Fighting Fat: Canada, 1920-1980

449 Pages·2018·3.361 MB·English

by  Wendy Mitchinson

FIGHTING FAT
Canada, 1920–1980
While concern about obesity has seemed to reach an apex in the
twenty-first century, our preoccupation with fatness has a long history.
In Fighting Fat, Wendy Mitchinson explores the history of obesity and
fatness from 1920 to 1980 in Canada. Bringing together discussions
of body, medicine, weight measurement, nutrition, and identity and
self-image, Mitchinson examines the attitudes and practices of medical
practitioners, nutritionists, educators, the media, and those who see
themselves as fat.
Fighting Fat analyses a number of sources to expose Canada’s
obsession with body image over sixty years. Mitchinson looks at
medical journals, both their articles and the advertisements for drugs
for obesity, as well as magazine articles and advertisements, including
popular “before and after” weight loss stories, to reveal the cultural
perceptions of and attitudes to body fat. Interviews with more than 30
Canadians who defined themselves fat during the period under study
highlight the emotional impact caused by the stigmatizing of fatness.
wendy mitchinson is a Canadian historian and a distinguished
professor emerita at the University of Waterloo.

Fighting Fat
Canada, 1920–1980
WENDY MITCHINSON
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2018
Toronto Buffalo London
utorontopress.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4875-0357-4 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4875-2274-2 (paper)

Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Mitchinson, Wendy, author
Fighting fat : Canada, 1920–1980 / Wendy Mitchinson.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4875-0357-4 (hardcover). – ISBN 978-1-4875-2274-2 (softcover)
1. Obesity – Canada – History – 20th century. 2. Discrimination against
overweight persons – Canada – History – 20th century. 3. Obesity –
Psychological aspects – Canada – History – 20th century. 4. Obesity –
Social aspects – Canada – History – 20th century. 5. Overweight persons –
Canada – History – 20th century. 6. Overweight persons – Canada – Social
conditions – 20th century. I. Title.
RC628.M58 2018 362.1963′98 C2018-901784-8
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council, an agency of the government of Ontario.
Funded by the Financé par le
Government gouvernement
of Canada du Canada
For Michael Mitchinson
and
Donna Mitchinson

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 3
1 Nutrition Policy: “Dietetic Missionaries” 26
2 About Obesity 56
3 Causes of Obesity 81
4 Treatment: “Stubbornly Resistant” 110
5 “Dietary Drugland” and Surgery 141
6 Infant, Child, and Teen Obesity 174
7 Body Image 207
8 Narratives of Fat Canadians 237
Epilogue 265
Notes on Sources 2 71
Journal Abbreviations 279
Notes 281
Index 399

Illustrations
Portrait of Daniel Lambert by Benjamin Marshall, c. 1806 15
“Here’s Health with Milk” billboard, 1940 39
“Send in food, not Mounties,” workers’ protest, 1934 41
“Ration Time at Banff Indian Days, Banff, Alberta,” c. 1930 47
Youth versus middle-age, a weighty matter: cartoon, 1967 64
A meatless Ukrainian Christmas dinner with the Danilowich
family, 1954 68
Buying treatment for the man who ate too much: cartoon, 1963 85
The Honey-O concession at the Pacifi c National Exhibition
(PNE), 1978 87
Women holding a bake sale in Taber, Alberta, 1953 88
Young women exercising at the YWCA, Edmonton,
Alberta, 1926 1 12
The Darlene Slenderizing Glamour Salon Device, Pacifi c
National Exhibition (PNE), 1950 116
A very small diet: cartoon, 1961 125
The unhappy fat man: Ionamin advertisement, 1963 162
The chubby cyclist: Ionamin advertisement, 1963 162
The ideal overweight patient: Dexedrine advertisement, 1957 165
A multi-use diet drug: Dexedrine advertisement, 1956 167
A broader therapeutic approach to weight control: Probese
advertisement, 1962 169
Winner of the “Better Babies Contest” at the Pacifi c National
Exhibition (PNE), c. 1920 175
The spectre haunting parents of thin, unhealthy young
children, c. 1920 176
Teenage girls eating pizza at a pyjama party, c. 1960 185
x Illustrations
Camp Slim-Teen, Calgary, Alberta, 1974 199
Champion weightlifters from the Vancouver Police
Mutual Benevolent Association, 1923 210
Slender young women at an Ontario beach, 1925 211
“Her new Easter dress arrives”: cartoon, 1927 225
Older woman in a bathing suit, Vancouver, c. 1925 228
New fashions for women, but men still wore suits:
cartoon, 1970 235
The midway sideshow at the Canadian National
Exhibition (CNE), 1913 238
“Big” Byng Whittaker and Peggy Lee on air at Radio
CJBC, 1948 247