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Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids: celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids: celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic. / Coltman-Patel, Tara; Wright, David.
In: Journal of Language and Discrimination, Vol. 7, No. 1, 13.02.2023, p. 1-25.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Coltman-Patel, T & Wright, D 2023, 'Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids: celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic', Journal of Language and Discrimination, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1558/jld.22670

APA

Coltman-Patel, T., & Wright, D. (2023). Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids: celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic. Journal of Language and Discrimination, 7(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1558/jld.22670

Vancouver

Coltman-Patel T, Wright D. Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids: celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic. Journal of Language and Discrimination. 2023 Feb 13;7(1):1-25. doi: 10.1558/jld.22670

Author

Coltman-Patel, Tara ; Wright, David. / Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids : celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic. In: Journal of Language and Discrimination. 2023 ; Vol. 7, No. 1. pp. 1-25.

Bibtex

@article{52b1381fd18144bb86b42aa60a86d8d6,
title = "Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids: celebrities {\textquoteleft}flaunting{\textquoteright} their bodies during a pandemic",
abstract = "This paper explores the relationship between weight loss, sex and beauty by analysing a corpus of 285 articles about celebrity weight loss published in the UK national press between 23 March 2020 and 6 July 2020. Taking a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis approach, we examine the use of the statistically salient lemma flaunt*. Ninety-seven per cent of the instances of flaunt* in our corpus are attributed to female celebrities, and the respective protagonists are reported by the UK press to flaunt their bodies and their weight loss on their social media pages. By critically analysing the use of flaunt*, we are able to demonstrate the manner in which celebrity social media posts are repackaged to sexualise female celebrities and to sexualise the process of weight loss in general. We argue that describing social media images shared by female celebrities as flaunting could at best, misrepresent their intentions, and at worst contribute towards the pervasive unsolicited sexualisation of women, and exacerbate adverse body image and mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic which in and of itself has exacerbated these issues.",
keywords = "Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Weight Loss, Sexualisation, Gender",
author = "Tara Coltman-Patel and David Wright",
year = "2023",
month = feb,
day = "13",
doi = "10.1558/jld.22670",
language = "English",
volume = "7",
pages = "1--25",
journal = "Journal of Language and Discrimination",
number = "1",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sexualising weight loss in British tabloids

T2 - celebrities ‘flaunting’ their bodies during a pandemic

AU - Coltman-Patel, Tara

AU - Wright, David

PY - 2023/2/13

Y1 - 2023/2/13

N2 - This paper explores the relationship between weight loss, sex and beauty by analysing a corpus of 285 articles about celebrity weight loss published in the UK national press between 23 March 2020 and 6 July 2020. Taking a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis approach, we examine the use of the statistically salient lemma flaunt*. Ninety-seven per cent of the instances of flaunt* in our corpus are attributed to female celebrities, and the respective protagonists are reported by the UK press to flaunt their bodies and their weight loss on their social media pages. By critically analysing the use of flaunt*, we are able to demonstrate the manner in which celebrity social media posts are repackaged to sexualise female celebrities and to sexualise the process of weight loss in general. We argue that describing social media images shared by female celebrities as flaunting could at best, misrepresent their intentions, and at worst contribute towards the pervasive unsolicited sexualisation of women, and exacerbate adverse body image and mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic which in and of itself has exacerbated these issues.

AB - This paper explores the relationship between weight loss, sex and beauty by analysing a corpus of 285 articles about celebrity weight loss published in the UK national press between 23 March 2020 and 6 July 2020. Taking a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis approach, we examine the use of the statistically salient lemma flaunt*. Ninety-seven per cent of the instances of flaunt* in our corpus are attributed to female celebrities, and the respective protagonists are reported by the UK press to flaunt their bodies and their weight loss on their social media pages. By critically analysing the use of flaunt*, we are able to demonstrate the manner in which celebrity social media posts are repackaged to sexualise female celebrities and to sexualise the process of weight loss in general. We argue that describing social media images shared by female celebrities as flaunting could at best, misrepresent their intentions, and at worst contribute towards the pervasive unsolicited sexualisation of women, and exacerbate adverse body image and mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic which in and of itself has exacerbated these issues.

KW - Discourse Analysis

KW - Corpus Linguistics

KW - Weight Loss

KW - Sexualisation

KW - Gender

U2 - 10.1558/jld.22670

DO - 10.1558/jld.22670

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 1

EP - 25

JO - Journal of Language and Discrimination

JF - Journal of Language and Discrimination

IS - 1

ER -