Be the best you can be' urge self-help books and makeover TV shows, but what kind of self is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of self is imagined as the happy result? Drawing on recent sociology and psychology, this book explores the function of slummy mummies, headless zombies and living autopsies to creating an idea of self.

Autorentext
JAYNE RAISBOROUGH Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Science at the University of Brighton, UK. Her work explores the contextual and emotional dynamics of selfhood. She co-edited Risk, Identities and the Everyday and her current work explores lifestyle TV, media representations of death and middle-class sensibilities.

Zusammenfassung
Be the best you can be' urge self-help books and makeover TV shows, but what kind of self is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of self is imagined as the happy result? Drawing on recent sociology and psychology, this book explores the function of slummy mummies, headless zombies and living autopsies to creating an idea of self.

Inhalt
Introduction: Being Scrooge-like: An Introduction to Lifestyle Media and the Formation of Self PART I INTRODUCING LIFESTYLE CITIZENS When Life is not Enough: Making More of the Self Makeover Culture: Becoming a Better Self PART II FRAMING THE SELF Living Autopsies: Visualising Responsibility Headless Zombies: Framing the Fat Body PART III BEFORE AND AFTER Being Worth It: The Deserving Self Repatriated and Repaired: Gender's Happy Ending References Index