Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Weighting for health : management, measurement and self-surveillance in the modern household

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Bivins, Roberta E. and Marland, Hilary (2016) Weighting for health : management, measurement and self-surveillance in the modern household. Social History of Medicine, 29 (4). pp. 757-780. doi:10.1093/shm/hkw015 ISSN 0951-631X.

[img] PDF
WRAP_Soc Hist Med-2016-Bivins-shm-hkw015 (1).pdf - Requires a PDF viewer.
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (1070Kb)
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkw015

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Histories of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century medicine emphasise the rise of professional and scientific authority, and suggest a decline in domestic health initiatives. Exploring the example of weight management in Britain, we argue that domestic agency persisted and that new regimes of measurement and weighing were adapted to personal and familial preferences as they entered the household. Drawing on print sources and objects ranging from prescriptive literature to postcards and ‘personal weighing machines’, the article examines changing practices of self-management as cultural norms initially dictated by ideals of body shape and function gradually incorporated quantified targets. In the twentieth century, the domestic management of health—like the medical management of illness—was increasingly technologised and re-focused on quantitative indicators of ‘normal’ or ‘pathological’ embodiment. We ask: in relation to weight, how did quantification permeate the household, and what did this domestication of bodily surveillance mean to lay users?

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Divisions: Faculty of Arts > History
Faculty of Arts > History > Centre for the History of Medicine
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Weight loss , Body weight, Advertising -- Health products -- Great Britain -- 20th century, Body image in women -- Health aspects , Scales (Weighing instruments)
Journal or Publication Title: Social History of Medicine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISSN: 0951-631X
Official Date: 7 May 2016
Dates:
DateEvent
7 May 2016Published
1 March 2016Accepted
Volume: 29
Number: 4
Page Range: pp. 757-780
DOI: 10.1093/shm/hkw015
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit: 20 October 2016
Date of first compliant Open Access: 20 October 2016

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us