With Professor Jayne Raisborough (Leeds Beckett University).

Why does dieting dominate most women’s lives? We explore how slimness shifted from being a sign of illness to a symbol of emancipation before discussing more recent understandings of slenderness as a guarantee of fitness and health. The diet industry is worth over £2 billion pounds in the UK and yet there is little evidence that diets and other anti-fat measures work. This talk calls out the harms of dieting and shares research findings to help us find better relationships with our bodies.

This event coincides with International Women’s Day on 8 March and is part of the Leeds Cultural Conversations series organised by the Centre for Culture & the Arts at Leeds Beckett University. For more information on the series visit www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk.lcc