Body Politics 3 (2015) - No. 5 Fat Agency | Heft 5 Fat Agency (ed. by Nina Mackert/Jürgen Martschukat)

Nina Mackert; Body Politics

The introduction lays the ground for this issue’s critical inquiry into fat and agency. Agency is a crucial yet ambivalent tool for historical, cultural and social analysis. It denotes a combination of self-reliance, self-will and self-respect among historical actors. On the one hand, it is a symbol for the reappropriation of alienated and seemingly overpowering discourses, social relations, and institutions. On the other hand, it often serves as an idealized counterpoint to representations of fat bodies. Therefore, agency is not necessarily and exclusively tied to oppositional acts of resistance or withdrawal, but it is also a premise of the social and political organization of liberal societies: exerting agency performs our compliance with its demands.

We want to explore all things fat: the full spectrum of socio-cultural meanings of fat through history, in the media, art, biomedicine and popular culture. Considering fat as substance, embodiment and identity. Experiences of fat and fatness intersect with gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. Fat is a derogatory term, but has also been reclaimed. Contemporary debates around fat and fatness tend to be polarised and un-nuanced. Fat is characterised as toxic, unhealthy, contagious, disgusting and ugly. Consumption of 'bad' fats and fat bodies are presented as moral, environmental and political issues. Fat is measured, regulated and policed by the self and 'other'. There is an industry dedicated to the removal and disposal of fat, as well as its transference to other parts of the body. Fat is stigmatising/stigmatised. Some fats are considered good/healthy. Fat in the 'right' places and in specific socio-cultural contexts is desirable/revered. Fat studies, fat acceptance, fat liberation, fat power and fat activism are counter discourses that problematize the dominant framing of fat as bad and challenge discrimination. Alternative cultural representations present fat as beautiful, sexy, and healthy. 'Phat' is also used sub-culturally to denote something that is excellent/gratifying. This issue of M/C Journal seeks to examine fat in the broadest sense. Areas of interest may include, but are not limited to: Popular cultural representations of fat/fatness; Good/bad fat(s); Healthy/unhealthy fat(s); Fat Phobia/hatred; Fat bodies/embodiment; Measuring, regulating, policing fat; Sexy fat; Aesthetics of fat; Fat identity; Fat activism; Fat acceptance; Fat liberation; Fat power; Fat feminism; 'Fat talk'; Consuming fat; Fat sub-cultures; Phat; Gay 'Bear' cultures; BBW (Big Beautiful Women); Fat porn; Fat shaming; Fat stigma; Fat as disease…

Managing fat bodies: Identity regulation between public and private domains of overweight employees by work organiza-tions, with particular attention to the relation-ship between public and private domains. The field of gender studies has long been concerned with the separation of public and private domains. Some discussions have fo-cused upon the complexity of the categories public and private (e.g. Gavison, 1992), and have looked at the binary thinking reflected in this division (e.g. Linstead & Brewis, 2004). Others have focused their critique more spe-cifically on the way the division public-private

BODY POLITICS Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte Heft 5 – Jahrgang 3 (2015) Fat Agency Herausgegeben von Nina Mackert / Jürgen Martschukat www.bodypolitics.de Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte Auf Anregung des Arbeitskreises für Körpergeschichte wird Body Politics herausgegeben von: Peter-Paul Bänziger (Basel), Magdalena Beljan (Berlin), Pascal Eitler (Berlin), Jens Elberfeld (Bochum), Andrej Findor (Bratislava), Christian Fritz-Hoffmann (Oldenburg), Alexa Geisthövel (Berlin), Henriette Gunkel (London), Patrice Ladwig (Halle), Maren Möhring (Leipzig), Marcus Otto (Braunschweig), Massimo Perinelli (Köln), Katja Sabisch (Bochum), Monique Scheer (Tübingen), Imke Schmincke (München), Olaf Stieglitz (Köln) und Heiko Stoff (Hannover). Geschäftsführend sind gegenwärtig: Jens Elberfeld, Imke Schmincke und Olaf Stieglitz. Anschrift: Body Politics, c/o Dr. Pascal Eitler, Forschungsbereich „Geschichte der Gefühle“, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Lentzeallee 94, D-14195 Berlin E-Mail: kontakt (at) bodypolitics.de Unterstützt werden die Herausgeberinnen und Herausgeber durch die Mitglieder ihres wissenschaftlichen Beirats: Thomas Alkemeyer (Oldenburg), Ulrike Bergermann (Braunschweig), Gabriele Dietze (Berlin), Franz X. Eder (Wien), Ute Frevert (Berlin), Christa Hämmerle (Wien), Heinz- Gerhard Haupt (Bielefeld), Dagmar Herzog (New York), Klaus Hödl (Graz), Sabine Kienitz (Hamburg), Gesa Lindemann (Oldenburg), Thomas Lindenberger (Potsdam), Sabine Maasen (München), Jürgen Martschukat (Erfurt), Georg Mein (Luxemburg), Rolf Parr (Duisburg-Essen), Nicolas Pethes (Bochum), Sven Reichardt (Konstanz), Philipp Sarasin (Zürich), Detlef Siegfried (Kopenhagen), Jakob Tanner (Zürich), Jakob Vogel (Paris), Paula-Irene Villa (München) und Anne Waldschmidt (Köln). Alle Artikel stehen unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Deutschland). Die Urheberrechte für die Artikel verbleiben damit bei den jeweiligen Autorinnen und Autoren. Umschlagabbildung: Micrograph of a hibernoma, a benign tumour thought to arise from brown fat (Wikipedia Commons). ISSN: 2196-4793 Editorial Die Körpergeschichte hat in den vergangenen zwanzig Jahren enorm an wissenschaftlicher Aufmerksamkeit gewonnen und eine bemerkenswerte Ausweitung erfahren. Diese Zeitschrift versucht diese Entwicklung in ihrer Facettenvielfalt abzubilden und weiter voranzutreiben. Als Online-Journal veröffentlicht sie Artikel in deutscher oder englischer Sprache, die ein beidseitig anonymisiertes Peer Review durchlaufen haben. Alle Beiträge erscheinen kostenfrei im Open Access. Der Körper gerät dabei als ein multidimensionaler Forschungsgegenstand und das Ergebnis eines historischen Wandels in den Fokus – als ein Effekt sozialer Praktiken, ein Objekt der Imagination und Repräsentation, in seiner Diskursivität, Materialität und Produktivität. Er war und ist sowohl ein Medium der Subjektivierung als auch ein Ort gesellschaftlicher Ordnungsversuche und nicht zuletzt politischer Konflikte. In diesem umfassenden Verständnis lautet der Titel dieser Zeitschrift: Body Politics. Die Körpergeschichte verändert dabei nicht nur unseren Blick auf Menschen und deren Körper und Geschichte – sie betrifft auch unsere Wahrnehmung von Tieren und Dingen und deren vermeintlich grundsätzliche Andersartigkeit. Dementsprechend greift diese Zeitschrift auf ein breites Angebot von Fragestellungen und unterschiedliche Herangehensweisen zurück. Sie versammelt zudem nicht nur Artikel aus den Geschichtswissenschaften, sondern steht ebenfalls historisch interessierten Beiträgen aus den Literatur- und Medienwissenschaften sowie anderen Kultur- bzw. Sozialwissenschaften offen. Die Herausgeberinnen und Herausgeber Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte Heft 5 – Jahrgang 3 (2015) Fat Agency Herausgegeben von Nina Mackert und Jürgen Martschukat Redaktionsschluss: 31. November 2015 Inhaltsverzeichnis Nina Mackert and Jürgen Martschukat: Introduction: Fat Agency ..…………… 5 Perspektiven Nina Mackert: Writing the History of Fat Agency ……………………….……….…. 13 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer: Fattening Austerity…………….…………….. 25 Analysen Christopher E. Forth: On Fat and Fattening: Agency, Materiality and Animality in the History of Corpulence ………….…………….………………….. 51 Joyce L. Huff: The Narrating Stomach: Appetite, Authority and Agency in Sydney Whiting's 1853 Memoirs of a Stomach.…….…..…….. 75 Amy E. Farrell: “When I Was Growing Up My Mother Cooked Dinner Every Single Day”: Fat Stigma and the Significance of Motherblame in Contemporary United States ..……………………….………….…. 95 Nora Kreuzenbeck: Nothing to Lose: Fat Acceptance-Strategien und Agency als Widerstand und Unterwerfung in den USA von der Mitte der 1960er bis in die frühen 1980er Jahre …………...………... 111 Offener Teil Ulrike Thoms: Hunger – ein Bedürfnis zwischen Politik, Physiologie und persönlicher Erfahrung (Deutschland, 19. und 20. Jahrhundert)……………………………………………………..……………….. 135 Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 5-11 Introduction: Fat Agency Nina Mackert and Jürgen Martschukat English abstract: The introduction lays the ground for this issue’s critical inquiry into fat and agency. Agency is a crucial yet ambivalent tool for historical, cultural and social analysis. It denotes a combination of self-reliance, self-will and self-respect among historical actors. On the one hand, it is a symbol for the reappropriation of alienated and seemingly overpowering discourses, social relations, and institutions. On the other hand, it often serves as an idealized counterpoint to representations of fat bodies. Therefore, agency is not necessarily and exclusively tied to oppositional acts of resistance or withdrawal, but it is also a premise of the social and political organization of liberal societies: exerting agency performs our compliance with its demands. Fatness, we are told, indicates self-indulgence and a lack of willpower and self-control. It represents submission to the temptations of sugary, fatty, high caloric and easily available food; food that is engineered by a powerful food industry which maximizes its profits by creating a base of consumers who are addicted to its products. The connotation of addiction and danger is omnipresent in the contemporary discourse and politics on food, indicating that control over our bodies and our wellbeing has slipped from our hands. This notion is reinforced by the framing of fatness as deviant, abject, and pathological. The understanding of fat as a disease dates at least as far back as ancient Greece, and the Oxford English Dictionary documents the first use of the term obesity in 1611.1 Yet it was not before the second half of the 19th century and the emergence of biopolitics2 that fatness came to be seen as a medical problem with sociopolitical implications. After all, with Herbert Spencer and the social Darwinist discourse, the struggle for the survival of the fittest became a prominent concept in modern societies. Finally, since the late-20th century, obesity has been described as being of epidemic proportions in modern Western societies.3 In 2013 obesity was officially recognized 1 O u dersta di gs of fat see Chris Forth, I trodu tio : Materializi g Fat, in Fat: Culture and Materiality, eds. Chris Forth and Alison Leitch (London, et.al.: Bloomsbury, 2014), 3-16; on fat as pathological see Sander L. Gilman, Obesity. The Biography (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010), 21ff. 2 Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-76 (New York: Picador, 2003). 3 Abigail C. Saguy, What’s Wrong With Fat? (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013), 107ff. www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600026 | ISSN 2196-4793 6 Nina Mackert & Jürgen Martschukat as a chronic disease by the American Medical Association,4 which, according to the World Health Organization, has been spreading across the globe for over a decade. In 2001, the WHO even coined the term globesity to capture and express this phenomenon. One way or another, in modern culture and society fat people are presumed to be lacking agency, either by a deficit of willpower or because they are overpowered by a chronic disease of epidemic proportions. At first glance, these arguments seem to provide diverging explanations, but a closer look reveals that they are more tightly connected than they initially appear. As cultural critic Susan Sontag argued after she had been diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s, a fatal disease tends to imply moral stigmatization, and illness turns into a metaphor for individual failure in many respects, particularly of having lost control over one s existence.5 Agency is a crucial heuristic tool for historical, cultural and social analysis, a tool which helps us to understand the complexity and twisted nature of fat and the self in modern society. On the one hand, agency denotes a combination of self-reliance, self-will and self-respect among historical actors who somehow manage to reappropriate alienated and seemingly overpowering discourses, social relations, structures, and processes which appeared to be beyond their control. By the means of their agency, historical actors use cultural resources as well as economic and political structures in transformative ways and create a grammar different from existing hegemonic patterns. In a word, agency denotes the ability to exert resistance within seemingly overpowering discourses and structures.6 On the other hand, in thinking about agency, it must also be taken into account that liberal societies prompt historical actors to be in control of their own lives. Liberal societies are built upon the principle that their citizens use their freedom adequately and efficiently and present themselves as self-reliant and productive. As stressed by sociologists Nikolas Rose and Susanne Krasmann, liberal societies are premised on governing through freedom, which entails government that functions not by constraining its citizenry but by inciting it to action.7 Since the age 4 Andrew Pollack, "A.M.A. Recognizes Obesity as a Disease," The New York Times, 18 June 2013. 5 Susan Sontag, Illness as a Metaphor (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1978). 6 Bill Ashcroft et al, Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2000), 6f.; Alf Lüdtke, Ges hi hte u d Eige si , in Alltagskultur, Subjektivität und Geschichte. Zur Theorie und Praxis von Alltagsgeschichte, ed. Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt (Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot Verlag, 1994), 139-153. 7 Nikolas Rose, Powers of Freedom. Reframing Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999); Susanne Kras a , ‘egiere ü er Freiheit, Kriminologisches Journal 31 (1999): 107-121. Introduction: Fat Agency 7 of Atlantic Revolutions, members of liberal societies have been asked to prove their ability to self-government, make the best of their lives, optimize themselves by exerting self-control and agency, and thus qualify as citizens. Therefore, agency is not necessarily and exclusively tied to oppositional acts of resistance or withdrawal, but it is also a premise of the social and political organization of liberal societies: exerting agency performs our compliance with its demands. Seen against this backdrop and in the wider context of liberalism and self-regulation in modern history, the fat panic takes on different meanings and connotations. It is intertwined with the health, fitness, diet, and health food waves that have been unfolding since the 19th century.8 Putting aside their many differences in scope and detail, they have sought to strengthen historical actors in their resistance to the temptations of fat and sweetness and to the power of the food industry. These actors would thereby regain agency which, in this case, entails self-determination and control over their bodies and lives. At the same time, the same historical actors have been subjected to a powerful, highly normative hype for health, fitness, and ability, which, according to disability studies scholar Robert McRuer, generates a compulsory able-bodiedness in modern societies.9 This compulsory able-bodiedness should be perceived as being embedded in a powerful and heterogeneous dispositive,10 which is nourished by the fear of fat and food and the demand for instant action against the putative imminent danger of the epidemic and chronic disease of obesity. 11 8 “ee for i sta e ‘o erta J. Park, Mus les, “ etr a d A tio : Do You Measure Up? Defi i g Mas uli it i Britai a d A eri a fro the 6 s to the earl s, The International Journal of the History of Sport 24, 12 (2007): 1604-1636; Jonathan Black, Making the American Body. The Remarkable Saga of the Men and Women Whose Fears, Feuds, and Passions Shaped Fitness History (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2013); Shelly McKenzie, Getting Physical. The Rise of Fitness Culture in America (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2013). 9 ‘o ert M ‘uer, Co pulsor A le-Bodied ess a d Queer/Disa led E iste e, in Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities, ed. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Sharon L. Snyder (New York: MLA Publications, 2002). 10 Fou ault des ri es a dispositi e as a thoroughl heteroge eous e se le, o sisti g of discourses, institutions, architectural planning, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic proportio s. Mi hel Fou ault, Le jeu de Mi hel Fou ault, in Dits et Écrits III (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), 298-329. English translation quoted after Sverre Raffnsoe, Marius Gudmand-Ho er a d Morte “. Tha i g, Fou ault s Dispositi e. The Perspi a it of Dispositi e A al ti s i Orga izatio al ‘esear h, Organization (2014): 1-27, 1-2. 11 On the normativity of health, see Jonathan M. Metzl and Anna Kirkland, eds., Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality (New York: NYU Press, 2010); see also Julie Guthman, Weighing In. Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013); Julie Guthman and Melanie DuPuis, 8 Nina Mackert & Jürgen Martschukat From a historical perspective, the fear of an obesity epidemic is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the late 19th century body fat carried different meanings. Whereas the lean, brisk-footed manager serves as the ‚fat cat prototype in today s capitalism, corpulence could still indicate economic success, wealth, and evolutionary fitness in the late 19th century.12 Thus, body fat and eating practices are deeply historical phenomena and simultaneously incorporate many different meanings and interpretations. They are highly complex and much more difficult to read than they appear at first glance. Eating fat and sugary food may mean subjecting ourselves to the power of the food industry and a consumer society and express a total lack of agency on the side of the individual consumer. Yet it can also represent an act of resistance against the normativity of the health discourse, the power of the health system, and the increasing power of the health food industry. It may also mean seeking pleasure. And it may mean many more things. This volume on Fat Agency takes these considerations as its starting point and assembles scholars who are exploring the meanings and implications of body fat and of eating fat food in European and North American history from the 19th century (and earlier) to the present. They discuss the complex relations between agency and how it interacts with discursive, structural, and institutional patterns and practices. They also consider non-human actors and their impact on our foodways, a perspective that has gained momentum with Actor-Network-Theory and the study of matter and things. Sociologist Bruno Latour defines an actor as someone or something that is made to act by many others. 13 Therefore, as Joyce Huff points out in her article in this volume with a nod to Jonathan Lamb and Bill Brown, matter and things are not merely inanimate objects but rather have the ability to resist human control and to shape human subjects.14 This prompts us to raise questions addressing E od i g Neoli eralis : E o o , Culture, a d the Politi s of Fat, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24 (2006): 427-448, and Charlotte Biltekoff, Eating Right in America. The Cultural Politics of Food & Health (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2013); Harvey Levenstein, Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012). 12 Ni a Ma kert, I a t to e a fat a / a d ith the fat e sta d – U.S.a erika is he Fat Me s Clu s u d die Bedeutu ge o Körperfett in den Dekaden u , Body Politics 2, 3 (2014): 215-243. 13 Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005), 46. 14 Jonathan Lamb, The Things Things Say (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2011); Bill Brown, Thi g Theor i Things, ed. Bill Brown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); see as well Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2010), 20- ; Ia Hodder, The Entanglements of Humans and Things: A Long-Ter Vie , New Literary History 45 (2014): 19-36. Introduction: Fat Agency 9 the agency of fat and how it can be grasped. How does fat make a difference in the course of some other agent s action, as we might ask with Latour, and how does it authorize, allow, afford, encourage, permit, suggest, influence, block, render possible, forbid human action, thinking, and self-perception?15 What is the impact of fat on the health movement? How does fat shape our understandings of beauty? What are fat s relations to feminism? How does fat serve as an engine of desire? How does fat structure our thoughts and actions, and how can we fathom its capacity to resist? These are only some of the questions that are to be raised in this volume on Fat Agency in modern history. Two perspectives delineate the broader field of concepts and questions, which are then explored in greater detail in four articles. In a first perspective, Nina Mackert puts the study of fat and agency into wider historical and historiographical contexts, discussing the state of current research and desiderata of fat history. She first outlines how modern selves are governed through body shape and health, with fatness becoming a biopolitical vanishing point. Second, Mackert critically points out how body shape has become equated with health and character, and third, she elaborates on the ambivalent role of agency in what she calls the politics of fat, suggesting the incorporation of matter in fat history. The politics of fat is also a key term to describe the second perspective, a think piece by disability and queer studies scholars Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer, and one that demands a rethinking of current fat debates. They prompt us to consider how in times of leanness the call to austerity reinforces fat-phobic images and the social stigma against fat people. Yet even more than that, by Fattening Austerity Mollow and McRuer turn fatness into a vehicle for critiquing the contemporary politics of austerity. In the first article, historian Christopher E. Forth elucidates in a wide historical sweep how the notion of fat as agent is not exclusively modern but instead rooted in ancient perceptions of fat as a material substance. By drawing upon sources from Antiquity up to the 1930s, Forth shows how fat has long been endowed with encumbering materiality that acts upon the person and calls into question the sovereignty of the human will. Fat is thus an active agent entwined in complex power relations which transform living creatures into objects. As Forth points out, in this process the flabbiness of fat was juxtaposed to the firmness of muscularity, 15 Latour, Reassembling the Social, 71-72; on the agency of fat see for instance Forth, I trodu tio , - 6, a d ‘. Colls, Materialisi g Bodily Matter: Intra-action and the E odi e t of Fat , Geoforum 38 (2007): 353-365. 10 Nina Mackert & Jürgen Martschukat with muscles validated as emblematic of human agency, willpower, and masculinity, putting, as he writes, inner commands into action. Literary scholar Joyce L. Huff s article also revolves around the relation of inner commands and corporeal matter. In her piece on The Narrating Stomach she presents a compelling close reading of British author Sydney Whiting s Memoirs of a Stomach, published in 1853 and thus ten years before William Banting s classic Letter on Corpulence came out and a fat focused dietary discipline began to sediment in British culture. Whiting s attempt to both render the stomach as agent and simultaneously subjugate it, sheds light on our contemporary obsession with fat and its potential to impact human life. Yet Memoirs of a Stomach presents both the prehistory of our contemporary powerful discourse on body management as well as a very particular kind of resistance to human willpower. As Huff points out, in Whiting s text, the stomach, like all parts of the human body, has an agency of its own, one that resists human desires and also acts upon humans. The third article by Amy Erdmann Farrell begins where Joyce L. Huff ends: with the modern fat stigma. Farrell explores the relation between fat stigma and motherblame, in particular by analyzing a mid-20th century psychological and sociological discourse on motherblame and by tracing its power and effects through late 20th and early 21st century popular culture. She draws on popular films from What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) to SuperSize Me (2004) and Precious (2009), and delineates how the guilty mother has been inscribed into the heart of the contemporary obesity discourse. Farrell shows how these stories normalize an environment that distrusts and punishes mothers and fat people, and how they pathologize both mothering and fatness. Yet in the end, as Farrell argues, the interdependence of motherblaming and fatshaming affects every woman and every fat child, as they are under scrutiny for their threat to the family and to the nation. The fourth article, by Nora Kreuzenbeck, focuses on a single human actor and her struggle for agency and against the agency of fat. It introduces readers to the 1960s and 1970s, to the civil rights movements and, specifically, to fat activist groups such as the National Association to Aid Fat Americans. The NAAFA sought to fight discrimination against fat people, raise their self-confidence, and thereby endow them with agency. By focusing on the case of Wilma Kuns, Kreuzenbeck shows how Kuns claim for agency went against the grain of the dominant diet, health and ability discourse. Instead of continuing an ongoing, seemingly endless, and obviously ineffectual struggle against body fat, Kuns stresses that she finally accepted her body shape, came to the conclusion that she had Introduction: Fat Agency 11 nothing to lose, and thus regained agency, self-control, self-confidence and a life-affirming attitude. Nina Mackert, contact: nina.mackert (at) uni-erfurt.de, is Assistant Professor of North American History at Erfurt University. She has received her PhD in 2012 with a study on the productive politics of the US-delinquency scare in the 1950s and 1960s (Jugenddelinquenz. Die Produktivität eines Problems in den USA der späten 1940er bis 1960er Jahre, UVK, 2014). Currently, she is working in the VW-research project Food, Health and Modern Society: Germany and the United States on the history of the calorie. Jürgen Martschukat, contact: juergen.martschukat (at) uni-erfurt.de, is Professor of North American History at the University of Erfurt. His research focuses on the history of violence, of families, bodies and genders. His latest book on Die Ordnung des Sozialen. Väter und Familien in der amerikanischen Geschichte (Campus, 2013) won the Adams Award of the Organization of American Historians, and he is currently working on a history of fitness. Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 13-24 Writing the History of Fat Agency Nina Mackert English abstract: The article takes up current scholarship on fat history and outlines three aspe ts of fat histo y as a iti al histo y of the p ese t. Fi stly, it points to a crucial shift in the politics of fat at the end of the 19th century. In the course of fat becoming a biopolitical vanishing point, fighting fat became an intersectional terrain for individuals to perform their ability to conduct themselves successfully. Secondly, it stresses the fruitfulness of dis/ability studies fo a iti ue of fatpho ia’s reiteration of an unattainable ideal of able, healthy, and productive bodies. Thirdly, the author critically discusses problems and promises of writing histories of agency and suggests an engagement with the agency of matter. Analyzing fatness in contemporary culture means analyzing a productive regime of fatphobia in western, liberal societies. Scholars of fat studies have highlighted how the talk of an obesity epidemic pathologizes fat bodies by linking fatness to individual and social illness, laziness, lack of control, egoism, risk, and danger.1 Next to the scandalization of obesity as being extremely costly for individual bodies and the healthcare system, it has even been linked to climate change with the argument that fat people contribute to global warming. In this light, fat bodies have been regarded as a threat to the health and well-being of individuals as well as the community, the nation, and even the global order.2 Given this current fatphobia, a range of scholars has delved into its history, particularly in the US, the alleged center of the obesity epidemic. They have stressed how recently fat became such a pervasive cultural concern, and that Many thanks to Felix Krämer, Jürgen Martschukat, Oliver Schmerbauch, and Lia Kindinger for inspiring discussions on earlier versions of this paper. 1 Next to the other contributions to this issue, see, for instance, Sondra Solovay, Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000); Elena Levy-Navarro, ed., Historicizing Fat in Anglo-American Culture, (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2010); Amy Farrell, Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011); Julie Guthman, Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011); Natalie Boero, Killer Fat: Media, Medicine, and Mo als i the A e i a O esity Epide i (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2012); Abigail Saguy: What's Wrong with Fat? The War on Obesity and its Collateral Damage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). 2 Elena Levy-Na a o, Cha gi g Co eptio s of the Fat Bod i Weste Histo , i Levy-Navarro, Historicizing Fat, 4; Guthman, Weighing In, 7. www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600038| ISSN 2196-4793 14 Nina Mackert fatness has embodied very differing meanings over the course of history.3 They have also pointed to the long history of fat stigma and to the extent that this helped to build the modern social order by linking fatness to selfindulgence and sickness and thus building it up as an antithesis to liberal citizenship.4 Thereby, the historiography of fat echoes the classic problem regarding the purpose of history in contemporary critique: Is it more important or constructive to question present fat shaming by highlighting alternative understandings and, thus, the historicity of fat? Or can the dynamics of exclusion by fat shaming be better illuminated by showing the historical persistence of fat stigma? Elena Levy-Navarro, for instance, published her collection Historicizing Fat in search of alternative understandings and experiences of fat bodies, hop[ing] that they will challenge our modern categories. Giving fatness such a history, she suggests, complicates its use as an objective, ahistorical problem, while at the same showing how it came to embody such meaning.5 In a review of Levy-Navarro s anthology, Amy Farrell stressed that she sees the purpose of fat histories not merely in highlighting shifted meanings but also in telling the long and, in her view, relatively stable history of fat denigration: […] I do not think we need to downplay the ways that fat has been viewed as a sign of moral failure and social disruption in order to challenge contemporary fat denigration. )ndeed, […] recognizing the deep roots of fat denigration […] may help to explain why it is so difficult for us to think clearly about fat. 6 Writing from the perspective of critically questioning current fatphobia myself, I support both claims. I deem it important to acknowledge the contingent and hence highly historical character of fatphobia as well as its productivity and viscosity across history. And looking closer at the ways bodies are historically fabricated (again and again) does, in my opinion, necessarily entail both perspectives, if we think of their 3 Such as Hillel Schwartz, Never Satisfied. A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies, and Fat (New York: Anchor Books, 1986); Levy-Navarro, Historicizing Fat; Katharina Vester, ‘egi e Cha ge: Ge de , Class, a d the Invention of Dieting in Post-Bellu A e i a, Journal of Social History 44 (2010): 39- ; Ala J. Bilto : No od Lo es a Fat Ma : Fatt A u kle a d Co spi uous Co su ptio i Ni etee T e ties A e i a, Amerikastudien/American Studies 57 (2012): 51-66. 4 Such as Sander L. Gilman, Obesity: The Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), Farrell, Fat Shame; Ch istophe E. Fo th, The Qualities of Fat: Bodies, History, and Mate ialit , Journal of Material Culture 18 (2013): 135-154. 5 Levy-Na a o, Cha gi g Co eptio s, , . 6 A Fa ell, “ea hi g fo a Usa le Past. ‘e ie s of Eating to Excess: The Meaning of Gluttony and the Fat Body in the Ancient World, by Susan Hill, and Historicizing Fat in Anglo-American Culture, by Elena Levy-Na a o, Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society, 1 (2012): 227f. Writing the History of Fat Agency 15 materialization as performative processes.7 I am interested in making fat part of a critical history of the present ; that is, to carve out the contingency of historically stabilized fat politics.8 By discussing important arguments in fat studies, this text suggests three cornerstones of writing critical histories of body fat. Firstly, it means to take into account the way in which people are governed – and govern themselves – via body shape and health. Thus, I want to point to the second half of the 19th century as an era of crucial change in the politics of fat. Then, fatness became a biopolitical vanishing point, increasingly associated with sickness, and fighting fat became an intersectional terrain for individuals to perform their capacity for successful self-conduct. Secondly, I turn to dis/ability studies to critique the strong link between slimness and health as well as the notion that people s corporeal appearance provides information about their health or character. This is also intended to point to the consequences of this equation: the reiteration of an unattainable ideal of able, healthy, and productive bodies. Thirdly, I will focus on the question of agency. While histories that show how people have challenged fat denigration may doubtless yield emancipatory narratives, I will point to new problems that arise from this and suggest an engagement with the agency of matter as a possibility to approach them. A History of Bodies and Selves My first remark concerns the subjectivating effects of fat politics.9 Although the density of current claims of an obesity crises is striking, fat has for some time now been historically productive, especially since the second half of the 19th century. Fat scholars usually point to the decades between 1860 and 1920 as the timeframe of a crucial shift in the meaning of fatness from a symbol of wealth to a marker of immobility and selfindulgence.10 Fat becoming a problem was part of a crucial biopolitical 7 On performative materialization of bodies, see Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Dis u si e Li its of “e Ne Yo k: ‘outledge, . 8 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1995 [1975]), 30- ; Jü ge Ma ts hukat, Ei e k itis he Ges hi hte de Gege a t, We kstattGes hi hte , . 9 O su je ti atio , see Mi hel Fou ault, The “u je t a d Po e , afterword to Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, ed. Paul Rabinow and Hubert Dreyfus (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 208-226; Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-76 (New York: Picador, 2003 [1997]); Nikolas Rose, Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self (New York: Routledge, 1990). 10 While Peter Stearns, Sander Gilman and Katharina Vester see its apex after 1900 (especially in regard to o e s dieti g, as Veste a gues , A Fa ell st esses that 16 Nina Mackert turn in the 19th century: the turn to science and the idea of a struggle for the survival of the fittest as guiding principles of progress in modern societies.11 New nutritional knowledge and scientific theories of bodily morphology supplied a new buttress for traditional sizism 12 and created a modern body that became the most powerful signifier of one s evolutionary fitness. The development of this compulsory ablebodiedness, as Robert McRuer has called the imperative to have (and care for) an able, productive, and healthy body,13 went hand in hand with techniques to measure, classify, and govern foodstuffs, individuals and populations as seen, for example, in the categorization of nutritional values, calories, and height-weight-charts.14 Moreover, the emerging disciplines of physiology and nutritional science provided an allegedly objective knowledge about eating and weighing right. 15 In this context, body weight and shape gained the power to express health and fitness – as well as citizenship status. In the process of delineating alleged scientific causalities between diet, fitness, and size, able-bodiedness was connected to Enlightenment ideals of selfgovernment and willpower. Those ideals were and are especially virulent in the United States as a liberal society – the first country to proclaim itself to be based on free, self-governing citizens endowed with the right to pursue happiness.16 More precisely, in the late 19th century, the ideal of a 11 12 13 14 15 16 fat loss products were already heavily advertised in the last decades of the 19 th century. Peter Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West (New York: New York University Press, 2012 [1997]); Sander L. Gilman, Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity (Cambridge: Polity, 2008), Veste , ‘egi e Cha ge ; Fa ell: Fat Shame. Foucault, Society Must Be Defended. Pat ‘oge s, Fat is a Fi tio al Issue: The No el a d the ‘ise of Weight-Wat hi g, i Levy-Navarro, Historicizing Fat, 33. ‘o e t M ‘ue , Co pulso A le-Bodied ess a d Quee /Disa led E iste e, i Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities, ed. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Sharon L. Snyder (New York: MLA Publications, 2002). Pat i ia Ve ti sk , Weighs a d Mea s : E a i i g the “u eilla e of Fat Bodies through Physical Education Practices in North America in the Late Nineteenth and Early T e tieth Ce tu ies, Journal of Sport History 35, 3 (2008): 449-468; ‘oge s, Fat is a Fi tio al Issue. Helen Zoe Veit, Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013); Charlotte Biltekoff, Eating Right in America: The Cultural Politics of Food and Health (Durham: Duke Universit P ess, ; Ni a Ma ke t, I want to be a fat man / and with the fat e sta d – U.S.-A e ika is he Fat Me s Clu s u d die Bedeutu ge o Kö pe fett i de Dekade u , Body Politics 2, 3 (2014): 215-243; Veste , ‘egi e Cha ge. Jü ge Ma ts hukat, The Ne essit fo Bette Bodies to Pe petuate Ou I stitutions, Insure a Higher Development of the Individual, and Advance the Conditions of the ‘a e. Ph si al Cultu e a d the Fo atio of the “elf i the Late Ni etee th a d Ea l T e tieth Ce tu U“A, Journal of Historical Sociology 24, 4 (2011): 472-493. Writing the History of Fat Agency 17 successful self became increasingly connected to the body, which seemed to provide key evidence of one s ability or inability to effectively [manage] the modern world. 17 Numerous scholars have pointed to this era as characterized by power struggles. Not surprisingly, the modern body and ideal citizen was white, heterosexual, middle-class, and male, and deviations from this physical norm were framed as threats to civilizational progress.18 Fat was right in the middle of these struggles and became a powerful part of an intersectional matrix of categories producing distinctly classed, gendered, and raced bodies. As Farrell and others have pointed out, fat shaped understandings of gender, sex, class and race, in particular the historical development of whiteness , for instance, by marking fatness as primitive in contrast to a slim, white body.19 Katharina Vester s historical account of dieting practices vividly illustrates the intersectional politics of problematic fat – particularly its role in the rise of the modern subject. Fat loss diets, as she states, emerged in the US in the 1860s as a practice of white, middle class men. These diets resonated with ideals of restraint and efficiency and a critique of conspicuous consumption that characterized the American capitalist economy and work ethic as well as ideal bodies and selves at that time. By showing their ability to control their minds and bodies by regulating their food intake, dieters could perform the core white middle-class ideal of self-control and, thus, claim status. Women were denied this ability to reign over their appetite – one of the reasons why experts warned them not to diet. However, as Vester argues, at the end of the 19th century, white women claimed the right to diet as a means to show that they too were capable of exercising self-control and, thus, were eligible for political participation. The fight against fat could embody the nexus of self-control, middle-classness, and whiteness, and symbolize a modern self.20 Not least because of the highly interdependent character of fatness, it is necessary to account for the historicity of size. In the late 19th century, fat came to signify the challenges and dangers of modernity as well as 17 Farrell, Fat Shame, 83, 27. See also Gail Bederman, Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995); R. Marie Griffith, Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity Be kele : U i e sit of Califo ia P ess, ; Ma ke t, I a t to e a fat a . 18 Bederman, Manliness & Civilization; Jackson Lears: Rebirth of a Nation. The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 (New York: Harper Collins, 2009). 19 Farrell, Fat Shame, 5, and esp. chapter 2-4. On the intersectional signifying power of fat, see also Veste , ‘egi e Cha ge, Veit, Modern Food; Biltekoff, Eating Right. Alex E a s pla es spe ial e phasis o lass Ale E a s, G eed Basta ds: Fat Kids, Class Wa , a d the Ideolog of Classless ess, i Le -Navarro, Historicizing Fat, 146-172). 20 Veste , ‘egi e Cha ge. 18 Nina Mackert bodies and selves that did not seem able to handle them. Fat politics constituted a highly productive regimen of performing certain norms of (bodily) functions and abilities. And this regimen increasingly included health.21 Fat, Health and Ability Secondly, in my opinion, historicizing fat should inquire into its close connection with ill health as well as into historical health ideals. In 2000, the US Department of (ealth declared obesity to be a Leading (ealth Indicator, a high-priority health issue that needs to be overcome in order to [improve] the health of all Americans. 22 This was not the first institutionalized connection made between fat and illness; as Sander Gilman shows, the genealogical roots of an understanding of fatness as a disease date back to ancient times.23 The 20th century saw different strategies of medicalization and medical intervention into fat bodies – from diet pills to abdominal surgery – either portraying fatness itself as illness or stressing numerous ailments associated with fatness.24 Even if no connection between fatness and ill health was made, fat still appears as something in the need of treatment: Historical diet practices time and again aimed to attain beauty and upward mobility by slimming down bodies, even when a slim body was regarded as an outward sign of closeness to God.25 Moreover, numerous issues of access arise in a fatphobic environment, for instance, the narrowing and norming of public spaces, transportation, or garment sizes.26 My point is this: Questioning the pathologization of fatness, the imperative for treatments as well as the disabling impact of fatphobia prompts to write fat history from the perspective of disability studies. 21 “ee Ma ke t, I a t to e a fat a . 22 Boero, Killer Fat, 16; US Department of Health: Healthy People Website, accessed December 10, 2014, https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/Leading-HealthIndicators. 23 Gilman, Obesity. 24 Ni olas ‘as usse , Weight Stigma, Addiction, Science, and the Medication of Fatness in Mid-Twentieth Century America, Sociology of Health and Illness 34 (2012): 880895; Schwartz, Never Satisfied; Gilman, Fat; Farrell, Fat Shame; Boero, Killer Fat. 25 Schwartz, Never Satisfied; Marie Griffith, Apostles of Abstinence: Fasting and Masculinity During the Progressive Era, American Quarterly 52 (2000): 599-638; Veste , ‘egi e Cha ge. 26 Jo e L. Huff: „A ess to the “k : Fat Bodies a d Ai li e “eats as Co tested “pa es, i The Fat Studies Reader, ed. Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothblum (New York: New York Univ. Press, 2009), 176-186; A a Mollo , Disa ilit “tudies Gets Fat, Hypatia 30 (2015): 205. Writing the History of Fat Agency 19 Disability studies have given us crucial insight into the emergence of health as a norm, and they have critiqued historical understandings of whole, normal, and healthy bodies as well as the cultural concepts of dis/ability.27 In light of these contributions, it is fruitful to analyze fatness as an aberration from compulsory able-bodiedness.28 Especially since the second half of the 19th century – catalyzed by new knowledge and practices of nutrition, physiology, and economy – this ideal of healthy and fit bodies became pervasive and established itself, shrouding its historicity by scientific and medical evidence.29 In neoliberalism, the imperative of able-bodiedness, demanding health, fitness, the ability to work as well as to enjoy, is profound, emanating from everywhere and nowhere. 30 It is the reason why fat shame is more than just fat stigma. It is the result of a hegemonic project that governs essentially everyone. Its critique allows us to question, for instance, the close discursive link between health and slimness, the causal relationship between slimness and a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, and, more generally, the assumption that health is intimately connected to, and ultimately defined by, a person s appearance. 31 One problem in equating health and body size that numerous scholars and activists have pointed out is the fact that fatness itself is so morally charged. Fatness seems to stand not only for the inability but also 27 Paul K. Longmore/Lauri Umansky, eds., The New Disability History: American Perspectives (New York: New York Univ. Press, 2001); Elsbeth Bösl/Anne Klein/Anne Waldschmidt, eds., Disability History: Konstruktionen von Behinderung in der Geschichte. Eine Einführung (Bielefeld: transcript, 2010); Sebastian Barsch/Anne Klein/Pieter Verstraete, eds., The Imperfect Historian: Disability Histories in Europe (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013). It is important to acknowledge, however, that ippi g fat histo f. Mollo , Disa ilit “tudies Gets Fat is uite a o t o e sial issue. Since fat rights activists fight to uncouple fatness and illness, some of them shun the la el disa ilit . April Herndon, Dispa ate But Disa led: Fat E odi e t a d Disa ilit “tudies, NWSA Journal 14 (2002): ; A a Ki kla d, What s at “take i Fatness as a Disability?, Disa ility “tudies Qua te ly 26 (2006 . Ulti atel , [ ]ei g pinned with a disease has consequences, which can include denial of health care or elegatio to i ti status Guth a , Weighing In, 12). On the other hand, these consequences and the discriminatory practices around health and healthcare are precisely the focus of the critique of disability studies which seeks to question normative understandings of health and illness. 28 M ‘ue , Co pulso A le-Bodied ess, -93. 29 “ee Ni a Ma ke t, Feedi g P odu ti e Bodies: Calo ies, Nut itio al Values a d A ilit i P og essi e E a U“, i Histories of Productivity: Genealogical Perspectives on the Body and Modern Economy, ed. Peter-Paul Bänziger and Mischa Suter (London: Routledge, forthcoming). 30 M ‘ue , Co pulso A le-Bodied ess, -92. 31 Jo atha M. Metzl, I t odu tio : Wh Agai st Health ? i Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality, ed. Jonathan M. Metzl and Anna Kirkland (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 2; see also Mollow/McRuer in this issue. 