Navigates the divergent cultural meanings of health, and its
entanglement with morality in current political discourse You see
someone smoking a cigarette and say,"Smoking is bad for your
health," when what you mean is, "You are a bad person because you
smoke." You encounter someone whose body size you deem excessive,
and say, "Obesity is bad for your health," when what you mean is,
"You are lazy, unsightly, or weak of will." You see a woman
bottle-feeding an infant and say,"Breastfeeding is better for that
child's health," when what you mean is that the woman must be a bad
parent. You see the smokers, the overeaters, the bottle-feeders,
and affirm your own health in the process. In these and countless
other instances, the perception of your own health depends in part
on your value judgments about others, and appealing to health
allows for a set of moral assumptions to fly stealthily under the
radar. Against Health argues that health is a concept, a norm, and
a set of bodily practices whose ideological work is often rendered
invisible by the assumption that it is a monolithic, universal
good. And, that disparities in the incidence and prevalence of
disease are closely linked to disparities in income and social
support. To be clear, the book's stand against health is not a
stand against the authenticity of people's attempts to ward off
suffering. Against Health instead claims that individual strivings
for health are, in some instances, rendered more difficult by the
ways in which health is culturally configured and socially
sustained. The book intervenes into current political debates about
health in two ways. First, Against Health compellingly unpacks the
divergent cultural meanings of health and explores the ideologies
involved in its construction. Second, the authors present
strategies for moving forward. They ask, what new possibilities and
alliances arise? What new forms of activism or coalition can we
create? What are our prospects for well-being? In short, what have
we got if we ain't got health? Against Health ultimately argues
that the conversations doctors, patients, politicians, activists,
consumers, and policymakers have about health are enriched by
recognizing that, when talking about health, they are not all
talking about the same thing. And, that articulating the disparate
valences of "health" can lead to deeper, more productive, and
indeed more healthy interactions about our bodies.
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