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Weighting for health : management, measurement and self-surveillance in the modern household
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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
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkw015
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 |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History Faculty of Arts > History > Centre for the History of Medicine |
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| 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: |
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| 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 |
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