{"title":"When being obese is a good thing: voices of Ghanaian participants in a dance reality TV show","authors":"Akosua K. Darkwah, Rashida Resario","doi":"10.1080/02589001.2022.2048808","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The discussion on (mis)representations of black women's bodies often focuses on their hyper-corporeality and hyper-sexualisation, with little attention paid to the women thus represented and their views. Reality shows are roundly criticised for objectifying women, being unAfrican and offering little to Africans. This paper contests this perspective by drawing on interviews with 19 contestants in a dance reality show in Ghana. We demonstrate that African participants in this show have a much more affirming view of the show. For them, the show offers benefits including celebrity status, training and employment opportunities. These benefits were not lost on family and friends who supported the candidates in various ways. Given the economic conditions in Ghana, this reality show offers obese women an opportunity to turn their condition into an asset and to do so largely with the backing of friends and family.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"40 1","pages":"449 - 462"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2022.2048808","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT The discussion on (mis)representations of black women's bodies often focuses on their hyper-corporeality and hyper-sexualisation, with little attention paid to the women thus represented and their views. Reality shows are roundly criticised for objectifying women, being unAfrican and offering little to Africans. This paper contests this perspective by drawing on interviews with 19 contestants in a dance reality show in Ghana. We demonstrate that African participants in this show have a much more affirming view of the show. For them, the show offers benefits including celebrity status, training and employment opportunities. These benefits were not lost on family and friends who supported the candidates in various ways. Given the economic conditions in Ghana, this reality show offers obese women an opportunity to turn their condition into an asset and to do so largely with the backing of friends and family.
期刊介绍：
Journal of Contemporary African Studies (JCAS) is an interdisciplinary journal seeking to promote an African-centred scholarly understanding of societies on the continent and their location within the global political economy. Its scope extends across a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines with topics covered including, but not limited to, culture, development, education, environmental questions, gender, government, labour, land, leadership, political economy politics, social movements, sociology of knowledge and welfare. JCAS welcomes contributions reviewing general trends in the academic literature with a specific focus on debates and developments in Africa as part of a broader aim of contributing towards the development of viable communities of African scholarship. The journal publishes original research articles, book reviews, notes from the field, debates, research reports and occasional review essays. It also publishes special issues and welcomes proposals for new topics. JCAS is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October.
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