124266 KO Critical Media Analysis (2014W)

Scholars of Cultural Studies have come to accept the body as a “contested” site within an increasingly reflexive and media-dominated age. The upsurge of interest in the human body within the sciences, its incorporation into media-(sub)cultures and the deployment of technologies designed to discipline and mediate the ways people self-fashion their corporal selves have cast serious doubt on what the body is and what it might become. This discursive conundrum has coincided with a proliferation of media representations that perpetuate narrowly defined notions of the supposedly ideal and healthy human physique. To that effect, particular body shapes and corporal performances are culturally legitimized as appropriate, whereas others are excluded. Those who fail to embody these ideals are frequently precluded from the “right” enactment of beauty, good moral and health. This course takes this as a point of departure and investigates the relationship between the body, discourse and identity within the nexus of media culture, focusing on popular men’s and women's health magazines.