Faith Holloway
Phil 268- Art and Culture
Argumentative Essay
300314105
A Critical Analysis of Lintott’s ‘Sublime Hunger’
The subject of eating disorders can be a particularly difficult subject to analyse. This can probably explain why it is particularly overlooked within the realm of philosophy, despite being such a widespread and devastating illness. However, Lintott not only discusses eating disorders within a philosophical sphere, but furthermore she approaches the subject through a unique lens of the Kantian theory of the ‘sublime’. The term, coined by philosopher Immanuel Kant, describes elements of a ‘larger than life experience’, which upon first examination seems questionably unrelated to the illness of having an eating disorder. …show more content…
And this may be true after the point in which Lintott identifies, where eating disorders no longer reflect an ideal beauty standard or expectations from society at a certain point. However, this initial idea or prompting of the idea of eating disorders could be related to media influence in terms of introducing the idea to future eating disorder sufferers and functioning as a catalyst. This kind of theory was acknowledged during Bandura’s infamous ‘Bobo doll experiment’ conducted between 1961 and 1963 to illustrate Bandura’s ‘social learning theory’ (Wikipedia). Within the experiment children are exposed to various behaviours of adults towards a tall inflatable toy known as the ‘Bobo doll’. Most infamously, all of the children copied adult violence towards a Bobo doll after watching them perform it previously to their attack (Wikipedia). Bandura’s work has influenced many media scholar research experiments into the effects of observing and copying behaviour, particularly in the work of audience studies and audience effect research. Whilst these have not been entirely conclusive, it provides some criticism towards Lintott’s claim. Therefore, she would need some form of research to support these claims. Conclusively, it seems that Lintott’s comments on media influence and the relationship between media and eating disorders …show more content…
The powerful influence that media can have has been acknowledged by multiple scholars across various fields such as psychology and media effects research, and therefore should there is a responsible of media producers to reconstruct media content in a way that does not invite promote the idea of eating disorders or invite women to view eating disorders as a solution to the problems Lintott identifies. This could be done in ways such as presenting a neutral approach to body image representation. There are external influences and forces that perform as a catalyst for this abnormal behaviour. Having an eating disorder is not “normal”, and sufferers of eating disorders are often regarded as an ‘other’ of
Phil 268- Art and Culture
Argumentative Essay
300314105
A Critical Analysis of Lintott’s ‘Sublime Hunger’
The subject of eating disorders can be a particularly difficult subject to analyse. This can probably explain why it is particularly overlooked within the realm of philosophy, despite being such a widespread and devastating illness. However, Lintott not only discusses eating disorders within a philosophical sphere, but furthermore she approaches the subject through a unique lens of the Kantian theory of the ‘sublime’. The term, coined by philosopher Immanuel Kant, describes elements of a ‘larger than life experience’, which upon first examination seems questionably unrelated to the illness of having an eating disorder. …show more content…
And this may be true after the point in which Lintott identifies, where eating disorders no longer reflect an ideal beauty standard or expectations from society at a certain point. However, this initial idea or prompting of the idea of eating disorders could be related to media influence in terms of introducing the idea to future eating disorder sufferers and functioning as a catalyst. This kind of theory was acknowledged during Bandura’s infamous ‘Bobo doll experiment’ conducted between 1961 and 1963 to illustrate Bandura’s ‘social learning theory’ (Wikipedia). Within the experiment children are exposed to various behaviours of adults towards a tall inflatable toy known as the ‘Bobo doll’. Most infamously, all of the children copied adult violence towards a Bobo doll after watching them perform it previously to their attack (Wikipedia). Bandura’s work has influenced many media scholar research experiments into the effects of observing and copying behaviour, particularly in the work of audience studies and audience effect research. Whilst these have not been entirely conclusive, it provides some criticism towards Lintott’s claim. Therefore, she would need some form of research to support these claims. Conclusively, it seems that Lintott’s comments on media influence and the relationship between media and eating disorders …show more content…
The powerful influence that media can have has been acknowledged by multiple scholars across various fields such as psychology and media effects research, and therefore should there is a responsible of media producers to reconstruct media content in a way that does not invite promote the idea of eating disorders or invite women to view eating disorders as a solution to the problems Lintott identifies. This could be done in ways such as presenting a neutral approach to body image representation. There are external influences and forces that perform as a catalyst for this abnormal behaviour. Having an eating disorder is not “normal”, and sufferers of eating disorders are often regarded as an ‘other’ of