Glow from the inside out: Deliciously Ella and the politics of ‘healthy eating’

O'Neill, Rachel (2020) Glow from the inside out: Deliciously Ella and the politics of ‘healthy eating’. European Journal of Cultural Studies. ISSN 1367-5494

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Abstract

This article examines the branded persona of Ella Mills, founder of the multi-platform, multi-product and multi-million pound food brand Deliciously Ella. It begins from the premise that Mills represents a new kind of cultural intermediary: that of the wellness entrepreneur. Through a discourse analysis of Mills’ own media productions alongside news and magazine features about the entrepreneur, I consider how ‘healthy eating’ is being sold to young women as a means to realise physical and financial empowerment. Commercial entrepreneurship is made to function in tandem with health entrepreneurship, as Mills makes it her business to model a healthy lifestyle and enjoins others to follow this example. The article further examines how the Deliciously Ella narrative perpetuates already dominant understandings of health as a private good and personal responsibility through its emphasis on healing and recovery through food. Relating this analysis to recent debates about the shifting terrain of postfeminism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, I argue that the spotlighting of Mills elevates self-care as a gendered imperative while obfuscating the classed and racialised privileges that attend this.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ecs
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Author
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Date Deposited:	02 Sep 2021 13:45
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 05:15
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111844

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