Austin on “Super Size Me and the Conundrum of of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Class for the Contemporary Law-Genre Documentary Filmmaker”

FeministLawProf Regina Austin  has posted to bepress her article, “Super Size Me and the Conundrum of of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Class for the Contemporary Law-Genre Documentary Filmmaker,”   40 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 683 (forthcoming 2007).   Here is the abstract:

According to director Morgan Spurlock, the idea for “Super Size Me,” the hugely popular documentary that explored the health impact of fast food, originated from a news report about Pelman v. McDonald’s, one of the fast food obesity cases. Over the course of his month-long McDonald’s binge, Spurlock became the literal embodiment of fast-food’s ill-effects on the seemingly generic American adult physique. Spurlock’s take on the subject, however, ignores the circumstances that contributed to the overweight conditions of the Pelman plaintiffs who were two black adolescent females who ate their fast food in the Bronx. One of them was homeless during the relevant time period.

The paper discusses what the circumstances of the Pelman plaintiffs might have been, including the incidence of obesity and overweight and related diseases in minority populations, the correlation between obesity and food insecurity, the significance of fast food restaurants in poor urban minority communities, the relationship between fast food and soul food, race-specific cultural attitudes regarding women’s weight, and race/ethnicity-related restraints on leisure. To be sure, based on past experience, a white male filmmaker like Spurlock might have found it difficult to tackle these subjects (especially in a film that is otherwise lighthearted and humorous) without encountering substantial criticism. Furthermore, most of the factors are irrelevant to the law of products liability, which pays little attention to inequities in the demographic distribution of risk. However, allowing generally disempowered subjects like the Pelman plaintiffs an opportunity to reveal their reflexivity about their situations is one way of combating disapproval and prompting deeper analysis of a social problem; Spurlock’s television series 30 Days is a fine example of that. Alternatively, filmmakers like Spurlock might display more reflexivity or critical self-assessment about their techniques for bringing only part of a complex issue to the screen . . . on the screen itself.

The full article is available here.  

Professor Austin is one of  the legal academy’s clearest and most consistent voices for those who – because of their gender, race, class and/or sexual orientation – are omitted from much law-talk.   Consider these six succinct paragraphs:

(1) The incidence of obesity and obesity-related illnesses is  greater in minority communities, especially among women.  

(2) Obesity is associated with poverty and food insecurity,  though that connection is not often made. This may produce a  general misunderstanding about the sources of the obesity of the  inhabitants of low-income minority communities.

3) Fast-food restaurants have a special nutritional significance  in communities with a scarcity of grocery stores and supermarkets  and a dearth of restaurants of other kinds. Fast-food outlets also  have a special social significance as sites of entertainment and  amusement. The poor, the elderly, and the homeless particularly  benefit from these advantages. However, after a slow start,  influenced by what some regard to be racism, fast food chains have  established franchises in such numbers that local ordinances are  being considered to regulate their presence in communities like the  Bronx.

(4) Furthermore, given the emphasis on fried fare, fast food  greatly resembles soul food. Fast food is also served in a relaxed,  informal setting that is conducive to the good fellowship blacks  associate with eating soul food. The linkage between soul food and  fast food is problematic, however, as both are associated with food-related chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes.

(5) Controlling weight or even determining what is a healthy  weight is a culturally loaded subject for black women, among other  minority women. On the one hand, black cultural norms appreciate  curvaceous women; this may be salutary for their self-esteem but  leaves them carrying more weight than is good for their health. On  the other hand, black culture, in addition to mainstream culture,  denigrates large, sassy women who speak their minds; this stereotype  is bad for black women’s psyches, although it does challenge the  conceit that respect is a matter of size. General admonitions to heavy  black female teenagers to eat healthy and watch their weight may not  be as effective as those aimed at young white women who do not  have to negotiate the same sort of middle course between acceptance and ill-health.  

(6) Finally, the residents of poor minority urban communities  may also have difficulties controlling their weight with exercise.  Restraints on leisure have a number of sources including cultural  norms that limit physical exertion by women, governmental barriers  to access, and the lack of private investment in recreational space in  poor and minority communities.

Wow.

-Bridget Crawford