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).