Representing embodied expertise: anorexia and the celebrity athlete’s lifestyle advice

ABSTRACT

Celebrity athletes have become a popular source for advice on healthy living. However, little research exists on the changing representations of their interventions. This article analyses the case of Dutch top cyclist Leontien van Moorsel, whose celebrity status increased after a highly-publicised struggle with anorexia. By examining biographies, cookbooks, and radio and TV appearances, it traces Van Moorsel’s celebrification and her transformation into an experience-based expert on lifestyle, and more specifically, eating disorders. It argues that, following her ‘anorexic period’, the cyclist’s physical appearance was presented as proof of her embodied expertise on defeating anorexia. Simultaneously, through her TV appearances as a coach for girls engaged in self-starvation, Van Moorsel reveals a tension between her ‘experience’ and her ‘expertise’: her representation as a dispassionate expert on anorexia demanded that she actively distanced herself from her own life story. Hence, the case of Van Moorsel demonstrates the possible contradictions in representations of celebrity athletes’ expertise. However, it also shows that it is likely that the social field of sport will continue to offer unique possibilities for presenting celebrity athletes as experts on healthy living.

KEYWORDS:

• Celebrity athletes
• lifestyle advice
• embodied expertise
• anorexia
• health

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Thomas Delpeut, Marjet Derks, Jan Hein Furnée, Aad Haverkamp, Simone Vermeeren, Jelle Zondag, and the reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Though she took the name ‘Zijlaard-van Moorsel’ after her marriage in 1995, Van Moorsel is still referred to by most media – like the website of her own foundation – by her maiden name. See: https://www.leontienhuis.nl/nieuws/i/33-actueel/195-ceo-dante6-fietst-amstel-gold-race-voor-leontienhuis (last Checked: 5 February 2020).

2. The metadata in the Dutch public radio and TV database at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision [‘Beeld en Geluid’] is not perfect. However, in the vast majority of ‘hits’ for the search string ‘leontien moorsel’, Van Moorsel appears in person in the given episode. https://zoeken.beeldengeluid.nl (Checked: 18 February 2020).

3. Statistics from the Dutch Foundation for Ratings Research (SKO), obtained through email correspondence with broadcasting organisations.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Radboud Institute for Culture & History, Radboud University Nijmegen.

Notes on contributors

Jon Verriet

Jon Verriet is a PhD Candidate at Radboud University Nijmegen, specialised in the history of popular ideas about health. Since his first article on the history of the ready meal (2013), his publications have examined how complex cultural values affect ‘lifestyle’ – specifically food habits and physical exercise. His current project is titled: Fitter, Stronger, Faster: The Athlete’s Diet and the Pursuit of Healthy Lifestyles in the Netherlands (1945–2020).