The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies * 71 year 4 / October 2012The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies * Literary Criticism Teodora POPA Eating Disorders in a Hyper-Consumerist and Post-feminist Context Abstract ‘This paper will focus on eating disorders, mainly anorexia and bulimia in an attempt to shed light on the ‘cultural aspects that influence them. Firstly, T will define eating disorders in relation with the consumerist society and the pressure of body-management and I will point out the contemporary factors with a great impact on food practices as they appear in the works of Featherstone and others. Secondly, T will provide insight into eating disorders in correlation with aversion to food which is significant in the “age of emptiness” (Lipovetsky). Then, | will analyze the concept of food as pleasure or lack of it in the context of eating disorders. In order to justify the relevance of food theories in literature, I will provide the example of a Belgian writer-Amélie Nothomb whose eating disorders and food practices presented in her biofictions and fictions are illustrative for the consumerist behaviour. Keywords: eating disorders, post feminism, hyper-consumerism, food practices. 1. The road taken By all the possible means, hyper-consumerism. promotes the culture of diets, light-food, weight- watch, calories count, sports, wellness, which lead to the creation of a ‘zero-size’ ideal of beauty. The pressure for achieving this perfect body shape influences the quest of the post-feminist woman for an identity. Therefore, eating disorders appear to be the body's language and the modality to express the crisis, of identity of the post-feminist woman created by a hyper-consumerist society. In this cause-and-effect networking, I will look into the links between hyper- ‘consumerism, post-feminism and eating disorders, by providing examples from the bio-fictions and fictions of a contemporary Belgian writer, Amélie Nothomb whose eating disorders and food practices are illustrative both for the consumerist behaviour and the post-feminist symptoms. Since the notion of “post-feminism” is still not agreed upon and there are very many contradictory definitions attached to it, I consider that it is important to point out here that I share Rosalind Gill's perception of “post-feminism”, She considers that the term is best understood as a sensibility made up of an 162 interrelated network of themes like: femininity as a bodily property, “shift from objectification to subjectification”, “emphasis upon self surveillance, monitoring and self-discipline”, “focus on individualism, choice and empowerment”, “the dominance of a makeover paradigm” and “resurgence of ideas about natural sexual difference” (Gill, 2007:147). Thus, my hypothesis is that there is a cause and-effect relationship between hyper-consumerist ‘behaviour and post-feminist identity through eating disorders. In general, eating disorders are basically a result of the compulsive, bulimic behaviour that people have towards consumption. In our hypermodem times as Gilles Lipovestky (2005:32) calls them, the society has reached a level of hyper-consumerism, passing from a modemity” to “a consummate” one, in which every domain of activity is subject to “a rising tide of extremism, in thrall to a boundless dynamic, hyperbolic spiral”. The image of the “hyperbolic spiral” is extremely evocative since it renders the vertigo of our daily experience of dealing with a overwhelming amount of choices. This paroxys™ choices cannot but lead to ‘extremism’ (eating, extreme sports) as if there were nothing in However, if all people irrespective of genre {fluenced by this hyper-consumerist culture, tically, Women are more inclined to be affected mnorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Only about 15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are s' and slightly more women than men are obese. alarming issue is that eating disorders have the hest mortality rate of any mental illness. With all jn mind, my assumption is that eating disorders gender-oriented and the result of the hyper- rist society which puts ‘under erasure’ the identity (Malson, 1999: 137) 2, The ‘turbo-consumer™ and the culture excess Meditating upon _hyper-consumerism, Dixon (2006: 112) arrived to the conclusion rich contemporary societies have reached a point endemic excessiveness, of “addiction to growth” d of “ancsthetizing” consumerism, because of a rollay of factors: the devaluation of family and life ‘a community, the increasing feeling of insecurity control, the development of a _hyper- dualism, the unreachable standards of beauty d the abundance of options of the consumer. mslated in 2 post-feminist language, these factors radically changed the way in which women ive themselves: the rejection of womanhood, the of slendemess’ (Bardo), the ideal beauty and plurality of identities that are at her disposal. In respect, Susan Bardo (1997: 238) believes that the nder-oriented cating disorders have to do on one and, with the “fear for traditional female roles and cial limitation” and on the other hand with “a deep of ‘the Female’ with all its more nightmarish al associations of voracious hungers and xual insatiaility”. The developing culture of the excess onsuier’s options, plurality of feminine identities, les, etc) was also pointed out by Lipovetsky always more” has now infiltrated every sphere collective life, as the