Media and corporal pedagogy

problematizing cultural artefacts that generate fatphobic knowledges

Abstract

This study aimed to carry out a critical-reflexive analysis of media products which tend towards fatphobic understandings, and which, to a certain extent, bring to light the corporal pedagogy exercised by the media. This is a qualitative research, with a descriptive-exploratory nature of a documentary type of a media product analysis. The loci for data collection were the digital news platforms of the Vivabem UOL portal and G1 Portal (Globo Group digital news portal). Lawrence Bardin's content analysis technique was used. It was identified that the knowledge of the biomedical model regarding the fat body, in media discourses, promotes a profound process of corporal pedagogization, and this is fatphobia, once, in addition to praising weight loss as being the “ideal” with a view to the supposed “health guarantee” and a beautiful body, it generalizes all fat bodies as sick. It is necessary to work with the theoretical-methodological perspective of media education with a view to developing a sense of criticality when it comes to themes such as body, health and media, both in the (initial and continuing) formation of teachers and in the context of school, involving students, thus envisioning media education integrated into a comprehensive and contextualized formation, which contributes significantly to promoting the exercise of citizenship.