20 Nina Mackert unwillingness to treat, cure, slim, and better one s body. When health is not only a desired state, but […] also a prescribed state, allegedly not aspiring it renders one unintelligible. In other words, who on earth could be against health ?32 It is this imperative for rehabilitation that stands at the heart of disability scholars critique. And as Anna Mollow has argued, a critique of compulsory able-bodiedness should entail more than pointing to the exclusions that result from this imperative ideal. It should also involve challenging the drive to function, to optimize, and to be productive – a teleological drive that Mollow has called rehabilitative futurism. 33 She thereby modifies queer theorist Lee Edelman s controversial thoughts on the regime of reproductive futurism, an ideological nexus of teleology and heteronormativity, signified by the figure of the innocent child. 34 In Mollow s argument, rehabilitative futurism is responsible for the abjection of disabled bodies, meaning that the politics of disability liberation must challenge this logic if they are to effectively undercut rehabilitative ideals: procreation by the fit and elimination of the disabled. This entails an unsettling of basic assumptions regarding progress and ability: [C]an we envision a politics not framed in terms of futurism or a futurity not grounded in reproductive or, ) ask here, rehabilitative ideology? 35 Mollow s remarks are of particular use for a critique of a modern form of temporality and progress that characterizes most historiography as well as narratives of slimming: the striving for a future order in which ideals will be achieved, fat is gone, and health, beauty, and productivity are re gained. [F]at is made to occupy the position of the before to the thin after , Levy-Navarro writes.36 One manner by which historicizing fatness can trace the emergence of and disrupt this rehabilitative futurism is by scrutinizing the problematic historical connection between fat and disease, and healthiness and thinness, and by making visible those who eluded the imperative to become (healthy and thin). 32 Metzl, I t odu tio , - . “ee also “agu s iti ue of healthis Saguy, What’s Wrong With Fat, 63-65). 33 Mollo , Is “e Disa ilit ? Quee Theo a d the Disa ilit D i e, i Sex and Disability, ed. Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 288. 34 Lee Edelman, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004). 35 Mollo , Is “e Disa ilit , , . 36 Levy-Na a o, Cha gi g Co eptio s, . Writing the History of Fat Agency 21 Agency: What’s the matter? My third comment on making fat part of a critical history of the present deals with agency, its ambivalent character for emancipatory histories, and the turn to matter. Although it is important to account for the oppressive construction of fat, it is equally important not only to focus on fatphobia but also on its challenges.37 Especially because fat people are often portrayed as lacking agency (as having little self-control or a disease), the majority of fat studies scholars have stressed that one must avoid reiterating stories of victimization and helplessness, and instead focus on the agency of fat people.38 This entails talking about acts of explicitly proclaimed resistance and disruption (like the example of Wilma Kuns in this issue)39 as well as about the seemingly mundane practices of (historical) actors.40 Those histories are, admittedly, even more complicated to grasp and certainly not always a story from the margins. The Fat Men s Clubs, for instance, that formed in the middle of a shift in the meanings of fat in the late 19th and early 20th centuries US, can be historically apprehended mostly because they formed around a defense of the fat body. And the club members were white, wealthy men who could not only afford to infringe on contemporary body ideals but who also performed their elite status precisely by embodying fatness.41 Hence, histories of agency are difficult to write. Even more, as Jürgen Martschukat and I have remarked in the editorial, calling for agency also coincides with the neoliberal imperative of agency: [A]gency is not necessarily and exclusively tied to oppositional acts of resistance or withdrawal, but it is also a premise of the social and political organization of liberal societies: exerting agency performs our compliance with its demands. 42 This problem of agency had already arisen (though to a lesser extent) in the 19th century when diet and sports emerged as techniques of bodily change. When size [came] to seem an effect of choice, choosing – 37 Levy-Na a o, Cha gi g Co eptio s, . 38 Such as Kathleen Lebesco, Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity (Boston, MA: Massachusetts University Press, 2004); Solovay, Tipping the Scales of Justice; Levy-Navarro, ed., Historicizing Fat. 39 Kreuzenbeck in this issue. 40 See, for both, Levy-Navarro, ed., Historicizing Fat; Solovay/Rothblum, The Fat Studies Reader; Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato, Culinary Capital (New York: Berg, 2012). 41 Ma ke t, I a t to e a fat a . 42 See Mackert and Martschukat in this issue. See also Huff in this issue for the argument that ha i g o t ol o e o e s od is a i po ta t t ope of este ultu e – also in emancipatory movements. 22 Nina Mackert and choosing right – became a responsibility.43 Stressing the malleability of bodies is especially problematic when it comes with the duty of optimization, treatment, or cure. Interestingly, current fat-positive critiques intervene in this problem of agency by stressing the impossibility of fully controlling one s body weight. I am reading McRuer s and Mollow s reference to genetics in this issue also as a strategic argument that is more fully explored in another paper by Mollow. There, she challenges the notion of corporeal agency as an ableist idea that reiterates the imperative to have strong, will-powered control over the desires, antics and impulses of one s body.44 These critiques call for another concept; namely, for a revised understanding of agency that scrutinizes the role of bodies and matter and looks closer at the fabrication of the black box obesity epidemic. Black box is a term coined by sociologist Bruno Latour that fat scholar Natalie Boero has used to describe the dynamics of the obesity epidemic as encase[ing] issues that are considered to be accepted scientific wisdom and no longer open to debate. 45 They are stabilized in complex networks in which different human and non-human actors act through each other to produce meaning and materiality.46 Because these black boxes are so influential especially by embodying scientific facts, by referring to the forces of matter, it is promising to leave the classic terrain of cultural history and to incorporate other actors than human ones into our stories. To deconstruct these black boxes, to write their histories, then, requires us to examine the techniques, laboratory practices, conventions, observational methods, instrumentation, and measurements that produce scientific facts. 47 Latour has suggested a way of science studies (or history) that weaves together the actions of human and non-human actors. In this perspective, objects are not merely props that make up the backdrop for human actors but rather are themselves actors, creating such a close network with bodies that their boundaries aren t discernable.48 Latour removes the idea of intentionality and determination from agency and redefines it as mak[ing] a difference. Actors act when they make others act, when they ‘oge s, Fat is a Fi tio al Issue, . Mollo , Disa ilit “tudies Gets Fat. Boero, Killer Fat, 42. Bruno Latour, Pa do a’s Hope: Essays o the Reality of “ ie e “tudies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 23, 183. 47 Guthman, Weighing In, 15. 48 Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory O fo d: O fo d U i e sit P ess, ; Ma e Möh i g, Esse , i What Can a Body Do? Praktiken und Figurationen des Körpers in den Kulturwissenschaften, ed. Netzwerk Körper (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2012), 54-55. 43 44 45 46 Writing the History of Fat Agency 23 authorize, allow, afford, encourage, permit, suggest, influence, block, render possible, [or] forbid other actions.49 Non-human actors, in Latour s account, aren t simply the objects of human will and control but are instead complex, intractable participants of cultural practices. For him, every action is a complicated node, a knot, and a conglomerate of many surprising sets of agencies that have to be slowly disentangled. It is from this nuanced understanding of actors and agency that Latour speaks of actor-networks.50 This understanding allows us to re-conceptualize agency in contrast to neoliberal and ableist accounts of bodily self-control. And this approach corresponds with Christopher Forth s call for an unessentialist approach to fat history that acknowledges the materiality of fat, inside and outside of the body.51 Extending Judith Butler s understanding of the discursive production of matter, Forth focuses „on the complex and often ambiguous material and experiential dimensions of fat, highlighting not only the ambivalent character of fat but also its materiality.52 Recently, the question regarding what matter is capable of doing has been posed in regard to fat.53 Instead of conceptualizing fat as a passive effect of discursive practices, one could understand it with Karen Barad as an active agent participating in the very process of materialisation. 54 What does this mean for historical research? What are the questions and new insights that arise from this? For instance, I am myself embarking on such a project in regard to the history of the calorie. It is possible to understand the calorie as another black box that is encapsulated in, among others, the black box of obesity and hence itself forms a complex network of human and non-human actors. I am interested in how the calorie was fabricated, to use Latour s term; which is to ask, how it became a reality and how it developed agency, not only in the laboratory but also in the in the quotidian dietary practices of everyday people.55 When and how did the calorie emerge as an inscription – a term that denotes categories of scientific knowledge that stabilize it? Which inscription devices, such as the famous 49 50 51 52 53 Latour, Reassembling the Social, 71-72. Ibid., 44. Fo th, „I t odu tio , . Ibid., 5. Ibid., , uoti g ‘a hel Colls, Mate ialisi g Bodil Matte : I t a-Action and the E odi e t of Fat , Geoforum 38, 2 (2007): 355. 54 Ka e Ba ad, „Posthu a ist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Co es to Matte , Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, 3 (2003): 820; Colls, Mate ialisi g Bodil Matte , . “ee also Jo e Huff s u de sta di g of fat as e al it a t atte i this issue (75-93). 55 Latour, Pa do a’s Hope, esp. chapter 9. 24 Nina Mackert calorimeter, made a difference in fabricating it?56 Which experimental set-ups assembled the black box calorie and which transformations did they undergo? When did people start to argue with it? How did it act in and on laboratories, dieting practices, or hospital nutrition? The moment the calorie made its entry on the stage of history, one could argue that it made a difference by making others act. Such a history of the calorie could, among other things, provide a more nuanced understanding of fat history by avoiding references to either nature or culture and instead tracing the fabrication of each through the other.57 Historicizing fat politics and diet practices with the focus on different actors in a complex network promises to shed new light on the assemblage of the social as well as the character of the black box obesity epidemic. Historical studies that focus on the active role of matter could help us to circumnavigate the imperative for (corporeal) agency in a liberal society, while at the same account for the material effects of the politics of fat. Nina Mackert, contact: nina.mackert (at) uni-erfurt.de, is Assistant Professor of North American History at Erfurt University. She has received her PhD in 2012 with a study on the productive politics of the US-delinquency scare in the 1950s and 1960s (Jugenddelinquenz. Die Produktivität eines Problems in den USA der späten 1940er bis 1960er Jahre, UVK, 2014). Currently, she is working in the VW- esea h p oje t Food, Health a d Mode “o iety: Ge a y a d the U ited “tates o the histo y of the alo ie. 56 Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1986 [1979]), 43-69. 57 Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993 [1991]). Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 25-49 Fattening Austerity Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer English abstract: This essa prese ts fatte i g austerit as a e o eptual fra e ork that will enable a collective resistance to austerity politics and fat oppression. Austerity and fatphobia have not, to our knowledge, been analyzed in tandem. But the discourses that uphold oth pu iti e austerit easures a d the pathologizatio of fat people s bodies are deeply imbricated. Austerity and anti-fat stigma each invoke a language of crisis to authorize social practices that inflict hunger and bodily injury upon people who are fat and/or poor. In addition, anti- o esit rhetoric and pro-austerity arguments each utilize the eoli eral alues of perso al respo si ilit a d orporeal hoi e to further marginalize people who are poor, fat, or both. We argue that it is incumbent upon the political Left—which thus far has been remiss in challenging the anti-fat prejudice that often animates its own movements—to make fat justice a central part of its critique of austerity. The title of this essay introduces a new way of intervening in what we will show to be the inter-connected discourses of fat shaming and neoliberal economics. Our phrase fattening austerity is meant to signify in two overlapping ways. First, like other fat scholars, we employ the word fattening in ways that resemble the terms cripping in disability studies and queering in queer theory ; fattening a concept means examining it through the lenses of fat studies and the fat justice movement. To fatten austerity, we bring a critical fat studies perspective to bear upon our account of the failures of austerity. Second, since a language of dieting, leanness, and self-sacrifice is frequently invoked in the service of austerity politics—and since, as we shall see, austerity literally makes people go hungry—our phrase fattening austerity calls for an end to punitive austerity measures. Such measures have been in effect around the globe since the worldwide economic crisis of 2008. Especially in and around the eurozone, architects of austerity have made drastic cuts to disability benefits, healthcare, education, food stamps, and unemployment compensation. Severe shrinkages of public assistance and services have been described as necessary responses to an economic emergency. Yet assertions that urgent interventions must be mobilized to reduce government deficits and bail out banks have served as smokescreens for the real purpose of austerity: protecting capital and profit, often at the expense of people who are already squeezed. Among the many devastating effects of austerity s economic belt-tightening programs is that people are going hungry. In Spain, where the unemployment rate www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600043 | ISSN 2196-4793 26 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer hovers at twenty-three percent, formerly middle-class people scavenge food from trash bins outside of grocery stores and restaurants.1 And in the UK, a group of public health experts writing to the British Medical Journal has warned that the rise in food poverty has all the signs of a public health emergency. 2 Indeed, some poor people in Britain have found themselves forced to choose between stealing food and starving.3 The response to the 2008 crisis was less draconian in the US than in Europe; rather than putting its faith entirely in the free market, the Obama administration put into place a limited stimulus package (thereby implementing a mild Keynesianism, the belief that government deficit spending would increase employment, spending, and investment). However, one could argue that a logic of austerity has nonetheless already been deeply embedded in US social and economic structures. Austerity likely contributed to the riots that exploded in Baltimore after Freddie Gray, a young, unarmed African American man, was killed in police custody. In an analysis of those riots, and of the militarized state response to them, the cultural critic Ruth Wilson Gilmore described the rebellions as uprisings against austerity in the context of police violence.4 As in 1 2 3 4 The authors thank Jane Arlene Herman and two anonymous readers for transformative comments on earlier versions of this essay. For indispensable word-processing and transcription assistance, Anna thanks Nikki Dohn, Judy Elliott, Chandler Jennings, Rachelle Manel, Dana Morrison, and Eden Trenor. Anna is deeply grateful to Jane Arlene Herman and Jennifer Nicole Herman for their love, support, and amazing fat-activist inspiration. Suzanne Daley, “pai ‘e oils as Its Hu g Fo age T ash Bi s for a Next Meal, New York Times, September 24, 2012, accessed September 29, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/world/europe/hunger-on-the-rise-inspain.html?_r=0. Quoted in Mary O Ha a, Austerity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp End of the Cuts in the UK. (Bristol: Policy Press, 2014), 23. Aditya Chakrabortty, Toda s B itai : Where the Poor Are Forced to Beg or Steal from Food Banks, The Guardian, October 27, 2014, accessed December 2, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/27/todays-britain-poorforced-steal-food-banks. Quoted in Ed Vulliamy, The Rebellion in Baltimore Is an Uprising Against Austerity, Claims Top US Academic, The Guardian, May 2, 2015, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/02/baltimore-rebellion-is-uprisingagainst-austerity-freddie-gray. By drawing attention to the ways in which austerity played a key role in these uprisings, our intent here, of course, is not to discount the multivalent ways that structural racism operates in the United States: Even economically privileged African American people are subject to disproportionate levels of police surveillance and violence. Although that multivalent racism will not be our main topic in this article, we are in decided agreement with Gilmore that more attention needs to be directed towards the ways that austerity has been racialized in the US. It has, indeed, been racialized in Europe as well, taking into account the ways that southern European countries (Spain, Italy, and Greece) have been forced to endure the Fattening Austerity 27 Europe, austerity measures following the financial crisis of 2008 caused hunger: in 2013, over fourteen percent of US households were food insecure.5 In assessing these lean (and mean) times, many activists and scholars on the Left think they know whom to blame: everything that is big. Fat Cats is a favored name for the wealthy profiteers who made off with the public s meals, and Big Pigs is a popular icon for the bankers and corporate executives who take more than their share. In some ways, these size-focused tropes are fitting: When banks and industries are rescued at the public s expense because they are said to be too big to fail, the institutions served by austerity are aptly described in terms of excessive size. But the figures of the Fat Cat and the Big Pig also exemplify a leftist rhetorical construct that this essay critiques: the use of fat people s bodies as metaphors for capitalist exploitation and corporate greed. Left-leaning cartoonists portraying the excesses of the One Percent draw fat men feasting on fatty foods, making an analogy between wealthy people s high levels of economic consumption and the over-consumption of food in which fat people are believed (incorrectly, as we shall see) to engage.6 The commonplace practice of associating fatness with wealth and excessive consumerism obscures the real relationship between body size and socioeconomic status: Fat people are more likely than thin people to be working-class or poor. In addition, when the Left uses fat bodies as signs for what s wrong with contemporary economic arrangements, it reinforces the same harshest austerity measures. In a broader sense, moreover, austerity in both the US and Europe reflects policies that global bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have imposed on the Global South for decades under the rubric of st u tu al adjust e t poli ies. 5 Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Christian Gregory and Anita Singh, Household Food “e u ity in the United States in 2013, United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, September 2014, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1565410/err173_summary.pdf. 6 In order to avoid reinforcing their fatphobic messages, we choose not to provide references to specific examples of these ubiquitous cartoons. A recent instantiation of the fo ulai a alog et ee od size a d o su e is appea s i Buzz Bissi ge s Vanity Fair article about Caitlyn Jenner. Bissinge de ies the Ka dashia fa il s fi a ial e pe ditu es as the ate ialisti e ui ale t of o id o esit —the idea ei g that pu hases ade Je e s e -wife, step-daughters, and daughters are comparable to the patterns of eating that, Bissinger uncritically assumes, are practiced people a ked o idl o ese. I te esti gl , Bissi ge s effo ts to a sol e Je e of the guilt asso iated ith the o su e ist lifest le that he o pa es to o id o esit poi ti g out that he $ . illio house is i e pe si e ele it sta da ds is i o ed, a alog , i the u h-discussed photo spread accompanying the a ti le, hi h ele ates Je e s lea physique. Buzz Bissi ge , Call e Caitl , Vanity Fair, July 2015, 106. 28 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer assumptions that provide justification for austerity politics. This is because the values undergirding austerity are deeply imbricated with the ideals that fuel worldwide worry about a so-called obesity crisis. In the interest of reducing whether government spending or the sizes of citizens bodies, concerns that are increasingly being linked in neoliberal discourses), the populace is urged to cut back: to trim the fat, cut out the pork, and exercise personal responsibility. Thus, when the Left stigmatizes obesity as a sign of excessive consumption, it risks becoming complicit with neoliberalism s imposition of impoverishing austerity practices.7 Don t get us wrong: We count ourselves as members of the political Left, and we would not suggest turning to the right wing for solutions to the social problem of fatphobia. On the contrary, this essay argues that fatphobia—which operates in myriad leftist political contexts, including feminist, queer, disability, progressive, environmental, and food justice movements (indeed, in practically every Left arena except for the fat justice movement)—demands rigorous interrogation precisely because it is incompatible with Left political ideals.8 Elsewhere, Anna has called for intersectional analyses of fatphobia in feminist, queer, and disability politics and scholarship.9 This article builds upon both Anna s earlier 7 Throughout this essa , e pla e the o d o esit i s a e uotes to sig al ou eje tio of edi alized o st u tio s of fat odies. Whe eas the te s o ese a d o e eight defi e fat ess as pathologi al, e ega d fat ess as a e ig fo of human variation. 8 For a espo se to the pe asi e lai , o the pa t of e i o e talists, that fat people s alleged o e eati g is a o t i uto to li ate ha ge, see A a Mollo , Fat Li e atio is Totall Quee , Bitch, accessed August 26, 2015, http://bitchmagazine.org/post/fat-liberation-is-totally-queer. Reprinted on Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/fat-liberation-_n_3540220.html; reprinted on Autostraddle, http://www.autostraddle.com/fat-liberation-is-totallyqueer-183512/. For challenges to fatphobia in food justice movements, see Bianca D.M. Wilson, Wide i g the Dialogue to Na o the Gap i Health Dispa ities: App oa hes to Fat Black Lesbian and Bisexual Wo e s Health P o otio , in The Fat Studies Reader, ed. Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay (New York: New York University Press, 2009), 57-58; Julie Guthman, Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 140-62; and Sondra Solovay and Galadriel Mozee, I te se tio , Curve April/May (2014): 64-65. Paraphrasing remarks made by Fresh, a fat activist whose political work involves food justice and accessibility, Solovay and Mozee note that fatpho ia poiso s the food justi e o e e t . I o sta tl i o u ities he e othe s fighti g fo food justi e a d a essi ilit to f esh food a e doi g so o the fight o esit , a ti-fat a d ago , Fresh reports (qtd. in Solovay and Mozee, Intersection, 64). 9 See A a Mollo , “ized Up: Wh Fat is a Quee a d Fe i ist Issue, Bit h: Fe i ist Response to Pop Culture 59 (15 Jun 2013): 17-19, accessed Mar. 26, 2015, http://bitchmagazine.org/article/sized-up-fat-feminist-queer-disability; and Mollow, Fat, fo halle ges to a ti-fat prejudice in feminist and queer movements. Fattening Austerity 29 work in fat studies and Robert s work-in-progress on the centrality of disability to a global austerity politics.10 Here we train our attention on fatphobia in the context of Left economic critiques, specifically efforts to dismantle austerity policies. Yet, some readers may wonder, amid the disaster of austerity, doesn t the Left have bigger fish to fry than fretting about the special concerns of a minority group of fat individuals? We say no. For one thing, in western industrial countries fat people are a majority, not a minority. As international panic about body size escalates, approximately two thirds of citizens of wealthy nations are pegged as too fat. Also, the widespread rhetorical connections that get made between austerity and antiobesity measures are not merely metaphorical. Earlier this year, prominent Tory politicians in the UK announced plans to cut disability benefits for obese people unless they submit to treatment, 11 while in the US the right-wing commentator Jason L. Riley lambasted federal feeding programs i.e., food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for supposedly making the poor fat. 12 As we shall see, when pundits and politicians combine pro-austerity and anti-fat rhetoric, they legitimize policies that: blame poor people for being poor, help the weight loss industry make bigger profits, and inflict hunger and bodily suffering upon fat and poor people. Our critique of austerity and fatphobia is divided into three sections. We start by pointing to a commonality between the Right and the Left: Across the political spectrum, subjects position themselves as members of anti-candy parties; that is, they state their opposition to foods that, they believe, make people fat. In taking up anti-candy positions, the Left may contribute to neoliberalism s upward redistribution of wealth by reinforcing prejudice against fat people, a group that is already subject to economic discrimination. In the second section, we call out the diet industry as a conglomeration of corporate interests that plays a central role in fat shaming by perpetuating the myth of slim pickings, or the idea that thinness is a state that one can and should choose to embody. This 10 C ippi g auste it is a e t al o ept i ‘o e t s o k-in-progress, Robert McRuer, Crip Times: Disability, Globalization, and Resistance. Unpublished manuscript. See Anna Mollo , Disa ilit “tudies Gets Fat, H patia: Jou al of Fe i ist Philosophy 30, 3 (2014): 199-216 for an invitation to disability scholars to undertake analyses of fatness, a topic that has been neglected in disability studies. 11 O esit elfa e pla s defe ded by disability minister – video, The Guardian, February 16, 2015, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/ 2015/feb/16/obesity-welfare-disabilityminister-mark-harper-politics. 12 Jason L. Riley, The Next Welfare Reform: Food Stamps, The Wall Street Journal, 25 March 2015, A15. 30 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer section also invites leftist thinkers and activists to reconsider a longstanding tendency to avoid discussing biological contributors to bodily difference. Drawing on the fat activist slogan Diets don t work — and on the corollary claim that ninety-five percent of diets fail to produce permanent, substantial weight loss—we apply the name the Ninety-Five Percent to those subjects whom we position as central to our articulation of a fat-positive, anti-austerity cultural critique. In the final section, we underscore similarities between austerity politics and the culture of weight loss dieting: Both dieting and austerity cause people to endure hunger, and both almost always fail to deliver the rewards that they promise. Anti-Candy Parties It was the leanest of times; it was the most fatphobic of times: Perhaps this is how future historians will characterize our present moment. These hypothetical historians will be correct, especially if they point out that the fatphobic and lean facets of our times are two sides of the same ideology: Cultural biases against fat people and justifications for austerity go hand in hand. We have seen such pairings in conservatives uses of anti-fat arguments to justify cutting benefits and public services. Now, we will flesh out the shape of these leanest and most fatphobic times by telling a tale of two candies. Our story will demonstrate that seemingly disparate discourses surrounding two sweet treats—the bonbon and the Mars Bar—each reveal a persistent investment, on both the Left and the Right, in presenting oneself as anti-candy. Let us begin with the bonbon. On a September 17, 2013 installment of Fox News, beamed to Left-leaning audiences a few months later via Jon Stewart s The Daily Show, the conservative commentator Greg Jarrett castigated recipients of welfare in the United States by opining that sitting on the couch eating bonbons is now more financially lucrative than working.13 Bonbons! riffed Stewart in a mock British accent, as if to say, Who eats bonbons?! Fat people, of course, are classically stereotyped as major consumers of the bonbon.14 Right after donuts and cheeseburgers, 13 Fo s Ja ett: O a a s Poli ies Ha e Made “itti g O The Cou h Eati g Bo o s Mo e Fi a iall Lu ati e Tha Wo ki g, Media Matters for America, n. d., accessed 25 Apr. 2015, http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/09/17/foxs-jarrett-obamaspolicies-have-made-sitting/195918. 14 Fo those u fa ilia ith this aspe t of U“ A e i a ultu e, the li hé sitti g o the ou h eati g o o s is a staple of fatphobic theories about the origins of fatness. Fo a iti ue of U“ jou alists te de to assu e that fat people usuall get that Fattening Austerity 31 bonbons are the food of choice in fantasies about fat people s supposed dietary indulgences. To some American patriots, the word bonbon may have an ominously anti-freedom ring: As the Freedom Fries debacle of 2003 made clear, French-sounding foods are perceived by some in the US as disreputable, dangerous, and possibly even deadly.15 Interestingly, the french fry (which actually originated in Belgium) has been portrayed in the US as a threat not only to national security but also to bodily health: If, as the US prepared for military intervention in Iraq, an order of french fries was posited as the wrong treat for a freedom-lover to eat, a large fries continues to be cited as an indulgence that no fat person deserves to enjoy. These anti-French, anti-fries impulses form part of a broader pattern in the US, in which fatphobic discourses depict fat as a foreign threat. Intersections of fatphobia, xenophobia, and racism were the basis of an egregious legal case in New Mexico in 2001. Anamarie Regino, a threeyear-old Mexican American girl whom doctors described as excessively fat, was removed from her home because social service professionals determined that her parents did not fully understand the threat to their daughter s safety and welfare due to language or cultural barriers. 16 As the lawyer representing the family explained, the justifications given by the authorities who removed Anamarie from her home were filled with veiled comments which added up to You know those Mexican people, all they eat is fried junk, of course they re slipping her food. 17 Links between fatphobia and anti-immigrant animus have a long history in the US. Amy Erdman Farrell has shown that fantasies of racial, ethnic, and size-based superiority permeated the work of nineteenthcentury political cartoonists, who frequently drew immigrants as fat, a a sitti g o the ou h s a fi g o o s, see Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby, Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body (New York: Penguin, 2009), 177. 15 After France opposed a US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Republicans in the U.S. Congress briefly renamed french fries, on the menu in the Congressional cafeteria, F eedo F ies. 16 See Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health (New York: Penguin, 2004), 100, for a scathing critique of this e a k. A a a ie ‘egi o s othe , Adele Ma ti ez-Regino, was a native of the US and spoke fluent English, but because her heritage was Mexican, she was treated with the same xenophobia that Latino/a immigrants regularly confront. See also April Michelle Herndon, Fat Blame: How the War on Obesity Victimizes Women and Children, (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014), 1-3, for an illuminating discussion of this case. 17 Quoted in Campos, Obesity Myth, 102. 32 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer quick way to signify to readers their inferior status. 18 But although in the US fatness has historically been figured as un-American, on the other side of the Atlantic it is fashioned as a quintessentially American problem. As the British fat activist Charlotte Cooper points out, the anti-fat rhetoric of the alleged global obesity epidemic continually locates its axis of evil within the United States. 19 Indeed, the cliché of the fat American is a key term in a competition that has taken shape in recent decades: Fatphobic journalists representing various countries seem to be vying with each other for the privilege of affixing the label second fattest to their respective nations, with the US assumed to be the solid occupier of first-place status.20 Notwithstanding these national rivalries, industrialized nations around the globe have gathered together under the same anti-fat, anti-candy banner, a flag that unequivocally declares: Fat is Bad.21 Certainly, the anti-fat flag waves high in the UK—the actual place, not Stewart s comical idea of it. In a now-infamous July 7, 2008 speech identifying what was allegedly needed to fix Britain s broken society, the future Tory Prime Minister David Cameron pointed his finger at fat people, blaming obesity and poor diets for overtaxing the cash- 18 Amy Erdman Farrell, Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 76. Similarly, Laura Fraser has observed that i the late i etee th e tu A e i a s of No the Eu opea e t a tio a ted to be able to distinguish themselves, physically and racially, from stockier immigrants. See Laura Fraser, Losi g It: A eri a s O session with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It (New York: Dutton, 1997), 18. 19 Charlotte Cooper, Ma e It “hould Be Called Fat American Studies, in Rothblum and Solovay, The Fat Studies Reader, 328. 20 “ee, fo e a ple, “ otla d is o the second-fattest nation in the world, Daily Mail Online, Sep 28, 2007, accessed July, 29 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-483997/Scotland-second-fattest-nationworld.html, a d As O esit ‘ises, Chi ese Kids Are Almost as Fat as Americans, Wall Street Journal – China, 29 May 2014, accessed July 29, 2015, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/29/as-obesity-rises-chinese-kids-arealmost-as-fat-as-americans/?mod=e2fb. Sometimes, non-US journalists claim firstplace status for their own countries; as Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothblum point out in their introduction to the Fat Studies Reader, between 2003 and 2008 British, German, Canadian, and Australian journalists each claimed that their respective ou t as the fattest. “ee Sondra Solovay and Esther Roth lu , I t odu tio , i Rothblum and Soloway, The Fat Studies Reader, 1. 21 This point is made by Solovay and Rothblum, Introduction, 1. Additionally, Solovay and ‘oth lu ote that, a o di g to data f o the Wo ld Health O ga izatio , the United States ranks twentieth, Australia thirty-fifth, and Canada thirty-seventh in glo al ates of o esit . ‘a ki g ahead i eight a e a u e of atio s i the Pacific (e.g., Fiji, Samoa) and the Middle East (e.g., Kuwait, Jordan). A d ou t ies that ha e the g eatest u e of o ese hild e i lude a u e of atio s i easte Eu ope (e.g., Albania, Armenia) and some African nations (e.g., Algeria, Lesotho see ibid). Fattening Austerity 33 strapped public and implying that cuts to social services would be necessary consequences of the bad choices that poor and fat people supposedly make.22 Evidently delighted, the right-leaning tabloid Daily Mail summarized Cameron s speech as: Fat or Poor? )t s probably your own fault. 23 The formulaic linking of the terms fat and poor conflates poverty and fatness in ways that are not only inaccurate (one can, after all, be economically privileged and fat, or poor and thin) but also insidious, as a rhetoric of personal responsibility is repeatedly invoked to justify the oppression of fat people of all socioeconomic classes, and of poor and working-class people of all sizes. The poor and fat construction upholds the messages of pro-austerity politicians: When poverty is blamed on economic and alimentary self-indulgence, or a predilection for sitting on the couch eating bonbons, a critique of economic inequality is made impossible. Given the Right s habit of targeting fat people as embodiments of dietary and financial irresponsibility, one might expect that the Left would couple its critiques of austerity with an indictment of the Right s promulgation of fatphobia. Since conservatives are an anti-candy party, shouldn t the Left come out in favor of candy? Signs of a formulation of a candy-positive platform on the Left did appear during the run-up to Scotland s September 18, 2014 vote on independence from Britain. Poverty is widespread in Scotland (as it is in the rest of the UK), and many English people have applied a mocking version of the fat and poor trope to Scotland, making fun of the Scots for their putatively excessive enjoyment of Mars Bars.24 Alex Salmond, the leader at the time of the 22 This rhetorical move would become a trademark for the Tories as they took power in 2010 and began a harsh campaign of austerity cuts and privatization of public services. Owen Jones, in his important book Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class (London and New York: Verso, 2011) reported on how newspapers across the country left thei eade s i o dou t as to hat Ca e o as getti g at : Da id Ca e o tells the fat a d poo : take espo si ilit , as The Times put it -74). See Abigail C. Saguy, What s Wro g ith Fat? (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013), 146 for a discussion of p oposals i the U“ to i pose fi es upo Medi aid e ipie ts ho a e o ese. 23 Jones, Chavs, 74. 24 Currently, 820,000 Scots are classified as poor. This represents about 16% of the population and was discussed as a serious issue leading up to the September 2014 independence referendum. In the UK generally, however, 22% of the population is in poverty (a percentage that has increased under austerity measures). See “ ottish independence: 8 , “ ots li i g i po e t , BBC Ne s July 1, 2014, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28106456, and Tom MacInnes, UK po e t : the fa ts o side ed. The Guardian, Dec 2, 2011, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/dec/02/poverty-workingfmailies-with-children-uk. For an overview of English jokes about Scotland, see Stuart 34 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer Scottish National Party (SNP), who vehemently critiqued the austerity politics coming out of Cameron s London, was routinely subjected to fatphobic insults. Indeed, at times it seemed that one unofficial Conservative position on Scottish independence was Don t vote yes for Scotland because Alex Salmond is fat. 25 When Salmond was widely perceived as winning a key debate related to the independence initiative, he marked his victory by appearing on television eating a Mars Bar. Did this moment constitute a crunch heard round the world, a resounding announcement of the Left s embrace of fat positivity? Since Salmond s Mars Bar consumption flouted conservatives uses of anti-fat stigma as rationalizations for austerity, his public munching could have been heard as a one-two punch, or crunch, that attacked austerity and anti-fat animus at once. Yet neither Salmond individually nor the political Left (in Scotland or elsewhere) is unequivocally pro-candy or fat-friendly. The SNP has an official Action Plan designed as an Obesity Route Map that gives directions for making Scottish people thinner, and Salmond himself has talked about being on the so-called Bikini Diet.26 )f Salmond s savoring of a Mars Bar was not quite a crunch heard round the world, perhaps this is because anti-fat rhetoric, on both the Left and the Right, has reached such high volume that it drowns out fat-positive messages. True, fatphobia takes different forms on the Left and the Right. While the Right uses a language of individual responsibility to stigmatize fat people, leftists define fatness as a problem requiring social interventions. Anna has elsewhere described the Left s pathologization of fatness as a central component of what she calls the pity model of fat, a paradigm that, she contends, calls for a disability studies critique.27 Much as cloying displays of pity infantilize disabled people, leftists preoccupation with a foodscape that ostensibly induces obesity are Jeffries, Dea “ otla d: he e a e thi gs e d like to apologise fo , lo e E gla d. The Guardian, February 19, 2014, accessed 29 July 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/19/scottish-independence-76things-apologise. Jeffries points out that the English comedian Paul Merton suggested that the Mars Bar would become the national currency of Scotland if it were to be independent. 25 Thousands of such attacks appeared on Twitter, YouTube, and other social media outlets. Again, we choose not to reprint the content of these easily searchable insults. 26 The “ ottish Go e e t s P e e ti g O e eight a d O esit i “ otla d: A ‘oute Map To a ds Health Weight as fi st pu lished i a d o ti ues to e available on the government website. On Salmond and the Bikini Diet, see Mark Macaskill and Jason Allardyce, “al o d to t iki i pa i diet, The Sunday Times, July 7, 2013, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/ scotland/article1284343.ece. 27 Mollow, Disability, 202. Fattening Austerity 35 highly condescending to the individuals whom they aim to help. 28 Such condescension was apparent in a 2013 BBC report, conducted by Samantha Poling, which sought to figure out what is making Scots so much fatter than the rest of the world. The occasion for the report was a study (like many before it, in numerous locations round the world) claiming to show that Scotland was the second fattest place in the developed world, the US, of course, being number one. Poling travels to Glasgow, a location that she chooses because statistically it s one of the unhealthiest areas in the country, and sets up a produce stand, where she quizzes passersby about their knowledge of fruit and veg. Reporting on the results of her inquiry, Poling remarks: [T]he courgette [i.e., zucchini] was a tricky one for many, butternut squash a bit of a baffler and a pineapple completely stumped one guy. She also notes that experts say it s common for people not to know how to chop an onion or peel a carrot. Adhering to the pity model of fat, Poling explains that Glaswegians putative dearth of culinary knowledge is not their fault, [as] they d never been taught. 29 Although proponents of the pity model of fat profess to want to help, their interventions may worsen the socioeconomic stresses faced by people who are fat, poor, or both. By figuring fatness as the result of ignorance (as in an inability to identify, or chop, common vegetables), leftists reinforce social stigma against fat people, thus increasing the likelihood that they will be discriminated against in employment, housing, and education.30 Size discrimination is legal in most of Europe 28 This is not, of course, to deny that lack of access to nutritious food is a serious problem in poor communities. Rather, it is to suggest reframing this issue as one that is relevant to people of all sizes, i stead of ta geti g fat people as a p o le populatio . 29 Samantha Poling, “ ots Are the Second Fattest People in the World, Behind Only the Americans, Daily Record, August 15, 2013, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/health-fitness/scots-second-fattest-peopleworld-2167621; Samantha Poling, P e e ti g O e eight a d O esit i “ otla d: A Route Map to Healthy Weight, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/02/17140721/0. 30 As Ap il He do otes, the e is o e hel i g e ide e that fat people a e dis i i ated agai st i health a e, housi g, e plo e t, a d i tuall e e othe arena where one might expect to see a marginalized g oup fa e dis i i atio (Herndon, Fat Blame, 45). On the prevalence of size discrimination, see Gina Kolata, Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—And the Myths and Realities of Dieting (New York: Farrar, 2007), 69-70; Dylan Vade and Sondra Solovay, No Apolog : Shared Struggles in Fat and Transgender Law, in Rothblum and Solovay, The Fat Studies Reader, 167-175; Mark V. Roehling, Patricia V. Roehling and L. Maureen Odland, I estigati g the V=Validit of Stereotypes about O e eight E plo ees, Group and Organization Management 23, 4 (2008): 392-424; R. M. Puhl, T. Andreyeva, and K. D. Brownell, Pe eptio s of Weight Dis i i atio : P e ale e a d Comparison to Race and Gender Discrimination in America, International Journal of 36 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer and in most of the US, and fat people are frequently stereotyped as lacking the discipline that would make them good workers. Clearly, being fat puts one at a disadvantage when competing for the material rewards to which liberal democracies promise to afford their citizens equal access. Indeed, when the Left argues that poverty-induced ignorance and lack of access to healthy foods makes people fat, it overlooks another important possibility: Much of the oft-discussed relationship between fatness and poverty may result from discriminatory treatment of fat people. In an analysis of several epidemiological studies investigating the relationship between body size and class, Paul Ernsberger concludes that the driving force behind the concentration of fatness among the poor is social stigma and systematic discrimination against fat people.31 By affording thin people more than their share of the economic pie, the pity model of fat authorizes the unequal distribution of wealth. This framework also relies upon a host of facile assumptions, which we will challenge in the following section. For example, does crunching on carrots instead of candy bars really make fat people thin? )s fat truly a synonym for unhealthy ? And, most important for a Left critique of austerity, what economic interests influence the authorities who disseminate anti-candy, anti-fat directives? Slim Pickings Pick and choose: fat or thin? Around the world, shouts are heard: Make healthy choices! Take the stairs! Cut back on carbs! What does it mean to use fatness as a proxy for the wrong kind of choices ? In many political and social contexts, choice has been a longstanding Left value: When it comes to reproductive freedom, sex work, social equality for queers, and recreational and medicinal drugs, the Left has a strong record of supporting the right to choose what one does with one s own body.32 But Obesity 32 (2008): 992-1000, and Sondra Solovay, Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight Based Discrimination (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 2000). An o li e o e te to Mollo s “ized Up ga e a o pelli g fi stha d des iptio of anti-fat ias i e plo e t: I do t get hi ed e ause of od . I see the fa es fall when the committee that had been thrilled by the resume and phone interviews and o k sa ples eets od td. i Mollo , Fat . 