financial activities expand, he economic spheres abound, the worldwide capital xplodes’ and the malls and the hypermarkets display Plethora of all kinds of products’, He insists that is excessiveness is both collective and individual d goes beyond any limit. The examples he provides interesting ranging from the eating disorders South Carolina_Department of nw state as/dmb anorexia statisti hm ‘Term uso by Lipovesky, Gilles (2006) Le Bonewr paradoval, tions Gallimard, p. 83, Healt, The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies 163 Year 4, no. 7 (anorexia, bulimia, and obesity), extreme sports, ‘mania for consumption, and drugs for athletes, and ‘quite shocking, but still relevant for the culture of the excess: serial killers. If projecting the culture of the excess in the sphere of food practices, one realizes that cexcessiveness is not only an attribute of our age, since the ancient times witnessed the abundance of Dionysian festivals with all the super-sized portions of food, wine intoxication and orgies. Comparing the ‘ancient and contemporary culinary excess, Lipovetsky (2006:265) highlights the differences between these ‘two practices: their gastronomic excessiveness was collective, celebrating the passage from one scason to the other, ours is rather individual; theirs was festive, ours is neurotic; for them, it was the occasion for collective happiness, for us, a time of guilt and pathology in a culture which admits only the self contrat” ‘A parabolic illustration of the culture of the excess appears in the novel Biographie de la faim Biography of Hunger] of the Belgian writer, Amélie Nothomb, who describes the utopian island of ‘Vanuatu where food can be found everywhere: “Au Vanuatu, il y a de la nourriture partout. Nous n’avons jamais di la produite. On tend les deux mains, ils tombent dans I'une noix de coco, dans autre un régime de bananes. On entre dans la met pour se raffaichir, et on ne peut éviter de ramasser excellents coquillages, des oursins, des crabes et des ppoissons & la chair raffinge. On se proméne un peu dans la fore, ol il y a trop oiseaux : on est fore’ de leur rendre service en enlevant de leurs nids les ceuts exceédentaires, et parfois de tordre le cou a l'un de ces volailles qui ne s’enfuient méme pas. (...) il ajouta est terrible.” (Amélie Nothomb, 2004: 13) Basically, the writer creates a micro-cosmos in which the inhabitants have never felt hungry because food was always at their disposal. Apparently, this permanent state of abundance triggers a pathological indifference and a total lack of aggressiveness. Even though Nothomb clearly states that the Westen over-alimentation has nothing to do with this utopian island, I beg to differ because there are some parallels that can be drawn between the ‘symptoms of our age and the world she describes. 3 sy Vanuatu, there is food everywhere. We have never had f0 produce it You rach out your hands and you'll have in one hand 2 ‘coco ut and in the other a bunch of bananas. You enter the sea to ‘ool off and you can't avoid picking up excellent shells, ea urchin, crabs and fish with refined flesh. You walk a bitin the forest where there are too may bird; you fee] compelled to make thom a service by taking the extra eggs from theit nests, or at times, to break the neck of one ofthe poultry which does not even runaway (..) he added: it's horrible.” (our translation)The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies Let's start with the first phrase. In our hyper consumerist society, there is indeed food everywhere whether we afford to buy it or not. Then, everywhere we go we come across malls, hypermarkets, supermarkets or just little shops which display a plethora of genetically-modified foods, bio-products, authentic ‘non-durable goods’ as Featherstone (2007: 16) calls food and beverage in general, all waiting to be grabbed by our veracious hands. In Lipovetsky’s opinion (2006: 265), the ‘neo-cater"' is compelled t0 ‘consume the foods which lay around him everywhere, and it is as if he is doing the products a favour when taking them off the shelves. Another idea which appears in the extract is that food is falling from the skies, idea that seems to be inoculated in the minds of children living in urban areas and who are not aware, for instance, that milk comes from cows or that chocolate milk does not come from brown cows. 3. Food practices at extremes Quite interestingly, the potentiality of options tears the hyper-consumer, and implicitly the post- feminist woman, apart and may trigger two extreme behaviours as food practices are concemed: one of almost neurotic control and the other of abandonment to the gastronomic pleasure. The controlling type of ‘neo-eater’ displays a responsible attitude towards food, watching the weight, doing a lot of sports (Pilates, zumba, aerobics, ete), counting calories, and being informed about health and bio-products. As Lipovetsky shows (2005:7), the danger with this type of ‘neo-cater’ is that sometimes borders on the pathological in its excessive degree of control (as in anorexia)”. The careless neo-eater has, on the contrary, an imesponsible attitude towards food, totally deconstructing one’s mealtime rhythms (Lipovetsky, 2005:7) and walking rather on the edge of bulimia, or obesity. However, these radical attitudes towards food and the cult for thinness appear rather in rich societies where food is abundant, because in Africa, for instance, lack of food acts upon the value judgement of the societies as beauty is concemed. In the work Everyone Eats. Understanding Food and Culture, ‘Anderson states that in Affica fat is beautiful, whereas in our hyper-consumerist societies “thinness is idealized, and the bird-boned anorexic becomes the supermodel” (2005:38). He claims that this perception of the food that must be controlled makes women, and very rarely men, be subject to extreme diets that can lead to anorexia nervosa. The effects of the growth are feal, says Homer-Dixon (2006:112), and they include “tich societies’ endemic of eating disorders like * Originally, “neo-mangew”. 