Emma Rich (Loughborough University) has a new paper out in Health (a very cool interdisciplinary sociology journal) entitled ‘I see her being obesed!’: Public pedagogy, reality media and the obesity crisis. Here is the Abstract:
In recent years a proliferation of reality based media focusing on the body, diet and exercise have sought not only to entertain audiences, but also to operate as pedagogical sites through which to encourage populations to undertake surveillance of their own and others’ bodies in order to address a so-called ‘obesity epidemic’ sweeping across western society. This article examines how reality media function within a broader ‘surveillant assemblage’ (Haggerty and Ericson, 2000) of obesity. Specifically, the article explores how this assemblage functions through interdependent connections between parenting, social class and broader political discourses of parenting and health risks which produce affective relationalities of the body.
There seems to be a myth that people of lower class are more likely to be obese as they cannot afford healthy food. I think it is a question of peer pressure and lack of interest in health generally. After all, if they eat 20 percent more cheap food than they need the are spending more than eating the correct amount of healthy food.
Posted by: Peter Stockwell | April 09, 2011 at 08:12 AM