Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self

190 Pages·2011·0.98 MB·English

by  Jayne Raisborough (auth.)

Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self
AlsobyJayneRaisborough
RISK,IDENTITYANDTHEEVERYDAY(co-edited)
Lifestyle Media and the
Formation of the Self
Jayne Raisborough
UniversityofBrighton,Brighton,UK
©JayneRaisborough2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-24295-1
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For Brenda & Tony Kick and Alexander Forshaw

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
BeingScrooge-Like:AnintroductiontoLifestyleMediaand
theFormationoftheSelf 1
Part I IntroducingLifestyleCitizens
1 WhenLifeisnotEnough:MakingMoreoftheSelf 25
2 MakeoverCulture:BecomingaBetterSelf 47
Part II FramingtheSelf
3 LivingAutopsies:VisualisingResponsibility 71
4 HeadlessZombies:FramingtheFatBody 93
Part III BeforeandAfter
5 BeingWorthIt:TheDeservingSelf 119
6 RepatriatedandRepaired:Gender’sHappyEnding 142
Notes 165
References 167
Index 183
vii
Acknowledgements
Thanks are extended to the School of Applied Social Science at the
University of Brighton for the most excellent of colleagues and for
researchleaveandgeneralsupport(DawnStephen,MarkBhattiand
thesociologyteamespecially).ExtrathankstoMattAdams,Hannah
Frith and Orly Klein for all I have learnt from our close working
in the Consuming Identities Research Forum based there. Thanks are
also directed to Peter Coyne – a wizard of information resourcing;
to Philippa Grand of Palgrave Macmillan – infectiously enthusiastic
from the start; Olivia Middleton for solving the cover-image prob-
lem; Katherine Johnson for our discussions of the writing process;
ElenaSteierforthegeneroususeofhercartooninChapter1;andto
past but important inspirations – Rosemary Deem, Rosie Campbell,
John Lally, Edward Davies, Julie Scott Jones, Dawn Jones, Dave
Merryweather,SalWatt,MaddyCastro,EmmaRouseandHollyHill.
Closer tohome, thankstoEastbourne’sCoast guesthouse;Barbara
and Graeme kindly loaned me their much-loved mobile home to
work in while my home was having its own makeover. Anne Lesley
Dobson kept the chickens fed and home fires burning (literally) –
I owe her more than can be expressed. Alexander Thomas Forshaw
was born as this book was in its own gestation period, so I would
like to dedicate this to him and to his grandparents – Brenda and
Anthony Kick – without whom I would not have had the oppor-
tunities, encouragement and support to be in a career and life that
Ilove.
Allerrors,blundersandshortcomingsaremyown.
viii
Being Scrooge-Like:
An introduction to Lifestyle
Media and the Formation of the Self
Fourteen-year-old Adam is sick of his mates: they drink, smoke and
lookforwardtoalifeonbenefits.Adamyearnsforsomethingdiffer-
ent. He has ambition. He wants to do more than just hang around
and he nurtures hope for a future career. In the five-part television
series How to Dump your Mates, psychologist Geoff Beattie is sympa-
thetic, ‘friends’, he states, ‘exert great influence over early personal
development, the wrong crowd can hold you back, stop you trying
new things and ultimately, prevent you from being yourself’. Over
four days Beattie takes Adam through a crash course in ‘dumping’.
Adam learns to confront his old mates and tries new friends on for
size. After a dramatic moment when his separate ‘worlds’ collide
and the two groups of friends surprisingly meet, Adam’s final task,
and the show’s reveal, is to decide which mates to keep and which
todump.
If Adam is having problems with his friends, he is certainly
not alone. Difficult friendships are familiar territory for best-selling
self-help books: Toxic Friends/True Friends (Isaacs, 1999) helps dis-
tinguish the ‘good’ friends from the ‘bad’ while Toxic Friends: The
Antidote for Women Stuck in Complicated Friendships (Barash, 2009)
gently guides our extrication from poisonous friends. Extrication
is only half the story: The latest edition of Dale Carnegie’s 1936
global chart-topper How to Win Friends and Influence People (2007)
reminds adults that the ‘right’ friends are an important resource
for a successful, happy life. Meanwhile, the seemingly recession-
proof children’s self-help market strikes a preventative blow: How
to be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them (Brown
1
J. Raisborough, Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self
© Jayne Raisborough 2011