When fat meets disability in poverty porn: exploring the cultural mechanisms of suspicion in Too Fat to Work |
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| Authors: | Jayne Raisborough Cassandra Ogden Vanessa Stone de Guzman |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Cultural Studies and Humanities, Leeds Beckett University, UK;2. School of Humanities and Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, UK;3. Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, University of Brighton, UK |
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| Abstract: | There has been a distinct neglect of dis/ability in socio-cultural analysis of poverty porn. This paper applies framing analysis to reality TV documentaries that feature larger bodied, disabled, welfare claimants to examine how cultural literacies of fatness and ‘obesity’ are drawn upon to cast suspicion upon disability welfare claimants in so-called poverty-porn. With a focus on Channel 5's Benefit Britain series, Benefiits Too Fat to Work we demonstrate that enduring and harmful representations of ‘obesity’ are put to the work of securing public consent for a post-welfare society in the UK. |
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| Keywords: | Austerity benefits disability welfare poverty porn suspicion |
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