Fabiola Creed
In September 2020, I started a Wellcome Trust funded Medical Humanities China UK fellowship (MHCUK) at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow).
My new email address is: fabiola.creed@strath.ac.uk
My research on tanning culture builds on the histories of commercial businesses, the media and medical experts, and how these stakeholders influence the representations and public understandings of 'consumed' technologies and products - particularly those related to health advertising; 'healthy' bodies; moral panic; stereotyping; stigma, and 'addiction'. An exploration of the tanning industry also adds to the historical narratives that address class, gender, race, age and sexuality.
Research Overview
Thesis title: Advertising, Stereotypes and ‘Addiction’: Understanding Sunbed Representation in England, 1970s-1990s (kindly funded by the Wellcome Trust and supervised by Professor Roberta Bivins).
In the UK, the term 'sunbed' appeared in print press adverts in 1978. The first part of my thesis evaluates these adverts from the late 1970s to late 1980s. I explore indoor tanning devices (used in private households) and ‘tanning parlours’ (located in unregulated public spaces). A visual analysis of print press material, trade directories and national television programmes demonstrate where sunbeds initially emerged; the types of local, national and international manufacturing businesses drawn to selling sunbeds; the changing 'experts' on sunbeds; the adverts' changing target audiences, and finally, how sunbeds were marketed as both 'healthy' and 'safe' to the public. Further analysis of business archive material illustrates how sunbeds became an accepted and popular technology throughout the 1980s.
Having investigated the factors which drove the 'excessive use' of sunbeds, the second part of my thesis explores the media-induced ‘moral panic’ surrounding sunbed consumption. In 1991, the first medical authority officially coined the term ‘Tanorexia’ (or 'sunbed addiction') in Britain. This weight given by public health officials led to an emergence of an undesirable 'Tanorexic' stereotype within a wide-range of 1990s print press and visual material. The 'Tanorexic' was framed and stigmatised on national television, via comedies, horrors, documentaries, talk shows and news reports. I argue that these gendered and class-based stereotypes extend the histories of women, particularly mothers, (and homosexual men) being criticised for ‘feminine’ and 'vain' consumptions. However, the media-induced moral panic was also an attempt to decrease skin cancer rates, aiming to improve the long-term health of the British public.
Research Interests and Approaches
Twentieth-century British history of:
- industry, marketing and franchises;
- 'Visual Culture' of commercial adverts, 'addiction' (or portrayals of 'excess') and public health campaigns;
- audio-visual representations of consumptions, 'healthy bodies', and broadcasts of everyday health advice (from both 'factual' and 'fictional' television genres);
- skincare, health and medicine;
- culture-bound syndromes;
- the socio-cultural framing of ‘diseases’ and ‘disorders’;
- gender inequities in mental health and illness;
- and oral history approaches.
Academic Profile
- April - August 2020: Early Career Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), University of Warwick.
- 2016 – 2020: Medical Humanities PhD, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick (Wellcome Trust funded).
April - July 2019: Wellcome Trust Secondment Fellowship at Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), Westminster.
Spring 2018: Audited an MA module, ‘Television History and Aesthetics’, to develop my understandings of 'neo-liberal' bodies portrayed through audio-visual media (Department of Film and Television Studies).
- 2015 – 2016: MA History of Medicine (Distinction), Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick (Wellcome Trust funded). Dissertation Title: ‘THE TANOREXIA TIMEBOMB’: The History of Sunbed Addiction and The Sunbed Industry in England, 1978-2015. Supervised by Professor Bivins.
- 2011 – 2014: BA Combined Honours: History and Music (First Class), University of Liverpool.
Dissertation Title: The History of Bulimia Nervosa among America Males in New York, 1970-1999.
2014: David Thistlewood Award (highest overall mark in Year 2 and 3 in Combined Honours).
2012: Study Abroad Semester Scheme (awarded the sole exchange position on the Combined Honours course to study at Monash University, Melbourne).
Publications
Policy Report
- Creed, Fabiola and Rowena Bermingham, 'Improving Witness Testimony', Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) (July 2019).
My LinkedIn article presents my POST experience: '3 Skills Academics Can Learn From Policy'.
Book Reviews
- Creed, Fabiola, 'Tania Anne Woloshyn, Soaking up the Rays: Light Therapy and Visual Culture in Britain, C. 1890-1940 (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2017)' in Social History of Medicine, Volume 32, Issue 2, (May 2019).
Conference Papers
- [Postponed] 3-4 June 2020: ‘Orange’ or a ‘Rich, Deep and Luxurious Brown’? The Fake Tan and Sunbed Industry in a War against Skin Cancer (1990s, Britain). Technology and the Patient Consumer Workshop, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
- [Postponed] 16-18 April 2020: ‘You’re Selfish and You’ve Got Children to Think of’: The Grilling of ‘Tanorexic Beauty Slaves’ in Britain, 1995-1997 from our accepted panel: The ‘Beautiful’ Female Body as a Site of Health, Pleasure and Harm in Modern Britain. 'Gender, Subjectivity, and "Everyday Health" in the Post-1945 World' Conference, University of Essex.