31 Paul Ernsberger, Does “o ial Class Explain the Connection Between Weight and Health? in Rothblum and Solovay, The Fat Studies Reader, 32-33. 32 I the o te t of eoli e al dis ou ses, the te hoi e sig ifies i a diffe e t a ; rather than referencing individual liberties, the term is often invoked to uphold o po atio s ights a d o su e s f eedo to ake pu hases. As e shall see, when the Left fails to challenge the diet industry, it reinforces this neoliberal Fattening Austerity 37 when fatness is at stake, a my body, my choice thematic is more likely to be mouthed by conservatives, while leftists worry that the public, especially those who are poor and/or fat, need protection from an excess of dietary options. In a recent op-ed piece about obesity, the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (whose critiques of austerity we admire, but whose views on fatness we could do without) asserts that, in the realm of nutrition, increased choice can be a bad thing, because it all too often leads to bad choices. By bad choices, Krugman means menu selections that allegedly make people fat; he sarcastically dismisses those who take a stand for the right to add extra cheese to their pizza.33 Why does the concept of obesity often prompt the Left to abandon its traditional support of freedom of choice? Krugman s answer is that diet isn t purely a personal choice, since obesity imposes large costs on the economy as a whole. This assertion is a staple of anti-fat discourse across the political spectrum. As if echoing conservative Cameron s broken society speech, Krugman reiterates the commonplace claim that fatness causes disabilities whose economic costs are unfairly borne by the thin portion of the population.34 The frequently heard argument that fat people place an undue burden on the healthcare system depends upon neoliberal notions of governmentality: Rather than emphasizing the state s role in protecting its citizens, this argument focuses on individuals alleged responsibility for reducing their dependence upon the state.35 In support of his depiction of thinness as a civic duty, Krugman invokes the authority of science: Contending that the Republican base doesn t o eptio of hoi e as f eedo to ette o eself th ough self-help endeavors (see Guthman, Weighing In, 18, 47). 33 Krugman does not go so far as to suggest that laws should be passed to eliminate the ight to o su e foods that, he elie es, ake people fat. I stead, he fa o s la eli g e ui e e ts fo estau a t e us p esu a l , to i di ate alo ie o te t a d healthie ead: lo -calorie) school lunches. Paul Krugman, Toda , E e Peppe o i is Partisan, The New York Times, March 6, 2015, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/opinion/paul-krugman-pepperoni-turnspartisan. html?_r=0. 34 Of course, thin people also get sick; indeed, thinness is a risk factor for many medical conditions; see Glenn A. Gaesser, Big Fat Lies: The Truth about Your Weight and Your Health (Carlsbad: Gürze Books, 2002), 99-103, and Campos, The Obesity Myth, 25. And as Abigail Saguy poi ts out, a o esit -related healthcare costs may result from o e diag osis a d t eat e t of fat people Saguy, What´s Wrong? 162, 143-44). 35 Moreover, as Julie Guthman has noted, blaming fat people for putting stress on the healthcare system ove looks the ole that the health a e s ste pla s i e o o i sta ilit ; si e the health a e s ste p o ides a e o ous u e of jo s, … a e for the sick is an economic burden only in health care systems where profit is the bottom line and public services are underfunded and politically unsupported—that is, s ste s i hi h o l a ket logi is o side ed legiti ate Guthman, Weighing In, 54-55). 38 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer much like experts, science or evidence, he likens critics of anti-fat government policies to conservative climate change deniers. But when leftists take up arms in an international war on obesity, they are not fighting on the side of science. Rather, they are accepting as incontrovertible two unsubstantiated hypotheses: that bad choices make people fat; and that fatness causes disabilities and illnesses.36 In doing so, the Left ignores major financial conflicts of interest between the diet industry and the so-called experts who pathologize fatness. A few key examples of the many financial conflicts of interest between obesity researchers and the diet industry: The former US surgeon general C. Everett Koop s Shape Up America! campaign, which launched the war on obesity in 1995, received funding from Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast.37 The American Obesity Association, whose claims are treated as authoritative in the media, is funded by pharmaceutical companies that sell, or are in the process of developing, weight loss drugs.38 And the International Obesity Task Force, which was instrumental in developing the World (ealth Organization s guidelines 36 These hegemonic claims about fatness have been called into question by numerous autho s ho o pelli gl a gue that see i gl o je ti e fa ts a out od size ha e more to do with cultural prejudices than with scientific certainty. These authors observe that the media and medical authorities have greatly exaggerated the asso iatio et ee fat ess a d poo health: O e eight people li e longer than people of o al eight, a d o ese people li e al ost as lo g Ca pos, Obesity Myth, 10-20; Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 201-09; Harriet Brown, Body of Truth: How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession with Weight—and What We Can Do About It (Boston: Da Capo, 2015), 14- ; as Paul Ca pos otes, i de eloped atio s, o idl o ese o e outi el ha e lo ge life e pe ta ies tha ideal eight e [ 9] . These ite s also e phasize that correlation is not causation; that is, the small discrepancies between fat a d thi people s life e pe ta ies a esult ot from fatness per se but from various social factors associated with fatness. Discrimination in health insurance and anti-fat bias on the part of healthcare providers ho ofte fail to t eat fat people s edical conditions appropriately because they dis iss s pto s ith di e ti es to lose eight ea that fat people ofte e ei e substandard healthcare (Saguy, What´s Wrong?, 140-44); and discrimination in employment, education, housing, and marriage increases the level of economic and psychological stress that fat people face (Saguy, What´s Wrong?, 141-42). In addition, eight loss dieti g a d diet d ugs, hi h a e o o l p es i ed to t eat fat ess, may shorten life expectancy (Gaesser, Big Fat Lies, 79-80, 135-50; Campos, Obesity Myth, 28-34). Furthermore, it is inaccurate to describe fatness as the result of i di idual hoi e, si e the e is o k o a of aki g fat people pe a e tl thin (Gaesser, Big Fat Lies, 135-36; Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 188; Campos, Obesity Myth, 29; Brown, Body of Truth, 36-37). 37 Fraser, Losing It, 143. And Pat Lyons, P es iptio fo Harm: Diet Industry Influence, Pu li Health Poli , a d the O esit Epide i , in Rothblum and Solovay, The Fat Studies Reader, 79. 38 Harding and Kirby, Lessons, 170-71. Fattening Austerity 39 for defining obesity, receives most of its funding from (offman-La Roche and Abbott Laboratories, the makers, respectively, of the diet drugs Xenical and Meridia.39 As J. Eric Oliver has pointed out, most of the top obesity experts in the United States, including David Allison, George Blackburn, Tom Wadden, James Hill, and Judith Stern, are financially tied to diet and pharmaceutical companies. 40 )ndeed, Oliver remarks, it is difficult to find any major figure in the field of obesity research… who does not have some type of financial tie to a pharmaceutical or weightloss company. 41 This is a big fat deal: The shouts that one hears about a supposed choice-induced epidemic of fatness come from sources that are supported by the weight loss industry. Diet companies make big bucks by telling people they re too big and insisting that they can pick, or choose, to be slim; currently, the total global weight loss market is worth over $586 billion, and the margins of profit for the global industry average significantly higher than for other personal-service industries (11.8% of revenue as opposed to an average of 4.2%).42 Not bad, in these lean times. But for consumers seeking weight loss measures that actually work, the pickings are slim. As the New York Times science writer Gina Kolata has documented, body weight is primarily determined by genetics and over the long term is not subject to individuals efforts to choose their sizes.43 Some dieters may manage to lose large amounts of weight, but one s biologically determined setpoint ensures that within five years almost everyone regains the lost weight.44 39 J. Eric Oliver, Fat Politi s: The ‘eal “tor Behi d A eri a s O esit Epide i (New York: Oxford UP, 2006), 28-29. 40 Ibid., 30 41 Oliver, Fat Politics. For further discussion of these conflicts of interest, see Fraser, Losing It, 14, 210-14, 229; Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 204; Lyons, Prescription ; Oliver, Fat Politics, 29-31; Campos, Obesity Myth, 43-46, 60, 221-23; Brown, Body of Truth, 105-114; and Harding and Kirby, Lessons, 170-74. 42 Nadège Droz and Pedro Marques-Vidal, “elli g D ea s: A O e ie of “li i g P odu ts Advertisements in Switzerland, Obesity Facts: The European Journal of Obesity 7, 5 (October 2014): 283 and Catey Hill, Things the Weight Loss Industry Wo t Tell You, MarketWatch, January 14, 2014, accessed August 1, 2015, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-the-weight-loss-industry-wont-tellyou-2014-01-10?page=1. 43 Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 122-23, 157-58, 176-81. 44 Although genetic factors are the most important contributors to body size, they are not the only ones. Indeed, some readers may wonder: If body size is hereditary, then why have populations of many wealthy countries become larger in the past few decades? No one knows for sure, but the assumption that we eat more and exercise less is questionable at best (Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 194; Guthman, Weighing In, 9395). Other possibilities include: a decline in smoking rates (smoking makes people thinner) (Campos, Obesity Myth, 121); better childhood nutrition and higher rates of 40 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer And that s a good thing: Fatness is a form of human variation that should be celebrated, not a disease to be subjected to specious cures. We know, of course, that many on the Left are wary of pointing to genetic causes for any form of bodily or mental difference. This is understandable given the racist, sexist, classist, ableist—and, indeed, fascist—uses to which claims about genetics have historically been put. But fat activists who highlight the hereditary aspects of body size are hardly eugenicists. On the contrary, the fat justice movement s focus on genetic diversity directly opposes the eugenic project of sorting individuals into hierarchical categories. Boldly asserting that a diet is a cure that doesn t work for a disease that doesn t exist, fat activists of the 1970s confronted the medical profession head on and, in doing so, spotlighted the scandalousness of the weight loss industry s immense profits. Their interventions make it clear that a one-size-fits-all, never say genes or biology approach is not a viable strategy for leftist political movements that take fat justice seriously. Pointing to biology as the reason for the slim-to-nil success rate of the products that the diet industry peddles, fat activists forward arguments that can usefully be applied to a range of other critiques of neoliberalism. A fantasy of infinite corporeal malleability is at the heart of neoliberal ideology; according to this fantasy, one can be or become whatever one wants, as long as one is willing to keep trying, or keep buying. This fantasy of limitless agency is shattered by the fat justice slogan Diets don t work. )n place of neoliberalism s valorization of personal agency as in losing the weight and keeping it off , fat justice calls forth a conceptualization of fat agency as a collective mode of acting in the world. Arising out of what Anna has elsewhere defined as setpoint epistemology —that is, the embodied knowledge that diets don t work—fat justice is grounded in the lived experiences of what we might call the Ninety-Five Percent, after the approximate number of diets that fail.45 Like the Ninety-Nine Percent of vaccination (Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 208-09, 221); the increase in popularity of weightlifting (statistics a out o esit a e ased o BMI, a atio of height to eight, a d this s ste of lassifi atio atego izes Geo ge Cloo e as o e eight a d D a e Johnson and Matt LeBla as o ese (Supernifty, accessed August 4, 2015, http://www.supernifty.org/bmi.php); an increase in the use of SSRIs and other mental health medications (many of which cause weight gain); the proliferation of environmental pollutants (many of which are endocrine disruptors and may therefore contribute to weight gain) (Brown, Body of Truth, 12-13; Guthman, 98-115); and, paradoxically, the fact that more people are attempting to lose weight (dieting makes people fatter in the long term, as most dieters not only regain the weight that they lost but also gain additional weight) (Gaesser, Big Fat Lies, 33; Brown, Body of Truth, 36, 41; Lyons, Prescription, 81; Saguy, What´s Wrong?, 37). 45 For an articulation of setpoint epistemology, which brings together the scientific o ept of setpoi t theo a d the disability scholar Rosemarie Garland-Tho so s Fattening Austerity 41 the Occupy movement, fat justice s Ninety-Five Percent shuns the neoliberal values of self-discipline and personal responsibility that are given as justifications for both dieting and austerity. Indeed, as we shall see, the ideologies underlying dieting and austerity are strikingly similar; both rely on elite subjects unwillingness to recognize and respond to hunger experienced by people who are poor and/or fat. Anti-Hunger Two things that austerity and diets have in common: Both cause hunger, and both don t work. Of course, if the executors of austerity acknowledged that the real purpose of their policies has been enabling the rich to get richer, then their benefits-and-services-slashing programs would have to be recognized as a smashing success: Notwithstanding the global economic crisis, the upper classes are doing quite well.46 But further enriching those who are already wealthy is not the official raison d’être for austerity: Cutting benefits and privatizing social services was supposed to spur economic growth, the idea being that a little bit of shortterm suffering (on the part of the middle-class and the poor) would ultimately benefit the economy as a whole, thus ensuring a happily-everafter ending for everyone. Clearly, this has not happened; indeed, there is growing consensus among many economists that austerity absolutely cannot work. In a book titled Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Blyth points out that rationalizations for austerity depend upon numerous logical contradictions.47 For one thing, how is an economy supposed to grow when people, made poor by government cuts, have less money to spend on products and services? Also, the theory that consumer confidence would increase as citizens witnessed the state s frugality concept of sitpoi t theo , see Mollo , Disability. Dis ussi g diets i et -five pe e t failu e ate, B o otes: Dieti g can make people thinner for a while—six months, a year or two, maybe three. Which, coincidentally, is about how long most studies follow dieters, and how they claim success. In reality, your chance of maintaining a significant weight loss for five years or more is about the same as your ha e of su i i g etastati lu g a e : pe e t. It does t atte hat fla o of diet you try—Paleo, Atkins, raw, vegan, high-carb, low-carb, grapefruit, Ayds (remember those chewy chemical-infused caramels?)—only 3 to 5 percent of dieters who lose a significant amount of weight keep it off. Weight-loss treatments are cash cows, in part because they do t o k; the e s al a s a uilt-in base of repeat usto e s -37). 46 See Richard Seymour, Against Austerity: How We Can Fix the Crisis They Made (London: Pluto Press, 2014), 29, for an astute account of austerity as a lass st ateg . 47 Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). 42 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer overlooks the fact that austerity measures bring overwhelming economic insecurity into individuals lives. In its suffer now, be rewarded and feel more confident later mentality, austerity is much like dieting in that the promised reward does not arrive. Much as economies do not become robust under austerity programs, fat people rarely become permanently thin under dieting regimens. But don t say diets don t work unless you are willing to make people mad. In the summer of 2013, Anna published two articles in Bitch magazine in which she asserted (among other things) that body size is not the result of individual choice.48 This claim incited outrage on the part of hundreds of online respondents, many of whom maintained that fat people should be stigmatized precisely because fatness is a choice, and a bad one at that.49 Such comments (which are predictable responses to the posting of fat-positive material online) do not merit serious consideration: Even if fatness were a choice, this would not mean that fat people deserved to be stigmatized. Yet the argument that individual choice does not determine one s body size has also met with skepticism on the part of people who oppose antifat stigma. Anonymous readers of Anna s previously published writings on fatness (as well as an outside reviewer of the present essay) have asked: Can t we defend fat people without saying that diets don t work? Perhaps, but fat justice is about more than defending fatness by convincing thin people that fat people are okay. Rather, fat justice aims to end fat oppression, and in our view such a project would be impossible without a sustained critique of the cultural imperative to diet. In addition to being inaccurate, an argument claiming that fatness probably is a choice, and probably does cause all kinds of diseases, but should still be supported as a valid choice would fail to address the ways that fatphobia functions in the actual world, where fat people and remember, that s close to two thirds of the populations of most industrialized countries) daily receive the message that their size is a choice that s likely to kill 48 Mollo , Fat a d “ized Up. 49 Such arguments are not the sole province of internet trolls. In his bestselling book about fatness (Greg Critser, Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World [Boston: Mariner, 2004]), Greg Critser a gues that so ial stig a a se e to o t ol o esit . A d the espe ted ioethi ist Da iel Callaha ad o ates dis i i atio lite agai st fat people td. i Lindsay Abrams, A Case fo “tig atizi g O esit , Atlantic, January 23, 2013, accessed August 26, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/a-case-for-shaming-obesepeople-tastefully/267446/). See Herndon, Fat Blame, fo a a al sis of C itse s a d Callaha s e a ks. Fattening Austerity 43 them. )n the face of pervasive diet or die mandates, it is vitally important to share the information that diets are both ineffective and unnecessary.50 Another objection to the diets don t work argument is that it risks stigmatizing those people who, it seems, do choose to be fat. Responding to one of Anna s articles, a commenter with the tag Jasmin asked: So what if it s a choice? ...) like to eat and ) don t like exercise. ) choose to live my life in a way that I enjoy. That involves eating cake and watching TV. …Others choose differently—they choose to restrict their diets and run on treadmills. We join Jasmin in affirming a variety of corporeal choices; and, as we hope our tale of two candies will have suggested, we are most assuredly pro-cake. But does a decision to eat cake and watch television constitute a choice to be fat? If you are hungry enough to eat cake but instead you crunch on a carrot and then head off to the gym to do crunches, is this choice really sustainable over the long term? Will you be able to keep up your treadmill-running-while-hungry regimen day after day, all the way past the five-year mark—the point after which almost every diet fails? Not if you are one of the Ninety-Five Percent. And even those rare dieters who achieve such feats of neoliberal bodily disciplining do not always have socially approved thin bodies to show for it. According to researchers who postulate that one s body size is governed by a biologically determined setpoint, struggling to eat less (than one wants) and move more than feels good usually won t make a fat person permanently thin. Ultimately, the body gets its way about what it wants to weigh: If one starves and over-exercises, the body compensates by increasing appetite and reducing metabolism.51 Setpoint theory helps explain why (contrary to popular belief) many fat people do run on treadmills and don t have a particular penchant for cake—and why plenty of thin people do not do exercises and eat plenty of desserts.52 People are different from each other, Eve Sedgwick famously asserted.53 Although Sedgwick was talking about sexuality, her observation equally 50 Diets may also be dangerous. For a discussion of medical literature suggesting that ill esses o e tio all att i uted to o esit a e aused i pa t eight loss dieting, see Campos, Obesity Myth, 29-33; and Brown, Body of Truth, 40. 51 For a discussion of this mechanism, see Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 118-19; and Tara Parker-Pope, Behi d the Fat T ap, The New York Times, December 28, 2011, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parkerpope-fat-trap.html. 52 Fo a ele ato a ou t of u i g o the ellipti al a hi e a fat o a not trying to lose weight, see Emily Anderson, Fat at the G , in Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion, ed. Virgie Tovar (Berkeley: Seal Press, 2012), 20-24. 53 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet, 1990 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 22. 44 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer applies to body size.54 It seems a distinctively neoliberal prejudice to assume that bodies, like commodities produced in a factory, should, as the result of carefully rationalized inputs and outputs, take on predictable, normative morphological forms. As researchers who have tried, and failed, to make fat people permanently thin have observed, [i]t is entirely possible that weight reduction, instead of resulting in a normal state for obese patients, results in an abnormal state resembling that of starved non-obese individuals. 55 Indeed, insisting that one chooses one s weight—or insisting that fat scholars and activists must bracket this question, which in the present cultural moment amounts to almost the same thing—means eliding this important reality: It is possible to be hungry and fat at the same time. To many thin people, this idea seems nonsensical. In analyses of global hunger and nutrition, it is common to draw a contrast between the overfed and the underfed —that is, between people who are hungry and people who are fat—as if these two groups were mutually exclusive.56 Tell that to Mary Frances Neely, a fat woman who could not shrink her body to a so-called healthy size until she forced herself to follow a diet featuring cigarettes, black coffee, and salad (without dressing). ) was in the worst physical shape that ) had ever been in… ) didn t have any energy. My skin was real pasty-looking. My nails wouldn t grow and they split. 57 Or to Wendy Shanker, who survived on packets of Optifast powder and mountains of Metamucil for four months but still remained fat.58 Or to the millions of fat people who have dieted and lost large amounts of weight, only to regain it, for this simple reason: Like the rest of the NinetyFive Percent, they got too hungry to keep dieting. Let them eat celery instead of cake, fatphobic thin folks say to fat people, who, they tell themselves, can t really be that hungry. Marianne Kirby recalls being told by a doctor that one-seventh of a small head of broccoli was enough food for her entire dinner.59 In these austere times, the capacity to ignore other people s hunger is not a skill that the Left should be reproducing. In and across countries hard hit by austerity, authorities are already cultivating such ignorance—or, even worse, 54 Sedgwick was a leader in bringing together analyses of fat oppression and homophobia; she noted that her experiences as a fat woman informed her fielddefining analyses of the politics of male homosexuality (Sedgwick, Epistemology, 63). 55 Quoted in Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 115. 56 For example, see Gary Gardner and Brian Halweil, Underfed and Overfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition (Washington, D.C.: World Watch Institute, 2000); and Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism (Durham: Duke UP, 2011), 106. 57 Quoted in Kolata, Rethinking Thin, 166-67. 58 Wendy Shanker, The Fat Girl s Guide to Life (New York: Bloomsbury, 2004), 27. 59 Harding and Kirby, Lessons, 49-50. Fattening Austerity 45 blaming and scapegoating people for their needs. In the UK, as increasing numbers of people are being forced to turn to food banks, the British government continues to insist that its policies will work—and it continues to impose capricious sanctions on people who rely upon public assistance; for instance, one s benefits can be cut as punishment for infractions such as missing an appointment or filling a form out incorrectly. Similarly, in Spain hunger is widespread; the Commissioner for (uman Rights of the Council of Europe drew attention to reports about children fainting in school due to lack of proper meals. 60 But the powers-that-be there seem unbothered by poor people s hunger; during the years of austerity in Spain, the gap between rich and poor has become the largest in the European Union. Austerity has also enforced hunger in Greece: The director of a community solidarity group in Athens that is feeding more than one hundred people per month notes that teachers were reporting cases of kids who had turned up at school with nothing more than rice or stale rusks for months. 61 Despite such reports of hunger continually emerging from Greece, and despite a national referendum in which the population itself indicated that it could not bear any more austerity, its wealthy creditors have refused to offer any relief. Instead, the wealthier and more powerful nations in the eurozone take a stance toward other people s suffering that strongly resembles the condescending remarks regularly directed at fat people. As Owen Jones explains, the view of these nations is that Greece and Spain must live within their means because they are suffering from years of profligacy, unlike the thrifty German state. 62 Connections between fat people s oppression and poor people s hunger were made during the early days of the fat liberation movement. Sara Fishman (a.k.a. Aldebaran, one of the founders of the Fat Underground and a coauthor of The Fat Liberation Manifesto recalls that she and other feminist fat activists of the 1970s saw world hunger and dietinginduced hunger as deeply interrelated. Emphasizing that it is a tenet of 60 Commissioner for Human Rights – Council of Europe, “pai : Hu a Rights Need Particular Protection in Times of Economic C isis a d Auste it Budgets, July 6, 2013, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/spain-humanrights-need-particular-protection-in-times-of-economic-crisis-and-austeritybudgets?inh eritRedirect=true. 61 Quoted in Helena Smith, G ee e s Food Crisis: Families Face Going Hungry During Summer Shutdown, The Guardian, August 6, 2013, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/06/greece-food-crisis-summerausterity. 62 Owen Jones, We Must Stop A gela Me kel s Bullying – or Let the Forces of Austerity Win, The Guardian, January 28, 2015, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/28/syriza-merkel-economicgreece-europe. 46 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer fat liberation that all people have a right to live free of hunger, Fishman asserts that our resolve to end global hunger is compromised by our willingness to accept hunger at home—indeed, to impose it on fat people at home. 63 On the surface, it may seem that the imposition of hunger upon fat people is consensual; after all, a fat adult can choose whether or not to diet. Yet fat people face enormous social pressure, which often constitutes coercion, to subject themselves to weight loss dieting. From doctors threats that they will die if they do not lose weight; to corporate wellness programs that punish workers for being fat; to legally sanctioned discrimination against fat people in housing, employment, and education, the pressure to diet is intense. And sometimes, dieting is not consensual. Recall, for example, the legal case in which Anamarie Regino was removed from the custody of her parents, who were charged with feeding her too much. As Paul Campos explains, Anamarie s parents were far from overfeeding her; instead, they had, in accordance with the advice of their physicians, placed their daughter on a series of ever-morerestrictive diets.64 Eventually, Anamarie was subsisting on two Kindercal drinks per day approximately one third of what a normal three-yearold would be advised to consume), but despite their compliance with medical authorities directives to starve their child, Anamarie was taken away because she remained fat.65 Even after she was eventually returned to her home, the family remained under intense surveillance, Anamarie s diet closely monitored by state authorities who forbade all candy, cake, ice cream, juice, fried food, or fast food. 66 Nor is this an isolated case. As April (erndon observes, courts in )owa, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have also removed [fat] children from their homes, and doing so is quickly becoming seen as a logical means of making children thin 67. Meanwhile in the UK, approximately seventy-five fat children were removed from their homes between 2009 and 2014.68 Desperate times call for desperate measures: That is the reasoning behind both dieting and austerity. Medical authorities who advise removing fat children from their homes concede that these interventions produce psychological trauma and do not usually result in fat children becoming thin; yet the prevailing societal attitude about the global 63 64 65 66 67 68 Personal communication with Anna, July 24, 2015. Campos, Obesity Myth, 101-102. Ibid., 99-103. Ibid., 103. Herndon, Fat Blame, 1. Ian Johnston, Child e Taken into Care for Being Too Fat, The Independent, February 28, 2014, accessed July 29, 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/healthand-families/health-news/children-taken-into-care-for-being-too-fat-9158809.html. Fattening Austerity 47 obesity crisis is that something must be done, even if that something only makes matters worse.69 And since the purpose of taking fat children away from their parents is to place them in environments in which their food intake will be more strictly controlled, the outcome of these placements will be hunger. A rhetoric of crisis has also authorized the imposition of drastic austerity programs on hungry and suffering people. As Robert notes in his work-in-progress, [a]usterity is generally wrapped up in rhetorics of emergency, whether the topic is reducing a national debt, paying for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, or protecting banks from catastrophic loss. 70 Given the many striking similarities between the justifications for dieting and for austerity, why have Left critiques of neoliberalism so frequently failed to challenge the discursive power of the weight loss industry—an industry that, as we have seen, exerts enormous influence over the medical profession s recommendations regarding body size? Perhaps because many on the Left, even those who forward trenchant critiques of capitalism, still hold out hope of upward mobility, a hope that our culture codes as a downward movement of the digits on the bathroom scale. Shop till you drop enough pounds to make your body look like a status symbol, the weight loss industry says. By going Paleo, watching one s waistline, and exercising to work off dietary indulgences, consumers buy into the myth that one can t be too rich or too thin. This myth derives its power by exploiting economic fears. Since the threat of looking too fat is inseparable from the risk of appearing poor, it s no wonder that in these lean times preoccupation with body size is such a big thing. During an era of economic uncertainty, when lives are frequently upended by forces outside of one s control, dieting offers the illusion that thinness, one of our culture s most potent symbols for affluence, is always within one s power to choose. Yet those who are afraid of fat live precarious dietary lives, always worrying that they are a meal or two away from losing the control that, they tell themselves, keeps them from getting fat, or fatter. Eyes trained on the scale, even the most stringent critics of capitalism risk losing track of the economic forces that throw lives off balance. Fear of fatness can displace concerns about genuine threats wrought by neoliberal political economy: food insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, overwork, and climate-change-induced food shortages and droughts. To strive to pick slimness is to become a docile subject, dutifully exercising discipline to keep one s appetite in line. When in line to be lean, one is less likely to complain about the increasing smallness of one s economic lot. After all, a common dieting 69 Herndon, Fat Blame, 81. 70 McRuer, Crip Times, Unpublished. 48 Anna Mollow and Robert McRuer strategy exhorts eaters to reframe needs as wants : Egg-white omelettes are prudent investments, while ice cream is an extravagant expenditure. Efforts to reprogram appetites may spread insidiously to other contexts, dampening the outrage that we should express in reaction to economic injustice. If we convince ourselves that solid meals are shameful selfindulgences, then perhaps other necessities, such as living wages and unemployment compensation, can more easily be defined as wants. Dieters are perfect subjects of austerity politics, because dieting itself is a practice of austerity. All this disciplining is imposed upon us in the name of a crisis that must be stopped: In order to save the bodily and budgetary health of the populace, citizens are ordered to move more, eat less, spend more, slim down, shut up, and stop complaining about the fact that many people do not have enough food. Refuting this reasoning, a group of anti-austerity activists in Spain occupied a central plaza in Madrid on May 15, 2011 and attempted to turn the tables: No es una crisis; es una estafa! [)t s not a crisis; it s a scandal!] they shouted. Their protest formed the basis of the 15-M movement, recognized internationally as Los )ndignados. That summer and in the years ahead, Los )ndignados the indignant ones mobilized against their government s enforcement of a multitude of hunger-inducing austerity measures. Seconding these activists justified indignation, we hope that this shout-out to the Ninety-Five Percent will be heard round the world: let s refuse austerity, reject weight loss dieting, and insist that everybody should get to eat. Anna Mollow, contact: amollow (at) gmail.com, recently received her Ph.D. from the U i ersit of Califor ia, Berkele , here she o pleted a dissertatio titled The Disa ilit Dri e. “he is the oeditor, with Robert McRuer, of Sex and Disability (Duke UP, 2012) and the coeditor, with Merri Lisa Johnson, of DSM-CRIP “o ial Te t O li e, . A as articles on disability and fatness have appeared in Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, The Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, W“Q: Wo e s “tudies Qua te l , MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, The Disability Studies Reader, Autostraddle, and Huffington Post. Robert McRuer, contact: rmcruer (at) gwu.edu, is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at The George Washington University. He is the author of Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability (NYU, 2006) and The Queer Renaissance: Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay Identities (NYU, 1997). He is co-editor, with Anna Mollow, of Sex and Disability (Duke UP, 2012) and of two special journal issues: Cripistemologies, with Merri Lisa Johnson (Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 2014); and Desiring Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies, with Abby L. Wilkerson (GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Fattening Austerity 49 Gay Studies, 2003). He is completing a manuscript titled Crip Times: Disability, Globalization, and Resistance. Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 51-74 On Fat and Fattening: Agency, Materiality and Animality in the History of Corpulence Christopher E. Forth English abstract: This essay argues that modern perceptions of the agency of fat people have been inflected by older ways of thinking about fat and fattening. This claim rests on two basic points. Firstly, the potentially encumbering materiality of fat has long been cited as preventing movement in ways that frustrate agency. Secondly, fat has implications for agency by virtue of the power relationships implied in the act of fattening, which has been repeatedly framed in the West with reference to animal consumption. Discourses of fat and fattening are thus saturated with allegations of failed agency, whether by citing the confining materiality of fat itself or by associating the fattened person with abject animality. After exploring these claims with reference to select examples from classical antiquity, the essay presents surveys how similar ideas mobilized weight-loss discourses from the nineteenth century through the 1930s, by which time most of our current anti-fat thinking had been firmly entrenched. As the quest for slimmer, more attractive and healthy bodies is often presented as a project requiring sacrifice and discipline, diet and fitness discourses are freighted with the language of willpower and self-control. Those who critique the bodily ideals promoted by the fitness industry rightly take issue with its fantasies of unlimited agency and energy, sometimes by analyzing how individuals and groups are often constrained by structures that either limit the number of realizable choices available to them or thwart what little agency they are able to exercise. One might expect medical practitioners to adopt a more balanced perspective than those in the fitness business, but such is not the case. When it is not a response to physical appearance, the barely concealed disgust often registered by health care professionals is linked to fat people s perceived lack of willpower and noncompliance with medical advice.1 In an apparent example of extreme self-mastery, anorexia is similarly viewed as more a matter of control than of appearance, though the two are closely related.2 In general, then, fatness 1 ‘.M. Puhl a d C.A. Heue , The “tig a of O esit : A ‘e ie a d Update, Obesity 17, 5 (2009): 941- , L.‘. Va ta ia , Disgust a d Pe ei ed Co t ol i Attitudes to a d O ese People, International Journal of Obesity 34 (2010): 1302-7. 2 Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 144-52. www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600059 | ISSN 2196-4793 52 Christopher E. Forth is stigmatizing because it is both visible and perceived to be controllable. 3 Despite the rhetoric of willpower that accompanies fitness discourses, we know that the desire for control does not neatly line up with the realities of weight gain. Bodies are, after all, situated in contexts that affect them in multiple ways, leading Bruno Latour to define the body as an interface that becomes more and more describable as it learns to be affected by more and more elements. 4 Sociologists of the body more or less concur with this view. Reflexively embodied agents, as Nick Crossley observes, are in charge of a body which may not always behave or perform as they would like, and this misbehaviour needs to be factored into our accounts. Reflexive embodiment is not only shaped by the ideals, norms and practices of wider society but also by the variability of the material body itself. 5 Fattening itself is a phenomenon not completely within the sphere of personal agency and often occurs without awareness, at least for a while. The fattening body is very distanced from the lived body s everyday experiences, notes philosopher Talia Welsh: it arrives slowly and when it has arrived is resistant to leaving. The idea that one can reverse this incremental process through equally incremental acts of willpower is also problematic. Whereas any one act of food restriction seems well within our control, over time such control is illusory since it is determined by forces that far exceed the embodiment of moving hand to mouth. 6 This is one reason that narratives of failed weight loss recur frequently in dieting texts and blogs, along with confessions of shame and self-disgust. From a phenomenological standpoint many aspects of embodied life simply go on without the conscious intervention or awareness of the person. Drawing upon the insights of philosopher Drew Leder, Crossley points out that We are, in important respects, our own blind spot, which makes it difficult to monitor and alter processes that unfold without the subject s awareness.7 If control over – and even awareness of – the body is less than sovereign when it comes to weight gain (and countless other phenomena), Westerners today do not need to be persuaded of the agentic 3 C.“. C a dall et al., A ti-fat P ejudi e, i Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination, ed. T. D. Nelson (New York: Psychology Press, 2009), 477 (469–87). 4 B u o Latou , Ho to Talk a out the Bod ? The No ati e Di e sio of “ ie e “tudies, Body & Society 10,2-3 (2004): 206 (205-229). 5 Nick Crossley, Reflexive Embodiment in Contemporary Society (Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2006), 78. 6 Talia Welsh, Fat Eats: A Phe o e olog of De ade e, Food, a d Health, i Food and Everyday Life, ed. Thomas Conroy (New York: Lexington Books, 2014), 268 (257-74). 7 Crossley, Reflexive Embodiment, 76. See also Drew Leder, The Absent Body (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). On Fat and Fattening 53 potentialities of fat. Frontline missives from the war on obesity are rife with images of invasion and counter-attack, of pre-emptive or defensive strikes against a kind of terror sometimes described as more dangerous than al-Qaeda. At times the enemy identified by militarized medicine is rather abstract – fatness or obesity – while at other times the target is adipose tissue or dietary fats, forms of female/feminizing filth that position fat bodies as passively feminine regardless of their actual sex. 8 But just because fat bodies are often positioned as passive does not mean that fat itself is viewed in such terms. Rather corpulence is seen as something that befalls those who, either through weakness or lack of vigilance, seem to allow it to happen, which is one reason why the metaphor of invasion is common in discussions of weight gain today. This sense that fat exercises a nefarious agency is heightened among anorexics who, as Megan Warin s ethnographic research shows, devote considerable time to avoiding fats (corporeal and non-corporeal) that, even when applied to the skin, possess the ability to move and seep into the cracks of one s body. 9 One cannot be surprised that an AngloAmerican fitness slogan personifies fat as an enemy agent – one apparently capable of emotions – fully deserving punishment for its misdeeds: sweat is fat crying. That adipose tissue is itself active rather than passive has recently been noted by scientists who observe its role in the synthesis of proteins, many of which are released as enzymes, cytokines, growth factors, and hormones involved in overall homeostasis. 10 While it is possible to depict such processes in neutral terms, among health activists such activity is often framed as a form of contamination capable of eliciting disgust. This is the message of a series of Australian TV ads run by the LiveLighter campaign, which explains on its website that fat is now thought of as an endocrine organ that releases chemicals into the body leading to a kind of self-poisoning strongly reminiscent of the constipation-related autointoxication fears of the early twentieth century.11 Putting aside questions of external appearance and the problem of having a grabbable gut, LiveLighter shows that the real horror resides within by offering the viewer surgical footage of sticky 8 Lee F. Monaghan, Men and the War on Obesity: A Sociological Study (London: Routledge, 2008), 184-5. 9 Megan Warin, Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010), 123. 10 Quoted i Elise Pa adis, Cha gi g Meanings of Fat: Fat, Obesity, Epidemics, and A e i a s Child e Do to al Disse tatio i Edu atio , “ta fo d U i e sity, 2011), 25. 11 James C. Whorton, Inner Hygiene: Constipation and the Pursuit of Health in Modern Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). 54 Christopher E. Forth yellow toxic fat pulsating creepily as it envelopes the internal organs.12 Threatening to subvert the body from within, fat exercises an agency of its own. As striking as these images are, and as much as scholars tend to link them to distinctly recent developments in the West, their ideational content is neither novel nor even particularly modern. 13 The history of fat and fatness is filled with references to a substance that creeps and invades the body, initiating a process that chokes and suffocates the person who is eventually rendered a kind of slave trapped in a prison of fat. These are ancient tropes that, while frequently citing the deficient willpower of the person, afford fat and/or fatness a surprising degree of agency in its own right. To observe that this or that foodstuff is fattening accords to the substance a degree of power so that if ) eat this it will do something to me. To struggle against fatness is not only to engage with one s appetites and comforts, but to grapple with a material adversary that seems driven by its own agenda. The perennial perception of corpulence as evidence of failed agency plays a critical role in the stigmatization of fat people today as being lazy, dull, slow, sleepy, and even stupid – in fact, as not being fully conscious persons able to care and take responsibility for themselves. While hardly the only way in which fat people have been viewed, such ideas are rooted in ancient perceptions of fat as a material substance as well as ideas about certain non-human animals that are fattened for consumption by others. This article examines the relationship between fat and agency from a broader historical perspective than is commonly adopted in the field of fat studies. Drawing upon sources from a variety of periods, it argues that modern perceptions of the problematic agency of fat people have been inflected by older ways of thinking about fat and fattening. This claim rests on two basic points. Firstly, the material qualities of fat act upon the person in ways that call into question the sovereignty of the human will. In particular, as a substance that is thick, soft, and capable of adding weight to the body, fat has historically been cast as an encumbering materiality that can prevent the free movement of the limbs even as it seems to anchor the soul in ignoble flesh. )f, following Plato, the body 12 http://livelighter.com.au/the-facts/about-toxic-fat, accessed September 11, 2014. See also Deborah Lupto , ‘e olti g Bodies: The Pedagog of Disgust i Pu li Health Ca paig s. “ d e Health & “o iet G oup Wo ki g Pape No. “ d e : “ d e Health & “o iet G oup, , a d Ch istophe E. Fo th, Fat a d Disgust, o , the P o le of Life i the W o g Pla e, i Le dégoût. Histoire, Langage, Politique et Esth ti ue d’u e E otio Plu ielle, ed. Michel Delville, Andrew Norris and Viktoria von Hoffmann (Liège, Belgium: Presses Universitaires de Liège, 2015), 41-60. 