Digesting Femininities : The Feminist Politics of Contemporary Food Culture

This volume addresses how the rhetoric of feminist empowerment has been combined with mainstream representations of food, thus creating a cultural consciousness around food and eating that is unmistakably pathological. Throughout, Natalie Jovanovski discusses key texts written by women, for women: best-selling diet books, popular cookbooks produced by female food celebrities, and iconic feminist self-help texts. This is the first book to engage in a feminist analysis of body-policing food trends that focus specifically on the use of feminist rhetoric as a harmful aspect of food culture. There is a smorgasbord of seemingly diverse gender roles for women to choose from, but many encourage breaking gender norms and embracing a love of food while perpetuating old narratives of guilt and restraint. __Digesting Femininities__ problematizes the gendering of food and eating and challenges the reader to imagine what a genderless and emancipatory food culture would look like. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Digesting Femininities: Gendered Food Discourses and Body-Policing Narratives....Pages 1-16 Beyond Body-Centrism: Making Food Discourses the Main Course of Feminist Analysis....Pages 17-46 A Smörgåsbord of Food Femininities: How Gender Politics and Food Culture Combine....Pages 47-58 Femininities-Lite: Diet Culture, Feminism and Body Policing....Pages 59-101 Cooking Up Femininities: Motherhood, Hedonism and Body Policing in Popular Cookbooks....Pages 103-136 Flavours of Feminism: Iconic Feminist Voices and Body-Policing Narratives....Pages 137-170 Unveiling a Pathogenic Food Consciousness: Gender, Patriarchy and the Neoliberal Subject....Pages 171-193 Hold the Femininities: Ordering a Radical Feminist Food Consciousness....Pages 195-205 Back Matter....Pages 207-213 Digesting Femininities: Gendered Food Discourses And Body-policing Narratives -- Beyond Body-centrism: Making Food Discourses The Main Course Of Feminist Analysis -- A Smörgåsbord Of Food Femininities: How Gender Politics And Food Culture Combine -- Femininities-lite: Diet Culture, Feminism And Body Policing -- Cooking Up Femininities: Motherhood, Hedonism And Body Policing In Popular Cookbooks -- Flavours Of Feminism: Iconic Feminist Voices And Body-policing Narratives -- Unveiling A Pathogenic Food Consciousness: Gender, Patriarchy And The Neoliberal Subject -- Hold The Femininities: Ordering A Radical Feminist Food Consciousness. Natalie Jovanovski. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Annotation This volume addresses how the rhetoric of feminist empowerment has been combined with mainstream representations of food, thus creating a cultural consciousness around food and eating that is unmistakably pathological. Throughout, Natalie Jovanovski discusses key texts written by women, for women: best-selling diet books, popular cookbooks produced by female food celebrities, and iconic feminist self-help texts