This project examines the construction of subjectivity in Eleanor Antin’s Carving: A Traditional Sculpture (fig. 1) and Chris Kraus’ Aliens and Anorexia (fig. 2) . These works inscribe notions of the self, the social, and the subject through and upon the body, addressing the interpolating poles of nutritive consumption and “willing the body away” through self-starvation. Throughout this essay, I will demonstrate how these artists engage with the spaces and discourses created around food and disordered eating to produce a counter dominant take on subjectivity, a thematic both artists attend to regularly throughout their careers. My reading prioritizes theories of the body, subjectivity, consumption, gender and difference, refusing to see these works, or the practice of anorexia, as simply a testament to pressures on the contemporary female body or the demonstration of a cardinal relationship between the feminine and food. Instead, it locates these practices as a site of complex and, at times, resistant subjectivities. At the heart of my reading is recent sociological and anthropological theories on food’s role in the construction and signification of the subject and its relationship to the social and cultural order. My reading also incorporates psychoanalytic theories addressing the formation of subjectivity through pre-libidinal encounters with sustenance. This breadth of theories is essential, as the most complex discourses around food and anorexia resist reducing these concepts to matters of nature/culture, interior/exterior, or self/social. This project also draws liberally upon feminist theories, though my use of this perspective is not to suggest that eating disorders, food, and the like are primarily or naturally a femal... ... middle of paper ... ...e multiplicity of meaning embedded in these works suggests the importance of the body as a liminal site, a site of inscription and meaning making, in both historical-contemporary and more recent feminist work. It is, of course, unlikely that Antin or Kraus draws directly upon any singular theory explicated in this essay. Both artists are, however, undeniably interested in the formations, constructions, and shifts of subjectivity. Both Carving: A Traditional Sculpture and Aliens and Anorexia address the body’s uncontained boundaries, exploding the dual Cartesian model of interior/exterior self. As feminist artists, both Antin and Kraus are also surely aware of the complexity of discourses around food, self, and the body. Through the artists may not be speaking “to” or “through” any particular theoretical model, they are contributing to these discourses all the same.
MacClancy states, “Wrenched out of normal routines by the continuing assault on their mouths, they concentrate on the sensation and ignore almost everything else” (287-288). On the topic of body art, Ruggia states, “The skinny obsession is spiraling out of control as more people risk death to be thin through diet pills and gastric bypass surgery” (318). These statements support that the essays both unveil an underlying message of the endless human search for self-gratification. Using diferent writing styles, the authors similarly impress their person opinion on the
In the great tradition of classical art, nudity and death have been two main themes of the masters. Sally Mann’s photographs twist this tradition when the nudes are her prepubescent children and the corpses are real people. The issue is that her photographs are a lens into unfiltered actuality, and consumers question the morality of the images based on the fact that children and corpses are unable to give legal consent. Her work feels too personal and too private. Mainly, people question whether or not Mann meant to cause an uproar with her work or if the results were completely unintentional. After looking through what Sally Mann herself has said, it can be determined that both options have a grain of truth. She wanted to provoke thought,
Bordo creates a harrowing argument in her essay. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” shows its greatest strengths when supported by the essayist’s emotional appeals, personal observations, and statistical evidence. In her keenness to employ real facts and statistics, paired with her rhetoric, Bordo grants relevancy to her claim. Providing clarity on the recent development of eating disorders, Bordo shows her ability to argue as she voices her deep concern. Indeed, Bordo’s use of many of the components of a strong argument in her essay accomplishes its goal. Ultimately, Bordo’s selection provides its audience with enough reason to consider or reconsider their stances. Suddenly, the globalization of eating disorders has become global in a new way—in the awareness of men and women all around the
The author’s intended audience is most likely to people who are experiencing the disorder or are interested in knowing more about eating disorders. When Lia was admitted to New Seasons, her rehabilitation facility, she relates her experience to someone who has gone through the struggles in that kind of facility. Lia was expected to be “a good girl [by not poking holes] or write depressing poetry and [eat and eat]” (Anderson 18). Her struggles in the facility allowed the audience who experienced this disorder to relate their experiences. In addition, people who choose to starve...
Lauren Williams and John Germov (2004)”The Thin Ideal: Women, Food, and Dieting”, in Lauren Williams and John Germov (Editors) A Sociology of Food and Nutrition. The Social Appetite, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 342
Paragraph 1- Girls can become victims of eating disorders because of society's promotion of an ideal thin female body. Models and stars shown in the fashion industry, magazines, movies, and other forms of media often appear very thin. These models are not a true reflection of the average female. Many are unnaturally thin, unhealthy or airbrushed. One former Victoria Secret model was shocked by the waiflike models that were shown on the runway during designer shows. A study referenced in the the article “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image” describes how studies of girls as young as first grade think the culture is telling them to model themselves after celebrities who are svelte and beautiful. The same studies showed girls exposed to fashion magazines were most likely to suffer from poor body images. Psychologist and eating disorder experts agree the fashion industry has gone too far in showing dangerously thin images that women and young girls may try to emulate. The use of super slim models and stars, is sending the wrong message to young impressionable girls. These harsh influences lead us to think that thin is ideal body size. Seeing super thin models in the media plays a role in anorexia. Society’s promotion of a thin female body contributes to eating disorders for females striving to achieve this ideal bod...
