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The tyranny of corporate slenderness: `corporate anorexia' as a metaphor for our age

2007; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0950017007080015

1469-8722

Melissa Tyler, Adrian Wilkinson,

Employment and Welfare Studies

This paper reflects on the organizational pursuit of leanness as a corporate aesthetic.In contrast to more mainstream accounts of downsizing techniques and practices, its primary concern is with the symbolic and aesthetic aspects of downsizing.It focuses particularly o n ' c o r p o r a t e a n o r e x i a ' , e mp h a s i z ing the ways in which this managerial metaphor serves to detract critical attention away from the perpetuation of a dieting norm in organizational l i f e mo r e g e n e r a l l y .I t b e g i n s wi t h a r e v i e w o f r e c e n t wo r k o n f o o d , t h e ' c i v i l i s i n g o f a p p e t i t e ' ( Me n n e l l , 1 991) and eating disorders in social and cultural theory.It then applies sociological perspectives on eating disorders, particularly those that connect a n o r e x i a a s a ' me t a p h o r f o r o u r a g e ' ( Or b a c h , 1 9 8 6 ) t o c o r p o r e a l i d e a l s p e r p e t u a t e d b y the mass media, to a critique of corporate anorexia.It concludes by arguing that discursive presence of corporate anorexia serves to underplay the organizational pursuit o f a t h i n i d e a l mo r e g e n e r a l l y , o n e t h a t r e s u l t s i n s o me t h i n g o f a ' t y r a n n y o f s l e n d e r n e s s ' (Chernin, 1981) for those subject to it.