13 Ch istophe E. Fo th, The Qualities of Fat: Bodies, Histo , a d Mate ialit , Journal of Material Culture 18,2 (2013): 135-54. On Fat and Fattening 55 could be viewed as the prison of the soul, by having a potentially immobilizing effect fat epitomized corporeality s incarcerating potential. Closely related to this point is the article s second claim: fat has implications for agency by virtue of the unstable power relationship implied in the act of fattening, which has been repeatedly framed in the West with reference to predatory animals that devour what belongs to others as well as domesticated animals fattened for consumption. Discourses of fat and fattening are thus saturated with allegations of failed agency, whether by citing the confining materiality of fat itself or by associating the fattened person with abject animality.14 After exploring these claims about materiality and animality with reference to select examples from classical antiquity, the essay presents a brief overview of how similar ideas mobilized weight-loss discourses from the nineteenth century through the 1930s, by which time most of our current anti-fat thinking had been firmly entrenched.15 By moving rather freely from the ancient to the modern this essay does not argue for an unbroken continuity across obviously diverse historical periods, nor does it seek to diminish the uniqueness of our contemporary concerns. Rather, faced with the commonplace assumption that our current anti-fat perceptions refect distinctly modern developments,16 it proposes that many of our current perceptions of fat may also be seen as amalgams of the archaic and the recent. Fat and Fatness The very term fat is itself a source of some controversy and misunderstanding. For many activists it has become a fighting word, prompting some to observe defensively that fat is really just an adjective, not an attack. 17 But fat is not only an adjective potentially conveying value judgments about the size and shape of the body, but a 14 Dep i ed of the hu a /a i al hie a h , a is a d othe fo s of e lusio ould lack the pejorative metaphorics that ani al alte it p o ides. Ch istophe Pete so , Bestial Traces: Race, Sexuality, Animality (New York: Fordham University Press, 2013), 8. 15 Georges Vigarello, Les ta o phoses du g as: histoi e de l’o sit (Paris: Seuil, 2010). 16 Scholarly claims that people in the ancient and premodern periods celebrated fat are widespread. For example, see Elena Levy-Navarro, The Culture of Obesity in Early and Late Modernity (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2008) and Amy E. Farrell, Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York: NYU Press, 2011). 17 Fat is a adje ti e, ot a atta k, August 6, 2010, accessed August 26, 2015, http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2010/08/fat-is-adjective-not-attack.html, August 6, 2010. 56 Christopher E. Forth noun referring to material properties that are subject – but not entirely reducible – to cultural interpretation. )nsofar as fat cannot be fully equated with the corporeal state of being or looking fat, it has a cultural valence in excess of its role in producing corpulence. Regardless of where we direct our scholarly gaze, the complex materiality of fat exceeds our current preoccupations with fatness.18 If we accept that fat is a noun as well as an adjective, to understand its role in agency we may also approach it as a thing in anthropologist Ian (odder s definition of the term. Like all things, fat fits into the category of contained entities that create bundles of presence or duration in the continual flows of matter, energy and information. Despite its lack of definite form, fat participates in the broadest sense of objectness when we consider that the word object is derived from the idea of throwing in the way. 19 Broadly construed as an object, fat has the capacity to assert itself, to resist or object in its relationship with subjects. )t thus shares in what (odder calls the objectness, the stand-in-the-wayness to things that resists, that forms, that entraps and entangles. 20 Although capable of possessing secondary agency derived from humans, fat also exercises primary agency in that it acts in the world as a result of processes of material interaction, transformation and decay. 21 As a substance, then, fat possesses the potential to thwart human intentions. Like any object, it can seemingly object to our wishes as it pursues its own agendas. (odder thus echoes Bruno Latour s point that, insofar as an object might authorize, allow, afford, encourage, permit, suggest, influence, block, render possible, forbid, and so on, it is fair to say that any thing that does modify a state of affairs by making a difference is an actor – or, if it has no figuration yet, an actant. 22 That fat exercises agency in ways that may frustrate the intentions of human subjects is evident in scientific observations about its role as an active tissue, but we can also detect its agentic potentialities when we approach fats and oils as lipids. As material substances dietary lipids endow foods with particular tactile qualities, notably viscosity and lubricity, which contribute to their distinctive and appealing mouth-feel. As scientists working in lipodomics contend, preferences for fat may be independent of the conscious ability to detect or assess the fat content of 18 Ch istophe E. Fo th, Mate ializi g Fat, i Fat: Culture and Materiality, ed. Christopher E. Forth and Alison Leitch (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 3-16. 19 Ian Hodder, Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 7. 20 Ibid., 13. 21 Ibid., 216. 22 Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor Network Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 71-2. On Fat and Fattening 57 solid foods. 23 The conscious perceptions and intentions of the human agent cannot account for all the things occurring at the level of biological processes. Viewing the self as an impure, human-nonhuman assemblage, political philosopher Jane Bennett approaches edible matter as an actant operating inside and alongside humankind, exerting influence on moods, dispositions, and decisions. 24 Drawing upon recent scientific research on the active role that lipids play in the body, Bennett describes how certain fatty acids have the potential to alter moods and attention levels, rendering prisoners less violent, schoolchildren more attentive, and bipolar persons less subject to dramatic emotional shifts. To engage in the act of eating is not simply to adopt the role of a subject who actively consumes passive objects, but to enter into an assemblage in which the ) is not necessarily the most decisive operator. 25 But we need not descend to the microscopic level to see how fats challenge volition. In simple gustatory terms, William Miller observes, greasy and sweet things allure us with their taste. They have the capacity to make us eat more of them than we wish; they are will-weakening or willdeviating. 26 Such observations support Rachel Colls claim that fat may be viewed as a form of bodily matter that is not only impinged upon by outside forces but has its own capacities to act and be active. 27 The notion that fat interferes with human agency, and that it can exercise a kind of agency of its own, is not a recent insight, but one that can be traced to antiquity. In fact, our modern denigration of fat has links to the classical validation of muscles as emblematic of masculinity and willpower. Agency in the West has not only been linked to the inner volition of individuals i.e., the movements of the soul , but to those parts of the body considered most likely to put inner commands into action. Seemingly more responsive to willpower, muscles have been more closely linked to volition than internal organs that function independently of conscious intention. Historian Shigehisa Kuriyama sees in the movement from Homer to Plato the gradual development of a notion of 23 Adam Drewnowski and Eva Almiron-‘oig, Hu a Pe eptio s a d P efe e es fo Fat-‘i h Foods, i Fat Detection: Taste, Texture, and Post Ingestive Effects, ed. JeanPierre Montmayeur and Johannes le Coutre (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010), 274 (265-91). 24 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), xvii. 25 Ibid., 40. 26 William Ian Miller, The Anatomy of Disgust (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 122. See also Deborah Gewertz and Frederick Errington, Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the Pacific Islands (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 19-24. 27 ‘a hel Colls, Mate ialising Bodily Matter: Intra-a tio a d the E odi e t of Fat, Geoforum 38 (2007): 358 (353–65). 58 Christopher E. Forth the human agent whose muscular activities express the volition of the soul: the rise of the preoccupation with muscles . . . is inextricably intertwined with the emergence of a particular conception of personhood. . . . Interest in the muscularity of the body was inseparable from a preoccupation with the agency of the self. 28 This emerging contrast between the firmness of muscularity and the flabbiness of fat (or, excessive fleshiness in general) was especially pronounced in male bodies, which were considered far more active than those of females. As will be discussed below, Greek and Roman culture maintained conflicting views of large bodies that could be admired as evidence of power and status or condemned as proof of effeminate luxury. Viewed in medical terms as a kind of cold residue of nutriment that gathers in certain bodily regions, fat has been treated as (among other things) an insensate and even foreign material deposited in the body through an intemperate diet, lack of exercise, or simply residing in a moist and cold environment. Regardless of how it came to accumulate, too much fat was seen as interfering with motility, promoting infertility, and even blocking cognition itself.29 According to the ancient science of physiognomy, fleshiness diminished the visible articulation of muscles and joints to create a feminine look in males that undermined ideals of virile hardness and agency. In fact, soft and flabby flesh could speak volumes about a person s character. The pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomics, which influenced Roman and medieval views of the body, linked personal character to bodily traits like shape, color, facial expression, and skin texture, as well as to physical actions like movement and voice. Among the beneficial signs of the brave man were strong and large bones and sides of the body with a broad and flat belly whereas excess flesh betokened foolishness and gluttony.30 The Hippocratic authors had attributed similar qualities to those fleshy, ill-articulated, moist, lazy, and generally cowardly populations residing in fertile regions where the fat soil meant that food could be produced with little 28 Shigehisa Kuriyama, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine (New York: Zone Books, 1999), 144, 146. A popular misconception holds that muscle can actually turn into fat when one stops exercising regularly. A ahad O Co o , The Clai : Mus le Tu s to Fat Whe You “top Wo ki g Out, The New York Times, July 26, 2005, accessed August 26, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/health/nutrition/26real.html?_r=0. 29 Susan E. Hill, Eating to Excess: The Meaning of Gluttony and the Fat Body in the Ancient World (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011), 68. 30 Aristotle, Physiognomics, in Minor Works, trans. W. S. Hett (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), 93, 99-101, 115-7; Kuriyama, Expressiveness, 134. On Fat and Fattening 59 effort,31 but these were often the same traits attributed to domesticated animals fattened for human consumption through restrictions on diet and movement.32 In the case of humans great masses of flesh were seen as supplemental to – and thus not really part of – the true body which was perceived as being neither too thin nor too fat.33 Given the cultural devaluation of softness that circulated widely in Greece and Rome, cautionary tales about the effects of luxurious living were sometimes spun about Asiatic tyrants incapacitated by fat. The third century writer Aelian tells the story of the tyrant Dionysius of Heraclea, whose habitual gluttony caused him to gain so much weight that he found it difficult to breathe and, out of shame, held audiences while seated behind a chest that concealed all but his face. His physicians recommended passing long needles into his ribs and stomach while he was in a deep sleep so that, by passing through his fat – which, because it was insensitive, and in a sense not part of him – they could locate flesh that was not transformed by the excess of fat. 34 Ptolemy V)) s son Alexander was reputed to have been so fat that he could not take a leisurely stroll without two men to lean upon as he walked. Worse, perhaps, was the fate of the self-indulgent King Magas of Cyrene, who was so weighted down with monstrous masses of flesh in his last days that he choked himself to death because he was so fat, never taking any exercise and always eating quantities of food. 35 In addition to providing the conceptual tools for the racialized antifat stereotypes that abounded in the nineteenth century, classical examples suggest that the materiality of fat possessed an agency of its own, encumbering and suffocating bodies in ways that threw into relief lapses of human volition. Possessing the qualities of softness and flabbiness, fat has functioned since antiquity as the moral and physical other of muscle and sinew, whether this tension has been manifested literally in the validation of hard and taut bodies over soft ones, or figuratively through references to a softness of character and a lack of willpower. One could propose that the cultural stock of the fat and flabby has often 31 Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, Places, in Hippocrates I, trans. W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957), xxiv, 40-60, 137. 32 Pliny, Histoire naturelle, livre XI, t a s. A. E out Pa is: “o i t d ditio « Les Belles Lettres », 1947), Book XI, LXXIX, 559. 33 Karine Karila-Cohe , Le gou a ds g e so t-ils ie e hai ? -2 (109-32), in Le corps du gourmand, ed. Karine Karila-Cohen and Florent Quellier (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012). 34 Aelian, Historical Miscellany, trans. N. G. Wilson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 291-3l. 35 Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, trans. Charles Burton Gulick (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933), V: 493-7. 60 Christopher E. Forth declined whenever muscularity and willpower have been privileged. If muscle is the volitional tissue par excellence, then, as a generalized flabbiness fatness may materializes the lack of willpower that disqualifies one from embodied citizenship in Western culture.36 As the next section shows, the process of fattening offered a more pronounced example of failed agency. Fat and Fattening Although largely ignored in contemporary analyses of fat stigma, the ambiguities surrounding eating and feeding (or consuming and devouring) are crucial for the social dynamics that fattening seems to crystallize. Such issues are central to what the sociologist Claude Fischler sees as a fundamental conception, apparently very archaic and perhaps universal, of the social bond in which food i.e., wealth is not created but shared. In this zero-sum situation, traces of which may be detected even in modern developed countries, individuals and groups relate to one another like communicating vessels whereby those who consume more than their share do so at the expense of others. This may be experienced not only as illegitimately taking the rightful share of another, but of nourishing oneself on the very substance of another that amounts to a form of vampirism or even cannibalism.37 This is why Fischler, putting aside the aesthetic issue of bodily appearance, argues against imagining utopias long past in which fatness was unequivocally celebrated. Insofar as the corpulent seemed to thrive on the substance of others, it is safer to conclude that the figure of the fat man is profoundly ambivalent. 38 Historically minded scholars are aware of how this ambiguity has been played out in the West, where representations of social elites as fat have been capable of signifying power (and thus an ability to act) as well as oppression, specifically when said elites seem to fatten themselves on what belongs to others.39 What gives this ambiguity its force is the more basic fact that eating refers to a biological activity that people share with non-human animals, which is why nourishing oneself on the very substance of another inevitably raises the specter of savage or 36 Ana Carden-Coyne, Reconstructing the Body: Classicism, Modernism, and the First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 4. 37 Claude Fischler, L’Ho i o e. Le goût, la uisi e et le o ps (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2001), 346. 38 Ibid., 337. 39 A ie Dup at, O ses et dévoreurs: le o ps da s le a i atu e politi ue, i KarilaCohen and Quellier, Le corps du gourmand, 272 (271-83). On Fat and Fattening 61 animalistic behavior, one effect of which has been a recurring tendency in the West to draw analogies between gluttony and corpulence and the bodies and behavior of cows, pigs, bears, etc.40 Of particular concern here, though, is the unequal power relationship between human and nonhuman animals that feeding and fattening have historically evoked. Consider the French term, l engrais. In addition to denoting manure, a substance whose fecundity was linked to its intrinsic greasiness or fatness, the word also referred to the act of putting animals to pasture in order to fatten them for slaughter (mettre à l engrais; tenir à l engrais). In addition to evoking the scent of excrement, then, when viewed from the perspective of animal bodies fattening also carried a whiff of subordination and violence. Something similar occurs in English. The Oxford English Dictionary reveals that the verb to feed, which during the eighteenth century meant the same thing as to grow fat, could refer to the grazing of animals as well as feeding on someone else, or parasitically living at someone else s expense. The verb could thus place one in a position of agency (to take food; to eat) or subjection, as in the nineteenth-century phrase to feed off, meaning to fatten an animal for sale or slaughter. The ambiguity of feeding is also at the root of the term obesity. As the past participle of the Latin verb obedere (to eat away, eat into), the term obesus originally meant skinny, all skin and bone but over time developed to refer instead to one who devours. 41 We can probe this ambivalence with reference to the Romans, among whom fat elites could indeed be viewed in positive terms. Research into aristocratic portraiture suggests that, at least during the late Republican era, corpulence was a personal feature that could be highlighted and even exaggerated in order to underscore the character of an individual. This respectable minority tradition could even enhance the subject s flesh in order to signify energetic strength and power.42 In this sense the fattened elite seems to embody agency and power. Yet such positive depictions of patrician corpulence are complicated by suspicions that, rather than 40 For example, see Jérôme Wilgaux, Gourmands et gloutons dans les sources physiognomiques antiques, i Karila-Cohen and Quellier, Le corps du gourmand (2336), a d Flo e t Quellie , Du e t e au palais. Le o ps du gou a d da s les t ait s de civilité (XVe-d ut XIXe si le -89), in Karila-Cohen and Quellier, Le corps du gourmand, 57-89. 41 Ch isti e H ault, Eati g Be o d Ce tai ties, i From Polysemy to Semantic Change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations, ed. Martine Vanhove (Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins Publishing Co., 2008), 293 (291-301). 42 R. R. ‘. “ ith, The Pu li I age of Li i ius I: Po t ait “ ulptu e a d I pe ial Ideolog i the Ea l Fou th Ce tu , Journal of Roman Studies 87 (1997): 191-2 (170-202), see also Anthony Corbeill, Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 139-43. 62 Christopher E. Forth being in full possession of themselves, such people were subject to forces that controlled them, such as irrational appetites that have been given free rein. They reveal themselves, as Michel Foucault noted with regard to (ellenic culture, as being in a state of nonresistance with regard to the force of pleasures. 43 Bloated bodies were a common target of Roman satire that took aim at the corrupting effects that luxury could have on bodies and minds. Such people seemed as if they were mindlessly feeding, propelled along by appetites they would no longer control. Insofar as devouring threatens to call into question the agency of the one who devours, the ambivalence that Fischler rightly observes may be even more profound than he recognizes. In such cases the reference to agriculture and animality is inescapable: one of the main functions of fattened domesticated animals is to be slaughtered and consumed by humans. The agricultural writer, Varro, had no doubt of the subordination that the weight of fat entailed for barnyard fowl: These are shut into a warm, narrow, darkened place, because movement on their part and light free them from the slavery of fat. 44 Even when having grown fat through feasting, an act that under the right circumstances could affirm the mastery of diners over their food, the fattening of humans has never been free of subtle links to animality. We have seen above how the (ippocratics viewed populations of soft people living on fat lands, and Greek moralists registered contempt for those who seemed to emulate the more placid of beasts. Plato himself wondered what people would be like in a society that freely provided basic necessities and eliminated the need for vigorous effort to obtain them: is each of them to live out his life getting fattened up, like a cow? In his view such people had become fit for the slaughter by stronger and hardier types: it s appropriate that an idle, soft-spirited, and fattened animal usually is ravaged by one of those other animals who have been worn very hard with courage and labors. 45 If Plato modeled human hierarchies on animal relationships, the Stoics extended these ideas in their sharp criticisms of luxuries that threatened to reduce men to the level of the most ignoble of beasts. Seneca described how dissolute fat men who keep late hours and get no exercise are like birds being fattened for the slaughter, except that – unlike animals that have been captured by 43 Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasure, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage, 1990), 84. 44 Varro, De Re Rustica, trans. W. D. Hooper and H. B. Ash (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934), 481-2. 45 Plato, The Laws, trans. Thomas L. Pangle (New York: Basic Books, 1980), 806d-807b (196-7). On Fat and Fattening 63 humans – such men are personally responsible for the fact that their idle bodies are overwhelmed with flesh. 46 Insofar as self-mastery was often viewed as an intrinsically masculine attribute, virile by definition, 47 the subjection that fattening could imply was implicitly gendered. )t is not simply that women s bodies were thought to be naturally softer and fleshier than male bodies, although such claims have certainly appeared in medical writing since Hippocratic times.48 What was at stake were the circumstances that might cause a properly firm and solid body to become soft and flabby, and here the agricultural imagination continued to supply food for thought. The history of meat-eating is permeated by sexualized images of women as docile, meek and/or cunning animals (birds, rabbits, foxes, etc.) to be hunted and consumed by intrepid men whose masculine status is reaffirmed through more-or-less figurative hunting and slaughtering, or less flatteringly as cows or pigs that invokes the deliberate fattening of animals for consumption. The entire system operates as if women are perceived by men to be analogous to hunted, or else farmed, meat. 49 While this fattening of animals for consumption reveals important homologies to the domination of women that, as we will see, became especially operative during the nineteenth century, it is also true that entire species are feminized through fattening, regardless of the sex of individual animals. As every farmer has known since antiquity, certain male animals tend to grow fatter once they have been castrated, with the result being that their flesh becomes more tender and palatable while their dispositions may grow softer and more docile.50 The same was said to hold true for eunuchs who, as an anonymous Latin physiognomy text from the fourth century claimed, may be recognized by such traits as fat calves, thick feet like lumps of meat, a feminine voice, women s words, all limbs and joints without vigour, lax and loose. 51 Animal analogies thus 46 Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, trans. Richard M. Gummere (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), III: 412-3. 47 Foucault, Use of Pleasure, 83. 48 A Ellis Ha so , Co eptio , Gestatio , a d the O igi of Fe ale Natu e i the Corpus Hippocraticum, Helios 19,1-2 (1992): 48, 51-2, Lesley Dean-Jo es, The Cultu al Co st u t of the Fe ale Bod i Classi al G eek “ ie e, i Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Mark Golden and Peter Toohey (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003), 188-9. 49 Nick Fiddes, Meat: A Natural Symbol, London: Routledge, 1991), 151. 50 Noëlie Vialles, Animal to Edible, trans. J. A. Underwood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 128-9. 51 Ma f ed Ho st a shoff, Who is the t ue Eu u h? Medi al a d ‘eligious Ideas a out Eu u hs a d Cast atio i the Wo ks of Cle e t of Ale a d ia, i From Athens to Jerusalem: Medicine in Hellenized Jewish Lore and in Early Christian Literature, ed. 64 Christopher E. Forth provide the deepest cultural sources for the notion that fattening represents an abdication of (implicitly masculine) agency leading to a fleshy incarceration and eventual slaughter and/or consumption. Voluntarist activity, especially when linked to muscular exertion and the generation of bodily heat considered most appropriate to male bodies, provided a status shield protecting elites from the potential stigma that excess flesh might provoke. In Rome a fat elite could enjoy public esteem so long as he continued to demonstrate energy and a capacity for work. Yet if his corpulence prevented him from leading an active and assertive public life, then his accumulated fat – as well as the fattening that brought this about – could be construed as a symptom of effeminate softness.52 It was thus possible to condemn leaders who, once renowned for feats of bravery, grew fat and complacent during peacetime. Giving voice to what classicists sometimes call the Spartan mirage – which includes the recurring story of how fat Spartans were punished and threatened with banishment – Plutarch maintained that regular campaigns and warfare were good for kings. In his Moralia this great admirer of Sparta described how the once valiant King Attalus II of Pergamon had been so completely enfeebled by long inactivity and peace that he suffered the disgrace of being actually fattened like a sheep by his chief minister Philopoemen.53 Although there is no space here to elaborate on the legacy of such images, it is worth noting in passing that the Middle Ages extended this ancient contempt for fattened monarchs whose bloated frames prevented them from riding and fighting, as if the taste for food and comfort had overpowered their hunger for glory.54 The invective heaped upon such failed rulers borrowed liberally from agricultural models. In the twelfth century the troubadour Bertran de Born echoed this fear of corruption through too much peace: War is no noble word, when it s waged without fire and blood for a king or great potentate whom anyone can scorn and call a liar, Samuel Kottek and Manfred Horstmanshoff (Rotterdam: Erasmus Publishing, 2000), 103 (101-118). 52 Sara Elise Phang, Roman Military Service: Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 264-6. 53 Plutarch, Moralia, vol. X, trans. Harold North Fowler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 123-5. For a general discussion of the Spartan ideal in relation to fat, see Christopher E. Forth, “pa ta Mi ages: Fat, Mas uli it , a d “oft ess, Masculinidades y cambio social/Masculinities and Social Change, 1,3 (October 2012): 240-66. 54 Sander Gilman, Fat Boys: A Thin Book (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 12. On Fat and Fattening 65 and he just relaxes and fattens up! A young man who doesn t feed on war soon becomes fat and rotten [gras e savais]. 55 These select examples suggest that fattening, as well as the feeding that produces it, has complicated implications for agency that have extended well beyond the classical era. Since antiquity European nobles have partly displayed their power through the quality and quantity of the food they consumed. As such they could be likened to predatory animals that feed upon the meek and powerless. The physical strength that was so closely associated with the warrior caste of noblemen, as well as the meat-eating that by the Middle Ages would distinguish noble fare from the mostly grain-based diets of the peasantry, placed great emphasis on the ability to eat to satiety, thus expressing in alimentary terms a nobleman s ability to dominate others.56 Yet the seemingly positive images of wealth, status and power radiated by elite corpulence were potentially complicated by niggling questions about the circumstances surrounding such fattening. To grow fat through good living could signify agency, status and enjoyment. It could even indicate a predatory role in which a person devoured others in a manner commensurate with his or her power. But this impression remained haunted by the notion that such a person had abdicated self-mastery by succumbing to more powerful appetites, thus bringing about an internal reversal of power relations resulting in a sort of self-fattening that could be considered ignoble and demeaning. When it did not imply a kind of infantile position vis-à-vis a mother or caregiver, to be fattened by someone else, in the manner of a pig or chicken, could suggest a resemblance to docile livestock destined for the chop. If we recall that fat has itself been viewed as an intrinsically encumbering substance, we can see how the materiality of fat literally incorporated the power relationships that fattening could represent. As the next and final section shows, such ideas persisted well beyond the classical era, albeit in reworked and updated forms. 55 Wendy Pfeffer, Proverbs in Medieval Occitan Literature (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997), 56. 56 See Massi o Mo ta a i, Peasa ts, Wa io s, P iests: I ages of “o iet a d “t les of Diet, 179 (251-67) and Antoni Riera-Melis, “o iet , Food, a d Feudalis , 67), in Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, ed. Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari, trans. Clarissa Botsford, Arthur Goldhammer, Charles Lambert, Frances M. López-Morillas and Sylvia Stevens (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999). 66 Christopher E. Forth Materiality and Animality, c. 1850s-1930s Leaping over centuries of undeniable change in how Western culture came to view bodies, this final section considers how ancient ways of conceptualizing the relationship between fat and agency continued to be imagined in the modern era, with special attention devoted to British, French, and American sources from the mid nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Of the several changes that took place during the modern period, especially a pronounced idealization of slender bodies beginning around 1900, three developments are critical for understanding the changing terrain on which our contemporary antifat sentiments took root. Firstly, the ambiguous vitality that had once been attributed to fatty substances fell into decline towards the end of the eighteenth century, after which fat was much more likely to be denigrated as a kind of filth connected to lower-class and non-white bodies.57 Secondly, as exploration revealed more details about the world beyond European borders ethnographic reports and travelers tales began to recount with disgust and contempt how certain African and Asian populations relished fatness to the point of incapacitation, at times deliberately fattening girls in ways that Europeans likened to the treatment of livestock. In so doing the European cultural imagination drew explicitly upon classical antecedents to offer a more pronounced racial dimension to emerging obsessions with thinness around 1900.58 What connected these two developments was, thirdly, a more heightened aversion to reminders of human animality and organicity that had been developing since the early modern era as well as a more pronounced concern with personal and racial hygiene that emerged in the early twentieth century.59 As Westerners began to insist upon their status as clean, self-contained, and white, and thus to imagine themselves as standing outside of the cycles of organic life, they were challenged by the menace posed by an invading and potentially incapacitating substance. The discussion that follows offers brief glimpses into how the material agency of fat and the animalization of fattening complicated these modern ideals. 57 Fo th, Melti g Mo e ts, -100. 58 Ch istophe E. Fo th, Fat, Desi e, a d Disgust i the Colo ial I agi atio , History Workshop Journal 73, 1 (Spring 2012): 211-39. 59 Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution “a F a is o: Ha pe a d ‘o , . As Ch isti a Cogdell poi ts out, lea li ess often referred as much to having a pure hereditary lineage and unblemished moral e o d as it did to keepi g o e s od a d ho e f ee f o di t. Cogdell, Eugenic Design: Streamlining America in the 1930s (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 157. On Fat and Fattening 67 )f at the end of the ninetenth century obesity represented what a French physician called the enemy of feminine beauty in the West, at least , then preventing this fatty invasion of the body was tantamount to repelling from the civilized self the creeping savagery that corpulence had come to represent.60 Such impressions of fat as an alien invader of the civilized white body were widespread from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Defending his repeated use of the word parasite to describe the effects of adipose tissue on the body, in his wildly popular Letter on Corpulence the British diet reformer William Banting famously insisted that if fat is not an insidious creeping enemy, ) do not know what is. 61 This claim was echoed decades later by the physician Leonard Williams. An outspoken critic of obesity, Williams supposed that aortic regurgitation, a heart condition in which the aortic valve does not close tightly, could be brought about by accumulated fat in the organ. Williams discouraged thinking about fat as being somehow inert. There is something peculiarly repulsive in the thought of that small and innocent wad of fat lying along the coronary artery posing as a protector when in reality its purpose is to lie in wait. This seemingly innocuous substance begins its stealthy insinuating march towards the centre, to start a campaign of silent destruction, which it prosecutes with relentless industry. Only when it reaches the tissue of the heart does its work come to an end in the disaster which it has been preparing. Making use of martial metaphors to describe the sly and stealthy progress of this parasitic fat as it makes its way to the heart, Williams confessed that it is almost possible to persuade oneself that this wad of fat is possessed of a purpose; that its attack upon the very centre and mainspring of organic life is dictated by knowledge, and carried out on a diabolically effective scheme, devised of malice aforethought. 62 If in this particular case Williams concern was medical rather than aesthetic, readers of the French women s magazine, La Femme de France, had every reason to believe that fat truly was the enemy of beauty, as the magazine pronounced in 9 . Every woman knows it, and should fight it as soon as it appears. 63 Many writers made use of metonymy that allowed the property of a thing (l embonpoint, l obésité) to stand in for the thing that effects that property (la graisse . The more one allows oneself to be invaded by embonpoint, the more difficult it is to stop it. 64 Hence the common metaphors of aggression and resistance used to market 60 61 62 63 64 Dr. E. Monin, Hygiène de la beauté (Paris: Octave Doin, 1890), 16-20. William Banting, Letter on Corpulence (3rd ed.: London: Harrison, 1864), 43. Leonard Williams, Obesity (London: Humphrey Milford, 1926), 38-9. La ‘u he, La Femme de France, no. 272 (25 July 1920): 5. La ‘u he, La Femme de France, no. 269 (4 July 1920): 3. 68 Christopher E. Forth weight-loss products: Don t let yourself be invaded by this enemy of beauty. 65 At times fatness was even invested with a kind of awareness, as if driven by the more or less conscious aim of murdering gracefulness: obesity seizes beauty and suffocates it. 66 But this it accomplishes quietly, as a Dr Mestadier warned readers in one of his frequent articles on health: Obesity does not begin all of a sudden; it insinuates itself sneakily [sournoisement], little by little, infiltrating the tissues, insidiously padding [matelassant] the cellular layer of the skin. 67 Here fatty tissue is accorded clear intentions. Its accumulation is the result of the will of a living substance that possessed feelings and that was smart enough to retreat when faced with muscle, that most agentic of bodily tissues. Fat does not like effort and disappears with the play of muscles. Capable of being mischievous as well and lazy and cowardly, fat misbehaved in ways that demanded immediate correction: Being active and sober, that s the sure way to prevent the misdeeds of fat [les méfaits de la graisse]. 68 If the invasive agency of fat served to subvert the plans of human subjects, urban modernity s gradual erasure of the animal and organic from everyday life arguably sharpened repugnance towards fat. By 1900 the large urban centers that were once described as vast organisms were increasingly described in mechanical terms. By then the thousands of horses, cows and pigs that proliferated in nineteenth-century cities were linked to animal and natural categories that seemed unhygienic and inefficient in a world increasingly devoted to artifice and the mechanization of life.69 One effect of the growing acceptance of mechanistic conceptions of bodies, which had been developing since the seventeenth century, was a corresponding denigration of those bodies that were too closely linked to sheer organicism and animality. This may be why, despite the growing popularity of mechanical imagery, agricultural common sense continued to play a role in perceptions of corpulence, mostly as a warning against allowing human beings to slip into degrading states of animality. After all, at this time the body was also imagined with reference to the vitalistic theories that since the 65 La ‘u he, La Femme de France, no. 230 (5 October 1919): 12. 66 La ‘u he, La Femme de France, no. 137 (23 December 1917): 3. 67 D Mestadie , Le poids et la taille, La Femme de France, no. 332 (18 September 1921): 24. 68 D Mestadie , Pou e pas g ossi , La Femme de France, no. 358 (19 March 1922): 24. 69 Pete “oppelsa, The I st u e talisatio of Ho ses i Ni etee th-Ce tu Pa is, i Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments, ed. Rob Boddice (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 245- , Pete Atki s, A i al Wastes a d Nuisa es i Ni etee th-Century Lo do , i Animal Cities: Beastly Urban Histories, ed. Peter Atkins (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), 19-51. On Fat and Fattening 69 nineteenth century had insisted on the properly spiritual dimensions of human life.70 Not only were vitalism and mechanism at times combined in the bodily ideals of the early twentieth century,71 but to the extent that each provided ways of thinking about human perfectibility neither had much tolerance for banal animality. The popular beauty writer Ella Adelia Fletcher, who was also a noted theosophist, was among those who promoted a transcendence of animality: Living to eat is debasing life to its lowest terms, on a plane with mere animal life, and the man or woman who does this often fails to evince even the instinct and discretion with which the higher order of beasts control their appetites. 72 Hard-nosed medical authors concurred. Writing against the French practice of childrearing known as puericulture that celebrated the plumpness of babies, the physician Armand (emmerdinger retorted that The value of a pig is measured according to weight, not that of a child. 73 Such associations between animalty and primitivity relied upon stereotypes created during the age of European empires and pertained especially to the treatment of women. Female agency and emancipation were among the things promoted by those authors who objected to the forced fattening of non-Western girls as a form of brutal subjection. In the nineteenth century it was often claimed that excess fat corrupts female beauty, but readers were also reminded that, when encumbered by fat, the soul is oppressed by the enormous weight of the substance and thus impairs all the functions of the understanding. 74 Acknowledging subtle connections between desire and power, several commentators proposed that the pleasure that Asian and African men took in excessively fat females thinly concealed their tyrannical wish to dominate them. Variations on the claim that Oriental ladies are fattened for matrimony, 70 James C. Whorton, Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 10. 71 See Joan Tumblety, Remaking the Male Body: Masculinity and the Uses of Physical Culture in Interwar and Vichy France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), and Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Managing the Body: Beauty, Health, and Fitness in Britain, 1880-1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). 72 Ella Adelia Fletcher, The Woman Beautiful Ne Yo k: B e ta o s, , . 73 Armand Hemmerdinger, La fi du a ty e de l’o se (Paris: J. Oliven, 1932), 19, on puericulture, see Peter N. Stearns, Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West (New York: NYU Press, 1997). 74 Séjour de Lorraine, Les secrets de la beauté du visage et du corps Pa is: hez l auteu , 1855), 31, 37. This text reiterates the point made a century earlier in Antoine Le Ca us ell-known beauty manual Abdeker: The “oul is o e hel d ith the Weight of a huge Lump of Matter, and all the Functions of the Understanding are in such a languishing Condition, that it can shew no marks of its former Brightness. Antoine Le Camus, Abdeker: or, the art of preserving beauty (London: A. Millar, 1754), 25. 70 Christopher E. Forth as we of this Western world fatten pigs for the market 75 were made throughout the century, as were complaints about how the bodies of such women were rendered sensual, indolent and vain because their flesh had been nourished at the expense of their souls. 76 Disgusted reactions at non-Western aesthetic appreciation for fat women were combined with outrage at the implications that such fattening had for female dignity. How, some wondered, could men in such cultures turn the most excessive embonpoint, and the perpetual imprisonment that encourages it, into principles of honor, wisdom, and good taste ?77 Disregarding the numerous ways in which Western culture imposed its own demands upon female bodies, many contended that compulsory fattening represented a crippling of women that rendered them immobile and stupid as well as unappealing. One thus claimed that the practice of force-feeding slave girls revealed a desire to shackle the liberty of women under the burden of excessive embonpoint not unlike the motivation behind the Chinese practice of foot-binding.78 Mobilizing ancient agricultural wisdom to make a modern point, others proposed that true respect for women required being released from such fleshy prisons: When birds endure captivity they get fat. Such are the prisoners of the Orient. 79 Others looked beyond gender to propose that fattening reduced a human being to the level of sheer animality. This is not obesity, this is fattening [engraissement], emphasized one academic, a horror so degrading that finding a single comparative term to describe it would force one to descend to relations that would be insulting for the human species. 80 Although it is unlikely that many of these commentators would have supported feminist causes, political imperatives accompanied these aesthetic exhortations to slim down. The American writer Vance Thompson, who in an earlier book had fretted over how many young and beautiful women had succumbed to the tragedy of fat, 81 deplored the historical conditions that reduced women to life in a coop in which they 75 Anna Kingsford, Health, beauty, and the toilet. Letters to ladies from a lady doctor (London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1886), 9. 76 Ad le Ho ai e de Hell, Les A ie es à Co sta ti ople, La Revue de l'Orient: Bulletin de la Société Orientale, 7 (1845): 138 (130-9). 77 Antoine-François-Félix Roselly de Lorgues, La croix dans les deux mondes, ou la clef de la connaissance (4th ed: Paris: L.-F. Hivert, 1847), 94-5. 78 Paul Belouino, La femme: physiologie, histoire, morale (Paris: Perisse Frères, [1845] 1853), 217. 79 Casimir Henricy, Les œu s et ostu es des peoples de l’Af i ue et de l’O a ie (Paris: Les principaux libraires, 1847), 82. 80 Joseph de C ozals, Tu is, La Revue bleue 18,9 (27 August 1881): 277 (275-86). 81 Vance Thompson, Eat and Grow Thin: The Mahdah Menus (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1914), 3-4. On Fat and Fattening 71 are fattened and subordinated to men. Africa offered a good example of this. According to Thompson, a certain chief from the Congo regularly fattens his females up and uses them as cushions to sit on – or mattresses to sleep upon. 82 Such transformations of females into sex toys, domestic animals, and perhaps even furniture, located fatness and fattening on the side of socially backward and misogynist values, though one did not need to be a feminist in order to deplore such practices. In addition to calling upon women to leave the prison of coop-life, Thompson even applauded sartorial reforms in which women might wear breeches: As a matter of fact every woman who approaches, even, the normal type of humanity looks well in them. It is only the women, unhappy victims of life, who have had fat bred on to the wrong parts of their bodies by generations of cooplife indolence, who need shudder away from them. 83 Similar ideas circulated in other countries, where the implications of treating women like livestock were sometimes coupled with reminders of what happened to animals systematically deprived of movement and light. When pondering corpulence, warned Armand Hemmerdinger, one should not confuse the perspective of the cook for that of the bird. Citing the inevitable fate of Strasbourg geese as well as pigs, he reminded women that the breeder considers the beast to be in good form [en bon point] when it is fat enough to be killed. 