 Dec 2013.

Figure 3. Sanders, Leigh. Conference Room. 2013. Photograph. n.p. Web. 13 Dec 2013.