In civilized societies, there are continuous prizing of thinness than ever before. Occasionally, almost everyone is watchful of their weight. Individuals with an eating disorder take extreme measures to concern where they ultimately shift their mode of eating, this abnormal eating pattern threatens their lives and their well-being. According to Reel (2013), eating disorders are continually misapprehended as all about food and eating. However, there is more to that as the dysfunction bears from emotion concealing a flawed relationship with food, physical exercise and oneself. Persons with eating disorders convey fault-finding, poor self- esteem and intense body discontent. This can lead to extreme distress of gaining weight,
The article “Aesthetics of Disgust” by Michelle Meager examines Jenny Saville and the deeper meaning behind her work. Instead of capturing the beautifully perfect proportioned female body, Saville’s work shows them as “distorted, fleshy and disquieting”. These images were better known as visuals of disgust. The article, Mercer examines the different meanings of disgust by reviewing the studies of well-known psychologists. Reviewers of her work responded with shock and confusion. They believed that her paintings were a depiction of the negativity and hatred she felt about the female body. Reviewers even questioned if she hated women’s bodies in general. However, throughout all of the negative comments, some women were pleased that she recognized
In the article “Fat Is a Feminist Issue”, Susie Orbach claims that being fat and the impulsion to overeat are serious and painful experiences of the women involved. Women’s appearance are socially constructed and largely by males. I agree that it is intense of women being fat in our society and women become “feminine” through other people’s assumptions and expectations.
Susie’s essay is about how society has sent standards for how women should look, eat, and behave. That is not a woman’s fault she’s over-weight or obese, but society for their judgmental standards. Susie claims “A feminist perspective to the problem of women’s compulsive eating is essential if we are to move on from the ineffective blame-the-victim approach” (Orbach 201) in this quote Orbach informs the reader that the blame the eater approach is the wrong one. Instead she provides a feminist approach. She says how being fat is sometimes a woman’s way of rebelling against societies standards. To break free of the sex stereotypes. Susie also says “Fat expresses experiences of women today in ways that are seldom examined and even more seldom treated…” here susies is saying that people over look the things that women have to deal with. Such as the magazines of twig-like women, how to be beautiful, how to behave, how to act, and all the stereotypes that society puts on women.
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs 1997. The Appetite as Voice. In Food and Culture: A reader. Counihan, Carole and Penny Van Esterik, eds. Pp 159-179. London: Routledge.
The body is the physical agent of the structures of everyday experience. It is the transmitter of cultural messages…a repository of memories, an actor in the theatre of power, a tissue of affects and feelings. Because the body is at the boundary between biology and society…in terms of power, biography and history, it is the site 'par excellence' for transgressing the constraints of meaning (Richard, 208).
In putting together this reader, the editors aimed at writing a book "with legs", a book that contributes to the debates around food, and that will offer an collection of what has been written so far interdisciplinary, cross-culturally, and historically about it. At the border of biology and culture, everyone needs to eat and associates food with certain values. In their introduction, the editors remind of the universal importance of food: the process of eating is reproduced everyday several times, food is the foundation of every economy and a central pawn in political strategies of states and households. The editors believe that food is life, and thus life can be studied through food. In this reader, the cultural aspect of food is stressed: food preferences, dislikes, and eating disorders cannot be fully assessed with physical explanations while neglecting the cultural and symbolic dimension. Food marks social differences, food sharing creates solidarity, and food-scarcity damages human communities. Bodily conditions and images, such as being fat or thin, are deeply embedded in gender roles and cultural categories, and symbolize how people define themselves differently through food and appetite. Because of this focus on the cultural dimension of food consumption, anthropology dominates the book despite its interdisciplinary approach. The authors stress the significance of food, because since everybody eats, its meanings concern more people than that of other issues. It has to offer a great variety of meanings since it is interwoven in the practices of everyday life all around the world, and through its diversity in material and preparation. Rather than uniformity, there is a broad range of manners, tastes, a...
Smith, Erica. Anorexia Nervosa: When Food Is the Enemy. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1999. Print.
As we participate in this social system we are shaped by socialization and paths of least resistance. Magazine companies might use heavier set models, stepping out of my path of least resistance, in order to promote self-love and demote body shaming. In a reading called A Way Outa No Way written by Paula Allen, examines how eating disorders are so frequently developed by women experiencing a man's idea of "sexy" and comparing themselves to the ideal body. I participate in patriarchy by compare myself to others, sometimes wishing I could change things about my appearance and wearing makeup to look