164 obesity, anorexia and bulimia, and their soaring of clinical depression”. 4, Anorexic beauty The standard beauty celebrated advertisements seems to reinforce the obsession, youth and perfect shape. There is also the copye effect that is noticeable in the efforts to look alike i movie stars who suffer themselves from some eatin argues, these media images cause “Superwoman” act upon her self, to fight and overcome wrinkles a “Promethean”, activist beauty which cs adjustments (plastic surgery), efforts and restriction (sports, diets), maintenance and prevention food, hydration and regeneration of the sl (Lipovetsky, 2006: 317) ‘The mass obsession with appearance come as a result of the hyper-consumer culture as the b is concerned. In this respect, Featherstone pointed ou that the body becomes a ‘sign-commodity” expressing our personal choices and lifestyles (1982: 172) Promoted by media, the concern for the determines the individuals 10 “become emoti vulnerable, constantly monitoring themselves bodily imperfections which could no longer regarded as natural”, female bodies are transform into revealing images of the self (1982: 175). perception of the body as commodity, but also the woman’s rapport with food and food pra Fallon observes that there was always identification of women with food, since traditionally cook and serve meals. However, she: notices that even female bodies are identified food: tomato silhouette, pear shape, peach, etc (I 408). By achieving a body shape that has nothing i common with the typical food associations, one ¢a consider that women with eating disorders want erase the stereotypical associations with the tradi roles they were assigned, Im her novels, Amélie Nothomb exposes h conception that the age of 13 represents a sort ol crucial milestone for the girls in their passage adulthood. The proofs of this traumatic step are th body transformations that are very-deeply despised. A solution to counter-balance the effects of the bod transformations is the anorexic behaviour which a¢ as a hindrance for the passage to adulthood. represents a refuusal to become the Female (Bardo). the novel Robert de noms propres, there is @ description of such behaviour and the results of f00 deprivation on the psyche. The teenagers in a Bol cole de rats de I'Opéra de Paris) presented ‘novel are openly assessed by their teachers who them to be extremely thin: “Les minces, c'est continucz comme ¢a. Les normales, ¢a va, mais is ai a V'aril. Les grosses vaches, soit vous il n'y a pas de place ici pour les truies” 2002 : 118)? With these lectures in mind, gitls come to the conclusion that “On it jamais trés squelettiques™ (Nothomb, 2002: change their attitude toward food: “Les repas étaient des moments d’angoisse. fesseurs avaient tant diabolisé ta. nourriture 1s appréhendaient avec terreur, dégodtées sir qu'elle suscitait. Une bouchée avalée était ouchée de trop”” (Amélie Nothomb, 2002: 122) elle avait supprimé jusqu’a la moindre trace oduits laters dans son alimentation. En effet, sit remarqué qu’il lui suffisait de quelques de yaourt maigre pour se sentir ‘gonflée’ itil fallu voir ce qu'elle appelait "(Amélie Nothomb, 2002 : 145) ‘Thus, they are pushed in thralls of anorexia h causes them, and especially the protagonist, to be deprived of any feeling and consider additional half kilo is a step towards obesity: sr malhcur un jour elle pesait & nouveau ce poids et si, en conséquence, le sentiment mimencait & torturer son cceur, elle connattrait le ide & cette pathologie : ne plus manger, se laisser en dessous de la barre de quarante kilos’? D: 132-3). Thus, the anesthetisation of senses is of the main purposes of an anorectic who feels sted with her body and the signs of femininity. 5, Food deprivation and anesthetisation of The impulse to suffocate the feminine voice appears in Nothomb’s biofictions. She takes the s to impede her body from growing at 12 skinny ones, it's good: keep up the good work. The normal it's good, but we'll keep an eye on you. You, fat eows, you leave, theres no place here for sows.” (our translation, also Dex! quotations) eis never 00 skinny” had become times of anxiety. The teachers had diabolsed at an extant that it appeared attractive, irespectve of is iy. The children dreaded it with ero, disgusted with the iit sted. An extra moathfl swallowed was to much”. aa totally banned the dairy prehcts from he det. Indeed, nied that it was enough to eat some spoontals of light. to fou ‘inflated? (it would be interesting to see what she hy being ‘inflated ely, one day she weighted again that obese weight ently, former feelings started reappearing i her heart, Duld already know the remedy to that pathology: not eating let erst go under the forty kilos”. The Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies 165 Year 4, no. 7 years old: “le 5 