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The Spectacle of Disposability: Bumfights, Commodity Abjection, and the Politics of Homelessness

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15295036.2014.944928

1529-5036

Kyle S. Bunds, Joshua I. Newman, Michael D. Giardina,

Obesity and Health Practices

This article offers a critical analysis of the mediation and commercialization of “bum fighting” (videotaping two or more poverty stricken individuals engaged in low-dollar bloodsport). In recent years, the production of pugilism has emerged in the US as popular—and indeed highly lucrative—features of the media-sport landscape. This paper looks into what we can learn from these 1) deeply corporeal mediations and 2) radically political public pedagogies. Regarding the corporeal dimension, we deconstruct the ways in which bodies—and particularly bodies of the street—are framed within these popular discursive formations. We also explore the ways in which these media representations valorize, and are articulated within, broader political mediations on the underprivileged and “living welfarism”—which largely portray individuals living with homelessness as social welfare “parasites,” drug addicts, or nuisances to a nation's economic growth. We consider how these popular media constructs locate certain bodies as abject and thereby disposable. We conclude by discussing what these public pedagogies tell us not only about public space but most importantly about bodies that inhabit them.