2020 HMNS Seminar: 'Introducing the Fat Attitudes Assessment Toolkit' by Dr Trish Cain

Event Details

Date:

Tuesday, 04 February 2020

Time:

3:00 pm

Room:

219

UQ Location:

Human Movement Studies Building (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.hms.uq.edu.au/

Event category(s):

Full Description:: The majority of instruments designed to measure attitudes toward fatness and “obesity” were developed in the 1990s, a time when the “war on obesity” began to be waged. Consequently, such instruments are focused on assessing negative appraisals of fat people. Recent times however, have seen mainstream discourse expand beyond anti-fat rhetoric and incorporate perspectives of activism, acceptance, and critical responses to the anti-“obesity” agenda. To reflect this maturation, an expanded approach to quantification is needed. Here I introduce the Fat Attitudes Assessment Toolkit - scales designed to quantify evaluations of fat bodies, fat acceptance, fat discrimination, the complexity of fatness and empathy toward fat people. The Fat Attitudes Assessment Toolkit enables more nuanced studies to be conducted.

Dr Cain’s research is informed by both qualitative and quantitative methodology with a focus on weight stigma and the quantification of discourses around “obesity” and fatness.

No RSVP needed, all welcome.