Feeling the Poor

This paper examines how emotions such as empathy, pity, guilt, and outrage circulate through global media to shape perceptions of poverty, justice, and global inequality. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's theory of affective economies—which holds that emotions “stick” to signs, bodies, and narratives through repetition—it analyses the emotional architecture of global poverty campaigns. Donor-driven visuals and social media fundraising emotionally instrumentalise suffering in the Global South, producing hierarchies of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, reinforcing postcolonial relations, and enabling performances of moral superiority under humanitarianism. A case study of Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger deepens this critique: its unsentimental portrayal of poverty disrupts common affective tropes and exposes how narratives of merit or victimhood justify systemic inequity and donor benevolence. Framed by SDG 1, SDG 10, and SDG 17, the paper argues for poverty representation grounded not in sentiment but in reciprocity, structural reform, and accountability.