84 Advocates for women s rights shared the idea that fatness was a form of domestic servitude that needed to be overcome. Those pressing for women s suffrage saw the battle as being not simply about beauty and appearance, but about the personal qualities they hoped that their bodies might convey: not flabby sentimentality or weakness, but the courage, resolve and willpower that only slender bodies seemed to signify. The latter were dramatized when imprisoned suffragists went on hunger strikes and had to resist both their own hunger pangs and the forcefeeding to which they were sometimes subjected.85 But this was evident in women s fitness movement as well, many of which were consistent with calls for female emancipation. German feminists like Anna FischerDückelmann, for example, saw in women s engagement with modern health and beauty regimens evidence of a fully developed female personality capable of achieving social and economic independence.86 Beautification techniques thus enhanced female agency even as they 82 83 84 85 Vance Thompson, Woman (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1917), 20. Thompson, Woman, 136. Hemmerdinger, La fin du martyre, 28. Hillel Schwartz, Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat (New York: Collier MacMillan Publishers, 1986), 124. 86 Michael Hau, The Cult of Health and Beauty in Germany: A Social History, 1890–1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 72-5. 72 Christopher E. Forth represented submission to aesthetic ideals.87 Historian Amy Erdman Farrell thus rightly observes that to the extent that feminism means claiming a place of equality and resisting the position of other, it is no wonder that feminists have had a peculiar relationship to weight – both recognizing the way ideas about weight get wielded against women but also wanting to resist the stigma of weak willed and primitive that fatness connotes. 88 Amid growing claims that masculinity was under fire in the twentieth century, the idea that fattening is feminizing, and thus at odds with agency, was central to many calls for male weight-loss. Fat women might be hard to tolerate, claimed one fitness writer, but it is absolutely impossible to look at an obese man without a feeling of disgust. 89 Leonard Williams, whom we have already encountered, warned men not to be fooled if women seem to take pride in their swelling bodies as a farmer takes in his well-fed animals, for she probably has darker motives for fattening him up. She realizes by a sort of hereditary sex instinct that a fat man is easy-going, yielding, uncritical; stupid in fact. Demonstrating the ancient insight that informed his claim, Williams proposed that those women for whom this was not a purely instinctual reflex could consult Shakespeare s claim borrowed from Plutarch that Julius Caesar wisely preferred to surround himself with lazy and sleepy fat men: All tyrants know that they are safe with fat men, and the domestic tyrant is no exception. 90 Modeled on perennial references to livestock that become fatter and more manageable after castration, this was a form of domestication that women just know as part of their evolutionary heritage. Williams was hardly the only one to make such claims. Drawing direct analogies between the obese man and the animal being fattened for the kill [l animal à l engrais], the French physician Francis (eckel described the former as a monster ill-adapted to his human function. Insofar as the act of fattening constitutes beauty only among pigs, sheep and cows, it was completely at odds with masculinity. Fat devirilizes and emasculates. 91 87 Katha i a Veste , ‘egi e Cha ge: Ge de , Class, a d the I e tio of Dieti g i PostBellu A e i a, Journal of Social History 44,1 (2010): 39-70. 88 Farrell, Fat Shame, 115. 89 Amelia Summerville, Why Be Fat? Rules for Weight-Reduction and the Preservation of Youth and Health (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1916), 38. 90 Williams, Obesity, 3. 91 Francis Heckel, Maigrir: pourquoi? comment? (Paris : « La Renaissance du livre », 1930), 28. On Fat and Fattening 73 Conclusion In an apparent reversal of early twentieth-century fears of housewives fattening their husbands like domestic animals, sexualized power relationship between those who feed and those who are fed is evident in the erotic fetish known as feederism, whose participants take special interest in becoming or helping others to become very fat. For many (usually) male feeders the thought of filling a woman to repletion and beyond combines agency and power with an eroticism that likens feeding to sexual penetration. )n this subculture being taken to immobility represents complete commitment to the feeder-gainer relationship, even if this exists more as a male fantasy than a lived reality.92 Feedees are thus often fattened and photographed or videoed so that their size and weight may be displayed on the internet. While it is sometimes claimed that feedees take an active role in their own fattening and obtain a sense of accomplishment when they achieve a certain weight,93 a recent study shows that in the feeder/feedee relationship men are still in control of the behavior and of how women are portayed and treated as feedees. 94 It is perhaps telling that more extreme feederism sites typically refer to feedees as pigs see http://www.extremefeeding.com/index.php/en/ or that stories and personal ads posted on Fantasyfeeder.com often discuss the feeding individual in terms of livestock or cattle. Feeding and fattening thus retain their ancient links to animality as well as an encumbering materiality capable of undermining agency, especially when real or fantasized immobility is seen as an ideal. All of this suggests the durability of certain ideas about the body and eating that have continued to circulate in Western culture since antiquity, albeit in selective and altered ways. To borrow the phrase of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, fat and fattening are bound up with the very metaphors we live by, just as the language of the firm and the flabby permeates our everyday lives, as do the closely related oppositions between hard and soft, masculine and feminine, human and animal.95 92 Don Kuli k, Po , i Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession, ed. Don Kulick and Anne Meneley (New York: Tarcher, 2005), 82 (77-92). 93 It is not only women who engage in such practices. As a gay man identifying himself as fatte e up to e plode u e tl : 150lbs, goal: 799lbs) posted on the Fantasy Feede e site o Jul , Hi, I am looking for someone to feed me till I cant move anymore. Then I wanna keep eating and eating and eating. I wanna just keep g o i g. lo e to get fat : . http://fa tas feeder.com/gainers?rowStart=10. 94 A ia e P ohaska, Feede is : T a sg essi e Beha io o “a e Old Pat ia hal “e ? International Journal of Social Science Studies 1,2 (2013): 111 (104-12). 95 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). 74 Christopher E. Forth However unstable, contradictory and deconstructable they may be, these oppositional pairs are so durable that they continue to structure perceptions even when we consciously resist the urge to insert individuals into these categories. Indeed, in addition to the racial dimensions of antifat invective, it might be said that stereotypes about fat people today are still haunted by the niggling specter of animality that attends so much of our stereotyping. Thus, if fat people have been likened to beasts, as one disturbingly dehumanizing blog today insists,96 it may have as much to do with aesthetic claims as with challenges that animalistic fattening poses for agency. Indeed, to characterize fat as a form of blubber, or to describe corpulent people as whales, pigs, cows, etc., reveals a deeply ingrained tendency to invoke certain animals as ways of denigrating individuals. Nor have we lost connections between feeding, power and animality. Greg Critser suggests that typically more healthy and slender white elites are happy to align the poor with livestock whose consumption reduces the possibility of their demanding real social change: fat people do not threaten our way of life; their angers entombed in flesh, they are slowed, they are softened, they are fed. 97 Christopher E. Forth, contact: cforth (at) ku.edu, is the Howard Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at the University of Kansas. A specialist in the cultural history of gender, sexuality and the body, he is the author or editor of eleven books, including The Dreyfus Affair and the Crisis of French Manhood (2004) and Masculinity in the Modern West: Gender, Civilization and the Body (2008), as well as the co-edited volume Fat: Culture and Materiality (2014). He is currently completing a cultural history of fat in the West, and has begun research o a e ook p oje t te tati ely e titled Me ’s Milk: A Cultu al Histo y of “e e . 96 The C usade Agai st Fat People: “a i g the Wo ld f o O e Disgusti g Beast at a Time, https:// ehatefatpeople. o dp ess. o /. 97 G eg C itse , Let The Eat Fat: The Hea T uths a out A e i a O esit , Ha pe ’s Magazine, March 2000, 47 (41-7). Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 75-93 The Narrating Stomach: Appetite, Authority and Agency in Sydney Whiting's 1853 Memoirs of a Stomach Joyce L. Huff English a stra t: “yd ey Whiti g’s 1853 Memoirs of a Stomach provides a vehicle for investigati g the ody’s pote tial to resist hu a o trol a d i flue e hu a a tivities. Such work is important to fat studies because a fear of such bodily agency underlies current Western fatphobia. Memoirs is modeled on eighteenth-century it-narratives, in which fictional nonhuman narrators recount their circulation through human systems of exchange. By granting the stomach authority over a erri g self, Whiti g’s embodied manifestation of the it-narrative reverses the usual hierarchy of mind over matter. However, the co i ature of Whiti g’s tale simultaneously undermines the authority it assigns to the stomach. This ultimately destabilizes meaning in the text, opening up space for new ways of thinking about bodies and agency that extend beyond Cartesian dualism. Much of our current discourse about fat in the West relies on the fear and suppression of the body s agency. Fears of material agency, of the power of things to resist human mastery and influence human activity, have been central to fatphobic discourses in the Western world since at least the nineteenth century. In Victorian Britain, fatness was commonly characterized as symptomatic of a disease of the will. 1 This depiction is grounded in a Cartesian split between body and mind, one that casts the stomach as an unruly object that can and should be monitored and carefully controlled by a superior human self. In the twenty-firstcentury West, we have inherited the notion that fat people lack the necessary will power to properly manage their bodies, their desires, and their lives. Fat has been stigmatized as the visible sign of failure to contain the stomach s demands. Mainstream discourses of diet reinforce the belief that the body is ultimately subject to our conscious control if only we would exercise our wills, a reassuring fantasy that soothes cultural anxieties regarding aging, disease, impairment, and death. But the materiality of the body inevitably reasserts itself, revealing its own form of perverse agency. I would like to thank my graduate research assistant, Abdullah Al-Sheikh Hasan, for his able assistance with this project and my colleagues Amit Baishya and Adam Beach for their insights during our discussions of things. 1 Sander Gilman, Fat Boys: A Slim Book (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), 101. www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600065 | ISSN 2196-4793 76 Joyce L. Huff Today fat serves as a focal point for a generalized unease about the agency of bodies. Anxieties about fat and agency are not limited to a fear of fat activism, a societal dread that certain hierarchies of value will collapse if fat individuals rebel against social norms and reclaim their rights to self-definition and self-worth. Body fat is seen as capable of its own form of rebellion. Despite human efforts at management, body fat often proves peculiarly recalcitrant, resisting attempts to remove, control, or produce it or even to abject it from our somatic identities. Yet, even as we acknowledge fat s intractability, individuals are held accountable for their failure to discipline their body fat in accord with socially determined standards. In this view, fat not only underscores the limits of human will but also endows the body with a will of its own. In other words, Western fatphobia is a fear not merely of being out of control of one s body but rather of being under its control. Fat people are often depicted as acted upon by some form of bodily agency, variously constructed as appetite, genes, disease, or addiction. Imaginatively, this notion is embodied in literature and popular culture, in stories of fat exercising some form of agency outside of or over a self from which it is alienated, ranging from H. G. Wells s The Truth About Pyecraft 2 to Shelley Jackson s The Melancholy of Anatomy3 to the Doctor Who episode Partners in Crime, 4 which depicts human fat as literally alien. This way of conceptualizing fat leaves Cartesian dualism intact but provokes fear of the reversal of the culturally mandated hierarchy of mind over matter. But what if, instead of reifying the Cartesian view, we were to acknowledge multiple forms of agency, both conscious and material, at work in the formation, maintenance, and performance of the body? Sydney Whiting s once popular but now nearly forgotten book Memoirs of a Stomach: Written by Himself, that All Who Eat May Read provides one way of thinking through the issues of bodily agency that today circulate around fat. In 18 3, when Whiting s book was first introduced to the British public, the stomach, rather than body fat, was the primary object of disciplinary discourses that sought to tame the human appetite. Memoirs is not just addressed to fat folks but rather written that all who eat may read, as its subtitle proclaims. This is not surprising because, in Victorian Britain, bodily discipline was frequently portrayed as a universal good and the regulation of the appetite as an end unto itself. 2 H. G. Wells, The Truth A out Pye raft, in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (Edinburgh: T. Nelson and Sons, 1911), Kindle file. 3 “helley Ja kso , Fat, in The Melancholy of Anatomy (New York: Anchor Books, 2002), Kindle file. 4 Part ers i Cri e (Doctor Who, BBC One, 5 Apr. 2008). The Narrating Stomach 77 When, a mere decade after Memoirs appeared, William Banting s A Letter on Corpulence sparked the first major British reducing craze, Banting s exclusive focus on weight-loss as a goal was considered controversial.5 As Michel Foucault has pointed out, the ideal disciplinary culture would consist of a never-ending regimen with an ever-receding endpoint.6 What Memoirs offers today s readers is a glimpse of bodily agency represented in a way that confounds the dualistic model so familiar to us. It employs the conventions of the eighteenth-century it-narrative, a genre primarily concerned with the exploration of material agency, to dramatize the tension between the endeavor to narrate the body into the realm of human control and the body s exertion of its own form of mastery. It also attempts to universalize an experience of the stomach grounded in the values and practices of a middle-class Englishman. Although Memoirs appears at first to simply reverse the hierachy of mind over body, it ultimately explodes this duality, leaving a gap in which to reimagine the body as a complex assemblege formed by multiple agents. First Course: The Speaking Stomach Because of the stomach s centrality in Victorian discourses of body management, examining Memoirs can provide insight into the period s attempts to grapple with the issue of bodily agency. Memoirs appeared at a time when the stomach had assumed a key role in dominant understandings of the body. According to Ian Miller, who briefly touches on Whiting s text in A Modern History of the Stomach, Mr. Stomach s memoirs are illustrative of the organ s pivotal positioning in constructs of both the healthy and unhealthy nineteenth-century bodily system. 7 The book s popularity corroborates its relevance to Victorian health discourses. According to an 1856 advertisement in The Athenaeum, it went through at least seven English editions; Miller notes that it was also translated into French.8 A contemporary reviewer from the News of the 5 William Banting, A Letter on Corpulence, 3rd ed. (London: Harrison, 1863). See also Joy e L. Huff, A Horror of Corpule e : I terrogati g Ba ti gis a d Mid-NineteenthCentury Fat-phobia, in Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression, ed. Jana Evans Braziel and Kathleen LeBesco (Berkeley: U of California P, 2001). 6 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1975, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1979), 227. 7 Ian Miller, A Modern History of the Stomach: Gastric Illness, Medicine and British Society, 1800-1950 (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2011), Kindle file, ch. 1. 8 Miller, History of the Stomach, ch. 1. 78 Joyce L. Huff World claimed, It is the most witty, learned, and truthful book we have seen for a long time, 9 while, in 1939, an article appearing in The Lancet found its advice to be still relevant and stated that it wittily and unobtrusively conveys wise counsel. 10 Yet, unlike Banting s pamphlet and other medical treatises, Whiting s text mixes fact with fiction. The stomach itself dispenses advice for healthy living while narrating its own mock autobiography. Exactly how this is accomplished Mr. Stomach never reveals, but it is dependent upon the services of an editor punningly referred to as the Minister of the Interior. 11 The Minister stands in the position of the Cartesian self in relation to body, endeavoring to both minister to (or serve) and administer (or control) the stomach-narrator. Subjected alternately to overfeeding and starvation, and troubled by quack medicine, strong spirits, and emotional upset, Mr. Stomach tells a tale of woe that satirizes human behavior. His narrative stance veers between commanding human obedience to his laws and presenting himself as the poor dependent inside. 12 The story he recounts progresses haphazardly through a variety of literary genres, such as poetry, advice, and drama, with numerous interpolations and digressions. It covers a wide range of subjects, addressing medicine, etiquette, diet, history, travel, and law amidst social satire, purely literary flourishes, and humorous anecdotes. In compelling the stomach to speak for itself, Memoirs both acknowledges that the stomach possesses some degree of independence from conscious human will and attempts to reframe the errant organ within the sphere of human mastery, a mastery that is at once discursive (through narrative) and embodied (through the inculcation of discipline in its readers). But this attempt is never fully successful, and so Memoirs remains as much a celebration of bodily agency as it is of disciplinary exercise. In this way, Memoirs reveals its literary debt to an earlier genre, the eighteenth-century it-narrative, in which the agency of matter forms the central interest. In fact, Whiting s book appears on Liz Bellamy s extensive listing of it-narratives, which is based on a review of the British Library and Cambridge University Library catalogs. According to Bellamy, these stories usually contain a nonhuman narrator, such as a commodity or animal, and a focus on that narrator s circulation within a system of 9 Me oirs of a “to a h, The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts 1479 (1 March 1856): 280, Google Books, accessed Dec. 1, 2014. 10 Grai s a d Scruples, The Lancet 233, 6029 (1939): 661–662, ScienceDirect, accessed June 24, 2014, 661. 11 Sydney Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach: Written by Himself, That All Who Eat May Read (London: W. E. Painter, 1853, Google Books, accessed 12 Oct. 2013), vi. 12 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 135, 77. The Narrating Stomach 79 economic exchange.13 The narrator may remain static, as in the case of a building, but the focus then turns to the individuals and items that circulate within and through it. The things featured in such tales are anthropomorphic at the same time that their alien viewpoint is accentuated, creating curious hybrids of self and other. While the genre persisted through the nineteenth century, Memoirs harkens back to earlier forms of it-narrative. Victorian examples of the genre were often morality tales for children and featured dolls, toys, and pets. According to Lynn Festa, their primary aim was to form middle-class children into responsible property-owners.14 Memoirs of a Stomach, however, is aimed at an adult audience, and it shares many of the other attributes of the earlier eighteenth-century it-narratives. Like them, it takes the form of a picaresque social satire. And like those narratives that focus on stationary objects, such as buildings, it deals with the circulation of commodities (in this case, foodstuffs) within and through its narrator. Festa s description of one of the main purposes of eighteenth-century itnarratives is therefore helpful in coming to terms with Whiting s book: [T]he omnipresent surveillance of persons by their possessions serves as a powerful reminder of the all-seeing eye to which all mortal creatures are accountable in the end. 15 In the case of the stomach, the surveillance of persons from within their own bodies serves as a reminder of the panoptic medical gaze. The it-narrative s assumption that, in Festa s words, [p]eople are made by their possessions 16 is literalized in Whiting s text; People are made by their stomachs or, proverbially, you are what you eat. Yet there are significant differences between Memoirs and earlier itnarratives. Although it shares the eighteenth-century concern with economic systems, it concentrates its satirical critique more on consumers and consumption than on goods and circulation, with alimentary consumption serving as a metonymic stand-in for the economic variety. Whiting s tale speaks directly to the subject at the center of most it-narratives: the consumer appetites that drive circulation. Furthermore, Memoirs exhibits the more openly didactic thrust of its Victorian contemporaries. With its copious advice on dietary practice, Whiting s book actively engages in the formation of socially acceptable consumers. However, this aspect of Whiting s text should not 13 Liz Bella y, It-Narrators and Circulation: Defining a Subgenre, in The Secret Life of Things: Animals, Objects, and It Narratives in Eighteenth-Century England, ed. Mark Blackwell (Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2007), 121. 14 Ly Festa, The Moral E ds of Eightee th- and Ninteenth-Century Object Narratives, in Blackwell, The Secret Life of Things, 310. 15 Festa, O je t Narrati es, 310. 16 Festa, O je t Narrati es, 311. 80 Joyce L. Huff be stressed too strongly, for, as we will see below, the stylisitic and structural characteristics inherited from the eighteenth century serve to complicate and even undermine the book s teachings. Finally, Whiting s text stands out as unique because, of the 248 tales listed in Bellamy s bibliography, only Whiting s centers on a body part. Christopher Flint remarks that the eighteenth-century speaking object is almost always a product of manufacture rather than a part of nature, and its satiric vision of the world arises from its particular experience of human commerce. 17 The oddness of Whiting s choice of narrator did not go unnoticed by his contemporaries. In an 1855 letter, R. E. H. Greyson complains, There is some smartness in [Memoirs], and a good deal of sense too; and yet it is impossible to get over the absurdity of thus personifying the respectable viscus, and making it chatter about anatomy, physiology, and chemistry! 18 The focus on the body rather than on manufactured products naturalizes the relationships between health and consumption that Memoirs depicts and brings concerns about the agency of things into more intimate contact with readers by embedding the potential for nonhuman agency within their very bodies. To employ a body part as an it-narrator, as Whiting does, is to treat it as a thing. But the human body is not objectified or denied agency by this characterization. In his book on it-narratives, The Things Things Say, Jonathan Lamb asks us to differentiate between objects that serve human purposes and things that don't. 19 Things reveal the limits of our power. Not only do they resist human control but they also defy incorporation into human systems of representation, meaning making, and exchange, and they influence human will and action. In the nineteenth century the stomach was frequently figured as humanity s task master. In 18 1, for example, physician James Hinton wrote, Civilization rests on hunger… The recurring and unfailing stimulus which the stomach supplies, lies at the root of all those energetic efforts by which men gradually rise from ignorance to knowledge. 20 Those moments when bodies assert their thingness often invite narratives in an effort to reassert their ideological usefulness and reintegrate them, metaphorically, into those systems of meaning and exchange that they challenge, to tame them into objects for human use 17 Christopher Fli t, “peaki g O je ts: The Cir ulatio of “tories i Eightee th-Century Prose Fiction, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA), 113, 2 (March 1998): 212-226, MLA Bibliography, accessed Nov. 18, 2013, 212. 18 R. E. H. Greyso , Letter XXVIII, The Greyson Letters: Selections from the Correspondence of R. E. H. Greyson, Esq., ed. Henry Rogers (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1859), 338-341, Google Books, accessed Dec. 10 2014, 338-9. 19 Jonathan Lamb, The Things Things Say (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2011), xi (italics mine). 20 Ja es Hi to , Food—What It Is, Cornhill Magazine (April 1861): 460-72, 460. The Narrating Stomach 81 and make them signify. At first glance, this seems to be the function of the it-narrative. Yet the chaotic nature of eighteenth-century it-narratives creates a grotesque excess, in M. M. Bakhtin s sense, one that overflows any system meant to contain the narrator. It-narrators refuse to stay put, to be mastered, to be rendered serviceable, to mean. Their fictional autobiographies offer us one way of making it possible to think about the issues that Bill Brown raises in his introduction to Things: how things organize our private and public affection and how they constitute human subjects, how they move them, how they threaten them, how they facilitate or threaten their relation to other subjects. 21 Western cultures have long constructed our bodies as objects to be controlled and subjected to the mind. Even contemporary oppositional discourses often reiterate this trope; in encouraging women, for example, to claim ownership of our bodies, we cast bodies, not simply as objects, but also as commodities capable of circulation in an economic system. To think of bodies as things is to acknowledge that they do not fit easily into the roles we assign them. Second Course: The Stomach’s Authority The thingification of the stomach in Memoirs is exemplified in the book s frontispiece. The illustration depicts an agonized fat man splayed before the reader in an armchair, his gouty feet propped upon cushions and his head, aching from a hangover, covered with a cloth. Around him dance demonic representatives of the foods in which he has presumably overindulged, including a roast, a fish, several cows, some oysters and a turtle, amidst many bottles containing different types of alcohol. Above him is a coat of arms featuring foodstuffs and bearing the motto MORE!!! Over his head hover a pumpkin and a pig, both symbols of gluttony. Two creatures with enormous bellies sit to either side of him, one a pelican, the other possibly a crocodile, both clearly chosen for their large mouths. In the corner, two tiny doctors mix up some medicine for him. But the eyes are drawn to the center of the picture, to the white expanse of his swollen paunch. There are gaps between the buttons of his weskit, and his coat is pulled to the sides to make room for his huge belly. One hand rests on it, just over the stomach, to draw attention to the source of his misery. 21 Bill Bro , Thi g Theory, i Things, ed. Bill Brown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 7. 82 Joyce L. Huff The stomach itself, however, does not appear directly. Rather than being presented to the reader as an object to be apprehended, the stomach must be inferred from the activity it causes, the visible traces of its power legible upon a human body that lies prone and subjected to it. The stomach is imagined as a sort of prime mover, the unseen agent that is the cause of all that is represented within the picture. At first glance, this illustration appears to convey a familiar moral tale. The human has given in to his stomach; he has failed to exercise his agency in control of its demands and now recieves his punishment, dyspepsia. Furthermore, he bears the visible stigmata of repeated failures in the form of fatness. But, in fact, as the text of the narrative that follows makes clear, what the frontispiece represents is actually the opposite case. The man is indeed being punished but not for the failure to properly manage his body s desires. Instead, in overindulging, he has attempted to impose his will on an unwilling stomach incapable of handling the amount of food with which he has chosen to burden it. What is depicted is the stomach s rebellion against human efforts to master it. The diner s large belly serves as a metonym for the stomach s immense power to inflect pain or pleasure when flouted. This insurrection on the part of the stomach is repeated throughout the text, whenever the human whose body houses Mr. Stomach gives in to societal pressures to overeat, get drunk, treat himself to an unfamiliar dainty, or sample a fad medication. After one binge is followed by course of medicine, Mr. Stomach states, I rejected every overture at reconciliation, even a new dose in the form of quinine, and refused to receive either liquid or solid, save dry toast and a little tea. Nothing could induce me to make up the quarrel; and the moment the slightest degree of force was resorted to, I turned more obstinate than ever, till I received a formal deputation from all the members of the corporation, intreating me to resume my functions if only a little at a time.22 The stomach s mutiny lays to rest a fear that drives much of dietary discourse, the dread that the human capacity to indulge is limitless unless held in check. Mr. Stomach resists our attempts to project our fears and fantasies of unrestrained appetite upon him. In the end, stomachs can only hold so much. This is dramatized repeatedly within Memoirs. Mr. Stomach occasionally boasts that he can comply with his master s will: 22 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 75. The Narrating Stomach 83 It is wonderful what a deal of packing the whole of our family will stand. For myself I was a perfect dromedary in the quantity I could bear; and though I often thought the last mouthful would break my back, yet somehow it all shook down like passengers crowded inside an omnibus. I do not mean, by any means, to say that I never grumbled, for, like the animal just named, I had a groan for every package that I considered too heavy.23 But eventually, material agency reasserts itself and the body rebels: I broke completely down, and from sheer incapacity was not to be removed by whip or spur. 24 In willingly subjecting itself and, even so, being unable to carry out its duties, the stomach reinforces the limits of its master s power. Thus, rather than demonstrating the need for conscious control over the body, the illustration, when read in the context of the story that follows, shows the folly of attempting to master the stomach. Carstesian dualism is thus reiterated but with a difference. To paraphrase Judith Butler, Mr. Stomach does the mind-body split wrong,25 which, as we will see in section four, opens up space for a critique of Victorian standards of body management. In his role as the privileged voice of nature, Mr. Stomach becomes an internal monitor with the moral and medical authority to preach restraint to a wayward appetitive intellect, which is under the influence of a corrupting culture. In Memoirs, dangerous appetites are imposed upon us from the outside rather than originating within; it is human culture, not the human stomach, that appears in need of regulation. In asserting its authority over the self, Whiting s stomach goes so far as to usurp the role of the seat of reason from the brain: [A]s far as intellectual faculties are concerned, I consider I hold a superior position to my helpmate Mr. Brain; for, while I reside in the drawing-room floor, he lives in the attics. Moreover, if he separated the good from the bad, and digested all matters which he receives as thoroughly as I do, he would have a greater right to look down upon me than he has at present.26 Mr. Stomach a reference to the drawing-room versus the attic (the domain of servants) reverses moral hierarchies. His editor endorses this and gives it the stamp of acknowledged authority by stating, This boast is excusable. Van Helmont placed the seat of understanding in the stomach. 27 The text thus associates reason more with natural gut instinct than with the educated and enculturated intellect. 23 24 25 26 27 Ibid., 105. Ibid., 39-40. Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter (New York: Routledge, 1993), 15. Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, vii-viii. Ibid., vii. 84 Joyce L. Huff This reversal of the mind-body hierarchy is not in itself revolutionary. In appointing the stomach as the internal monitor for the self, the narrative embeds common sense discourses about etiquette, morality, and health within the body itself and imbues cultural dictates with the authority of nature. In other words, the stomach speaks only to tell its audience what they already know about stomachs. For example, the stomach claims that the necessary observances to sustain the body in health consist of MODERATION; MASTICATION; a careful CHOICE OF FOOD; REGULARITY; EXERCISE; SOCIETY AT MEALS; ABJURATION of PHYSIC; and in case of indisposition arising from an infringement of these rules, REST, and a STRICT REGIMEN.28 This would have been familiar advice to Victorian audiences. No matter where desire resides, the body or the mind, the moral is the same: rein it in. As the stomach advises, If a person can fast from breakfast to six or seven o'clock, without feeling the necessity for food, there is not very much the matter with him. 29 The authority that the stomach is granted in Memoirs extends beyond issues involving digestive health, on which a talking stomach might well be deemed an expert, to broader issues such as morality and literature. For instance, when he criticizes the love poems of the human in whom he resides, he serves as a panoptic check to human excesses beyond those involving alimentary appetite: Some of his wretched outpourings I happen to remember; and I give the reader an idea of them here, as a warning to all whom it may concern, that when they believe they are spouting poetical nonsense to the winds, there may be a stomach within listening to it all, with a sneer on his lips.30 Even when speaking on health, Mr. Stomach goes beyond general prescriptions to take sides in contemporary medical debates, as when he continually asserts the superiority of homeopathic medicine over allopathic. In reiterating the discourses that Victorian authorities had produced for rendering it knowable and manageable, the stomach-narrator actively participates in its own objectification. In this way, its claim to agency is rendered harmless. In presenting itself and its workings, Mr. Stomach frequently quotes acknowledged authorities both new (Justus von Liebig) 28 Ibid., 125-6. 29 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 130. 30 Ibid., 85. The Narrating Stomach 85 and ancient (Hippocrates). Its self-presentation thus becomes detached from any lived experience of the body and embedded instead within existing institutional frameworks for producing knowledge. It knows itself only as the object of institutionalized discourses, such as those of medicine, fashion, and the law. However, as I will discuss in the final section of my argument, the eighteenth-century conventions that structure this tale do not lend themseves easily to the appropriation of the it-narrator by dominant ideologies. The subversive nature of the text lies in its undermining of its narrator s attempts to parrot disciplinary discourses. The discourses of health and body management that the stomach espouses personalize societal problems. Whereas eighteenth-century itnarratives voiced systemic social critiques, Memoirs makes the ills of Victorian consumer culture appear to stem from the failure of specific individuals to properly regulate their desires, represented as culturally produced, in accordance with a very Victorian version of nature. Individual compliance with nature s dictates, represented by Mr. Stomach, will prove the cure for socioeconomic woes. For instance, Mr. Stomach assures his readers that I should ill fulfil the task I have undertaken were I not to endeavour, in as few words as possible, to impart what knowledge I possess of the means to keep, through my assistance, the entire corporeal system in health and comfort, so that when life is yielded up to its great Giver, memory may be eloquent of past blessings; and that gratitude and love may help to gently release the spirit from the miracle of life.31 Here the stomach claims the power not only to maintain the entire corporeal system in health and comfort but, in so doing, to also provide the basis for a morally healthy life filled with gratitude and love. A well regulated individual body leads to a well regulated social body. This representation of the stomach as the author of spiritual and emotional experiences reminds the reader of Ebenezer Scrooge s certainty that the specter of Jacob Marley is merely the phantom of a brain disordered by eating underdone potato : There s more of gravy than of grave about you. 32 31 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 109. 32 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843 (New York: Bantam, 1995), 18. 86 Joyce L. Huff Third Course: Universalizing the Stomach At the same time that Memoirs individualizes more general social problems, it universalizes a particular experience of the stomach. Mr. Stomach plays a conflicted role, at once a representative speaking for stomachs everywhere and a specific male, middle-class, English stomach. Nicholas Hudson notes that, in centering the thing, the it-narrative offers its reader a point-of-view character who seems at first to be free from any markers of class, gender, and, I would add, race; this aspect of itnarratives serves to construct the illusion of a socially and politically non-committed perspective—a goal that was meant both to include otherwise conflicting groups within a larger middle-class project and to exclude those that the emergent and unstable middle class wanted to exclude. 33 Under scrutiny, the illusion falls apart. In spite of his role as a generic allegorical figure, the stomach that Whiting represents is a particular stomach with its own genealogy and history as well as personal attributes. Going back and forth between a particular narrative history and the universal ethnographic present, it silmultaneously enters history and fixes itself in a timeless now. Though there is tension between these two roles, the overall effect is to naturalize a specific experience of the stomach that is English, masculine, and bourgeois. In the following passage, Mr. Stomach, like the itnarrators to which Hudson refers, allies himself with the values of his middle-class readers. He boasts of his status as a gentleman of high pedigree 34 as a means of asserting his authority, although his outrageous puns (eating all, eating more) poke fun at his pretentiousness in doing so: I was born of gentle parentage, being related, on the maternal side, to the celebrated Sternums, of Eaton Hall (since migrated to Eaton Moor), and, on my father's side, I dated my pedigree as far back as the first invasion of the Saxons, when the great Sir Hugh Stomach was created baron.35 The class allegiances of this stomach are further revealed by the nature of its complaints; it never has trouble getting enough to eat but only with consuming too much or the wrong things. When his lovesick master neglects him, he states, The pangs of starvation I have never known; but, oh! how indescribably fearful they must be, for even a temporary 33 Ni holas Hudso , It-Narratives: Fictional Point of View and Constructing the Middle Class, in Blackwell, The Secret Life of Things, 294. 34 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 75. 35 Ibid., 10. The Narrating Stomach 87 forgetfulness on the part of my master during his love-making produced cravings I shall always remember. 36 The particular stomach who narrates Memoirs is not only classed, but gendered as well. Of course, the person he resides within is male, but, in this text, gender suffuses every organ of the body, not simply those associated with primary and secondary sexual characteristics. Mr. Stomach s experiences are frequently masculine ones, such as when he is injured in a schoolyard brawl: [A]ll of a sudden I received such a thump as made me fancy I was knocked clean out of the osseous framework wherein I lay. This I discovered was owing to a polite interchange of blows, arising from the fact of a boy being pitted against the new comer as a trial to test his strength, so as to place him in his proper position in the sliding scale of pugilism. I acknowledge I disliked these bouts uncommonly, but any suffering was better than the pangs of being overloaded; and be it admitted to the youngsters' credit, that it was not considered fair and manly to select me as the place of attack.37 This passage condones the establishment of a male hierarchy and tolerates the unpleasant means of demonstrating it while condemning the universal vice of gluttony. Mr. Stomach tends to generalize such masculine experiences along with his views on women: Supposing you are neither a club-man at mealtime, nor a tavern-dining individual; and then, further, supposing there are ladies to join in the drawing-room, oh, happy mortal…steal away from table as soon as you can, and never feel ashamed of the humanising effects of female society; for let me tell you the whole race of Stomachs dearly loveth the music from fair ladies' lips.38 This passage is clearly addressed to male readers, who may be tempted to linger at the table after the ladies retire from dinner. Yet its scope quickly expands to include the whole race of Stomachs. The topic of stomachs was itself gendered in the period. As Helena Michie points out, female stomachs were a taboo topic due to the metaphorical conflation of alimentary and sexual appetites. Thus, most advice manuals tended to address a woman without hunger.39 By contrast, Mr. Stomach s human is in constant danger of giving in to gluttonous impulses. The female stomach, when it is depicted, is stereotypically weak and delicate; as such, it cannot represent the normal, healthy stomach that the book addresses. The bride of Mr. Stomach s 36 37 38 39 Ibid., 110. Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 28. Ibid., 133. Helena Michie, The Flesh Made Word (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987), 12. 88 Joyce L. Huff master, for example, is a poor, tender Stomach … incapable of enjoying the sterner dishes of life, 40 while his mother stomach is of a soft, yielding disposition, totally unfitted for the companionship of her husband, who I am bound to confess was of a coarse and robust nature. 41 Finally, this is a white Englishman s stomach. Its casual assumption of English superiority becomes apparent when it theorizes about racial distinctions. It imagines a great alimentary chain of being that ranges from the cultured stomachs of British men of science at its pinnacle to those of savage colonized peoples at the bottom: Now, the stomach of a human being is equally congenial to man's nature, and the higher his intellectual faculties the more sensitive and delicate is his inside. In organic structure it is, of course, the same in all men, and a Hottentot's digestive organs and those of a Sir Isaac Newton would present identical conformations, but the sympathy of the nervous energies mark the subtle difference.42 Furthermore, as in most Victorian it-narratives, Mr. Stomach schools his readers, not merely on how to consume goods, but also on how to be proper consumers of the labor of others in the context of imperialism. Lamb has written persuasively of the close connections between itnarratives and slave narratives.43 Memoirs makes explicit reference to this connection. The self is the stomach s lord and master, 44 while Mr. Stomach characterizes himself as both pack animal45 and galley slave, 46 who must train his master in how to use him properly. A reviewer in John Bull picks up on the allusion when he jokingly declares, [T]he author of this volume has done for the poor sufferer [Mr. Stomach] what Mrs. Beecher Stowe has done for the American negro—exposed the inequity and oppression to which the unhappy victim of selfish tyranny is exposed. 47 The dehumanization of African-Americans in this attempt at humor, as well as its disregard of the fact that they might have stomachs of their own, highlights the focus in both Whiting s and Stowe s narratives on forming the subjectivities and engaging the sentiments of white readers who consume the labor of people of color. The stomach manages his two roles—individual character and universal representative—self-consciously at times. At one point he both acknowledges his individuality and preaches universal doctrines for 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 103. Ibid., 10. Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 125. Lamb, The Things Things Say. Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 123. Ibid., 105. Ibid., 76. Me oirs of a “to a h , The Athenaeum: 280. The Narrating Stomach 89 stomachs in the same breath; he states, Undoubtably, all stomachs have their own peculiar idiosyncrasy; and I do not pretend to put myself up as an authority upon all dietetic matters, but certain doctrines I will never give up. 48 Similarly, he recognizes his class privilege: In my sketch of a little dinner it may be said, half the world could not afford the delicacies I name, and all I have to say is, make such selections out of my rules as suit your purse and inclination. 