- 27-30 August 2019: ‘65 hours sunbathing’ or ‘7 hours on a sunbed’: The Sensible Sunbed Consumer (England, 1980 to 1982) from our accepted panel: Publicity, health rhetoric and consumer knowledge in the medical market place. ‘Sense and Nonsense’, European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH), University of Birmingham.
- 12 March 2019: The Body Programme for the Positive Woman’: Sunbed Consumers and Affluence (Liverpool, 1978-1980). (PhD Work in Progress Seminar), Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), University of Manchester.
- 11-13 July 2018: 'SUNBEDS FOR YOUR HEALTH & SAFETY’: Sunbed adverts in the Mersey Yellow Pages, 1978-2002. 'Conformity, Resistance, Dialogue and Deviance in Health and Medicine' International, Biennial Conference, Social History of Medicine (SSHM), University of Liverpool.
- 10-13 May 2018: From "overuse" to "addiction": Translating medical sunbed health advice to national television, England, 1990s. 'Media and Medicine' Panel, American Association for the History of Medicine Annual Conference (AAHM), UCLA, Los Angeles, California, US.
- 19-21 February 2018: 'A visual feast [of] muscle builders’: Men, Sunbeds and Television in Thatcher’s England. Broadcasting health and disease. Bodies, markets and television, 1950s-1980s conference, Wellcome Trust, London.
- 9th - 10th November 2017: The emergence and persistence of sunbed addiction in England, 1978-2010.
Society for the Study of Addiction Annual Conference, Newcastle. - 7th November 2017: 'A ‘healthy’, ‘safe’ and ‘deep lasting tan’ – ‘all year long’: The Advertising of Household Sunbeds in British Newspapers, 1978-1988. Cambridge Body and Food Histories (Bodily Modifications interdisciplinary research theme), University of Cambridge.
To read about the event, please see Meeting Notes: Tattoos and tanning: the historical study of skin alteration in embodied identities.
- 29th - 30th June 2017: 'From 'healthy golden’ people to ‘tanorexics dying for a tan’: The Visual Culture of Sunbed Consumption in the British Media, 1978-2013. Postgraduate Medical Humanities Conference 2017, Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter.
- 5th May 2017: A Gendered Addiction: The Framing of ‘Tanorexia’ by the British Media and Medical Authorities, 1978-2010. Contemporary Applications of Historical Research Conference, Humanities Building, University of Nottingham.
- May 2016: The Rise of the Sunbed Industry: ‘Tanorexia’ among White British Women: Liverpool, 2006-2016. Department of History Postgraduate Conference, University of Warwick.
- February 2016: ‘Dermatologists fear the cult of sun worship is getting out of hand': How did medical authorities and the sunscreen industry popularise suntanning during the 1960s?. ‘Contested Histories’ History Department MA Conference, University of Warwick.
Teaching, Research and Public Engagement Experience
- 16 November 2019: Presented a short tanning history talk for a Historical Beauty Salon event (Colchester), which was a part of the Being Human Festival. To read about the event, please see Sunbed Barbie Exists! And other Being Human stories.
- 25-28 January 2018: Finalists for the 'Public Health Product Forge' Hackathon (Edinburgh). In our teams, we had to research and design a template of a product ('Med-Ease'), which would fill a gap in the medical market and improve public health services. Our 1-minute elevator pitch allowed us to be shortlisted to present our 6-minute promotion presentation. This was followed by a Q&A session with the judges (Directors in Public Health/the NHS in Scotland).
- 9-10 November 2017: Presented a poster showcasing a summary of my thesis for the SSA poster competition.
- January 2017 - January 2018: Monthly blog posts, 'PhD Life: A Blog on Addictions, Bodies, Drugs, 'Excessive' Consumptions, Gender ….. AND SUNBEDS'.
- 18 September 2017: Blog piece for the Beauty Demands Network, University of Birmingham: 'Sunbeds: Are they simply an 'irrational' compulsion?'.
- 7 June 2017: Shortlisted for the final round of the 'Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT)' for doctoral students (University of Warwick).
- August 2015: Volunteer work experience for Boots Archivists, Conservators and Records Managers in Nottingham.
- September 2014 – August 2015: Classroom Learning Assistant, Toot Hill Secondary School/College, Nottingham.
Other Responsibilities
- 2018 - 2019: Assists Dr Jane Hand and Dr Kathryn Wood convene the Centre for the History of Medicine Work-in-Progress Seminars.
- 2016 – 2017: Chair for first-year PhD students, Postgraduate History Student Staff Liaison Committee, University of Warwick.
- 2015 – 2016: Secretary and peer-review editor for the History Department’s postgraduate journal Retrospectives, University of Warwick.
- 2015 – 2016: Co-convenor for the Centre for the History of Medicine Reading Lunch series with Andrew Burchell, University of Warwick.
- March 2016: Oral History Society workshop volunteer for the ‘Through the shop window, 1880s-1980s’ exhibition, Leamington Spa Museum & Gallery.
- 12 February 2016: Chair for the MA History Postgraduate Committee, organising the 'Contested Histories' Conference, University of Warwick.
fabiola.creed@strath.ac.uk
‘Dreaming of a Brown Christmas?, Telegraph Sunday, 1981.
‘Tanorexia’, Daily Mail, 16 May 1996.
30 July 2009.