Political and health messages are differently palatable: A critical discourse analysis of women’s engagement with Health At Every Size and fat acceptance messages

Size acceptance movements challenge dominant weight-based health ideology by highlighting the oppressiveness of weight stigma, and the growing body of evidence supporting the complex nature of the weight-health relationship. The authors examined responses to these movements via a critical discourse analysis of focus group discussions with 21 female participants. Although generally sympathetic to the impact of weight stigma, participants frequently fell back on assumptions of weight as personally controllable and health as a moral obligation. These findings are discussed in terms of the authority and pervasiveness of public health messages and the barriers they present to size acceptance movements.