In recent years a proliferation of reality based media focusing on the body, diet and exercise have sought not only to entertain audiences, but also to operate as pedagogical sites through which to encourage populations to undertake surveillance of their own and others’ bodies in order to address a so-called ‘obesity epidemic’ sweeping across western society. This article examines how reality media function within a broader ‘surveillant assemblage’ (Haggerty and Ericson, 2000) of obesity. Specifically, the article explores how this assemblage functions through interdependent connections between parenting, social class and broader political discourses of parenting and health risks which produce affective relationalities of the body.
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