%0 Journal Article
%T Taking children¡¯s humor seriously: A study of humor in children diagnosed with obesity and the medicalization of body weight
%A Ellen Margrete Iveland Ersfjord
%J Childhood
%@ 1461-7013
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0907568218760379
%X Within the social studies of children and childhood, children¡¯s humor is an under-explored area. In this article, I explore the use of humor by children diagnosed with severe obesity while attending long-term rehabilitation together with their families. In the children¡¯s use of humor, I found a transition from the use of ¡°fat jokes¡± to ¡°biopedagogical humor,¡± which involved jokes about instructions related to food and physical activity as conveyed by members of the rehabilitation team. I interpret their humor as signifying how they were affected by the biopedagogical messages involved in treatment and how they started self-monitoring their food intake and physical activity. I claim that their humor also can point to a process of medicalization of their condition, where their understanding of themselves as ¡°fat¡± was replaced by ¡°I suffer from obesity.
%K Biopedagogies
%K childhood obesity
%K humor
%K medicalization
%K social studies of children and childhood
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0907568218760379