49 This construction of difference actually reinforces his own role as norm. The slippage between general and particular thus has the effect of smoothing over differences by subjecting all stomachs, however idiosyncratic, to the same basic rules, which have their grounding in masculine, middle-class, English experiences. Fourth Course: Problematizing the Stomach While the narrator of Memoirs may be said to claim his agency simply to reiterate cultural truisms, his authority to do so is so problematized by both the heteroglossic structure of eighteenth-century it-narratives and the comically grotesque vision of the body within the text as to invite questioning of the very Victorian health discourses it seems to sanction. Whereas nineteenth-century it-narratives tended to be more suited to didactic purposes, the eighteenth-century style that Whiting echoes is too loose and baggy a form to permit the endorsement of any single point of view. It is a genre that privileges excess, both in structure and in content, resulting in a wild proliferation of meanings. As Bellamy puts it, "these works are able to explore the social system from a range of ideological positions and with a satirical vision that avoids the reassertion of hegemony."50 The destablization of meaning in Memoirs takes many forms. First, the book makes no distinction between the serious and the comical. How is a reader to interpret admonitions about health that appear next to a farcical mock epic, entitled, ye legend of ye bagpipe, in which the Scots defeat the Vikings with the aid of a magical stomach?51 Even the advice itself ranges from the consequential to the trivial, leaving its reader unsure which dictums are intended to be taken seriously. Second, part of the humor of the book rests on the fact that the editor known as the Minister of the Interior consciously undermines the stomach s authority with his instrusive footnotes. At one point, the 48 49 50 51 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 114. Ibid., 128. Bella y, It-Narrators, 124. Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 22. 90 Joyce L. Huff stomach claims to quote the philosopher Friedrich Schiller, but a footnote casts doubts on the quotation s authenticity. In vain we have searched the works of this author, the Minister complains sarcastically. Will the editor of Notes and Queries inform us? 52 At another, a footnote describes how, in telling ye legend of ye bagpipe, Mr. Stomach confuses Celtic with Greek mythology.53 And it is when the stomach is giving advice that the Minister is most critical. For example, when Mr. Stomach is lecturing about the quality of his master s love poems, he decides to try his own metaphorical hand at poetry to illustrate how it should be done. The Minister does not merely mock his composition; he ultimately bemoans the necessity of including it at all, stating that he ought to have indignantly erased this song from the MS. He concedes, however, that it may be as well, perhaps, for the reader to perceive how very possible it is, when instructing others, to err, and that most egregiously, ourselves, a statement that could serve as the Minister s comment upon the stomach s narrative as a whole.54 If the stomach is indeed as unreliable a narrator as its editor suggests, how is the reader to view its pronouncements on health and diet? The narrative also destabilizes the stomach s authority by occasionally reminding the reader that Mr. Stomach is a fictional construct and that his stated opinions do not actually emanate from within. This happens whenever gestures are made toward the mystery of how the stomach was able to relate the tale in the first place. Memoirs gives a metafictional nod to the forces behind its own construction when the stomach invents avatars for reiterating his pronouncements on health. In arguing for the superiority of homeopathic over allopathic remedies, he suddenly switches to drama. The Minister prefaces the play by stating, [o]ur author requires a poppet to express his own sentiments. 55 Such selfreferential moments in Memoirs disrupt the association of its narrator with nature and thus destroy the ground on which his claim to authority rests. The comic plethora that underlies the structure of the book also informs its representation of the body. The reversal of the mind-body hierarchy is itself a trope of the grotesque, according to Bakhtin.56 To privilege the body, and in particular, the lower body, in which the stomach resides, carnivalizes the self. And it is a carnivalized body that appears 52 53 54 55 56 Ibid., 101. Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 25. Ibid., 82. Ibid., 53. M. M. Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. Helene Iswolsky, 1965 (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984). The Narrating Stomach 91 within Whiting s text, one in which body parts are fungible and redundant. I have mentioned before that Mr. Stomach metaphorically takes over the functions and authority of the brain, but he also claims the position traditionally assigned to the heart: The ancients were wrong, when they attributed to [the liver] the seat of the affections; and the moderns are equally so in debiting love to the account of the heart. The stomach is the real source of that sublime passion, and I swell with pride and inward satisfaction when I make the avowal.57 This troubles the tropes that associate these organs more closely with the self: My advice to every lover, therefore, is, take care of your Stomach, for his influence is greater than you imagine; and I feel perfectly persuaded, that more love matches have been broken off owing to this very respectable organ than to any other cause. 58 Not only does the stomach supplant the heart, but it also claims to possess a heart of its own. Reader, it confides, I fell in love. Now, I beg that I may not be laughed at for this confession; but let me tell you a stomach has a heart, and a very tender one too. 59 In a passage mentioned earlier, it refers to the lips with which it sneers at its master s poetry. The outrageous images that result from this anthropomorphosis of the stomach disrupt the more serious moralizing tone of the book. The reader is left to contemplate the absurd possibilities inherent in these comic embellishments: does the stomach have a stomach of its own that dispenses advice? The humor and excess that dominate both the construction of the narrative and of its narrator in Memoirs of a Stomach explode all attempts to locate an ultimate source of authority within the text or to decide whether mind or body is, in the end, superior. The body that emerges from the space this explosion creates is complex and heterogenous, the result of the play of tensions between human and material agents. Fifth Course: Fat While for Whiting, the stomach is central to exploring the thingness of the body, today fat anchors discussions of bodily agency. As Brown puts it, [w]e begin to confront the thingness of objects when they stop working for us : [W]hen the drill breaks, when the car stalls, when the windows get filthy, when their flow within the circuits of production and 57 Whiting, Memoirs of a Stomach, 100-1. 58 Ibid., 100. 59 Ibid., 77. 92 Joyce L. Huff distribution, consumption and exhibition, has been arrested, however momentarily. 60 Body fat works against rather than for cultural norms. It is valued primarily for its supposed potential to disappear; people spend large amounts of money and time attempting to rid themselves of it. When it refuses to vanish, it arrests cultural narratives and thus enters the realm of the thing. Opening up our scholarship to exploring the thingness of fat would raise new questions for activists and scholars alike. To give one example, Jane Bennett s influential discussion of the agency of food in Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things could be expanded and enhanced by a consideration of body fat as an agent. Bennett casts body fat as a product of the activity of other nonhuman agents. Fat formation becomes, for Bennett, a banal instance of what Michel Foucault might have called the productive power of food : That food can make people larger is a fact so ordinary and obvious that it is difficult to perceive it as an example of nonhuman agency at work. 61 Not only food, but a complex assemblege of agents, contribute to the production of body fat: The problem of obesity would thus have to index not only the large humans and their economic-cultural prostheses (agribusiness, snack-food vending machines, insulin injections, bariatric surgery, serving sizes, systems of food marketing and distribution, and microwave ovens) but also the strivings and trajectories of fats as they weaken or enhance the power of human wills, habits and ideas.62 Although dietary fat is included within this assemblege, body fat remains excluded, contained within the problem of obesity, acted upon rather than acting. What if instead of excluding body fat from our analyses, we viewed it as exerting its own forms of agency? How would this complicate, not only Bennett s argument, but dominant narratives of health and beauty? Would it transform the ways in which we treated fat bodies and body fat if we no longer saw fat as inert and easily adaptible to outside forces? Would we then stop trying to make it serve our interests by disappearing? Joyce L. Huff, contact: jlhuff (at) bsu.edu, is an Associate Professor of English at Ball State University. Her research focuses on fat and disability in Victorian British literature. Her work on these subjects has appeared in The Fat Studies Reader (New York University, 2009); Bodies Out of Bounds (University of California, 2001); Historicizing Fat in Anglo60 Bro , Thi g Theory, 4. 61 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke UP, 2010), Kindle file, 40. 62 Bennett, Vibrant Matter, 42. The Narrating Stomach 93 American Culture (Ohio State University, 2010); Cultures of the Abdomen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); Victorian Freaks (Ohio State University, 2008), and the journals Fat Studies and Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies. She is currently working on a book manuscript on fat in Victorian Britain. Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 95-109 “When I Was Growing Up My Mother Cooked Dinner Every Single Day”: Fat Stigma and the Significance of Motherblame in Contemporary United States Amy E. Farrell English abstract: Contemporary narratives about fatness focus incessantly on the mother, yet recent fat studies literature has only slightly addressed this phenomenon of motherblame and fat stigma. By extending the research that I touched upon in Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York University Press, 2011), this essay explores the roots of motherblaming in early 20th century psychology— particularly in the work of Hilde Bruch and Phillip Wylie—and the connections to more recent narratives in US film, literature and popular culture that link mothers to the horrific spectacle of the fat child and fat mothers to the destruction of their families and communities. Most viewers remember Morgan Spurlock’s award-winning 2004 documentary SuperSize Me: A Film of Epic Portions for a number of reasons: its condemnation of the fast food industry, particularly McDonalds; the clear deterioration of Spurlock’s health as he moves through his month long binge on big macs and French fries; the grotesque spectacle of a man’s blood and intestines as he undergoes gastric bypass surgery and the less disgusting but still gross image of Spurlock vomiting after one particularly large “supersized” meal. 1 Not as memorable, but nevertheless significant, I would argue, are the first few minutes of the film. It begins with a shot of school-age kids—at summer camp presumably—joyfully shouting “Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut. McDonnnnnalds, McDonnnnnalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut. I like food. I like food. Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut. You like food. You like food. Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut.” The kids are smiling, energetically doing hand movements that accompany the verbal jingle. The camera zooms into a particularly large—both taller and fatter—Black boy and white girl who sit in the front row. The film then moves to a shot of a waving American flag, as the filmmaker and narrator Spurlock says “Everything I wish to thank my Dickinson College student intern Maretta Sonn for help with the research and for good conversations regarding fat shaming and motherblaming. 1 Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions, DVD, directed by Morgan Spurlock (2004, New York: Samuel Goldwyn Films/Roadside Productions). www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600070| ISSN 2196-4793 96 Amy E. Farell is bigger in America. We have the biggest cars. The biggest houses. The biggest stores. The biggest food. The biggest people. Congratulations. Nearly 100 million Americans are now overweight or obese.” The film then quickly turns to the filmmaker’s own personal history. We see snapshot after snapshot of his (thin and white) mother through the years, mostly in the kitchen, with an apron on or a dishtowel thrown over her shoulder, smiling at the camera. Spurlock narrates, “When I was growing up, my mother cooked dinner every single day. Almost all my memories of her are in the kitchen. And we never ate out. Only on those few special occasions. Today families do it all the time. And they’re paying for it.” The camera then turns to a food court in a mall, various groups of families and couples eating out of fast food bags and trays. Camera shots linger on the fat stomachs of men and children, the big buttocks of women. As the opening credits roll, the soundtrack is of Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.” Images of fast food cover over a display of earlier shots of a young, thin, white boy, presumably Spurlock himself; the lyrics move from “I was just a skinny lad/Never knew no good from bad” to “Left alone with big fat fanny/She was such a naughty nanny/Heap big woman you made a bad boy out of me.” In Spurlock’s narrative, then, the good mothers of the past—such as his own—have disappeared, allowing the “sluts” of fast food to ruin (fatten) America. Presumably his vegan chef girlfriend Alex Jamieson—whose quinoa salads show up in the film as a counterpoint to all that junk food—is the good woman, the model for a renewed, healthy motherhood in America.2 The last twenty years have seen a proliferation of narratives such as the one in Spurlock’s award winning documentary that connect mothers—either implicitly or explicitly—to the “obesity epidemic.”3 These narratives pre-suppose a connection between fatness and the nation, as the fat body has, since the middle of the 19th century, increasingly signified primitiveness, excess, and the inability to control oneself and function successfully within the United States. 4 Some of 2 Ironically, Jamieson is now Spurlock’s ex-wife and an omnivore. It turns out she was eating meat and animal products for years in the privacy of her own home. Alexandra Jamieson, “On Women, Food and Desire,” accessed November 19, 2014, http://alexandrajamieson.com/im-not-vegan-anymore/. 3 I have placed “obesity epidemic” in quotation marks in order to mark the phrase as in itself worthy of scrutiny. Neither a neutral term nor a factual statement, “obesity epidemic” is a term that identifies fatness as a medical malady, one that is contagious and spreading. Throughout this essay I will use the terms “obesity” and “epidemic” only when appropriate to identify the dominant discourse regarding large body size. Otherwise, I will use the term “fat,” in line with contemporary fat studies scholarship. 4 For a more complete exploration of this argument, please see my book, Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011). Fat Stigma and Motherblame 97 these stories focus on the fat mother herself as the root of familial and national pathology; others center on the mother who may be thin or fat, but who intentionally or ignorantly causes her child to be fat. Frequently these popular representations emphasize the centrality of the failed mother to our current “obesity” crisis; others, such as Spurlock’s film, allow the figure of the mother to hover throughout the text, made all that more powerful by the unspoken, presumably commonsense, cause and effect relationship between motherhood and the body politics of the nation. Motherblaming, of course, is nothing new. As Molly Ladd-Taylor and Lauri Umansky write, “Fundamentally, the ‘bad’ mother serves as a scapegoat, a repository for social or physical ills that resist easy explanation or solution. Scapegoating, as a process,” they continue, “does not engage principles of equity or evenhandedness; it seeks pockets of vulnerability.” And mothers, I would argue, are certainly an endlessly available “pocket of vulnerability,” historically blamed for everything from diseases (most recently autism) to poverty (welfare moms), from juvenile delinquency to homosexuality. Although particular scrutiny has regularly fallen on mothers of color, poor mothers, working mothers and mothers who are sexually active outside of heterosexual marriage, no women—even those who aren’t mothers— are exempt from the possibility of mother blame. Indeed, one of the historic trends Ladd-Taylor and Umansky identify is the continual cultural anxiety over which mothers and which type of mothering is most guilty of causing cultural, social, and individual problems. 5 As the eugenicists in the first half of the 20th century would argue, who is fit to be a mother? Or, put slightly differently, what kinds of mothers will best reproduce a citizenship fit for the nation? In late 20th and early 21st century United States, I would argue, the fat mother, or the mother of a fat child, is a particularly resonant “pocket of vulnerability,” a figure who simultaneously connects the taint of suspicion surrounding motherhood with the cultural panic about fat and its presumed threat to the nation. 6 5 Molly Ladd-Taylor and Lauri Umansky, introduction to Bad Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Molly Ladd-Taylor and Lauri Umansky (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 22. 6 For earlier work on eugenics and motherblaming, see Wendy Kline, Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). For earlier work on eugenics and fatness, see Kathleen LeBesco, “Quest for a Cause: The Fat Gene, the Gay Gene, and the New Eugenics,” for earlier work on motherblaming and working moms see Nathalie Boero “Fat Kids, Working Moms, and the ‘Epidemic of Obesity’: Race, Class, and Mother Blame,” both in The Fat Studies Reader, ed. Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay (New York: New York University Press, 2009). 98 Amy E. Farell The Fat Mother In the United States, one of the names most associated with motherblaming is that of Philip Wylie, who coined the phrase “momism” in his bestselling Generation of Vipers.7 Published first in 1942 and then reissued with lengthy annotations in 1955, Wylie argued that American civilization was imploding from within, allowing entry to the dual threats of fascism and communism. Every institution, from science to religion to politics, came under his biting attack. He described schools as “the instrument of stupidity and lies,” organized Christianity as “insectile sects,” and believers as “a hypocritical and self-righteous polyglot of interfering morons.” 8 His most biting and thorough attack, however, fell upon the mothers of America. “The mealy look of men today is the result of momism and so is the pinched and baffled fury in the eyes of womankind,” he wrote. 9 With their hands on their husbands’ checkbooks and their twisted emotional manipulations of their sons’ affections, they literally “sucked into pliability” the men in their lives, preventing them from recognizing or fighting all that was threatening to “American freedom, American security and even to American existence.” 10 “The nation can no longer say it contains many great, free, dreaming men. We are deep in the predicted nightmare now and mom sits on its decaying throne—who bore us, who will soon most likely, wrap civilization in mom’s final, tender garment: a shroud.” 11 Interestingly, the dangerous mothers Wylie described were not poor, or unmarried, or women of color—the typical targets of eugenics and the early welfare state. Instead, these were the middle class, white, married mothers who were valorized in early television sit coms and Life Magazine. Rather than celebrating these “good mothers,” Wylie painted them as unlikeable creatures, whose husbands they harangued to bring in more money and whose days were spent eating, drinking, smoking, meddling in the affairs of her neighbors and children, teaching her children to take their place in the “gynecocracy” she had created.12 How could we recognize the “destroying mother?”: She is a middle-aged puffin with an eye like a hawk that has just seen a rabbit twitch far below. She is about twenty-five pounds overweight, with no sprint, but sharp 7 Phillip Wylie, Generation of Vipers, Newly Annotated by the Author (Larlin Corporation, Marietta, GA, 1978 [1942, 1955]). 8 Ibid., 82, 300. 9 Ibid., 210. 10 Ibid., 206, xviii. 11 Ibid., 196. 12 Wylie, Vipers, 207. Fat Stigma and Motherblame 99 heels and a hard backhand which she does not regard as a foul but a womanly defense. In a thousand of her there is not sex appeal enough to budge a hermit ten paces off a rock ledge. She none the less spends several hundred dollars a year on permanents and transformations, pomades, cleansers, rouges, lipsticks, and the like—and fools nobody except herself. … She smokes thirty cigarettes a day, chews gum, and consumes tons of bonbons and petits fours. The shortening in the latter, stripped from pigs, sheep and cattle, shortens mom. … She drinks moderately, which is to say, two or three cocktails before dinner every night and a brandy and a couple of highballs afterward. She doesn’t count the two cocktails she takes before lunch when she lunches out, which is every day she can. 13 In other words, this dangerous mother is a fat, short glutton, who emasculates her husband and sons and teaches her daughters to become just like her. We might laugh at this outrageous portrait, so obviously misogynist despite his claim in 1955 that he should not be “tagged as Woman’s Nemesis” because he “loves women more than most men.” 14 But before we laugh too hard, we must remember that his work was convincing enough that the US Armed Services conducted “official” studies that confirmed “momism” as a cause of homosexuality.15 Wylie’s “Momism” was a mid-century popularization of Freudian theory that pinpointed the inability of boys to separate from overbearing mothers as a central cause of homosexuality. And, central to the discussion here, Wylie’s work is important because it reminds us not only that no mother is exempt from cultural blame as a social hazard, but also that fat mothers should be particularly scrutinized for their threat to family and nation. Fat works as a sign that the mother is out of control, interested only in the satisfaction of her corporeal desires, brutal and selfish in her relationships, destructive of her children. Either too weak or too perverse, her will is insufficiently, incorrectly maternal, with dire consequences for the children. Popular representations in the last twenty years certainly demonstrate the contemporary viability of Wylie’s suspicions about fat mothers. The film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? is perhaps most frequently mentioned by my students in this genre of “fat mother films”; although it came out in 1993, just around the time most of them were born, the film has had a long and popular life on video, DVD, and 13 Ibid., 215. 14 Ibid., 195. 15 Jennifer Terry, “’Momism’ and the Making of Treasonous Homosexuals,” in LaddTaylor and Umansky, Bad Mothers, 176-182. 100 Amy E. Farell Netflix.16 Based on the eponymous 1991 novel by the novelist Peter Hodges, it stars Johnny Depp as the older brother Gilbert, Leonardo De Caprio as the almost 18 year old mentally disabled brother, and Darlene Cates as the 500 pound mother who has gained a tremendous amount of weight and hasn’t left the house since her husband committed suicide seven years earlier. The fact that Cates herself was chosen to star in the film after appearing on the talkshow Sally Jesse Raphael in an episode on agoraphobic fat women lends a veneer of veracity to the film, demonstrated as well by the number of fans who regularly make the pilgrimage to the Texan house where the film was shot.17 Many critics have argued that the film portrays the mother Bonnie Grape with sensitivity, revealing both the kinds of cultural humiliation she faces (neighborhood kids jump up to see her through the window, for instance) and the depth of her motherly love, as she does (painfully and slowly) make her way to the town’s jail, where her disabled son has been wrongfully imprisoned. Cates herself said that she receives letters from people who have seen the film who write, “I will never look at a fat person the same way as I did before.” 18 As all cultural meaning is relative, perhaps it is true that this film is more sympathetic than other cultural representations of fat mothers. But certainly this does not necessarily mean that it is a sympathetic portrait of a fat woman. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, Bonnie Grape has abandoned her children since the suicide of her husband, leaving her older daughter Amy to cook and clean (“she is practically a mother,” the narrator Gilbert says as he introduces his siblings), her youngest daughter Ellen to wallow in teenage anger, and her oldest son to care for and manage the seriously disabled youngest son Arnie. The mothering that she does do is rather twisted. She insists on a large party for Arnie’s 18th birthday, but she can’t do any of the work to prepare and won’t even go outside to greet the guests. She frequently holds Arnie tightly, murmuring cloying endearments and nearly smothering him with kisses as she presses him to her huge breast; in another scene, however, Arnie’s dinner time antics cause her to yell uncontrollably, 16 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? DVD, directed by Lasse Hallström (1993, New York: Paramount Pictures). 17 Jeff Labrecque, 2/16/14, “’Gilbert Grape’ at 20: When Johnny met Leo...,” accessed November 19, 2014, http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/02/16/gilbert-grape-at-20when-johnny-met-leo/; Howard Koplowitz, International Business Times, August 10, 2012, “Gilbert Grape mom Darlene Cates Undergoes Dramatic 250-Pound Weight Loss, Seeks Acting Comeback,” accessed November 14, 2014, http://www.ibtimes.com/gilbert-grape-mom-darlene-cates-undergoes-dramatic250-pound-weight-loss-seeks-acting-comeback. 18 Koplowitz, “250-Pound Weight Loss, Seeks Acting Comeback.” Fat Stigma and Motherblame 101 stomping her feet so much that Gilbert notices the floorboards are sagging underneath the dining room table they have dragged into the living room so that Bonnie never needs to leave the couch. That night, Gilbert and his friend realize that Bonnie’s size is literally causing the floor to crumble beneath them, a not too subtle sign that this fat mother is responsible for the disintegration of the entire family’s foundation. When she dies, she further troubles her children, as the authorities cannot see a way to carry her body out of the house without bringing in a crane, a spectacle of humiliation none of the children want to face. Gilbert’s decision to burn down the house, with Bonnie’s body inside, frees the children tremendously. Amy goes to work in a bakery in a new town, the younger sister Ellen moves with Amy to start in a new school, and Gilbert and Arnie go off happily with Gilbert’s new girlfriend in her (thin) grandmother’s airstream. The burden of caring for Arnie, who can indeed be quite demanding, appears to be light as a feather compared to the heavy weight of caring for and living with the fat mother. Everyone’s life is better now that the fat mother is dead. Jami Attenberg’s 2012 novel The Middlesteins, reviewed in the New York Times with the headline “Suburban Sprawl,” presents another powerful image of the fat mother as menace. 19 Selfishly refusing to seek help, lacking willpower, grotesque in her size and sickness, Edie wrecks havoc, her pain reverberating through those closest to her—spouse, children, grandchildren—and out into the community at large, to her law firm and synagogue. Edie’s fatness is both the flashpoint for this Midwestern family’s disintegration and the signifier of all the characters’ lost hopes, strained relationships, and failure to connect with the ones they love within the context of their bleak, commercial landscape. Bitter over her responsibilities as a mother and the (in)action of her husband, Edie turns primitive: She cracked open the McRib box and eyed the dark red, sticky sandwich. Suddently she felt like an animal; she wanted to drag the sandwich somewhere, not anywhere in this McDonald’s, not a booth, not Playland, but to a park, a shrouded corner of woods underneath shimmering tree branches, green, dark and serene, and then, when she was certain she was completely alone, she wanted to tear that sandwich apart with her teeth. But she couldn’t just leave her children there, could she? You didn’t need to be a graduate of Northwestern Law to know that that was illegal. 20 19 Julie Orringer, “Suburban Sprawl: The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg,” December 27, 2012, accessed December 30, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/ 12/30/books/review/the-middlesteins-by-jami-attenberg.html?pagewanted=all&_r =0, Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012). 20 Attenberg, The Middlesteins, 97. 102 Amy E. Farell While Edie doesn’t abandon her children at that moment—she knows that it is illegal!—as soon as her husband arrives she walks by herself “to the far corner of the restaurant, to the booth closest to the bathroom, where no one ever sat but the employees on break, looking back only once at her husband gathering up the children…She pulled out the newspaper from her purse. Edie took a bit of her McRib and flattened out the front page. Was this really happening to her?”21 The reader knows that this is a sickening scene on multiple levels: the excess of a McRib sandwich after having already downed a BigMac and fries, the smell of the bathroom mingling with that of the McRib, the fight with her husband, the toys from the kids’ meals broken and strewn about the trash and empty ketchup packets, the recognition that this is the beginning of her downfall (from married professional woman to working class—it’s where the employees sat!—animal) and the family’s dissolution. But Edie, primitive in her desires, lacking in maternal love, cruel to her husband, thinks that moving to the table on her own is “perfection.”22 The chubby teenage daughter is only able to escape a similar fate through a violent rejection of her mother, almost a “roar” that turns into a “pile of dark, chocolate vomit, which landed in a thick puddle on the kitchen table.”23 The mother dies an ungraceful death, slumped next to a refrigerator, the freezer door open, a pint of ice cream dripping from her hand. The family fumbles to recover after Edie’s ugly demise and death, only the granddaughter and the (thin) father able to turn to each other in a sobbing mess. The Mothers of Fat Children Fat mothers provide a locus of cultural condemnation, a figure perceived to be unfit for the responsibility of reproducing a nation. Equally condemned in popular representation, however, are the mothers of fat children. These mothers may or may not be fat themselves, but they are held responsible for their children’s size, and thus for the “obesity epidemic” itself. We certainly saw this cultural denunciation in action in the 2011 Public Health Campaign in Atlanta, Georgia, Strong4Life. Notorious for its fatshaming advertisements seen on television ads and billboards across the city, Strong4Life featured the pictures and voices 21 Ibid., 99. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid., 128. Fat Stigma and Motherblame 103 of children who lamented what it was like to be a fat.24 In one, a heavy woman walks across what looks like a stage, with two folding chairs facing each other. The fat woman first sits down in her chair, followed by the large boy who sits across from her. As he sits in the shadow, the camera zooms in. He asks plaintively, “Mom, why am I fat?” The camera then zooms out; we see the mother visibly slump, her head bowed. We then hear a large BOOM, as if his fate and her guilt have been sealed. In another, we see a doctor and a nurse bending over a male patient in an operating room. “What do we have?” the doctor asks. The nurse answers, “Heart attack. 5’9”, 300 pounds, 32 years old.“ “How the hell did that happen?” the doctor asks. The camera then rewinds, and we see the patient’s life flash before him. We see him stopping at fast food car windows, eating birthday cakes, hiding candy bars in his dresser. And, finally, we see him as a baby in his high chair; his mother is feeding him French fries after he has thrown the plate of peas on the floor. “I can’t believe you’re feeding him fries,” another woman says. “It’s the only thing that will shut him up,” the mother says, smiling tensely through gritted teeth. Most fundamentally, then, it is the mother who has failed this child, too weak to tolerate his tantrums, too lazy to find another way to nurture him, too stupid to know that she has set him on a path that will wind its way into the emergency room when he is still a young man. When the doctor asks, “How the hell did this happen?” the answer that the short video provides is clear and succinct: a bad mother. As the cultural panic surrounding “childhood obesity” gains momentum, its whipping boy (of course, in this case a whipping girl) is the mother. Historically, a whipping boy was a young boy assigned to a prince as he was growing up in 15th and 16th century England; when the prince did something wrong, the boy was whipped instead of the prince, both because the prince could not be whipped and, presumably, because seeing someone close to him being punished so severely for his actions would make him attentive to good behavior. In 21st century United States, legally and culturally we hold children to be innocent. Too young to be held responsible for their actions or their desires, and thus too young to be held responsible for their body size, we “whip” the mothers.25 The fathers might get some degree of blame, but generally, as 24 “Stop Childhood Obesity: Why Am I Fat?” accessed November 19, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysIzX_iDUKs&list=TLz1-HS_VwY6g; “Rewind the Future,” accessed November 19, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/user/ Strong4LifeGA. 25 For a full discussion of the presumed “innocence” of children regarding their body size as well as the presumed responsibility of parents, particularly mothers, see Sondra Solovay, Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000). 104 Amy E. Farell in the case of the explanations for male homosexuality in the first half of the 20th century, they are critiqued for being distant. The mothers are the ones who shoulder responsibility for the children’s body size, appearing to actively cause the child’s obesity. In other words, if the child is fat, there must be an unfit mother. Hilde Bruch, the 20th century psychiatrist most well known for her work on eating disorders and anorexia, pinpointed the problems of mothers in her important 1957 work, The Importance of Overweight. Writing at the same moment that Philip Wylie’s concept of “momism” was very popular, Bruch’s 412-page tome describes case after case of fat children whose mothers took center stage as the cause of their child’s adiposity. She described mothers who were sickeningly domineering and career focused and others who were perversely fixated on the health and size of their sons’ testicles. She believed that the children’s fatness was caused by overeating as a coping mechanism in response to the neuroses and perversions of their mothers; encouraging weight loss if the problem of the mother was not solved would only make the children more psychologically ill. Yet it was difficult to solve the problem of the mother; summarizing the cases of childhood obesity, Bruch believed that “the intense dependence of these children on their mothers, or conversely, the extraordinary domination which these mothers exercised over their children, defied all efforts to change the abnormal behavior.” Whether springing from a desire to protect or to control the child, the “relentless maternal domination,” causes a pathological atmosphere in which the child becomes fat.26 Bruch’s idea—that a mother’s twisted or incompetent maternal love causes children’s fatness—certainly circulates today in popular representation. One might look, for instance, to a critically acclaimed novel that came out around the same time as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, Wally Lamb’s 1992 She’s Come Undone.27 In Lamb’s novel, the protagonist Dolores is a very unhappy, fat young woman. After her first months of college, she contemplates suicide and ends up in a mental institution. Her story is sad: Her mother had a nervous breakdown after the stillborn birth of her younger brother and was hospitalized for months; her father abandoned the family; she was raped when she was 13 by a neighbor the whole family trusted; she has no friends; her schoolmates mock her; and one of the young men in her college dorm— her roommate’s boyfriend—sexually assaults her in front of the entire dorm and no one intervenes. In her teenage years, she is very unlikeable, 26 Hilde Bruch, The Importance of Overweight (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1957), 188, 208. 27 Wally Lamb, She’s Come Undone (New York: Washington Square Press, 1992). Fat Stigma and Motherblame 105 pushing away teachers and family members, swearing and insulting anyone who tries to help. Throughout all this, her mother sticks by her, seeking both punishment for the rapist and help for her daughter, wrapping her in love but also pushing her to quit watching television, to graduate from high school and to go to college. Truly, one is struck in reading this novel by how strong this mother has been, fighting her own hardships, battling her own demons, and sticking with this teenager through these horrible years. Yet, what does the therapist prescribe as Dolores’ cure? Weight loss, of course. But also something else: the male psychiatrist Dr. Shaw needs to “reparent” her. Dolores swims naked in the hospital’s swimming pool, which symbolizes the womb. After the first session, Dr. Shaw allows her to be in a bathing suit (she’s been born!), and they relive all the major events of her life; she re-experiences life with her father; with Jack, who raped her; with the other kids who bully her, but none of this really seems to matter. Only when she finally blows up at her mother (the one who actually stood by her and helped her!) is there a real breakthrough—a violent scene, where she literally fights her mother, who is “played” by the therapist: My arms, my fists, flew with anger let finally free. I lashed out at her, walloped her, smashed at her with the truth. All those things you used to buy me to eat and I’d eat them, sit up there in my room and eat them, swallow the truth, eat your dirty secret. 28 That “dirty secret” is just that the mother slept with Jack; this, however, was before the rape, when the whole family trusted and liked him. Once he rapes Dolores, the mother rejects Jack completely and seeks his imprisonment. In this passage, however, Dolores continues in her frenzy until she finally stops hitting and yelling, and looks up: I saw Dr. Shaw then. Saw him wet and shaken in the Gracewood pool. Blood dripped from his nose. A ribbon of blood floated in the water. He wrapped me in his arms. I cried against his neck and he hugged me and took my shaking. I don’t know how long we rocked there like that, but my sobbing and trembling was gradually overtaken by a profound exhaustion. I felt more tired than I’d ever felt in my life. “How are you doing?” he whispered, finally. “Are you okay?” “When I came here, I was this fat…And now—“ “And now what, Dolores?” “I’m empty.” He hugged me, cradling my head. “You’re triumphant!” he said. 29 28 Lamb, Undone, 277. 29 Lamb, Undone, 278. 106 Amy E. Farell In other words, Dolores’ healing only happens once she has blamed her mother and symbolically destroyed her, presumably because the mother was incapable of (magically) bestowing a thin body or self-love to her daughter. True, later in the novel Dolores explains that her mother was actually just a human being, “fragile,” a “victim herself”, neither a “saint nor a whore.”30 But the turning point of the novel is the moment when she turns on her mother, thrusting the responsibility for her mental illness and her body size on the only one who had actually unconditionally loved her. Not all the guilty mothers of fat children come off so easily, however. Many are “monster moms,” whose cruelty and brutality know no ends, and who cause their children’s obesity. The 2009 film Precious, and Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push on which the film is based, highlight a particularly obvious example of such a monster mom. 31 In both, the vicious, fat mother (played by Mo’Nique in the film) not only sexually abuses the child herself, but also hands Precious (played by Gabourey Sidibe) over to the father, who regularly rapes her resulting in two pregnancies, once when she is 12, another when she is 16. The mother is a mean woman, stealing from Welfare, watching TV endlessly, and calling Precious horrible, degrading names. She also forces Precious to cook and eat until she’s senseless, a central image of both the novel and the film. In the novel, the mother, who herself is “so big she no longer fits in the bathtub,” calls her daughter a “fat cunt bucket slut! Nigger pig bitch!” when Precious returns from the hospital after giving birth to her first child. Lying on the floor after her mother’s beating, she then is forced to get up and make dinner: “greens, cornbread, ham hocks, macaroni ‘n cheese” and then pies. She doesn’t want to eat, but her mother makes her. She eats until she is senseless. “Eating, first ‘cause she make me, beat me if I don’t, then eating hoping pain in my neck back go away. I keep eating till the pain, the gray TV light, and Mama is a blur; and I just fall back on the couch so full it like I’m dyin’ and I go to sleep, like I always do; almost.” 32 As if the novel’s portrayal of the mother is not evil enough, the film makes her even more egregious, as she throws a full size television down the stairs, nearly killing Precious and the newborn infant on the spot. And, significantly, the film also emphasizes the size and skin color difference between the evil “real” mom and the virtuous “savior” mom, Precious’ teacher Blue Rain, who not only is 30 Ibid., 279. 31 Sapphire, Push, (New York: Vintage, 1996), Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, DVD, directed by Lee Daniels (2009, Santa Monica, CA: Lions Gate Films). 32 Sapphire, Push, 20, 21. Fat Stigma and Motherblame 107 more light skinned than the mother but is also exquisitely thin, wearing clothes that emphasize her svelte body size. Surveying the landscape of contemporary US popular culture, one sees many representations of these bad, fat mothers, or these bad mothers of fat children. They are everywhere. Some, like Precious’ mother, are evil. Judith Moore’s 2005 memoir Fat Girl highlights a wicked mother, thin herself, who literally whips the daughter, forces her onto starvation diets, mocks and belittles her, causing her to turn into a woman “too fat for love.”33 Some are loving, but smother their children with food because of their emotional neediness. The mom in the 2012 Scenarios USA, prizewinning short film, The Tale of Timmy Two Chins, features such a mother, a Hispanic woman who, after the death of her husband, daily cooks a spread of food so huge for herself and her son that it could feed the entire neighborhood. 34 Some fat mothers show up simply as a signifier of inadequacy, such as in the recent feel-good movie St. Vincent, starring Bill Murray as the misanthropic, alcoholic, gambling neighbor who begrudgingly cares for the young boy who lives next door. 35 Over and over, the film tells us how insufficient the single mother is, how in need the young boy is of male attention, even if it’s with such an unlikely character as Vincent. Significantly, we know this mother, played by Melissa McCarthy, is not enough for her son: she is fat, a sign of both her own unhappiness and her own inability to keep a husband. It is by now a cliché, an easy way to code a mother as evil or her mothering as a problem: make her fat or make her child fat. The centrality of the missing father in St. Vincent is a typical trope within these derogatory narratives regarding fatness. Whether through a natural death (as in Tale of Timmy Two Chins), a suicide (as in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?), or divorce and abandonment (as in She’s Come Undone and Middlesteins) the father is simply not there, causing significant pain and damage to those left behind. Hilde Bruch had described this much earlier in her 1950s psychoanalytic narratives, noting that the fathers of fat children were absent, either physically not present, emotionally unavailable, or too weak-willed to be much of a presence in the household. The men in Phillip Wylie’s work were equally absent, unable to play much of a determining part in their children’s lives. There is a presumption built into this “absent father” narrative that the mere presence of a manly man is sufficient. As St. Vincent so clearly illuminates, the father (or father substitute) is really enough for 33 Judith Moore, Fat Girl: A True Story (New York: Plume, 2005), 195. 34 The Tale of Timmy Two Chins, directed by Nancy Savoca (2012, Brooklyn, NY: Scenarios USA) 35 St. Vincent, directed by Theodore Melfi (2014, New York: The Weinstein Company). 