ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a reading of how the embodied and embodying practices of a somatic self who grapples with obesity and overweight are presented in Japanese media reports, which would allow a comprehensive understanding of cultural and structural scripting underneath metabolic syndrome. It is concerned with a semantical analysis to explore how metabolic syndrome has been defined. Newspaper reports tended to highlight two main gendered issues: drinking and eating practices are unmistakably gendered, and the somatic self of middle-aged men circulates around lifestyle related diseases and the Japanese masculinisation of obesity and overweight, as government reports elicited. Media reports confirmed that the somatic self of the carnivorous girl might be a rather ‘fictional’ character. The structural and cultural power of the health, food, pharmaceutical, sports, beauty and fashion industries to enhance the commodification of the somatic self was a palpable ‘reality’ through the analysis of media reports.
