RELATIONS BETWEEN FOOD, OBESITY, WEIGHT LOSS AND CONSUMPTION IN WOMEN’S MAGAZINES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/demetra.2016.26514Keywords:
Obesity. Beauty Culture. Magazine. Women. Consumption. Diet, Food, and Nutrition.Abstract
Objective: To understand sense and meanings that are present in the intricate tangle of messages about eating, obesity and weight loss in magazines targeted at lower class women who have risen to the status of consumers in Brazilian society. Methodology: Data were collected from the magazines VIVA! Mais (“Live longer”) and “Sou Mais Eu!” (“I like myself better”), published on a weekly basis in the year 2014. Emphasis was placed on the sections that deal with dieting for weight loss purposes. Results and Discussion: nutritional rationality has been found to underlie processes of medicalization of eating and pharmacologization of food through experiments that, based on scientific legitimacy, disseminate products which are similar to pharmaceutical drugs in articles and advertisements. Self-control for the sake of having a lean body is encouraged by values and moral judgments that lead individuals to blame themselves. Oriented towards building happiness that can be purchased in the market, the media continues to invest in the construction of new consumer codes. In their daily lives, individuals surrounded by big pharmaceutical corporations, food manufacturers and editorials have to face relationships of power and judgments in a kind of moral obligation to be happy. Conclusions: Driven to rely solely on their own forces, individuals continue along a civilizing process in currently modern times. In the relationships between eating, obesity, weight loss and consumption, materialized in this lucrative edited world of magazines that seek to reach the poorest women, “I like myself better” is perfectly possible, easier and simpler than “Live longer!” . Once trapped in this web of meanings, individuals consume more and for much longer.
DOI: 10.12957/demetra.2016.26514
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