108 Amy E. Farell the family; he is not under the powerful cultural scrutiny that mothers endure. This is where the motherblaming narrative returns, then, even when the fathers’ absence is noted. For, it is often the mothers themselves—fat, overbearing, ugly—who push the men in their lives away. Even in cases of extraordinary abuse by the fathers, such as that we see in Precious, the film lingers in much more detail on the actions of the evil mother. Her ultimate act of abuse is failing to protect Precious from the father, thus bringing back full circle the narrative that ties the evil and inadequate mother to the child’s outsized body. It might be tempting to see these narratives connecting motherblaming and fatness simply as mundane plot conventions, so ubiquitous that they are boring, expected, irrelevant. Their very ubiquity, however, should cause us to take note. Even First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign fits snugly into this narrative of motherblame and fatness, as the symbolic mother of the nation works to combat “childhood obesity.” These stories normalize an environment that increasingly distrusts and punishes mothers and fat people: fat women who don’t “qualify” for fertility treatments, fat children taken away from their mothers, fat mothers who loose custody of their children.36 Central to the discourse and policy making of the current obesity crisis is the spectacle of the guilty mother, whether she is there explicitly or implicitly, whether she acts in ignorance or in violence, whether she is fat, or whether she causes fatness. These narratives, it’s also important to remember, have been in circulation for a long time, having their roots in the 19th century psychoanalytic discourse that pointed its fingers at “domineering” mothers, in early 20th century eugenic discourse about fit mothers, and in mid 20th century ideas about the pathology of “momism.” Taking aim at the one place that women have, ideologically if not always legally or in lived experience, held some power and authority—the home—these narratives simultaneously pathologize both mothering and fatness. Fat mothers and mothers of fat children who have more privilege—wealth, whiteness, education—will have more resources to challenge discriminatory practices. As we have 36 For an article that demonstrates the ways that all girls and women are perceived as “potential mothers,” and thus will feel the effects of motherblaming, see John Kral, “Preventing and Treating Obesity in Girls and Young Women to Curb the Epidemic,” Obesity Research, 12, 10 (2004): 1539-1546. For evidence of the ways that scholars legitimate removing fat children from their homes, see Lindsey Murtagh and David S. Ludwig, “State Intervention in Life-Threatening Obesity,” Journal of the American Medical Association 306, 2, (2011): 206-207. For further reading on the effects of the “war on obesity” on women and children, including custody disputes and legal cases, see April Michelle Herndon, Fat Blame: How the War on Obesity Victimizes Women and Children (Lawrence, Kansas, University Press of Kansas, 2014). Fat Stigma and Motherblame 109 seen in various custody disputes and legal cases, poor women, women of color, and women with less education will be at a disadvantage when trying to circumvent or resist the politics of a state and culture that punishes fatness and mothers. In the end, though, such discourses of motherblaming and fatshaming limit every woman (whether she is fat or thin, whether she is a mother or not) and every fat child, as they reinforce the idea that all women and all fat children must always be under scrutiny for their threat to the family and to the nation. Amy E. Farrell, contact: farrell (at) dickinson.edu, is Professor of American Studies and Women's and Gender Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she is also the Curley Chair of Liberal Arts and the Executive Director of the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. She is the author of two books, Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York University Press, 2011) and Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism (University of North Carolina Press, 1998). Body Politics 3 (2015), Heft 5, S. 111-134 Nothing to Lose: Fat Acceptance-Strategien und Agency als Widerstand und Unterwerfung in den USA von der Mitte der 1960er bis in die frühen 1980er Jahre Nora Kreuzenbeck English abstract: Since the 1960s, Fat Acceptance gained momentum in the United States. In the context of the civil rights struggles and the protest movements of the era, more or less formally organized groups got together, aiming to end discriminatory practices against people who were classified as overweight. Fat Acceptance activists protested against the idea that fat was to be understood as a signifier for moral weakness and self-inflicted disease. By disrupting the equation of fat as disease, they sought to present fat people as individuals who were indeed capable of acting self responsibly and in tune with the demands of liberal societies. Fat people came to be understood as a group with a unique identity. At the same time they were presented as having agency. Agency in this case has two meanings. First, fat individuals performed resistance against an oppressive system. Second, by disconnecting fat from disease and moral failure, activist presented themselves as capable liberal subjects. Gut gelaunt bedankte sich Wilma Kuns in einem als „Liebesbrief“ bezeichneten Artikel, der 1981 im Newsletter der National Association to Aid Fat Americans (NAAFA) veröffentlicht wurde, dafür, wie die Mitgliedschaft in dieser Organisation ihr Leben zu einem Besseren verändert habe. 1 Die NAAFA war 1969 im Kontext der USamerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegungen gegründet worden. Sie setzte sich gegen die Diskriminierung von Menschen ein, deren Körper als zu dick wahrgenommen wurden und forderte die Akzeptanz von Körperfett als Variation menschlicher Körperlichkeit. Auch Kuns selbst galt als stark übergewichtig. 2 Die positiven Veränderungen, für die sie 1 Ich danke Nina Mackert und Jürgen Martschukat für ihre Unterstützung beim Schreiben dieses Aufsatzes sowie den anonymen Gutachtenden der Body Politics Redaktion für ihre Hinweise, Vorschläge und Denkanstöße. Der oben zitierte Brief wurde unter dem Titel „An Open Love Letter to NAAFA“ auf der Titelseite der November/Dezember Ausgabe des NAAFA Newsletters im Jahr 1981 abgedruckt. Siehe: Wilma Kuns, „An Open Love Letter to NAAFA“, NAAFA Newsletter, November/December 1981. 2 Zugegeben wird ihr Körpergewicht in ihrem Brief nicht spezifiziert. Allerdings lässt zum einen die Mitgliedschaft in der NAAFA (National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance) diese Vermutung zu. Gleichzeitig legen auch die in ihrem Brief www.bodypolitics.de | urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201600087 | ISSN 2196-4793 112 Nora Kreuzenbeck sich bedankte, waren der Agenda der NAAFA entsprechend allerdings nicht etwa einer erfolgreichen Schlankheitsdiät und einem dünneren Körper geschuldet. Ganz im Gegenteil stellte Kuns fest, dass sie mithilfe der Organisation endlich gelernt habe, Schlankheitsdiäten hinter sich zu lassen und ihren dicken Körper nicht nur zu akzeptieren, sondern ihre Körpermaße sogar überaus gut zu finden. Kuns berichtete darüber hinaus, dass die erlangte Akzeptanz ihres Körpers eine Reihe von positiven Wendungen mit sich gebracht habe, von denen sie in ihrem Liebesbrief schrieb: Habe sie ihr Körperfett zuvor als problematisch wahrgenommen, löse ihr Spiegelbild bei ihr seit neuestem Wohlgefallen aus, erklärte Kuns. Vorbei seien die Tage, an denen sie versucht habe, ihren Körper unter langen, weiten Kleidungsstücken zu verstecken; ebenfalls passé die von ihr empfundene Verpflichtung, jede neue Diät, die auf den Markt kam, ausprobieren zu müssen. Sogar ihre Waage habe Kuns kürzlich auf den Müll geworfen, nachdem diese in letzter Zeit ohnehin nur noch dazu gedient habe, Flecken auf dem alten Badezimmerboden zu verdecken. Insgesamt mehr als zwanzig Punkte führte Kuns auf, die sich zum Positiven verändert hatten und aufgrund derer sie gegenüber der NAAFA Dankbarkeit verspürte. Dabei zeichnete sie ein Vorher-Nachher-Bild ihrer Lebensumstände. Dieses Bild verdeutlichte vor allem Folgendes: Kuns hatte aufgrund ihrer Körperfülle und den Reaktionen anderer auf ihren Körper lange enorm gelitten. Erst die Mitgliedschaft in der NAAFA und die dabei hervorgerufene Änderung ihrer Perspektiven auf ihr Körperfett zum Positiven hätten es ihr ermöglicht, das Leid abzumildern und sich mit ihrem Körper zu versöhnen. Allerdings gingen die Veränderungen weit über die Akzeptanz ihres Körpers hinaus. In ihrem Brief drückte sie die Meinung aus, dass diese Akzeptanz sie zu einem rundum besseren, produktiveren Menschen gemacht habe, der in der Lage sei, einer gelungenen Lebensführung nachzugehen und Agency auszuüben. Körperführung in einer liberalen Gesellschaftsordnung Kuns Brief, der auf der Titelseite einer Ausgabe des Newsletters der NAAFA vom Ende des Jahres 1981 abgedruckt worden war und dabei nicht zuletzt auch die Programmatik der Organisation widerspiegelte, eröffnet uns eine Perspektive auf intensiv geführte gesellschaftspolitische Debatten in den USA seit den 1970er Jahren. Im formulierten Beschreibungen bezüglich der Fremd- und Selbstwahrnehmung ihres Körpers sowie des Umgangs mit selbigem diese Schlussfolgerung nahe. Nothing to Lose 113 Zentrum dieser Debatten stand der dicke Körper, der Fragen hervorrief wie: Was bedeutete es, dass Amerikanerinnen und Amerikaner scheinbar immer dicker wurden? Wie ließ sich das Körperfett deuten? Und was sagte es vor allem über die Menschen als auch über den Zustand der Gesellschaft aus? War nicht überflüssiges Körperfett als ein Zeichen für eine gescheiterte Selbstführung zu verstehen? Viele Amerikanerinnen und Amerikaner sahen übermäßiges Körperfett als Folge eines verantwortungs- und maßlosen Umgangs mit Nahrungsmitteln. Dies konnte deshalb als problematisch wahrgenommen werden, da das selbstverantwortliche und auf das eigene wie auf das gesellschaftliche Wohl ausgerichtete Handeln als eine zentrale Fähigkeit von mündigen Subjekten in freiheitlichen Gesellschaftsordnungen wie den USA galt. Dies wirft die Frage auf, wie es Kuns gelang, sich selbst trotz ihrer abweichenden Körperlichkeit in ihrem offenen Brief an die NAAFA dennoch als erfolgreich Handelnde darzustellen. Dem soll in diesem Artikel nachgegangen und dabei das Spannungsfeld skizziert werden, in dem Kuns sich bewegte und verortete. Zunächst möchte ich im Folgenden darlegen, welche Bedeutung der eigenverantwortlichen Handlungsfähigkeit der Menschen in den USA beigemessen wurde. Hier galt das eigenverantwortlich handelnde Individuum als Fundament einer Gesellschaft, die nur dann ungefährdet weiter bestehen konnte, wenn Menschen in der Lage waren, jene Freiheiten, die ihnen die USA als liberale Demokratie boten, sinn- und verantwortungsvoll und mit Bedacht zu nutzen. Idealerweise sollte sich jeder und jede auf eine Art und Weise verhalten, die der Gesellschaft zuträglich war, und dies sollte freiwillig und ohne Zwang und Regulierungen passieren. 3 Wie später noch dargelegt werden wird, nahmen diese Anforderungen im Kontext der Neoliberalisierung der USA in den 1970er und 80er Jahren eine neue Qualität an. Das Essen und der Körper galten fortan als Bereiche, in denen sich die Befähigung des und der Einzelnen zur erfolgreichen Selbstführung in besonderem Maße abzeichnete. Das mag möglicherweise auf den ersten Blick erstaunen, scheint doch der Nahrungsaufnahme und dem Umgang mit dem Körper etwas „Natürliches“ und Triviales anzuhängen, scheinen sie doch von nebensächlicher Alltäglichkeit. Tatsächlich ist und war das Essen, also 3 Jürgen Martschukat, „Feste Bande lose schnüren: Gouvernementaliät als analytische Perspektive auf Geschichte“, Zeithistorische Forschungen 2 (2006): 277-283. Carroll Smith-Rosenberg identifiziert dies als einen zentralen Gründungsgedanken der USA: Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, „Dis-Covering the Subject of the Great Constitutional Discussion, 1786-1789“, Journal of American History 97/3 (1992): 841-873. 114 Nora Kreuzenbeck sowohl die Auswahl und Zubereitung der Nahrung als auch die Art und Weise der Nahrungsaufnahme, zentraler Bestandteil der Alltagspraktiken der Menschen. Allerdings machte gerade die Alltäglichkeit des Essens und des Umgangs mit dem Körper diese Bereiche zu Feldern, innerhalb derer sich scheinbar der Grad des Gelingens der Selbstführung in besonderem Maße ablesen ließ. Denn die Alltäglichkeit des Essens verlangte jeden Tag aufs Neue Entscheidungen. Grundsätzlich setzte sich so gut wie jeder und jede im Rahmen ihrer jeweiligen Lebenssituation zumindest zu einem gewissen Maße damit auseinander, was er oder sie essen wollte.4 Diese Wahlfreiheit ist nicht zuletzt auch einer Situation des Überflusses geschuldet. Schon im 19. Jahrhundert waren die USA als Land des Nahrungsmittelüberflusses bekannt gewesen, als „land of plenty“. 5 Die Freiheit der Wahl zu haben kam jedoch nicht ohne Komplikationen. Ganz im Gegenteil: Als wichtige Befähigung eigenverantwortlich handelnder Menschen wurde das Vermögen verstanden, Nahrungsmittel „richtig“ auszuwählen. Es galt, dass längst nicht jeder und jede in der Lage war, die richtigen Lebensmittel ohne Anleitung auszuwählen. Seit dem späten 19. Jahrhundert zielten Programme darauf ab, die vermeintlich ungesunden Ernährungsgewohnheiten beispielsweise von Angehörigen der Arbeiterklasse zu ändern und die Menschen gleichzeitig zu guten und gesunden amerikanischen Staatsbürgern zu erziehen. Auch Einwanderergruppen rückten in den Fokus solcher Programme, denn auch sie standen im Verdacht, vernünftige Entscheidungen bezüglich ihres Essens ohne Anleitung kaum treffen zu können.6 Auffallend ist, dass es oft Angehörige nicht-weißer Gruppen waren und solche Menschen, die der Unterschicht zugerechnet wurden, die im Verdacht standen, sich nicht selbstständig gesund ernähren zu können. Freilich überschnitt sich dabei die Gruppenzugehörigkeit häufig, denn viele nicht-weiße Menschen waren Angehörige sozial benachteiligter und wenig vermögender Schichten. Auch wurde Maßlosigkeit als problematisch betrachtet. So verlangten etwa viktorianische Ideale ein 4 Zum Feld des Essens, der Alltäglichkeit und ihrer Politisierung siehe Maren Möhring, „Essen“, in What Can A Body Do? Praktiken und Figurationen des Körpers in den Kulturwissenschaften, Hg. Netzwerk Körper (Frankfurt: Campus, 2012), 47-56. 5 Harvey Levenstein, Paradox of Plenty. A Social History of Eating in Modern America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 6 Für eine Übersicht über solche Ernährungsprogramme siehe Charlotte Biltekoff, Eating Right in America. The Cultural Politics of Food and Health (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2013). Nothing to Lose 115 Maßhalten in vielen Bereichen des Lebens – ungehemmter Genuss galt als ungesund für Körper und Geist. Kontextabhängige Bedeutungen des Dickseins Das Dicksein war allerdings bei weitem nicht immer als Zeichen für eine ungesunde Lebensführung verstanden worden. Stattdessen hatte Körperfett lange als Zeichen von Wohlstand und Erfolg gegolten. Jedoch begann sich diese Vorstellung mit dem späten 19. Jahrhundert zu wandeln. Dicke Körper wurden mit dem Übergang zum 20. Jahrhundert mehr und mehr als ein Zeichen von Maßlosigkeit und mangelnder Selbstdisziplin gedeutet und Körperfett somit als problematisch wahrgenommen.7 Der ausschweifende Konsum von Nahrungsmitteln geriet dabei mehr und mehr unter Beschuss. Gerade die arbeitende Bevölkerung sollte dazu angehalten werden, sich im Sinne der Körperund Arbeitsoptimierung angemessen zu ernähren – das Maßhalten bei einer gleichzeitig optimalen Versorgung des Körpers mit Nahrungsmitteln galt als Ideal. Kritik richtete sich gegen eine Form des Konsums, der als „conspicious“ wahrgenommen wurde. Dies geschah, wie Nina Mackert argumentiert, keinesfalls zufällig genau in jenen Dekaden, die heute als Progressive Era bezeichnet werden. In diesem Zeitraum etablierte sich ein moderner Kapitalismus in den USA und Idealvorstellungen von einer „effizienten Produktions-, Lebens- und Arbeitsweise“ erforderten „fähige, schlanke, effiziente und disziplinierte 7 Für Überblicksdarstellungen zu den sich wandelnden Konzeptionalisierungen von fatness siehe grundlegend Hillel Schwartz, Never Satisfied. A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies, and Fat (New York: Anchor Books, 1986); Peter Stearns, Fat History. Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West (New York: NYU Press, 2012 (1997); Sander L. Gilman, Fat. A Cultural History of Obesity (Cambridge, MA: Polity, 2008); siehe auch Laura Fraser, „The Inner Corset. A Brief History of Fat in the United States“, in The Fat Studies Reader, Hg. Esther Rothblum und Sondra Solovay (New York: NYU Press, 2009), 11-14. Für die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts siehe Katharina Vester, „Regime Change: Gender, Class, and the Invention of Dieting in Post-Bellum America“, Journal of Social History 44, 1 (2010): 39-70. Zu den ambivalenten und sich wandelnden Bedeutungen von fatness zur Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert am Beispiel der Fat Men´s Clubs, siehe Nina Mackert, „‘I want to be a fat man/ and with fat men stand‘ – U.S. Amerikanische Fat Men‘s Clubs und die Bedeutungen von Körperfett in den Dekaden um 1900“, Body Politics 3 (2014), 215-243. Amy Erdman Farrell stellt heraus, dass es bereits in den zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts eine Diätindustrie gab, deren Bedeutung allerdings erst in den 1920er Jahren richtig an Schwung gewann. Siehe Amy Erdman Farell, Fat Shame. Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture (New York: NYU Press, 2011), 3-4. 116 Nora Kreuzenbeck Körper.“ 8 Bis in die 1920er Jahre allerdings konkurrierten die verschiedenen Körperbilder miteinander. Erst im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde überschüssiges Körperfett als grundsätzlich problematisch und ungesund verstanden – und was überhaupt als „überschüssig“ galt, variierte nicht nur zeitlich, sondern auch bezogen auf Faktoren wie race, Klasse, Alter oder Geschlecht. Noch in den 1910er Jahren etwa trafen sich die so genannten Fat Men´s Clubs, bei denen es sich um Zusammenschlüsse weißer, wohlhabender, dicker Geschäftsmänner oder Juristen handelte, um ausschweifende Festgelage abzuhalten. Die Fat Men waren stolz auf ihr Körpergewicht und ihre Fähigkeit, enorme Mengen an teuren Lebensmitteln verzehren zu können. Ihr Dicksein verstanden sie als Distinktionsmerkmal und Markierung ihres wirtschaftlichen Erfolges. Gerade die gehobene gesellschaftliche Stellung in Zusammenhang mit ihrer whiteness und ihrem Geschlecht trug dazu bei, dass sie trotz oder sogar wegen ihres Essverhaltens und ihrem Körperfett als produktive Mitglieder der Gesellschaft verstanden werden konnten. 9 Spätestens ab der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts standen vielen USAmerikanerinnen und Amerikanern Nahrungsmittel im Überfluss zur Verfügung. Vor allem ab den 1950er Jahren hatte eine zunehmende Industrialisierung der Nahrungsmittelproduktion in den USA eingesetzt. Dies ermöglichte vielen Menschen den schnellen, unkomplizierten und relativ günstigen Zugriff auf eine Vielzahl von Lebensmitteln, die in Supermärkten oder beispielsweise Fast Food Restaurants im Überfluss zum Kauf angeboten wurden. Bereits beginnend in den 1950er Jahren wurde verstärkt die Vorstellung formuliert, dass viel Körperfett ein Zeichen von Krankheit, Fehlernährung und mangelnder Bewegung sei und somit das Resultat falscher Entscheidungen bezüglich der Auswahl des Essens und der Körperführung. Ähnlich wie in den 2000er Jahren beschrieb der Diskurs schon jetzt „obesity as a major national health crisis“.10 Es etablierte sich die Vorstellung, dass Dicksein ein ungesunder Zustand sei. In diesem Kontext erlebte auch die Diätindustrie einen Boom.11 Dicke Körper galten nun als offene und für alle sichtbare Markierung für die Unfähigkeit von Menschen, richtige Entscheidungen zu treffen und eigenverantwortlich zu handeln. Sie wurden zudem als Zeichen für fehlendes Maßhalten verstanden, denn kaum umstritten war 8 Mackert, „Fat Men‘s Clubs“, 2; siehe auch Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, vor allem 13-44. 9 Mackert, „Fat Men‘s Clubs“, 2. 10 Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, 114-115. 11 Stearns, Fat History. Nothing to Lose 117 auch die Idee, dass dicke Menschen schlicht zu viel aßen und die Aufnahme von Kalorien verringern müssten, um akzeptable Körpermaße und damit Gesundheit zu erreichen. Nachdem sich bereits in den 1950er Jahren die Idee vom ungesunden Dicksein etabliert hatte, entwickelte sich ab den 1960er Jahren eine Fitnesskultur, die dann in den 1970er Jahren die Qualität einer Massenbewegung annahm. Ernährungs- und Fitnessbewegungen, die den Körper formen und das Individuum optimieren sollten, erfuhren eine Hochkonjunktur. Die Optimierung des Körpers ging dabei in der Regel mit dem Ziel des Schlankseins einher. Der Zustand des Körpers war ins Zentrum des Interesses gerückt, und nie zuvor waren so viele Amerikanerinnen und Amerikaner sportlich aktiv und damit beschäftigt, an ihrer Fitness und ihrer Ernährung zu arbeiten und ihre Körper schlank zu halten. 12 Der selbstverantwortliche, richtige Umgang mit dem Körper wurde zu einer zentralen Befähigung von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern und das Schlanksein galt als Auszeichnung, denn das Fehlen von reichlich Körperfett schien die Befähigung von Menschen zu bezeugen, sich selbst zu disziplinieren und mit dem eigenen Körper verantwortungsvoll umzugehen. Was überhaupt ein verantwortungsvoller Umgang mit dem Körper war, welches Essen und welche Form der Bewegung gut seien, wurde zwar kontrovers debattiert.13 Mehr oder weniger einig war man sich jedenfalls darin, dass das Ziel der Körperarbeit ein produktiver, gesunder Körper sein solle. Allerdings sollte das richtige Essverhalten noch weitaus mehr bedingen als nur Gesundheit. Denn was verantwortungsvolles, „richtiges“ Essverhalten bedeutete, war schon im Kontext der Counterculture-Bewegungen der 1960er und 70er Jahre neu diskutiert und im Vergleich etwa zum Kontext der Progressive Era erweitert worden. Es ging nun nicht mehr nur um die optimale Versorgung des Körpers mit Nährstoffen. Vielmehr waren nun Fragen laut geworden wie: Wer produzierte das Essen, und unter welchen Umständen? Welche Folgen beispielsweise für die Umwelt hatte die Produktion? Dieses neue Bewusstsein für verantwortungsvolles Essen 12 Siehe Shelley McKenzie, Getting Physical. The Rise of Fitness Culture in America (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2013); siehe auch Pirrko Markula und Richard Pringle, Foucault, Sport and Exercise. Power, Knowledge and Transforming the Self (New York: Routledge, 2006); Darcy Plymire, „Positive Addiction: Running and Human Potential in the 1970s“, Journal of Sports History 31, 3 (2002): 297-315. 13 Vgl. beispielsweise mit Blick auf das Langstreckenlaufen Plymire, „Positive Addiction“; mit Blick auf das Essen Warren James Belasco, Appetite for Change. How the Counter Culture Took on the Food Industry (Ithaka: Cornell University Press, 2006); Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, 80-108. 118 Nora Kreuzenbeck sollte in den folgenden Jahren und Jahrzehnten auch den Mainstream erreichen. 14 Agency I: eigenverantwortliche Handlungsfähigkeit mündiger Subjekte An dieser Stelle kann der Begriff Agency helfen, die Analyse der einleitend bereits angesprochenen Schilderungen von Kuns sowie der Strategien der im Folgenden vorgestellten Fat Acceptance-Gruppen zu schärfen und in einen größeren Diskurs einzuordnen. Agency beschreibt zum einen widerständige Handlungen von Menschen in Situationen und Kontexten, die in hohem Maße repressiv auf die Handelnden einwirken. 15 Zum anderen wird die Ausübung von Agency aber auch als zentrale Fähigkeit mündiger Subjekte liberaler Gesellschaften verstanden. Agency in diesem Sinne beschreibt Handlungen, die beispielsweise Eigenverantwortung, Vernunft oder auch Selbstbeherrschung vermitteln. Liberale Gesellschaften gründen auf der für die USA bereits diskutierten Idee, dass Menschen selbstverantwortlich mit ihren Freiheiten umgehen und zu ihrem eigenen Vorteil und zum Vorteil der Gesellschaft nutzen würden. 16 Nach diesem Verständnis markierte Dicksein einen Mangel an Agency. Scheinbar waren dicke Menschen nicht in der Lage, sich den Versuchungen des Überflusses zu widersetzen und sich selbst zu ihrem eigenen Wohl und zum Wohl der Gesellschaft zu disziplinieren und Willensstärke und Verantwortungsbewusstsein auszuüben. In diesem gesellschaftlichen Kontext, in dem auch weniger vermögende Menschen Zugriff auf Nahrungsmittel im Überfluss hatten, wurde damit gleichzeitig das Dünnsein und der Verzicht zu einer Möglichkeit, sich zu distinguieren und die Fähigkeit zu Agency für sich zu reklamieren. Dabei wurde die Form des Körpers somit letztendlich auch zu einem Zeichen für den Zustand des Geistes und der moralischen Verfasstheit, und Fett wurde zum Symbol des Scheiterns und der selbstverschuldeten Krankheit. Denn wie oben bereits dargelegt galt ein Übermaß an Körperfett als ungesund und wurde beispielsweise mit Herz-Kreislauf 14 Siehe Belasco, Counter Culture; Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, 80ff. 15 Alf Lüdtke, „Geschichte und Eigensinn“ in Alltagskultur, Subjektivität und Geschichte: Zur Theorie und Praxis von Alltagsgeschichte, Hg. Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt (Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot Verlag, 1994), 139-153. 16 Nikolas Rose, Powers of Freedom. Reframing Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Nothing to Lose 119 Erkrankungen, Diabetes oder Gelenkproblemen in enge Verbindung gebracht.17 Als zu dick geltende Menschen erfuhren einen enormen Druck und sahen sich auf einer alltäglichen Basis der Forderung ausgesetzt, abzunehmen und an ihrem Körper zu arbeiten. Darüber hinaus erfuhren sie die Abwertung ihrer Körper auf mannigfaltige Weise. Wie etwa Farrell in ihrer Studie zu Fat Shame in den USA seit dem 19. Jahrhundert aufgezeigt hat, waren dicke Körper in der US-amerikanischen Populärkultur oft Spott ausgesetzt. Dicke Menschen wurden beispielsweise als maßlos und gierig dargestellt und ihre Körper als unansehnlich und bar jeden Sex Appeals kategorisiert. 18 Fat Acceptance-Strategien im Kontext bürgerrechtlicher und sozialkritischer Umbrüche seit den 1960er Jahren Die 1960er Jahre gelten als eine Zeit des Umbruchs, der die USamerikanische Gesellschaft nachhaltig veränderte. 19 Diverse Protestund Bürgerrechtsbewegungen konstituierten sich. Bereits seit den 1950er Jahren hatten African Americans gegen rassistische Diskriminierung und für das Zugeständnis voller Bürgerrechte protestiert. Angeführt vom Baptistenpastor Martin Luther King hatte sich ausgehend vom Süden der USA eine Bewegung entfaltet, die auf gewaltlosen Protest und zivilen Ungehorsam setzte. Sit-Ins, Protestmärsche, Boykotte und nicht zuletzt Gerichtsverfahren gehörten zu den Instrumentarien der bürgerlich geprägten Bewegung. Ihre 17 Vgl. Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, 116. 18 Farrell legt Veränderungen und Kontinuitäten in der Abwertung von Körperfett in der US-amerikanischen Kultur seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts dar: Ziel des Fat Shaming waren dabei häufig weiße Frauen der Mittelklasse. So waren etwa in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts Postkarten populär, die dicke weiße Frauen verunglimpften, die auf Reisen waren. Während weiße Frauen der Mittelschicht zunehmend in der Lage waren, zu reisen und zu konsumieren, sahen sie sich gleichzeitig einem backlash ausgesetzt, der ihnen Maßlosigkeit unterstellte und ihre neue Unabhängigkeit somit kritisierte, schlussfolgert Farrell. Diese vermeintliche Maßlosigkeit wurde durch die Darstellung der reisenden Frauen als übermäßig dick kritisiert: „These postcards suggest that as women gained more political and geographic freedom in the early 20th century, they were increasingly curtailed by a set of body disciplines that mocked and denigrated all those who did not seem to display proper modes of bodily control.“ (Farrell, Fat Shame, 53). 19 Die Historiker Van Gosse und Richard Moser beschreiben 2003 die nachfolgenden Jahrzehnte als „World the Sixties Made“. Siehe Van Gosse und Richard Moser, The World the Sixties Made. Politics and Culture in Recent America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003). 120 Nora Kreuzenbeck wichtigsten Erfolge waren die Verabschiedung des Civil Rights Act von 1964, der Diskriminierung im öffentlichen Bereich sowie auf dem Arbeitsmarkt anhand von race, Hautfarbe, Religion, Geschlecht und Herkunft untersagte, und des Voting Rights Act von 1965, der das Wahlrecht garantieren sollte. Mitte der 1960er Jahre formierte sich die so genannte Black Power-Bewegung. Ihren Anhängerinnen und Anhängern gingen die Zugeständnisse an die gemäßigte Bürgerrechtsbewegung nicht weit genug und wurden zu zögerlich umgesetzt. Black Power ergänzte und erweiterte die Ziele der gemäßigten Bürgerrechtsbewegung um Forderungen, die vielen radikal erschienen. So propagierten die Anhängerinnen und Anhänger etwa Stolz auf ihr Schwarzsein, protestierten gegen den von ihnen als imperialistisch beschriebenen Vietnamkrieg und forderten statt einer Integration eine grundlegende Veränderung der US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft. Ebenfalls an Momentum gewann ab Mitte der 1960er Jahre der so genannte Second Wave-Feminismus, der die Formierung zum Teil sehr heterogener feministischer Bündnisse innerhalb verschiedener Bevölkerungsgruppen mit sich brachte. So wie sich etwa die Diskriminierungserfahrungen beispielweise schwarzer Frauen um einiges von denen weißer Frauen unterschieden, waren ihre jeweiligen Forderungen, Aktionen und Organisationen von ihren distinktiven Perspektiven geprägt. 20 Zu den Zielen unterschiedlicher feministischer Gruppierungen und Strömungen gehörten so unterschiedliche Aspekte wie die Forderung nach dem Ende der Diskriminierung von Frauen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt, die zumindest auf dem Papier mit Verabschiedung des Civil Rights Act 1964 untersagt wurde, der rechtlichen Gleichstellung von Frauen in der Ehe und dem Recht auf Abtreibung. Feministinnen kritisierten die patriarchalen Gesellschaftsstrukturen, Gewalt gegen Frauen und die Reduzierung auf ihren Körper. Feministinnen bestritten zudem, dass sich vermeintlich Privates und Politisches voneinander trennen ließe. Sie verstanden scheinbar private Angelegenheiten, wie etwa das Recht auf Abtreibung oder die Machtstrukturen in Familien als in hohem Maße politisch. Dieses Verständnis erlaubte es ihnen, ihre 20 Siehe u. a. Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open. How the Modern Women´s Movement Changed America (New York und London: Penguin Books, 2000); Benita Roth, Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America´s Secon Wave (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Winifred Breines, The Trouble Between Us. An Uneasy History of Black and White Women in the Feminist Movement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006); Stephanie Gilmore Hg., Feminist Coalitions: Historical Perspectives on Second-Wave Feminism in the United States (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008). Nothing to Lose 121 Forderungen als gesellschaftlich relevant darzulegen, ihnen Nachdruck zu verleihen und sie als Teil des größeren bürgerrechtlichen Aufbegehrens zu verstehen, das sich in der US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft formierte. 21 Nicht zuletzt wurde auch der Körper dabei zu etwas Politischem. Seine Hochphase erreichte der Second Wave Feminism in den 1970er Jahren, in denen auch eine Radikalisierung einzelner Strömungen zu verzeichnen ist. 22 Auch hatte sich ab Mitte der 1960er Jahre die Gay Liberation Bewegung formiert. Sie trat unter anderem für einen offenen Umgang mit der Homosexualität ein, vermittelte Stolz auf das Schwulbeziehungsweise Lesbischsein und forderten ein Ende der Diskriminierung Homosexueller. Gemeinsam war diesen Bewegungen neben vielen anderen Aspekten die Tatsache, dass sie sich auf Identitäten beriefen. Begleitet wurden sie durch die Formierung sozialrebellischer Bündnisse wie etwa der marxistisch beeinflussten New Left oder der Counterculture der Hippiebewegung, die alternative Lebensweisen dem Establishment entgegensetzte. 23 Zweifellos formierten sich die hier erwähnten Bewegungen nicht unabhängig voneinander. Vielmehr bedingten und inspirierten sie sich wechselseitig, verwiesen aufeinander, trugen aber auch Reibungen aus. Beispielsweise richtete sich feministische Kritik gegen die stark männlich geprägten Strukturen sowohl der afroamerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung als auch anderer politischer Strömungen und Bündnisse, die in den 1960er Jahren entstanden. Eine zentrale Gemeinsamkeit dieser unterschiedlichen Bewegungen war ein aktives Staatsbürgerschaftsverständnis, das die Einzelne und den Einzelnen als politisch verantwortlich und ihr Handeln als gesellschaftlich relevant wahrnahm. Wie der Historiker Edward E. Berkowitz argumentiert, waren es dann die 1970er Jahre, deren Beginn oft auf den einsetzenden Rückzug der USA aus dem Vietnamkrieg im Jahre 1973 datiert wird, in der die in den 1960er Jahren formulierten Forderungen und Konzepte sich in der Praxis niederschlugen. So gestand etwa der Oberste Gerichtshof der USA im Fall Roe v. Wade Frauen ein Recht auf 21 Ann Bookman und Sandra Morgen, Hg., Women and the Politics of Empowerment (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988). 22 Sara M. Evans, „Beyond Declension. Feminist Radicalism in the 1970s and 1980s“, in Gosse und Moser, The World the Sixties Made, 52-66. 23 John Campbell McMillan, „Introduction,“ in The New Left Revisited, Hg. John Campbell McMillan und Paul Buhle (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003), 6. Siehe auch Gosse und Moser, The World the Sixties Made. 122 Nora Kreuzenbeck Abtreibung zu. Affirmative Action und Busing waren ein Versuch der Desegregation von Schulen und Universitäten.24 An dieser Stelle Erwähnung finden muss auch das Alternative Food Movement, das, wie Warren Belasco dargelegt hat, als zentraler Teil der Counterculture verstanden werden muss. Sich gesund zu ernähren und einen gesunden Körper zu pflegen, wurde als kapitalismuskritisches Anliegen verstanden. Der Konsum von health food, möglichst aus ökologisch verträglichem und nachhaltigem Anbau sollte einen Kontrapunkt setzen zu Ernährungsweisen, die überwiegend auf Produkten basierten, die von der hoch technologisierten und profitorientierten Lebensmittelindustrie erwirtschaftet wurden. Darunter fiel auch das Fast Food, das als ungesund und dickmachend galt.25 Gesund zu essen bedeutete diesem Verständnis nach, widerständig zu agieren. Gleichzeitig wurde die Sorge um den Körper aber auch als Beweis für die Fähigkeit verstanden, verantwortungsvoll zu handeln, und die permanente Beschäftigung mit dem Körper schrieb die Handelnden wiederum in hegemoniale Diskurse ein. Wie bereits oben erwähnt, entwickelte sich ebenfalls in den 1960er Jahren in den USA eine Fitnesskultur, die in den 1970er Jahren zu einer Massenbewegung wurde. Diese intensive und massenhafte Arbeit am Körper kam, wie Charlotte Biltekoff argumentiert, nicht zuletzt Idealvorstellungen von guter Staatsbürgerlichkeit entgegen, wie sie der Neoliberalismus forderte. 26 Nicht von ungefähr waren zu diesem Zeitpunkt so viele Menschen mit ihrem Körper beschäftigt. Wie Biltekoff feststellt: „By 1980, the economic theory of neoliberalism […] had begun to reshape cultural notions of good citizenship. The good citizen was increasingly imagined as an autonomous, informed individual acting responsibly in his or her own self-interest […] [T]he ethos of neoliberalism shifted the burden of caring for the well-being of citizens from the state to the individual and recast health as a personal pursuit, responsibility, and duty.” 27 Damit war das Alternative Food Movement nicht zuletzt Teil einer Kultur des mündigen, selbstverantwortlich handelnden Subjektes, dessen Handlungen als Grundlage für das Bestehen einer liberalen Gesellschaftsordnung wie die der USA galten. Und obwohl die verstärkte 24 Edward E. Berkowitz, Something Happened. A Political and Cultural Overview of the Seventies (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 10. 25 Belasco, Appetite. 26 Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, 92. 27 Biltekoff, Eating Right in America, 92. Nothing to Lose 123 Sorge um den Körper in eine Zeit der Neoliberalisierung ab den 1970er Jahren fällt, lässt sie sich weder als konservatives noch als liberales Phänomen beschreiben. So machten etwa Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten der Fat Acceptance-Bewegungen die Erfahrung, dass Körperfett in linken Gruppierungen als Symbol für kapitalistische Gier gelten konnte. 28 Es ist kein Zufall, dass sich ausgerechnet in der oben skizzierten politisierten Gemengelage seit den 1960er Jahren eine Reihe von Organisationen und loseren Gruppierungen formierten, die es sich zum Ziel setzten, gegen die Diskriminierung von dicken Menschen in der Gesellschaft vorzugehen. In einem Manifest der Gruppe Fat Underground etwa, die sich in den frühen 1970er Jahren in Santa Monica in Kalifornien gegründet hatte und deren Mitglieder sich als „radical feminist fat women“ definierten, hieß es 1973: „WE [sic!] repudiate the mystified ‘science’ which falsely claims that we are unfit. It has both caused and upheld their discrimination against us, in collusion with the financial interests of insurance companies, the fashion and garment industries, reducing industries, the food and drug industries, and the medical and psychiatric establishment.“ 29 Viele der politischen Gruppierungen der 1960er Jahre gründeten auf der Idee einer gemeinsamen Identität, und ihr politisches Agieren wurde als identity politics beschrieben. Auch Fat Acceptance-Gruppen beriefen sich auf eine gemeinsame Identität. Dicksein wurde, korrespondierend etwa mit dem Schwarzsein, als identitätsstiftendes Merkmal begriffen. Also verstanden viele Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten dicke Menschen als Angehörige einer Gruppe von Menschen, die unter anderem deshalb zusammengehörten, weil sie als körperlich anders geltende ähnliche Diskriminierungserfahrungen gemacht hatten und machten. Ihr Aufbegehren gegen die von ihnen erlebten Formen der Diskriminierung sahen die Aktivistinnen des Fat Underground als verwandt mit dem Aufbegehren gegen eine Vielzahl von Unterdrückungsmechanismen, gegen die sich viele der Bürgerrechts- und Protestbewegungen verschiedener Bevölkerungsgruppen seit den 1960er Jahren vermehrt richteten. So hieß es im Manifest des Fat Underground: „We see our struggle as allied with the struggles of other oppressed groups against classism, racism, sexism, ageism, capitalism, imperialism and the like.”30 28 Judy Freespirit und Sara Aldebaran, Fat Underground. An Introduction to Fat Militancy, 1973. 29 Ebd. 30 Freespirit und Aldebaran, Fat Underground. 124 Nora Kreuzenbeck Ihr Aufbegehren gegen Diskriminierung ordneten die Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten darüber hinaus in einen globalen Kontext ein. So forderte das Manifest dicke Menschen weltweit auf, sich zusammenzuschließen. Dort hieß es: „FAT PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE….“ 31 Der Slogan muss als Anlehnung an Marx’ Forderung „Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch!“ verstanden werden. Die Mitglieder des Fat Underground übten grundsätzliche Kritik am Kapitalismus und der Gesellschaftsordnung der USA. Um ihre Kritik vorzubringen, verteilten sie Flugblätter etwa in Arztpraxen, organisierten Demonstrationen oder publizierten beispielsweise Informationsmaterial über die Diskriminierung dicker Menschen und die Gefahren des Diäthaltens. Sie störten auch die Treffen von Diätgruppen mit Protest und Fragen, die die Praxis des Diäthaltens grundsätzlich in Frage stellte. 32 Die Aktivistinnen des Fat Underground verstanden sich als „radical feminist fat women“ und verknüpften ihre Fat Acceptance-Bestrebungen mit einer radikalisierten Form des Feminismus, wie er seit 1968 beschrieben wird.33 Radikale Feministinnen strebten eine grundlegende Umstrukturierung der männlich geprägten Gesellschaft an. Ihre Aktionen und Forderungen kreisten oft um den Körper, der als politischer Ort verstanden wurde. So publizierte etwa in Boston seit 1970 eine Gruppe von Feministinnen, die bald als The Boston Women´s Health Book Collective bekannt werden sollte, Broschüren und schließlich Bücher mit dem Titel Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS) zum Thema Frauengesundheit, die enorme Nachfrage erfahren sollten. In OBOS schrieben Frauen, Laien dazu, über den weiblichen Körper und strebten an, ihn ein Stück weit dem Zugriff durch männliche Experten zu entziehen. 34 Auch die Aktivistinnen des Fat Underground bedienten sich einer explizit feministischen Kritik in ihrem politischen Ringen um Fat Acceptance und wiesen darauf hin, dass die Abwertung von Körperfett sich vornehmlich gegen Frauen richtete. Außerdem zeigten sie auf, dass auch schlanke Frauen ständig dazu aufgefordert wurden auf ihr Gewicht zu achten und beschrieben dieses Phänomen als unterdrückend. 31 Ebd. 32 Farrell, Fat Shame, 142-145. 33 Siehe Evans, „Beyond Declension“. 34 Kathy Davis, The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves. How Feminism Travels Across Borders (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), Wendy Kline, „The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves. Rethinking Women´s Health and Second Wave Feminism“, in Feminist Coalitions. Historical Perspectives on Second Wave Feminism in the United States, Hg. Stephanie Gilmore (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2008), 63-83. Nothing to Lose 125 Die Entkopplung von Körperfett und Gesundheit als zentrale Strategie von Fat Acceptance Gleichzeitig versuchten die Mitglieder des Fat Underground Vorstellungen von Krankheit und Körperfett voneinander zu trennen. Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten begehrten dabei auch dagegen auf, dass Fett als Zeichen moralischer Schwäche und selbstverschuldeter Krankheit verstanden wurde. Wie ich hier argumentieren möchte, lässt sich die Entkopplung von Fett und Krankheit als zentrale Emanzipationsstrategie vieler Fat Acceptance-Aktionsgruppen verstehen. Auch die NAAFA, von der Wilma Kuns so begeistert berichtete, argumentierte entsprechend. Der Verband war in regionale Ortsverbände unterteilt, wobei die meisten Mitglieder in den Regionen New York und Neuengland zu finden waren. Die Ortsverbände trafen sich in regelmäßigen Abständen, um sich auszutauschen und untereinander Kontakte zu knüpfen. Die NAAFA veröffentlichte regelmäßig einen Newsletter und verfasste Protestbriefe gegen die Diskriminierung dicker Menschen. Das wichtigste soziale Event der Organisation war vermutlich die jährlich stattfindende feierliche Hauptversammlung von Mitgliedern aller Ortsgruppen. In den 1980er Jahren wurde der Name in „National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance“ geändert. Ob vor oder nach dieser Änderung: Grundsätzlich erinnert die Namensgebung stark an eine der größten Bürgerrechtsbewegungen des 20. Jahrhunderts, nämlich an die „National Association for the Advancement of Colored People“ (NAACP). Diese gilt als bürgerlich geprägte Bürgerrechtsorganisation, die Veränderung vor allem über den Weg der Gerichte erstreiten wollte. Und auch die NAAFA präsentierte sich weniger radikal als etwa die Mitglieder der Gruppe Fat Underground. So war die NAAFA beispielsweise keine explizit feministische oder kapitalismuskritische Gruppierung, sondern sprach eher ein gemäßigtes Mittelklasseumfeld an, das sich an bürgerlichen Werten orientierte. In der Sektion „Social News“ im Newsletter der Organisation wurden beispielsweise regelmäßig heterosexuelle Eheschließungen zwischen NAAFAMitgliedern bekanntgegeben und bejubelt. Tatsächlich waren einige der Aktivistinnen des Fat Underground zunächst der NAAFA zugehörig, bevor sie aufgrund politischer Differenzen die gemäßigte Organisation verließen, um die radikalere Gruppe Fat Underground zu formieren. 35 William Fabrey, Gründungsmitglied der NAAFA, beschrieb diese gemäßigte Haltung in einem Brief an die Aktivistin Vivian Mayer und 35 Farrell, Fat Shame, 142. 126 Nora Kreuzenbeck andere wie folgt: „[W]e are in most instances, a middle-of-the-road selfhelp charitable organization, and not truly radical by the usual radical standards.“ 36 Wie sich diese „middle-of-the-road“-Haltung in den Aktivitäten der Mitglieder der NAAFA äußerte, möchte ich gleich am Beispiel von Wilma Kuns Brief ausführlicher darlegen. An dieser Stelle sei zunächst nochmals betont, dass die NAAFA ähnlich wie Fat Underground gegen die Stigmatisierung dicker Körper als ungesunde Körper aufbegehrte. Die Entkopplung von Krankheit und Körperfett sollte es möglich machen, dicke Menschen als erfolgreiche und verantwortungsvoll und effektiv handelnde Subjekte wahrzunehmen. Diese emanzipatorische Strategie zeigt sich auch in Wilma Kuns Lob der NAAFA. Zwar legte sie nicht explizit dar, warum sie der Entkopplung von Krankheit und Körperfett zustimmte. Allerdings machte sie deutlich, dass sie sich längst von der Aufforderung, Gewicht zu verlieren, emanzipiert habe. So habe sie sich, wie oben bereits erwähnt, ihrer Waage entledigt, kaufe keine neuen Diätbücher mehr und entziehe sich auch dem so genannten „diet talk“ und „what I ate yesterday“-Gesprächen von Bekannten und Freunden, die weiterhin mit der Gewichtsreduktion beschäftigt waren. 37 Die Zeit, die sie früher damit verbracht habe, mit anderen über Diäten zu sprechen, nutze sie nun sinnvoller, indem sie etwa die Zeitung lese, stricke oder ein Nickerchen hielte. Auffällig ist dabei, dass die von Kuns beschriebenen Aktivitäten allesamt alltäglich waren und kaum weltbewegend. Allerdings beschrieb sie sie als allemal sinnvoller als die permanente Beschäftigung mit dem Diäthalten, das für sie zu einer unproduktiven Zeitverschwendung geworden war. Diäthalten als unproduktiv und ungesund Das Diäthalten als vergebliche und damit sinnlose Tätigkeit darzustellen, war und ist ein zentrales Argument von Fat AcceptanceGruppen. Dicksein wurde dabei als angeborenes, unveränderliches Merkmal beschrieben. Häufig galt, dass wer dick war, es auch bleiben würde. Immer wieder beriefen sich die Betroffenen auf Studien, die das Diäthalten langfristig als vergebliche Anstrengung beschrieben. Wer durch eine Diät an Körpergewicht verlor, nehme die verlorene 36 Brief von William Fabrey an die New Haven Fat Liberation Front vom 3. Januar 1978, Box 1: Folder 12, Mayer Collection of Fat Liberation, Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries. 37 Kuns, „Love Letter“. Nothing to Lose 127 Körpermasse in den meisten Fällen letztendlich wieder zu oder endete sogar bei einem noch höheren Körpergewicht als dem ursprünglichen. „[O]ver 99% of all weight loss programs, when evaluated over a fiveyear period, fail utterly“, hieß es etwa im Manifest des Fat Underground.38 Die Aktivistinnen des Fat Underground argumentierten zudem, dass Maßnahmen zur Gewichtsreduktion als solche häufig überaus schädlich seien, die Gesundheit angriffen und letztlich sogar zu einem Plus an Körperfett führten. Die Aktivistin Judith Stein aus Boston beschrieb dieses Phänomen der Gewichtszunahme nach einer Diät 1982 in „Women Wise“, einer Publikation des New Haven Feminist Health Center folgendermaßen: „Fat people are not fat because we eat too much, eat the wrong foods or have metabolic problems. […] The relationship between food intake and weight is murky at best.” 39 Außerdem hieß es: „Any attempt to prove that being fat actually causes [Hervorhebung im Original] illness has failed. Not one study has successfully proven that being fat causes the diseases attributed to it. Interestingly, all the diseases attributed to fatness (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, etc.) are stress related diseases, and are most likely to be caused by the combination of repeated dieting, and living in a fat hating culture.” 40 Steins Artikel zufolge wurde das Dicksein somit zu einem mehr oder weniger angeborenen Zustand, der sich nur wenig beeinflussen ließ. Stein widersprach somit der Idee, dass Körperfett ein Zeichen mangelnder Willensstärke sei. Denn wie bereits oben erwähnt sahen sich dicke Menschen immer wieder dem Vorwurf ausgesetzt, aufgrund eines maßlosen Essverhaltens selbstverschuldet ihre Gesundheit aufs Spiel zu setzen. „Coming out as fat“: Selbstakzeptanz als Befreiungsstrategie Auch die NAAFA argumentierte immer wieder, dass ein hohes Körpergewicht nicht per se schädlich oder krankhaft sei, wie nicht zuletzt auch Wilma Kuns veröffentlichter Liebesbrief an die Organisation verdeutlicht. Doch wer war eigentlich Wilma Kuns? Ihr Brief verrät uns, dass sie weiß war und Angehörige der Mittelschicht. Sie 38 Freespirit und Aldebaran, Fat Underground. 39 Judith Stein, „Trimming the Fat for a Profit: An Essay on Fat Liberation“, WomenWise. The N.H. Feminist Health Center Quarterly 5/4 (1982): 8-9. 40 Stein, „Trimming the Fat“, 8-9. 128 Nora Kreuzenbeck war berufstätig, allem Anschein nach ledig und hatte keine Kinder. Kuns Lob der NAAFA liest sich sowohl als Beschreibung der Gegenwart, als auch als ein Rückblick. Dabei wird deutlich: Kuns hatte viel Energie darauf verwandt, mit ihrem Körper zu hadern bevor sie schließlich ihr „coming out“ als „fett“ hatte. Immer wieder findet man in den Quellen die Verwendung des Begriffs „coming out of the closet“ durch Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten. Dies ist bemerkenswert, da der Begriff vornehmlich mit den politischen Bewegungen homosexueller Menschen und Debatten um Homosexualität assoziiert wird, wobei die Begrifflichkeit in diesem Kontext den Prozess der Benennung der Homosexualität gegenüber dem sozialen Umfeld beschreibt. Dass dicke Menschen diesen Begriff in Bezug auf ihr Dicksein benutzten, mag zunächst verwundern, denn sie trugen schließlich das Merkmal des Dickseins in Form von Körperfett für jeden sichtbar an ihrem Körper, mussten sich also nicht erst als dick beschreiben, um als dick wahrgenommen zu werden. Allerdings benutzten Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten den Begriff, um die Akzeptanz des eigenen Körpers als dick zu artikulieren. „Coming out as fat“ bedeutete neben anderen Aspekten beispielsweise, das eigene, von der Norm abweichende Körpergewicht gut zu finden, sich selbst als fett zu bezeichnen, ohne den Begriff als anstößig zu verstehen, und dem Diäthalten zu entsagen. Kimm Bonner, Gründerin des Neuengland-chapter der NAAFA, beschrieb in einem Feature im Newsletter der Gruppe im Jahre 1981 ihr „coming out“ dementsprechend folgendermaßen: „Personally - - (sic!) what I have gotten out of this is to come out of the closet - (sic!) I feel really good about who I am. I have been able to tell everyone in my life - (sic!) family, friends, people at work that ‘Hey - - (sic!) this is me - - (sic!) if I like it, you should accept it too’ and tell them about NAAFA. […] I can go into a store now, or a restaurant and not worry about what people think of me for buying ice cream or cake or cookies. I wear my clothes with pride - - (sic!) pinks and purples and greens. No more black gent Dresses or Coats all summer long. I am free [Unterstreichung im Original] of my self-prejudice against my fat - - (sic!) and everyone else can be too!