Is There a ‘National Body’? How National Cultures Shape the ‘Fat’ Body and the Food Practices

Using qualitative and quantitative methods, the objective of this article is to seize the national variability of the physical norms of overweight and obesity by comparing France, England, and Germany. The bodily representations and food practices, as well as the daily‐life experiences of stigmatization and discrimination, are influenced by national characteristics such as food traditions, aesthetical values, and political philosophies. In France, being overweight or obese is socially viewed as a lack of taste, whereas in England it can be seen as an individual moral ‘fault’. In Germany, being slightly overweight is defined as a ‘normal’ body, whereas being obese is strongly criticized. These country‐level variations reveal what could be called a ‘national body’.