Moving Subjects, Feeling Bodies: Emotion and the Materialization of Fat Feminine Subjectivities in Village on a Diet (original) (raw)
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Over the last decade intense concern has developed about what has been characterised as an obesity epidemic in the West. This concern has been accompanied by equally intense debates over the validity of this characterisation. Many critics see the epidemic designation as part of an intensifying 'moral panic' about fat in which emotions about fat shape the public and scientific debate. In this article we explore the critical literature on the obesity epidemic, noting the way in which it draws attention to the role of the emotions in discourse on the epidemic. We argue that the action of emotions in this context invites further theorisation, and that this theorisation needs to be undertaken via concepts that: (1) explicitly integrate the body and the emotions with the materialisation of political discourse, (2) avoid individualising and psychologising accounts of the emotions and (3) analyse the action of emotion in political debate without implying the need to eradicate emotion in generating more just and accurate perspectives. To this end, we turn to the work of Sara Ahmed, who has developed a sophisticated account of the role of the emotions in constructing social collectivities through their engagement with ideas of the body. We argue that this theory can be used to illuminate both the general relationship between public discourse and subjectivity, and the specific relationship between the self, the body and the oftentimes unmet imperative to slimness.
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In this paper, I expand on poststructuralist and feminist theories of the body, gender, and subjectivity through an analysis of media discourse on childhood obesity. Through textual and narrative analyses of news segments on childhood obesity, I demonstrate that the obese child's body, as an abnormal body, is represented as a text of the 'abnormal' conditions in which that body is produced. Thus, the single-mother family structure and/or non-white and working class families-families saturated with the excessive, out-of-control subjectivity of the Other-are visible on the excessive, out-ofcontrol body of the obese child. I will argue that the discourse surrounding childhood obesity is indicative of a moral panic, where children's bodies are used to express a fear of the destabilization of the normative family structure and a fear of an irrational, excessive, over-consuming society saturated with the subjectivity of the Other.
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As I read Helene Shugart's new book, Heavy: The Obesity Crisis in Cultural Context, I became aware of just how much public attention is paid to obesity. I don't live in a bubble; I already knew the attention was extensive, but it was eye opening to be presented with the full range of discourses about obesity, and the extent to which the public marinates in them. As each chapter unfolded and Shugart followed the different threads, from official stories of calorie packing to personal stories of disgrace, it was all very familiar. As I said, I don't live in a bubble, but I also don't make a point of seeking out rhetoric about obesity either, so the fact that I was aware without having been aware of different shows, individuals, public and private campaigns, and so on was in itself valuable. I, we, everyone living in a US dominated media environment dwells in over-saturated discourse on obesity, and it is more subtle and complicated than the disarmingly simple, official story of calorie imbalance would let on. Skillfully , in readable, well-paced prose, Shugart answers her central questions: " What are the various stories about obesity that are being told today? Why? And what are their impli-cations? " (1).