Leaving the milky way! The formation of a consumer counter mythology

Abstract

In this article we present the emergence of a consumer community resisting a national mythology that milk is a central constituent of a healthy life style. This unfolds in a contemporary consumptionscape in which the consumer body and health is the subject of a number of moralisms and counter moralisms. The case is an example of how commercial and official (moral) definitions of health and collective identity are reinterpreted in the establishment of a counter-mythology. This counter-mythology contests an alleged conspiracy between industry and public health authorities. Dairy producers have expropriated the structural mythological ties between milk and the nurturing aspects of family, a process which is underpinned by medical discourses that point to the connection between health and milk consumption. It explores the formation of a counter consumer mythology as it unfolds in the interaction between self-proclaimed experts and consumer-to-consumer communication. We detect four stages in what we suggest is a recursive, for example, non-linear, process of consumer community formation. Finally, the emergent mythologies and moralism from these processes are discussed.