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Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self PDF

190 Pages·2011·0.98 MB·English
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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 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6-10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedherrighttobeidentified astheauthorofthisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2011by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-31812-4 ISBN 978-0-230-29755-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230297555 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 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

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