janvier, jour de la Sainte-Amélie, je cesserais de manger. (...) Juliette devint maigre et moi squelettique. L’anorexie me fut une geice : Ia voix intérieure sous-alimentée, s*étaient tue ; (...) vrai dire, je n’éprouvais plus rien” (2004: 167)". Two years later, when she reached 32 kilos, she felt ‘compelled to start eating again and then she heard again the self-hatred voice: “la voix de la haine que Panorexie avait chloroformée pendant deux ans se réveilla et m’insulta comme jamais”! (2004: 175). ‘The case of this Belgian writer is extremely interesting since her fictions and biofictions display some feminist symptoms (rewriting of fairy tales from a woman's perspective, cating disorders, quest for a feminine identity, re-evaluation of beauty, obsession with asexual bodies etc), but she refuses to be considered a feminist writer and prefers instead the term civic-minded: “Je préfére le mot ‘civisme’ au mot “féministe’, parce que cette notion me parait beaucoup plus vaste. Mon altitude féministe s"inscrit dans une altitude civique, qui regroupe bien d'autres altitudes, qui sont comme le racisme ou toute forme dinégalité Mais le féminisme en fait partie” (Bainbrigge, 2003: 204)". However, the plethora of feminine protagonists with asexual bodies (as a statement of the refusal to become the Female) seems to be indicative of a post-feminist attitude, of females under erasure. ‘The anorectics with their zero-size bodies are not fighting for women’s rights, but on the contrary, they are capitulating in the phallocentric world. Anorexia represents “a way to keep [women] powerless that they collaborate in. If you are so hungry because you are not getting enough food {that} you can’t think straight, you can’t make the decisions and you can’t bbe physically powerful” (Fallon, 1994: 351). From this perspective, eating disorders have become a statement both for rejection of womanhood and attempt to silence their feelings and senses. They are a ‘manifest for body control, for the victory of the body ‘over the soul Even though, in general, hyper-consumerism does indeed promote a special type of beauty that needs to be maintained by means of strict self control "On te $* of January, Saint AmSte's day, T would stop cating. (..) Jot became thin and tumed skinny, The snorexia malo re a favour the ince voice remained silent (..) actualy, T did ot feel anything anymore”. "sthe voice of hated that anorexia tad put to sleep with ctloofom for two years wok= up and insted me as never belo” 2 prefer the word ‘sivieminded than feminist’ bocause I ind this notion much vase. My feminist attitude is inscribed ina cvie atte, which regoups oer atiudes as well, ike racism or any er form of inequality. But esnim spat ofall hatThe Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies ‘eating disorders, in Amélie Nothomb’s work the which assign her to the female side, The hunger effects of the consumer culture are less obvious. On the writer and her characters experience ig the other hand, the asexual protagonists of extreme obsessive consumption of unique beauty refuse the passage through adulthood and books, water, chocolate, champagne, beautiful regard the age of 13 as a fatal milestone. This and objects, reality shows, tea or rotten fruits rejection of womanhood can be perceived as a crisis all, Nothomb promotes a culture of the excess of identity of the post-feminist woman who suffers the anorexic and obese characters she builds, from a post-modem disease - anorexia- and feels the stories she tells which are always placed in urge to basically erase her outer self, or the body signs situations. Bibliography ANDERSON, EN. (2005), Everyone Eats. Understanding Food and Culture, New York University New York and London. 'BAINBRIGGE, Susan and TOONDER, Jeanctte den (ed.) (2003), Amélie Nothomb: Autorship, Identity Narrative Practice. Peter Lang Publishing, New York. 'BORDO, S. (1997), “Anorexia nervosa: psychopathology as the crystallization of culture”, in Countian and Penny Van Esterik. Food and Culture: A Reader, Routledge, London. FALLON, Patricia (1994), Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, The Guilford Press, New York. FEATHERSTONE, M. (1982), “The body in consumer culture", in M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth and ‘Tumer (eds), The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory, Sage, London. FEATHERSTONE, Mike (2007), Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, 2" edition, Sage Publ London GILL, Rosalind (2007), “Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility”, European jownal of studies, n0. 10, pp. 147-166. HOMER-DIXON, Th. (2006), The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civil Island Press, Washington. LIPOVETSKY, Gilles (2005), Hypermodern Times, Polity Press, Cambridge. LIPOVETSKY, Gilles (2006), Le Bonheur paradoxal, Editions Gallimard. MALSON, Helen (1999), “Woman under Erasure: Anorexic Bodies in Postmodern Context", Community & Applied Social Psychology J. Community Appl. Soc. Psychol. n0. 9, pp. 137-153. ‘NOTHOMB, Amélie (2004), Biographie de la faim, Ed. Albin Michel. NOTHOMB, Amélie (2002), Rohert de noms propres, Bd, Albin Michel. “This work was possible with the financial support of the Sectoral Operational Programme for Resources Development 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project POSDRU/107/1.5/S/76841 with the ttle , Modern Doctoral Studies: Internationalization and Interdisciplinariy”. 166