Em busca do peso perdido: a institucionalização de demandas culturais nos Vigilantes do Peso

Abstract

The zeitgeist of a society can be caught in its cultural production, which is an expression of the cultural identity of the groups that produces it. In our society, the demand for the acquisition and for the exhibition of an ideal body is manifested by institutions such as the Weight Watchers that legitimate a pragmatic knowledge in quest of the ideal body. This institution promotes sociability by means of mutual aid groups where people seek to conform their own body to the idealized pattern. Through the analysis of the media communication of the Weight Watchers, three strategic discursive mechanisms were observed: i) their alleged difference regarding their competitors is based on reason and scientific knowledge; ii) the rhetorical strategies are based on the importance of individuality; and iii) the paradox that these strategies represent, as the value of individuality is being subordinated to the opinion of others.