On the Civilizing of Appetite

Obesity, bodily change and health identities: a qualitative study of Canadian women

“…This literature includes many relevant themes, besides gendered power and a focus on the body as a passport to 'the good life' in consumer culture (Featherstone 1991). For example, Mennell (1991) applies figurational sociology to the civilising of appetite, with fear of fatness related to longer historical processes within which biographical time and dieting careers are embedded. There is also useful interactionist literature on 'the looking-glass body', which comprises reflections and imaginations of the corporeal self (Waskul and Vannini 2006), health fascism (Edgley and Brissett 1990) and qualitative analyses of modalities of the body in health and illness (Watson 2000).…”

“…Of course, there is also the longue dur ee that underlies such embodied micro-social processes. This includes the civilising of appetite (Mennell 1991), itself attributable to a history of food security in economically developed nations, an antecedent fear of fatness among the privileged and embodied concerns about social ranking/distinction. In that regard, efforts to change bodies are deeply embedded and historically unfolding social practices, forming sometimes painful lived realities and memories within much larger figurations or chains of interdependency.…”

El cuerpo y la corporeidad simbólica como forma de mediación

“…El control del cuerpo mediante normativas termina convirtiéndose en una "disciplina" social (Foucault, 1976) que, generalmente, se basa en el auto-cuidado constante (Bordo, 2003;Mennell, 1991). Es, precisamente, aquí donde los discursos mediáticos acerca del cuerpo juegan un rol determinante, ya que influyen en los modos en que los sujetos se imaginan o desean ser.…”

Gränsen som museal struktur

“…Matvanor, bordsskick, bordsdukningar, menyer, kokkonst och etikett hor ju till de intimaste kulturella indikatorerna, dar andra granser i manskligt !iv uttrycks an de rent naringsmassiga och tekniska. Bonser man fran det dukade bordet som kulturhistoria framtrader ett monster av rollspel, main, etniska granser och betydelsebarande kategorier kring kroppen och samfundet och de kulturella barriarer som verkar utan skrivet speak (jfr Mennell 1991).…”