Bodies, Beaches and Burn-Times: `Environmentalism' and its Discursive Competitors

Abstract

This paper suggests a competing discourses formulation for ecolinguistics. In relation to the issue of ozone depletion and consequent acknowledged health hazards, more general environmental concerns are opposed by traditional, recreational discourses which assert that sun-use is `fun'. A more contemporary discourse which legitimizes, commodifies and technologizes sun-use is another opposition force. We trace these discourse formations in a sample of UK print media. The analyses support Gidden's contention that social responses to environmental phenomena are no longer anchored in individual experience. The issue of ozone depletion is systematically attenuated and reformulated in media texts as a set of options relating to hedonistic summer leisure or ascetic body culture.