Lifestyle media and the formation of the self 2011

'Be the best you can be' urge self-help books and makeover TV shows, but what kind of self is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of self is imagined as the happy result? Drawing on recent sociology and psychology, this book explores the function of slummy mummies, headless zombies and living autopsies to creating an idea of self. 'Be the best you can be' is the call of self-help books and makeover TV show. It's ridiculous to argue against self-improvement but it is interesting and important to ask just who is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of 'you' is imagined as the happy result. Drawing on recent sociology and social psychology, this book explores how our cultural imagination is reflected and shaped by self-help books, advertisements and lifestyle TV shows. Each of these imagine an ideal self. By focusing on slummy mummies, headless zombies, living autopsies, and empowered women, Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self argues that ideas about respectable class, appropriate weight and ideal gender are shaping the ways we judge ourselves and others Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Being Scrooge-Like: An introduction to Lifestyle Media and the Formation of the Self......Page 10 Part I: Introducing Lifestyle Citizens......Page 32 1 When Life is not Enough: Making More of the Self......Page 34 2 Makeover Culture: Becoming a Better Self......Page 56 Part II: Framing the Self......Page 78 3 Living Autopsies: Visualising Responsibility......Page 80 4 Headless Zombies: Framing the Fat Body......Page 102 Part III: Before and After......Page 126 5 Being Worth It: The Deserving Self......Page 128 6 Repatriated and Repaired: Gender’s Happy Ending......Page 151 Notes......Page 174 References......Page 176 Index......Page 192 Machine generated contents note: Introduction: Being Scrooge-like: An Introduction to Lifestyle Media and the Formation of Self PART I INTRODUCING LIFESTYLE CITIZENS When Life is not Enough: Making More of the Self Makeover Culture: Becoming a Better Self PART II FRAMING THE SELF Living Autopsies: Visualising Responsibility Headless Zombies: Framing the Fat Body PART III BEFORE AND AFTER Being Worth It: The Deserving Self Repatriated and Repaired: Gender's Happy Ending References Index.