You are What You Eat: Media and Diet
Type of Posting
Panel
Panel/Workshop Title:
You are What You Eat:
Media and Diet
First Name
Lara
Last Name
Bradshaw
Organization
University of Southern
California
Email Address
lbradsha@usc.edu
Summary
Intense and ongoing
cultural debates about dietary matters are a central feature of a range of
media. Television shows like Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution provoke discourses
on obesity and children’s health by addressing children’s diets through
education and the reimagination of the school lunch. In another example,
intense right-wing media backlash against First Lady Michelle Obama’s programs
for healthy eating habits demonstrate the blurred lines between cultural,
political, and institutional priorities when it comes to matters of what we
eat. This panel welcomes essays exploring media’s participation with diet and
dietary culture, and the larger social, political, economic, aesthetic, and
cultural debates that are embedded into particular bodies and narratives of
guilt, shame, and transformation. Possible topics may include media’s
engagement with and production of: consumption practices associated with
identity politics, state dietary guidelines and regulations, corporate
sponsorship, the diet industry and body modification, diet-related illness and
disease, The Food Network and food inspired reality TV programming, the
discourse on obesity, children’s diets, the definition of normative and
non-normative bodies, etc. Please send a 250-300 word abstract by August 7 to
Lara Bradshaw (lbradsha@usc.edu).