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fat in the fire

Judged by current body mass index standards, nearly two-thirds of Americans today are overweight.

Whatever you may think about these standards and figures, Abigail Saguy and Rene Almeling (Sociological Forum, March 2008) argue that news media coverage and reporting exaggerates the extent of the weight problem in the United States—the so-called obesity epidemic—and obscures its underlying systemic and genetic roots.

Saguy and Almeling reach their conclusions by comparing medical science publications on weight and health with those of news media reports. They find that since the mid-1990s the mainstream news media has run more stories on obesity than scientific journals, and tends to characterize the issue in more evocative and extreme terms. They also find the news media are more likely to offer individualist explanations for weight problems, especially when discussing children, minorities, and the poor.

Selective reporting partially explains the news media’s tendencies, the authors say, but the press releases distributed by researchers and medical journals are also partly to blame. The fact that “alarmist studies are more likely to be covered in the media,” they conclude, “may make scientists even more prone to presenting their findings in the most dramatic light possible.” C.S.

becoming white by voting red?

Recent election results show that self-identified Mexican Americans are increasingly voting Republican. Carleen Basler (Ethnic and Racial Studies, January 2008) argues that this trend toward conservatism is influenced by the racial identity of Mexican Americans, their desire to be good Americans, and their conflation of whiteness with American-ness.

Basler’s claims are based on interviews with more than 150 naturalized Mexican Americans in California, and their explanations for voting for President George W. Bush in 2004 are illustrative.

Mexican Americans who supported Bush did so because he made them feel included in his campaign efforts and in his vision for America’s future—a future they believed positioned them as equals. Voting Republican also gave Mexican Americans a hedge against the racialized stigma and deviant images associated with illegal immigration and terrorism. It was especially attractive for upwardly mobile segments of this community, particularly those who had “whiter” skin and were more educated and better off financially.

Especially during divisive times, Basler concludes, Mexican Americans feel compelled to prove their loyalty to the nation and voting offers them a means to do so. One wonders what these Americans will decide is the “most American” vote in November. E.B.

it’s not just florida

When we think of immigrants we often imagine young, able-bodied men and women in search of work and better opportunities for themselves and their families. But many forms of international migration no longer fit this description. Per Gustafson (Ethnic and Racial Studies, March 2008) recently interviewed members of one such group: retirees from Sweden who decided to spend their golden years in Spain.

Gustafson claims that the relocation of retirees from Sweden to Spain is driven largely by tourism, warm weather, and seasonal residency. Basically, these retirees owned vacation homes they could move into when they moved out of the labor force. Despite being retired, migrant retirees shared many traits with other, more traditional migrant groups: They went back and forth between countries frequently, maintained ties with family and friends back home, and forged new hybrid identities and social ties in their new countries.

Differences, however, were also noticeable. Retiree migrants had little interest or need for politics while labor migrants tend to be politically involved. Further, the flow of economic remittances is reversed: labor migrants typically send money back home, but the northern Europeans brought their pensions with them to Spain.

Clearly, the scale, scope, and complexity of migration is increasing dramatically in this new, global era. E.B.