The jouissance of the Lard(er): Gender, desire and anxiety in the weight-loss industry

Abstract

In this paper, I use the Lacanian concept of jouissance to examine how weight-loss industry organisations trade in the desire of anxious weight-loss consumers. The weight-loss industry is rife with ‘new’ knowledge; it seems that every week a story hits the press about the newest way to ‘shed the pounds’. Just as frequently, we see stories of yo-yo dieters who constantly seek new, better ways to lose weight, but fail each time to satisfy their articulated desire. Organisations in the diet industry are profit-driven entities. Like any other organisation, they use marketing schemes to target potential consumers, who they seem to classify as any person currently seeking to lose weight [Orbach, S. 1993. Hunger strike. London: Penguin] estimates this to be about 80% of females in the average Western population). In this paper, I seek to negotiate the complexities of weight-loss attempts, and come to some understanding of the circuits of desire of the anxious weight-loss consumer and the operation of the weight-loss industry at a psychoanalytic level. This involves using a Lacanian approach to understanding desire, anxiety, and jouissance in relation to Lacan's masculine and feminine structures.