Obesity and Poverty: A Neo-Marxist Analysis

     According to the Center for Disease Control,one-third of U.S. American adults are obese. Over the past thirty years, rates of obesity have doubled for children and quadrupled for adolescents.   In response to the alarming rise of obesity rates , HBO created  The Weight of the Nation.  The aim of the documentary series is to confront the issues (including the public health epidemic caused by obesity)  by critically examining the underlying reasons for the rise. In the installment Poverty and Obesity: When Healthy Food Isn't an Option, filmmakers investigate  the economic inequalities in  low-income areas in connection with obesity rates and the food options available to residents. Because the documentary deals mainly with income inequalities, it is well-suited for a neo- Marxist analysis.
     Neo-Marxist critiques of artifacts allow for examination of economic metaphors within the content. Money and materialism are defining components of  power in our society.  By identifying economic inequalites, viewers are offered a  clear picture of who is empowered and disempowered within our nation. In terms of food, I find this notion fascinating, Everyone has to eat, but what that person is eating has become an indicator of class and socioeconomic status. In many cases, the growing waistline is the scarlet letter of class.
     The Weight of the Nation illustrates these inequalities in blatant ways, constituting it, in neo-Marxist terms, as a subverted oppositional reading. In one illustration, the documentary uses google maps to show the differences in neighborhoods only eight miles apart. In the images of affluent sections, there are large homes, shaded streets, and nice cars parked in the driveways. The people living in these areas have near-by grocery stores and farmers markets.

Eight miles away, the scene is much different. The areas are shanties, marked by boarded up buildings and desolate streets. The only options available in these areas are the occasional corner market or fast food restaurants. This lack of grocery stores creates food deserts- urban areas where affordable, quality fresh food is hard to find. Eight miles may not seem like a far distance, but when you factor in that most residents of these urban areas do not have cars, one can see why a person would settle for the cheap calories offered at convenience stores or fast food. This method of using google maps to juxtaposition class serves to point out the deep economic inequalities regarding food and choice.

       The documentary continues with it's subverted oppositional reading of issues regarding food and class. In another scene, they are interviewing the owner of a small corner market. The market sales mostly convenience foods- chips, candy bars, and sodas. During the interview, the owner tells a poignant story of a small child who came into the store with her mother while he was eating his own lunch behind the counter. The child point at the broccoli on his plate and quizzically asks, "What's that?"
     The choice to use this story in the documentary serves a neo-Marxist purpose by shedding light on the larger economical issue at hand. These cheap foods have a high profit yield and it's how the corporations producing them and the businesses selling them make the most money.  Without exposure to healthy foods, children only use what they eat as their definition. In this case, "food" is the chips, candies, and sodas in the corner market. As a society, we rarely question that the food industry is profiting at the expense of the health of the already disadvantaged poor. From a neo-Marxist perspective, we can better understand that it is due to the accepted hegemony that  'rich' somehow  equates to good and 'poor' equates to bad.
     Viewing  Weight of the Nation: Obesity and Poverty  through a neo-Marxist lens offers heuristic value by helping viewers to understand there are larger economic forces at work that affect our obesity epidemic.   Everyone should have the right to health, not just the wealthy.