Parallel Discourses and “Appropriate” Bodies: Media Constructions of Anorexia and Obesity in the Cases of Tracey Gold and Carnie Wilson

Abstract

Mass media images of gender, beauty, and women have been at the heart of many feminist arguments about the need for change in our understanding of gender and the role it plays in our day-to-day existence. The role of a body, much like the role of a woman, is also negotiated between the pages and airwaves of a popular culture that precariously favors particular excessive behaviors and norms. A textual analysis of the popular press discourse surrounding two bodies, prominently defined in popular culture, demonstrates specific rhetorical strategies at work in the construction of the “appropriate” cultural body. This article explores how these two bodies are positioned at the border of cultural intelligibility and how these bodies, acting as discourse themselves, speak to culture and reify their positions on the margins.