“ 41 Kuns Selbstakzeptanz ging mit weit mehr Änderungen einher als der ihres Essverhaltens oder ihres Kleidungsstils. So dankte Kuns der NAAFA beispielsweise dafür, dass sie ein kritisches Denkvermögen habe entwickeln können. „Thanks to NAAFA for […] [d]eveloping my critical and evaluative skills“, hieß es in ihrem Brief. Außerdem habe sie nun 41 “Spotlight on … (sic!) Kimm Bonner“, NAAFA Newsletter, Spring-Summer 1981, 1-2, hier 2. Nothing to Lose 129 den Mut, ihre Meinung zu äußern, und sie habe zudem gelernt, diese Meinung klar und informiert darzulegen. Kuns schrieb: „Thanks to NAAFA for […] [g]iving me the courage to say what needs to be said and the knowledge and facility to say it reasonably well.“ Außerdem habe die Mitgliedschaft in der NAAFA sie endlich in die Lage versetzt, selbstbewusst Entscheidungen zu treffen und diese Entscheidungen deutlich zu formulieren. Sie schrieb: „Thanks to NAAFA for: […] [t]elling me that I can be a responsive person and that that response can sometimes be a ‘Yes!’“ Gleichzeitig bedankte sie sich bei der Organisation auch für die Einsicht „that I can also say ‚No.’“ Kuns Brief macht deutlich, dass die Verfasserin ihre Zugehörigkeit zur NAAFA unmittelbar an die Erlangung von Agency knüpfte. Kuns beschrieb sich als Frau, die vor ihrer Zugehörigkeit zur NAAFA kaum in der Lage gewesen war, Agency auszuüben. Offensichtlich war es ihr schwer gefallen, Entscheidungen in ihrem Interesse zu fällen oder sich eine eigenständige Meinung zu bilden, diese selbstbewusst zu formulieren und zu ihrem eigenen Wohle „ja“ oder „nein“ zu sagen. 42 In Kuns Brief über ihre Vergangenheit vor der Mitgliedschaft in der NAAFA hieß es: „[T]hanks to NAAFA for […] [the] very time I´ve not needed to purchase a book or periodical just because it was touting a ‘new’ ‘easy’ diet that ‘really works.’“ Sie bedankte sich bei der NAAFA auch für den Tag, an dem sie sich endlich zu fragen vermochte: „’What would it be like NOT [Hervorhebung im Original] to be going on another diet tomorrow?’ and to not even be considering when, IF EVER [Hervorhebung im Original]), that might be“. Sie selbst beantwortete diese Frage folgendermaßen: „I had to grab on to something solid to keep me from rising to the ceiling!“ Scheinbar waren diese Gedanken und Handlungen für sie bis dato kaum vorstellbar gewesen. Kuns Schilderung deutet eine gewisse Fremdbestimmtheit ihrer Handlungen vor ihrer Zugehörigkeit zur NAAFA an. Zwar war sie selbst der Überzeugung gewesen, dass ihr Vorgehen gegen ihr Körperfett notwendig war. Dennoch beschreibt sie ihr Handeln als mit Zwang belegt. Während ihre Versuche, das Körpergewicht zu reduzieren, gescheitert waren, war es bemerkenswerterweise erst die Befreiung vom Zwang zum Diäthalten, die von ihr im wahrsten Sinne als 42 Es lässt sich argumentieren, dass die Erfahrungen von Kuns nicht zuletzt auch im Kontext von Selbsthilfe als wichtiger Bewegung des späten 20. Jahrhunderts gesehen werden müssen. Leider kann eine weiterführende Diskussion an dieser Stelle nicht stattfinden; der Aspekt kann eine Perspektive für weitere Untersuchungen darstellen. Zu Self-Help in den USA siehe unter anderem: Micki McGee, Self Help, Inc. Makeover Culture in American Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). 130 Nora Kreuzenbeck körperlich erleichternd beschrieben wurde. So löste die Entsagung vom Diäthalten in ihr das Gefühl aus, an die Decke schweben zu können. Wie oben bereits angedeutet, galt in der amerikanischen Gesellschaft das Diäthalten als wichtige Praxis, über die Agency reklamiert werden konnte. Allerdings beschrieb sich Kuns im Gegensatz dazu in ihrem Brief an die NAAFA als Frau, die gerade wegen ihrer Hingabe zum Diäthalten in der Vergangenheit kaum Agency ausgeübt hatte. Sie bezog diesen Mangel aber nicht auf das Scheitern ihrer Diätversuche. Ganz im Gegenteil argumentierte sie, dass ihr hohes Körpergewicht mit dem Mangel an Agency keinesfalls in Zusammenhang stünde. Denn im Einklang mit den Argumenten vieler Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten aus dem Bereich der Fat Acceptance-Bewegungen sei ihr übermäßiges Körpergewicht nicht einem falschen, ungesunden und übermäßigem Essverhalten geschuldet, sondern müsse vielmehr als Laune der Natur verstanden werden, die zu verändern langfristig kaum möglich sei. Kuns entkoppelte also ihr Körpergewicht von ihrem Essverhalten. Vielmehr war es die Maßgabe, dass sie mit ihrem Körper unzufrieden sein und deshalb gegen ihr hohes Körpergewicht vorgehen müsse, die sie in der Vergangenheit vom selbstverantwortlichen und produktiven Handeln abgehalten habe. Agency II: Fat Acceptance als Widerstand Ihrem Brief zufolge war Kuns erst jetzt in der Lage, sich selbst Agency zuzugestehen und auszuüben. Die Ausübung von Agency lässt sich hier als Ausübung von Widerstand verstehen. Denn Kuns widersetzte sich gängigen Vorstellungen davon, was es hieß, gesund zu handeln und über einen gesunden Körper zu verfügen und deutete diese um. Wie im Abschnitt Agency I dargelegt, lässt sich allerdings argumentieren, dass bereits die fortwährende Beschäftigung mit dem eigenen Körper und die damit einhergehende Subjektivierung eine Einschreibung in die hegemonialen Diskurse bedeutete, die sich um den Körper formierten. Bemerkenswerterweise stellte Kuns sich und andere dicke Menschen zumindest zu einem gewissen Grad auch als Angehörige einer diskriminierten Bevölkerungsminderheit dar. So schilderte sie in ihrem Dankesbrief eine Begegnung mit einer Arbeitskollegin oder einem Arbeitskollegen, die oder der vermutlich schwarz war. Man habe sich über die Geringschätzung dicker Menschen in der Gesellschaft unterhalten, worauf die Kollegin oder der Kollege geschlussfolgert habe: „Then you know what it feels like to be Black.“ Zwar gab Kuns zu, nicht wissen zu können, wie es sich anfühlte, schwarz zu sein Nothing to Lose 131 beziehungsweise als schwarzer Mensch Rassismus zu erfahren. Sie differenzierte also zwischen den Diskrimierungserfahrungen schwarzer Menschen und ihren eigenen als dicke Frau. Gleichzeitig räumte sie aber dennoch ein, dass die Erfahrung der Geringschätzung dicker Menschen den Diskriminierungserfahrungen von Afroamerikanerinnen und amerikanern doch sehr nahe kam: „Of course I do not [know what it feels like to be Black], but I come as close as anyone who is not.“ So verstand sie die Diskriminierung von schwarzen und von dicken Menschen als miteinander verwandt und beschrieb gleichzeitig die Fat Acceptance-Bewegung als verschränkt mit anderen Protest- und Bürgerrechtsbewegungen in den USA seit den 1960er Jahren. 43 Dies ist bemerkenswert, denn wenn – wie im Falle der Fat Men zur Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert – Dicksein durchaus noch als Markierung für Distinguiertheit, Wohlstand und kulturelle Überlegenheit präsentiert und verstanden werden konnte, so beschrieben sich die Angehörigen der NAAFA als marginalisierte Bevölkerungsgruppe, die sich in einer ähnlich problematischen Situation befände wie die African Americans, die traditionell mit Armut und politischer Machtlosigkeit assoziiert wurden. Wie bereits zuvor dargelegt, verstanden auch Gruppen wie etwa der Fat Underground ihr Aufbegehren als verschränkt mit anderen Protestund Bürgerrechtsbewegungen. Und auch im Newsletter der NAAFA finden sich immer wieder Hinweise darauf, dass sich die Organisation an Emanzipationsstrategien orientierte, die im Kontext der Black Power Bewegung bekannt geworden waren. Vermutlich in Anlehnung an den Slogan „Black is Beautiful“, der von der Black Power Bewegung geprägt worden war, um vermeintlich natürliches Schwarzsein zu zelebrieren und hegemoniale Vorstellung von Schönheit, die oft durch die weiße Mehrheitsgesellschaft geprägt worden waren, umzudeuten, wurde so im Newsletter der NAAFA der Slogan „Fat Can Be Beautiful“ wiederholt abgedruckt. 44 Was waren eigentlich die Entscheidungen, zu denen Kuns nun endlich fähig war? Wie Kuns dargelegte, ging es häufig ganz fundamental darum, selbstbestimmt ja oder nein zu sagen. Aber was waren die konkreten Bereiche, in denen es ihr in der Vergangenheit schwergefallen war, Zustimmung auszudrücken oder auch Ablehnung auszusprechen? Ein Kontext, in dem Kuns nun in der Lage war, für sich Agency zu reklamieren, war die Sexualität. So dankte sie der NAAFA „for […] [g]iving me the realization that I, along with many others, can and will 43 Eine umfassende Analyse dieser Verschränkungen steht noch aus. 44 Siehe beispielsweise NAAFA Newsletter, September/October 1981, 6. 132 Nora Kreuzenbeck be viewed as a socially and sexually pursuable woman, sometimes BECAUSE of my size“. Die Mitgliedschaft in der NAAFA habe es ihr offensichtlich erst möglich gemacht, sich selbst als begehrenswert wahrzunehmen und aktiv zu werden – so bezog sich ihre neu gefundene Fähigkeit „ja“ zu sagen vermutlich auch auf die selbstbestimmte Zustimmung zu sexuellen Handlungen. In diesen Kontext fällt aber vielleicht auch die Fähigkeit zur Ablehnung: Möglicherweise bezog sich die von ihr beschriebene Fähigkeit des Neinsagens eben auch darauf, Sexualpartner abzuweisen, also wählerisch zu sein. Auch was Freundschaften anging, habe die Akzeptanz ihres Körpers dazu geführt, dass Kuns nun in der Lage war, wählerisch zu sein. Sie äußerte die Meinung, die NAAFA habe sie dazu befähigt zwischen „genuine friends and the rip-off artists“ zu unterscheiden. Hier vermittelte Kuns den Eindruck, sie sei in der Vergangenheit von vermeintlichen Freunden ausgenutzt worden, ohne in der Lage gewesen zu sein, dieses Missverhältnis als solches zu identifizieren. Auch habe sie endlich das Selbstbewusstsein undankbare und zugleich aufwendige Aufgaben und Hilfsarbeiten („drudge mama tasks“) abzulehnen und sich Jobs zu schnappen, die ihr Anerkennung einbrachten und, wie sie schrieb, sogar glamourös („flashy, glamour jobs“) waren. Ein weiterer Bereich, in dem Kuns positive Veränderungen beschrieb, waren ihre intellektuellen Fähigkeiten und ihre Kreativität. Sie dankte der NAAFA „for […] shapening my wit and fine honing my sense of humor“ und „for unearthing new talents, skills, and disciplines and for giving me new interests, directions, objectives and horizons. And for freeing my imagination to take wing.“ Gleichzeitig beschrieb der Artikel Kuns auch als wertvoller für die Menschen um sie herum. Zwar zog Kuns dieses Fazit nicht explizit in ihrer Beschreibung. Allerdings implizierte dies ihr Liebesbrief. Fazit Wie der Artikel deutlich gemacht hat, ermöglichten es die Ideen der Fat Acceptance-Bewegungen Wilma Kuns und anderen sich zu ihrem Dicksein bekennenden Menschen, Agency für sich zu reklamieren. Die Agency, die die Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten für sich beanspruchten, changierte in ihrer Bedeutung. So wurden die Fat AcceptanceBewegungen als Protest- und Bürgerrechtsbewegungen definiert, die gegen die Diskriminierung dicker Menschen in der US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft Widerstand leisten wollten. Sie solidarisierten sich dabei Nothing to Lose 133 unter anderem mit Widerstandsbewegungen der African Americans. Agency ist in diesem Sinne als widerständiges Moment zu verstehen. Indem sie das Dicksein von der Vorstellung des Scheiterns an den Freiheiten loslösten, schrieben sich die Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten außerdem als selbstverantwortlich Handelnde in den Diskurs ein und beanspruchten für sich Fähigkeiten, wie sie die sich neoliberalisierende US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft verstärkt von ihren Bürgerinnen und Bürgern einforderte. Bemerkenswerterweise waren Vorstellungen von selbstverantwortlichem Handeln und einer gelungenen Lebensführung im Kontext von Fat Acceptance-Bewegungen untrennbar mit dem Streben nach Gesundheit verknüpft. Denn eine ungesunde Lebensführung galt offensichtlich nicht als akzeptabel. Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten kämpften dafür, ein erhöhtes Körpergewicht erstens nicht als Folge übermäßigen Essens darzustellen, und zweitens Körperfett und Krankheit voneinander zu lösen. Indem sie Körperfett und Krankheit entkoppelten, widersetzten sich Kuns und andere Aktivistinnen und Aktivisten gängigen Annahmen davon, was eine gelungene Lebensführung im Kontext einer liberalen Gesellschaftsordnung ausmache. In ihrem Brief an die NAAFA zeigt sich, welche Anforderungen Kuns an eine erfolgreiche Subjektwerdung im gesellschaftlichen Kontext der 1980er Jahre hatte – und wie oben aufgeführt, beinhaltete diese beispielsweise die Fähigkeiten, kreativ zu handeln oder kritisch zu denken. In diesem Kontext lässt sich Agency gleichzeitig sowohl als Akt des Widerstandes als auch der Unterwerfung lesen. Kuns deutete in ihrer Selbstdarstellung den hegemonialen Diskurs um, der Dicksein als Markierung für das Unvermögen im Sinne des eigenen Wohles zu handeln verstand und mit mangelnder Selbstverantwortung verknüpfte. Stattdessen schrieb sie sich eine Befähigung zu Agency zu, die mit ihrem Körpergewicht nicht in Konflikt stand. Ihre Selbstbeschreibung stellte das Dicksein nicht als Folge oder Markierung eines Mangels an Agency dar, sondern verstand vielmehr das Diäthalten und die Unzufriedenheit mit dem Körper als hinderlich in der Ausübung von Agency. Gleichzeitig trug diese Ausübung von Agency zur Aufrechterhaltung jener hegemonialen neoliberalen Strukturen bei, die Kuns umdeutete und denen sie sich durch die Umdeutung gleichzeitig widersetzte. Diese Strukturen beruhten auf der Voraussetzung, dass Angehörige einer liberalen Gesellschaft in der Lage sein müssten, verantwortungsvoll und zu ihrem eigenen Wohle und dem Wohle der Gesellschaft zu handeln und ihre Freiheiten sinnvoll zu nutzen. Wie Kuns Brief verdeutlichte, unterwarf sie sich den Anforderungen der neoliberalen Gesellschaft an eine gelungene Selbstführung. Kuns Unterwerfung basierte auf einer 134 Nora Kreuzenbeck scheinbaren Freiwilligkeit. Sie entsprach dem, was sie selbst anstrebte. Kuns strebte an, der Mensch zu werden, der sie sein wollte. Zwar setzte sie sich durch die Annahme ihres Körperfetts von dominanten Idealvorstellungen davon, was eine gelungene Lebensführung ausmache, zu einem gewissen Grad ab. Die fortwährende Beschäftigung mit dem eigenen Körper und die damit einhergehende Subjektivierung bedeutete dennoch eine Einschreibung in hegemoniale Diskurse. Gleichzeitig war auch ihr Streben in vielen Bereichen des Lebens eng verknüpft mit dominanten Vorstellungen davon, wie sich Menschen in einer liberalen Gesellschaft idealerweise zu verhalten hatten.45 Nora Kreuzenbeck, contact: nora_rosa.kreuzenbeck (at) uni-erfurt.de, studierte AngloAmerikanische Geschichte, Mittlere/Neuere Geschichte und Anglistik an der Universität zu Köln und US-Amerikanische Geschichte an der University of Charleston. Von 2006 bis 2011 war sie als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Lehrstuhl für Nordamerikanische Geschichte der Universität Erfurt tätig, wo sie 2012 ihre Promotion abschloss. Ihre Studie Insel der Hoffnung. Über die Migration von African Americans nach Haiti, 1850-1865 erschien 2014 bei transcript. Von 2012 bis 2015 war sie als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im von der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung geförderten Projekt „Das Essende Subjekt. Eine Geschichte des Politischen in den USA vom 19. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert“ beschäftigt. 45 Andreas Reckwitz beschreibt diese Regulierung und Formierung von Subjektivitäten in: Andreas Reckwitz, Subjekt (Bielefeld: transcript, 2008). Bod Politi s , Heft , S. - Hu ger – ei Bedürf is zwis he Politik, Ph siologie u d persö li her Erfahru g Deuts hla d, 9. u d . Jahrhu dert Ul ike Tho s E glish a stra t: Hu ger has e er ee a sta le ter . Ho people ha e u derstood a d defi ed it, ha ged o er ti e, alo g ith a ha gi g u dersta di g of the ody, its fu tio s, physiologi al e ha is s a d its eeds. The paper follo s these ha ges i a lo g-ter ultiperspe ti e approa h for the last t o e turies. It argues, that hu ger first as u derstood as a da gerous feeli g, that e e tually de eloped politi al po er. To defi e hu ger y physiology a thus e ea t a d u derstood as a ea s to arti ulate odily eeds a d to poi t to the e essity of their satisfa tio . No etheless, these defi itio s of hu ger are ot eutral or o je ti e, oreo er they ay ot e used for ertai groups of people or u der ertai e o o i or so ial o ditio s, they ay e e e ou terprodu ti e, as they redu e e pathy ith the hu gry. )m Oktober erstattete der Arzt Kurt Gauger ein Gutachten über einen jährigen Kriegsheimkehrer. Dieser war im Juni mit einer hochgradigen Dystrophie in eine von Gauger geleitete Klinik in Uelzen bei (annover eingeliefert worden, in der ausschließlich Kriegsheimkehrer behandelt wurden. Dieser Patient war seit Soldat gewesen und zwischen Oktober und Juni wegen einer schweren Erkrankung im Lazarett behandelt worden. Da er immer weiter abnahm, wurde er als nicht mehr frontverwendungsfähig in (eimatlazarette geschickt. Als er am . April in amerikanische Kriegsgefangenschaft geriet, wog er nur noch kg. Seine Krankenakte dokumentiert Magenschmerzen, Koliken, Magensäuremangel, auch Konzentrations- und Gedächtnisschwäche und anomale (erzströme. Weiterhin finden sich Einträge über wachsende Gereiztheit und psychische Veränderungen. Eine eingehende internistische Untersuchung erfolgte aber nicht. Vielmehr verlegte man den Patienten in eine Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt, wo man ihm von November bis Juni mehrmals täglich Beruhigungsmittel injizierte und ihm herzanregende Medikamente und Schmerzmittel gab. Die Krankenakte verzeichnete dennoch wachsende Unruhe und psychische Veränderun- Das Guta hte u de a die i ht ähe ge a te La des e si he u gsa stalt e stattet, die ü e de Ve so gu gsa sp u h des ehe alige Soldate zu e ts heide hatte, gl. Ku t Gauge , Die D st ophie als ps hoso atis hes K a kheits ild. E tstehu g, E s hei u gsfo e , Beha dlu g, Beguta htu g. Medizi is he, soziologis he u d ju istis he Spätfolge , Mü he /Be li , das Guta hte e d., S. . . od politi s.de | u : :de:g : - | ISSN - Ul ike Tho s gen. Schließlich protestierte der Patient gegen die Behandlung, so dass er am . November mit der Verdachtsdiagnose Psychopathie aus der Anstalt entlassen wurde. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war der Patient auf nurmehr kg abgemagert. Dennoch suchte er sich Arbeit, um für seine Familie zu sorgen. Gut zweieinhalb Jahre später, am . Mai wurde er abermals krankgeschrieben. Er hatte zwar kg an Gewicht zugenommen, dennoch diagnostizierte der Vertrauensarzt im Juni eine so genannte (eimkehrerdystrophie und überwies ihn in Gaugers Anstalt. Während seines dortigen Aufenthaltes nahm sein Körpergewicht bei Mahlzeiten und einer eiweißangereicherten, kalorien- und vitaminreichen, salz- und flüssigkeitsarmen Spezialdiät sowie zusätzlicher Physiotherapie rasch auf kg zu. Koliken und psychische Störungen hörten auf, der Mann war in heiter ausgeglichener Stimmungslage und erwies sich als überdurchschnittlich intelligent. Die früher diagnostizierte Psychopathie ließ sich nicht einmal mehr ansatzweise nachweisen, so dass der Patient schließlich arbeitsfähig entlassen wurde. Dieses Beispiel ist nur eines von vielen. Es zeigt, wie volatil die Wahrnehmung, Bewertung und Deutung körperlicher Symptome von (unger und seinen Langzeitfolgen sind: Obwohl der Patient nur kg wog, attestierte man ihm im Juni keine (ungerdystrophie, wohl aber bei einem deutlich höheren Gewicht von kg. Dieses Beispiel verdeutlicht, dass der gleiche Körper, die gleichen Zeichen selbst innerhalb eines bestimmten Kulturkreises in je unterschiedlichen historischen Kontexten ganz verschieden gelesen und gedeutet werden. Auffallend ist weiterhin, dass psychische Begleiterscheinungen zunächst nicht ernst genommen, sondern als Zeichen von (ypochondrie und Querulantentum abgetan wurden. Wie (unger definiert wird, ändert sich ebenso wie die Kategorien, in denen er beschrieben wird. Auch so scheinbar eindeutig quantifizierbare Kriterien wie das Körpergewicht sind keineswegs »objektive« Parameter, sondern unterliegen der Deutung, in die unter anderem auch das soziale Verhalten des Patienten eingeht. Dem Wandel dieser Deutungen nähert sich der folgende Aufsatz. Er rekonstruiert, wie sich der medizinisch-physiologische Begriff des (ungers seit dem . Jahrhundert verändert hat. Dabei geht er davon aus, dass (unger zuallererst ein Gefühl im Sinne einer physischen Wahrnehmung ist, welches das Vorhandensein eines objektiv vorhandenen Bedürfnisses anzeigt, das bei Nichtbefriedigung zum Tod führt. Obwohl (unger Die oo e de E otio e ges hi hte hat si h isla g o h i ht e plizit it de Hu ge es häftigt, gl. u die Ü e li ks e ke: Ja Pla pe , Ges hi hte u d Gefühl. G u dlage de E otio sges hi hte, Mü he ; Ute F e e t u.a., Gefühls isse . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g immer und zuerst individuell und subjektiv erfahren wird, bleibt er nicht zwangsläufig individuell: Menschen, soziale Gruppen, Nationen teilen die Erfahrung des (ungers, er hat Auswirkungen auf Mortalität, Morbidität, körperliche und geistige Leistungsfähigkeit, schafft Unruhe und birgt politischen Sprengstoff. Dass das Phänomen »(unger« über die Ebene der quantitativen Physiologie hinausgreift, wird schließlich auch darin deutlich, dass Menschen (unger nach ganz anderen Dingen als Nahrung haben können, wie z.B. nach Liebe, Zuwendung, Anerkennung. Wer (unger hat, dem fehlt etwas Grundsätzliches, der leidet. Entsprechend wird (unger mit Krankheit, Unter- und Mangelernährung, Armut, Not, mit Kampf, Elend, Krieg und in letzter Konsequenz auch mit dem Tod assoziiert, Situationen und Erfahrungen mithin, die mit starken Gefühlsempfindungen einhergehen. Die folgenden Ausführungen zeichnen in erster Linie die Veränderungen des naturwissenschaftlichen, medizinisch-chemischen Verständnisses von (unger im Gefolge der Entwicklung der Ernährungsphysiologie seit dem . Jahrhundert nach. Doch Ernährung lässt sich nicht als rein physiologisches Phänomen betrachten. Vielmehr ist sie ein soziokulturelles Totalphänomen, das die Ordnung der Gesellschaft spiegelt, sie aber zugleich hervorbringt und reproduziert. Essen ist stark mit positiven Gefühlen wie Genuss und Wohlbehagen, aber auch mit negativen Gefühlen wie Abneigung und Ekel assoziiert. Zugleich ist es sozial differenziert, was an den Körpern ablesbar ist. Ernährungsabhängige Morbiditätsmuster unterscheiden sich schichtenspezifisch ebenso wie die Körpergestalt von Angehörigen verschiedener sozialer Schichten: Mit der sozialen Schicht und dem Eiweißreichtum der Kost wächst die Körpergröße. Da Essen und (unger für die Gesellschaft wie für das )ndividuum im (inblick auf Denken, Verhalten, Praktiken und Körperlichkeit zentral sind, lässt sich am Beispiel des (ungers der Widerstreit von Ei e le ikalis he Spu e su he i de Mode e, F a kfu t a.M./Ne Yo k so ie die Pu likatio sliste des S h e pu ktes »Ges hi hte de Gefühle« a Ma -Pla k-I stitut fü Bildu gsfo s hu g, u te : https:// . pi - e li . pg.de/de/pu likatio e /pu likatio e -de -fo s hu gs e ei he letzte A f age o . . . Klassis h dazu die Studie: Ma f ed Gailus, St aße u d B ot. Soziale P otest i de deuts he Staate u te eso de e Be ü ksi htigu g P euße s , Götti ge . Siehe u die Wo t edeutu ge u d Assoziatio sfelde des Beg iffes u te : http:// o ts hatz.u i-leipzig.de letzte A f age . . . Diese Beg iff geht auf Ma el Mauss zu ü k, siehe dazu Di k Kaesle , Klassike de Soziologie. Vo Auguste Co te is Alf ed S hütz, Mü he , S. so ie aus e äh u gshisto is he Si ht die Ausfüh u ge o Ul i h Olte sdo f i sei e »E ähu gsde k e kstatt«, o li e u te : http://e aeh u gsde k e kstatt.de/kelle /ka tei/totalphae o e .ht l letzte A f age o . . . Ul ike Tho s Wertmaßstäben und das Mit- und Gegeneinander von Körper, Vernunft und Gefühl studieren. Dazu will der folgende Beitrag einen Versuch unternehmen. Er untersucht, wie das Verständnis von »(unger« respektive »physiologischer Bedarf« sich veränderte und zum Kriterium politischen (andelns wurde. Das (auptaugenmerk wird dabei auf der Versachlichung und Verwissenschaftlichung des (ungers durch die Ernährungswissenschaften liegen, welche der Politik (andlungswissen an die (and gaben, so ihre Brauchbarkeit zur Lösung sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Fragen unter Beweis stellten und zugleich Aspekte von Genuss und emotionalseelischen Bedürfnissen zurückdrängten. Doch zunächst sollen einige Überlegungen die Verschiebungen vom (unger als Gefühl hin zu seinem Verständnis als körperliches Bedürfnis nachvollziehen. Der erste Abschnitt fragt zunächst danach, in welchen Kategorien (unger historisch beschrieben wurde, welche Rolle dabei Gefühle und Empfindungen einnahmen, warum (unger gefährlich werden und als gefährlich wahrgenommen werden konnte. Der zweite Abschnitt wird sich sodann mit der Vernaturwissenschaftlichung des (ungers und dem Konzept der rationellen Ernährung auseinandersetzen, welches unter dem Einfluss von Physiologie und Statistik psychische und individuelle Momente zurückdrängte, den Dualismus von Körper und Geist, von Leib und Seele festschrieb und den Blick zunehmend nur noch auf die objektivierbaren Fakten des Körperlichen und die Festlegung von Minima richtete. Dieser Aspekt ist wichtig. Denn im global talk ist zwar oft von Ethik die Rede, dabei wird aber unterschlagen, dass (unger zunächst nicht nur aus humanitären, sondern primär aus politischen Gründen zu (andeln geführt hat, weil er die soziale und wirtschaftliche Ordnung zu gefährden drohte und der Staat grundsätzlich ein )nteresse an gesunden und leistungsfähigen citizens hat. Der Staat war und ist daher an pragmatisch brauchbarem (andlungswissen interessiert, um (ungerkrawallen, Beschaffungskriminalität und Schwarzhandel vorzubeugen oder sie zu unterbinden und die Voraussetzungen für körperliche Leistungsfähigkeit präzise zu beschreiben. Diesen Aspekt von (unger wird der dritte Untersuchungsabschnitt diskutieren, der sich mit dem (unger im Ersten Weltkrieg auseinandersetzt. Am Verschweigen des (ungers wie dem späteren nationalen Trauma der kollektiven (ungererfahrung wird die Wahrnehmung der politischen Vgl. Pie e Bou dieu, Die fei e U te s hiede. K itik de gesells haftli he U teilsk aft, F a kfu t a.M. . )u diese Pe spekti e siehe au h s ho : Stepha Lei f ied, Nut itio al Mi i a a d the State. O the I stitutio alizatio of P ofessio al K o ledge i Natio al So ial Poli i the U.S. a d Ge a , B e e )e t u fü Sozialpolitik, A eitspapie N . / . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g Sprengkraft des (ungers herausgearbeitet. Dieses Gefühl der Bedrohung blieb und führte in Deutschland zu Autarkiebestrebungen, während der Völkerbund seit den er Jahren auf internationaler Ebene Ansätze zu einer internationalen Ernährungspolitik entwickelte, die er als gemeinsame Arbeit am Frieden verstand. Am Beispiel von Carl von Tyszkas Arbeiten wird im vierten Abschnitt gezeigt, dass sich gerade in der Auseinandersetzung mit (ungererfahrungen ein breiteres, über die Ebene des rein Physiologischen hinausgehendes Verständnis für Ernährung entwickelte, welches emotionale, seelische und geistige Aspekte der Ernährung einbezog. Das Bewusstsein der politischen wie sozialen Sprengkraft des (ungers beeinflusste die Ernährungspolitik des Dritten Reiches nachhaltig. Während die Nationalsozialisten humanitär und ganzheitlich Denkende wie von Tyszka vertrieben, gingen deren Einsichten sehr wohl in die eigene Ernährungspolitik ein. Daher rückte die Ernährungssicherung auf der politischen Agenda ganz nach oben, während demoralisierende Berichte über (unger und Unterernährung systematisch unterdrückt wurden. Der vorletzte Abschnitt dieses Aufsatzes behandelt schließlich die desaströsen psychischen Folgen des (ungers für die Persönlichkeit, wie sie in nationalsozialistischen Lagern und in der Kriegsgefangenschaft auftraten. Das zusammenfassende Schlusskapitel schlägt den Bogen zurück zum Anfang und fragt erneut nach (ungererfahrungen, doch diesmal nach dem »(unger der Anderen«, der sich für die Zeitgenossen in der direkten Nachkriegszeit zunächst als (unger der Kriegsheimkehrer und Lagerinsassen, seit Ausgang der er Jahre dann vorrangig als (unger in der »Dritten Welt« darstellte und vor dem (intergrund eines dominant naturwissenschaftlichen Paradigmas zu Ansätzen führte, in denen sich (unger als ein mit technischen, wissenschaftlichen und politischen Mitteln lösbares Problem darstellte. Es wird deutlich werden, dass wir es beim (unger mit einem vielschichtigen historischen Begriff zu tun haben, in den die unauflöslich verbundenen Ebenen von Natur und Kultur, von Körper, Seele und Gesellschaft ebenso hineinspielen wie die Politik. Diese vielfältigen Dimensionen können hier schon aus Platzgründen nicht vollständig behandelt werden, zu kurz kommen emotionshistorische Aspekte, aber auch die Unterschiede zwischen Männern und Frauen. Wenn im Folgenden vor allem Soldaten und Arbeiter im Zentrum stehen, folgt der Aufsatz darin auch der Tradition der Ernährungs- und Arbeitphysiologie selbst, die Dazu Ul ike Tho s, Ei u h, Auf u h, Du h u h? St uktu e u d Netz e ke de deuts he E äh u gsfo s hu g o u d a h , i : Rüdige o B u h/Uta Ge ha dt Hg. , Ko ti uitäte u d Disko ti uitäte i de Wisse s haftsges hi hte, Stuttga t , S. so ie Willi O e k o e, O d u g u d Auta kie. Die Ges hi hte de deuts he La d aufo s hu g. Ag a öko o ie u d lä dli he Sozial isse s haft i Spiegel o Fo s hu gsdie st u d DFG , Stuttga t . Ul ike Tho s sich mindestens bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg vorrangig mit der Ernährung von Arbeitern und Soldaten auseinandersetzte und Stoffwechselversuche fast ausschließlich an Männern durchführte. Zur Wahrung der Stringenz wurde die Analyse außerdem weitgehend auf den deutschen Sprach- und Kulturraum begrenzt, um die historische Vergleichbarkeit der Phänomene zu wahren. Diese Begrenzung schien auch im (inblick auf eine angemessene Berücksichtigung der Sekundärliteratur legitim. Denn die historische Literatur zu diesem Thema ist kaum noch überschaubar. Dabei ist auffällig, dass sich historische Arbeiten seit den er Jahren zunächst vor allem mit der Geschichte des (ungers in der vorindustriellen Zeit auseinandergesetzt haben. Nach den vorliegenden Mastererzählungen wurden die vorindustriellen (ungerkrisen, die Folge von Naturkatastrophen wie Dürren waren, mit der )ntensivierung der Landwirtschaft, dem Ausbau der Verkehrssysteme und der )ndustrialisierung seit Mitte des . Jahrhunderts dauerhaft überwunden. Faktisch brachten der Erste und Zweite Weltkrieg allerdings eine Wiederkehr des (ungers, der Gegenstand zahlreicher Publikationen war. Diese setzten sich vorrangig mit der politischen und administrativen Bewältigung des (ungerproblems auseinander, bezogen aber auch die Alltagsperspektive ein. (unger als Klassis h dazu: Wilhel A el, Ag a k ise u d Ag a ko ju ktu . Ei e Ges hi hte de La d- u d E äh u gs i ts haft Mitteleu opas seit de hohe Mittelalte , . eu ea ., e . Aufl., Ha u g ; Ro e t I. Roth e g/Theodo e K. Ra Hg. , Hu ge a d Histo . The I pa t of Cha gi g Food P odu tio a d Co su ptio Patte s of So iet , Lo do ; Lu ile F. Ne a Hg. , Hu ge i Histo . Food Sho tage, Po e t , a d Dep i atio , Ca idge ; Ha s-Hei i h Bass, Hu ge k ise i P eusse äh e d de e ste Hälfte des . Jah hu de ts, St. Katha i e ; Fe di a d Mage , Rei hse ekuti e u d egio ale Sel st e altu g i späte . Jah hu de t. )u Fu ktio u d Bedeutu g de süd- u d estdeuts he Rei hsk eise ei de Ha dels egulie u g i Rei h aus A lass de Hu ge k ise o / , Be li ; Ch isti a Be i ghaus Hg. , Regio i Auf uh . Hu ge k ise u d Teue u gsp oteste i de p eußis he P o i z Sa hse u d i A halt / , Halle ; Hel ut Ra kl, Die a e is he Politik i de eu opäis he Hu ge k ise ,i : )eits h ift fü a e is he La desges hi hte , S. ; Cia á Ó Mu hadha, The G eat Fa i e: I ela d’s Ago , Lo do u.a. ; Do hadh Ó Co ái : I ela d : E a ipatio , Fa i e a d Religio , Du li ; Kae J. Culle , Fa i e i S otla d. The »ill ea s« of the s, Edi u gh ; Joh Bohstedt, The Politi s of P o isio . Food Riots, Mo al E o o a d Ma ket T a sitio i E gla d, , Fa ha . A e Roe kohl, Hu ge lo kade u d Hei atf o t. Die ko u ale Le e s ittel e so gu g i Westfale äh e d des E ste Weltk iegs, Stuttga t ; Lizzie Colli gha , The Taste of Wa . Wo ld Wa T o a d the Battle fo Food, Lo do ; Beli da Da is, Ho e Fi es Bu i g. Food, Politi s a d E e Da Life i Wo ld Wa I, Be li /Chapel Hill ; Wolfga g E ka t, »S h ei e o d« u d »Kohl ü e i te «, Hu ge e fah u ge u d Le e s itteldiktatu , , i : Medizi , Gesells haft u d Ges hi hte , S. - ; Fle i g Just/F a k T e t a Hg. , Food a d Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g Mittel des Genozids hat vor allem Christian Gerlach thematisiert, während in den letzten Jahren etliche Studien zur Ernährungspolitik im Rahmen der Wirtschafts- und Gesundheitspolitik seit den er Jahren vorgelegt worden sind. Diese Arbeiten waren teils national angelegt, doch hat (unger seither vor allem als Problem internationaler Politik Beachtung gefunden. )n diesem Kontext sind verschiedene Arbeiten zur Bekämpfung des (ungers durch den Völkerbund, die FAO und die W(O entstanden. Verursacht durch das dramatische Wachstum der Weltbevölkerung und die Diskussion um die Rolle der internationalen Wirtschaftsbeziehungen und der Globalisierungsfolgen haben sich (istoriker und Politikwissenschaftler, NGOs und »Aktivisten« immer wieder mit diesem Problem befasst, häufig in der Absicht, politisch etwas in Bewegung zu setzen. Neuere Arbeiten haben insbesondere das Menschengemachte des (ungers betont und dagegen die humanitäre Vision einer globalen Gesellschaft und das Menschenrecht auf Essen gesetzt, die es erfordert, das Vorhandene mit (ilfe von Planung, Steuerung und Erziehung so umzuverteilen, dass alle genug haben. Allerdings kommt (unger auch in westlichen Überflussgesellschaften vor. Dort trifft er nicht auf passiv Leidende, sondern wird aktiv als Selbsttechnologie eingesetzt, um widerständige Körper zu disziplinieren und den gesellschaftlichen Anforderungen zu unterwerfen. (ier werden individuelle Grenzen neu gezogen und nicht selten so, dass das (ungern die eigene physische Existenz gefährdet. Die als pathologisch und be- Co fli t i Eu ope i the Age of the T o Wo ld Wa s, Hou ds ills ; Da id F. S ith, Nut itio i B itai . S ie e, S ie tists a d Politi s i the T e tieth Ce tu , Lo do ; Rai e G ies, Die Ratio e -Gesells haft. Ve so gu gska pf u d Ve glei hs e talität. Leipzig, Mü he u d Köl a h de K iege, Mü ste . Ch istia Ge la h, Kalkulie te Mo de. Die deuts he Wi ts hafts- u d Ve i htu gspolitik i Weiß ußla d is , Ha u g . Da ei si d i jü ge e )eit au h Russla d u d Chi a stä ke eda ht o de , gl. u : Feli We heue , De G oße Hu ge . Hu ge s öte u te Stali u d Mao, Be li . Ralph W. Philipps, FAO, its O igi s, Fo atio a d E olutio , Ro e ; I is Bo o , Co i g to Te s ith Wo ld Health. The League of Natio s Health O ga isatio , F a kfu t a.M. . Josep Ba o a, Nut itio a d Health. The I te atio al Co te t du i g the I te a C isis, i : So ial Histo of Medi i e , S. . U i e salges hi hte ha e jü gst o glegt: Co a Ó G áda, Fa i e. A sho t histo , P i eto ; Ja es Ve o , Hu ge . A Mode Histo , Ha a d ; No a Apt Russell, Hu ge . A u atu al Histo , Ne Yo k . Siehe u : Ale a de Nütze adel/F a k T e t a , Food a d Glo alizatio . Co su ptio , Ma kets a d Politi s i the Mode Wo ld, Ne Yo k ; Ale a de Nütze adel, »A Wo ld ithout Fa i e?« I te atio ale E äh u gspolitik i )eitalte de Weltk iege, i : Co pa ati , S. - . E e pla is h: Lio a Wei gä t e /Claudia T e t a Hg. , Ha d u h Welte ähu g, Bo . Ul ike Tho s handlungsbedürftig Eingestuften werden aufwendigen Therapien unterworfen, die seit (ilde Bruch zuallererst darauf zielen, ihre individuellen, psychisch-emotionalen Defizite aufzuarbeiten und sie so zu befähigen, ihren Körper und seine Bedürfnisse überhaupt wieder wahrnehmen und befriedigen zu können. Auffallend ist, dass auch in stärker politisch orientierten Arbeiten der Begriff »(unger« durchaus Probleme macht, zumal er meist unbestimmt bleibt. Manche Arbeiten umkreisen ihn bestenfalls aphoristisch und bestimmen ihn erst gar nicht näher. Sie gehen sogleich zur Notwendigkeit politischen (andelns über, die sie dann allerdings mit Leidenschaft einfordern. Diese Form von Alarmismus wird damit gerechtfertigt, dass die Übertreibung medialer Darstellungen »notwendig« sei, um etwas zu bewegen. Allerdings scheint dies auch ein Problem einer besonderen Spielart von Professionalisierung zu sein. So gibt es »(ungerexperten«, die einen professionellen global talk pflegen. Dieser ist nicht nur hochgradig normativ, indem er die Verantwortung der )ndustriestaaten herausstreicht und sich weitgehend standardisierter Argumente bedient, sondern auch selbstreferentiell. Materna und Schulz sprechen hier von Metacodes, die von Medien, Politik, Wissenschaftlern und NGOs benutzt werden, um das eigene (andeln zu rechtfertigen und den Transfer von Ressourcen zu legitimieren. Diese Metacodes sind nicht aus einer selbständigen Analyse der Realität abgeleitet, sondern basieren häufig auf einer höchst prekären Datengrundlage, die nicht weiter analysiert oder problematisiert wird, sondern in einem appellativen Bestätigungszirkel verschiedener Akteure legitimatorisch abgesichert wird. Am Ende sind sie als Selbstverständlichkeit akzeptiert. Dennoch: (unger ist keineswegs nur ein abstraktes, soziales Konstrukt, denn der menschliche Körper bleibt in seiner existentiellen Angewiesenheit auf Nahrung stets unhintergehbar materiell und individuell. Der folgende Ne e de zahllose auto iog aphis he Be i hte gl. aus de Flut ei s hlägige Pu likatio e u : Walt aud Pulz, Nü hte es Kalkül – e zeh e de Leide s haft. Nah u gsa sti e z i . Jah hu de t, Köl ; Walte Va de e ke /Ro a Deth/Rolf Mee a , Hu ge kü stle , Faste u de , Mage su ht, )ülpi h ; Til a Ha e as, )u Ges hi hte de Mage su ht. Ei e edizi ps hologis he Reko st uktio . F a kfu t a.M. ; Ni a Dieze a , Die Ku st des Hu ge s. Essstöu ge i Lite atu u d Medizi u , Be li . So zu Beispiel: Al I feld, Wede Ge o h Bio. Philosophis h-a th opologis he U k eisu ge u d u Hu ge ode Hu ge s öte, i : Wolfga g Liedtke u.a Hg. , Hu ge – U sa he , Folge , A hilfe, ei e i te diszipli ä e Ko t o e se, Leipzig , S. - so ie Wolfga g Liedtke: )u Hu ge i de Eth ologie u d e a h a te Wisse s hafte , i : e d., S. - . Geo g Mate a/Jo he S hulz, Hu ge – U sa he , Folge , A hilfe, ei e i te diszipliä e Ko t o e se, i : Liedtke u.a Hg. : Hu ge – U sa he , Folge , A hilfe, S. - , hie S. - . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g Abschnitt soll in einem Blick zurück ins . Jahrhundert deutlich machen, wie viel von diesem Erfahrungswissen der moderne, physiologisch bestimmte (ungerbegriff verloren hat. . Hu ger – ei gefährli hes Gefühl (unger ist auf der Grenze zwischen sinnlicher Wahrnehmung und Befriedigung physiologischer Bedürfnisse angesiedelt. Essen ist mit Freude und Genuss assoziiert, das Vorhandensein des täglichen Brotes gibt Sicherheit. (unger dagegen ist mit Unsicherheit verbunden, die Angst erzeugen kann. (unger kann deprimieren und zerstören, kann dosiert über das Fasten aber auch befreiende Wirkung haben, indem er zu Euphorie und Glücksgefühlen führt. Fastende haben immer wieder davon berichtet und die großen Weltreligionen streben mit rituellem Fasten eine Befreiung von den Fesseln des )rdischen an, die der Körper mit seinen konkret-leiblichen Bedürfnissen dem Menschen auferlegt. »Reinigung« und »Befreiung« stehen auch im Vordergrund des säkularisierten (eilfastens, während das »richtige« Essen immer ein mäßiges Essen ist und die Magersüchtigen in der Sicht der Psychologen deswegen krank sind, weil sie die in modernen Gesellschaften generell eingeforderten Disziplinierungstechniken und Selbsttechnologien in pathologisch übertriebener Weise anwenden. Glaubt man der populär gewordenen Ansicht von (ilde Bruch, leiden Magersüchtige an einem pathologisch gewordenen, potentiell selbstzerstörerischen Ehrgeiz zur Selbstkontrolle. Sie streben nach Macht über den eigenen Körper, nicht nach Transzendenz wie fastende Gläubige, die so näher zu Gott kommen wollen. Das Extrem der Magersucht verdeutlicht, dass es beim (unger auch um Wahrnehmungen und Gefühle geht. Überraschender Weise hat sich die derzeit boomende Emotionsgeschichte bislang dennoch weder mit dem (unger, noch mit dem Essen beschäftigt, das generell erst seit den er Jahren breitere historische Beachtung findet. Allerdings ist im Schnittfeld von Ernährungsgeschichte, Körpergeschichte und Fat Studies in den letzten Jahren eine Flut von Arbeiten erschienen, welche die Probleme eines mechanistischen Körpermodells und eines vorrangig quantitativ orientierten Begriffs von Ernährung und Bedürfnis ebenso The esa M. Sha , The Bu de of the Flesh. Fasti g a d Se ualit i ea l Ch istia it , Mi eapolis . Hilde B u h, Eati g Diso de s. O esit , A o e ia Ne osa a d the Pe so ithi , Ne Yo k . Siehe die Lite atu hi eise i A . . Ul ike Tho s deutlich herausgearbeitet haben, wie die Entwicklung von Körpernormen und die Folgen der Verobjektivierung von Körperprozessen. Ansätze dieser Biopolitik und der Technologien des Selbst reichen weit zurück. Sie lassen sich schon in der traditionellen diätetischen Literatur wie in Krünitz’ »Oekonomisch-technologische[r] Enzyklopädie« nachweisen. (ier wurde der »triebhafte« (unger noch als die gegenüber der Vernunft stärkere Kraft gesehen. Es handelte sich um einen gottgewollten, geheimnisvollen Regelungsmechanismus, in dem »eigene, heftige und unangenehme Empfindungen« das Bestreben auslösen, den (unger zu befriedigen. Krünitz betonte, dass der Mensch zwar animalische Triebe, wie den Nahrungstrieb habe, aber doch »nicht, wie das Thier, blind durch )nstinkt geleitet« werde. Vielmehr befördern sinnliche Wahrnehmungen die Kultur des Menschen, indem sie Menschen dazu bringen, »auf Mittel zu denken, ihn [den Trieb, U.T.] zu befriedigen«. Trotzdem schrieb er dem (unger eine mächtige Kraft mit potentiell zerstörerischer Wirkung zu. Sie konnte die Kultur und den »gesunden Verstand« außer Kraft setzen und Menschen dazu veranlassen, die »abscheulichsten und der Natur widerlichsten Ding« zu tun, ja selbst Menschenkot und Leichname zu essen und zu Kannibalen zu werden, wie sich bei »harten Belagerungen, unglücklichen Schifffahrten oder Schiffbrüchen« gezeigt hatte. )n seiner kulturbefördernden Kraft war (unger vor allem ein Erziehungsmittel, wie auch noch Nationalökonomen im frühen . Jahrhundert feststellten. Karl Bücher konstatierte , (unger sei das einzige Bedürfnis, dass den Menschen zur Tätigkeit treibe, während Lujo Brentano auch die potentiell zerstörerischen Facetten sah, wenn er (unger als den mächtigsten aller Triebe bezeichnete, der sich gegebenenfalls gewaltsam sein Recht verschaffe. Ganz auf dieser Linie nannte der Physiologe Max Rubner, der mit seinen Arbeiten wichtige Beiträge zur Biopolitik leistete, (unger ein »Gemeingefühl« und einen angeborenen, »instinktiven Trieb«, in welchem sich der Mensch nicht vom Tier unterscheide. Als Physiologe suchte er nach der Funktion dieses Gefühls für den Körper, die er in der Erinnerung an die naturnotwendige Nah- Auf sie ka hie i ht eite ei gega ge e de , gl. dazu: Philipp Sa asi , Reiza e Mas hi e . Ei e Ges hi hte des Kö pe s , F a kfu t a.M. . A t. T ie , i : Joha Geo g K ue itz, Oeko o is he E z klopädie, Be li , Bd. , S. . A t. Hu ge , i : K ue itz, Oeko o is he E z klopädie, Bd. , S. . Ka l Bü he : Die E tstehu g de Volks i ts haft. Vo t äge u d Ve su he, . Aufl., Tüi ge , S. . Lujo B e ta o, Die althuss he Leh e u d die Be ölke u gs e egu g de letzte Deze ie , A ha dlu ge de Histo is he Klasse de Kö igli h-Ba e is he Akadeie de Wisse s hafte ; Bd. , A t. , [ ], , S. , hie : S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g rungsaufnahme sah. Prinzipiell hatte (unger vor dem Richtstuhl der Physiologie unversitär-egalitäre Wirkungen, er einte Menschen, ja die Menschen mit den Tieren. Allerdings, so betonte Rubner, werde der (ungertrieb je nach Umfeld und den erlernten und anerzogenen Gewohnheiten auf unterschiedliche Weise befriedigt. Dennoch war für ihn wie für die Physiologie der Jahrhundertwende insgesamt die Natur gegenüber sozialen Prägungen dominant, da die Zellen ihr Eigenleben führen und aufgrund physiologischer Vorgänge unaufhaltsam nach Befriedigung verlangen. Da (unger das Tier im Menschen in seiner ganzen Triebhaftigkeit zum Vorschein bringen und so die menschliche Zivilisation in ihren Grundfesten bedrohen kann, macht (unger Angst – sowohl dem, der (unger leidet wie dem, der mit seinen Folgen umzugehen hat. Kulturen haben daher Regelwerke für die Ernährung entwickelt, um über die Zivilisierung der Naturtriebe durch Verhaltenskodices bzw. über die Rationalisierung der Körper die unbändigen und gefährliche Natur des Körpers einzuhegen. . Ei Gefühl ko Er ähru g« t a ha de : Das Ko zept der »ratio elle Mit der Entwicklung der Physiologie im . Jahrhundert rückten aber die universellen Naturgesetze der Ernährung stärker in den Vordergrund, die Leib und Seele, Körper und Geist voneinander trennten und beanspruchten, die Bedürfnisse des Körpers sachlich und wissenschaftlich exakt fixieren zu können. Doch auch dabei handelt es sich um Konstruktionen, auch die physiologischen Ernährungsminima unterliegen historischem Wandel. Das mitunter postulierte universelle Menschenrecht auf ausreichende Nahrung, die »food security«, wie sie manche Arbeiten schon für die Antike konstatierten, hat es lange nicht gegeben. Erste Versuche zur Formulierung von Ernährungsminima gab es in der Mitte des . Jahrhunderts und erst die zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen einsetzende internationale Gesundheitsbewegung hat sie nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges dann in der »Universal Declaration of (uman Rights« der Vereinten Nationen gefasst. Zuvor gab es keine verbindlichen Standards für die Nahrungsmittelversorgung der Armen und existierende Regelungen boten keine Sicherheit. Zudem wurde das Verhalten von (ungernden lange Ma Ru e , Die E äh u gs isse s haft, i : Deuts he Re ue , S. . Ma Ru e , De Nah u gst ie des Me s he , i : Sitzu gs e i hte de p eussis he Akade ie de Wisse s hafte . . Sitzu g de athe atis h-ph sikalis he Klasse o . Fe ua , S. , hie S. . Ul ike Tho s nach moralischen Kriterien, nicht unter physiologischen Gesichtspunkten beurteilt. Zwar hatten Armenhäuser Verpflegungsreglements, die die Ansprüche der )nsassen kleinteilig festlegten, doch wurden diese Vorschriften flexibel an den Ernteausfall und die wirtschaftliche Lage der betreffenden )nstitutionen angepasst. Dies konnte im Extremfall bedeuten, dass die betreffenden )nstitutionen die Naturalverpflegung ganz einstellten und nur noch Geld auszahlten. Ob diese Beträge für die Versorgung ausreichten oder nicht, war den )nstitutionen gleich. Selbst für die Verpflegung der Soldaten übernahm der preußische Staat bis weit ins . Jahrhundert keine Verantwortung: Zwar erhielten diese mit einer Brotportion von zwei Pfund eine Art Grundversorgung, doch für alles andere hatten sie aus ihrem Sold selbst aufzukommen. Erst Erlasse aus den Jahren bzw. sahen vor, sie bei Feldzügen vollständig zu verpflegen. Ähnlich verhielt es sich in den Gefängnissen, wo im Zuge der Aufklärung und der Strafrechtsreform die Förderung der »)ndustriosität« und die Formung der Gefangenen zu nützlichen Mitgliedern der Gesellschaft in den Vordergrund traten. Doch dazu mussten sie gesund und leistungsfähig sein, damit sie nach ihrer Entlassung für sich und ihre Familien sorgen konnten. )m Kontext der so genannten Medizinischen Polizei des aufgeklärten Absolutismus hatte der Bürger zwar nicht per se Anspruch auf körperliche Unversehrtheit und Gesundheit. Doch im Notfall hatte der Staat für seine Bürger zu sorgen. Allerdings nicht um ihrer selbst willen, sondern aus dem staatlichen )nteresse am kollektiv gedachten »Volkskörper« heraus, der aus leistungswilligen und –fähigen Untertanen bestehen sollte. Vor diesem (intergrund sorgten im . Jahrhundert Berichte über die Musterungsergebnisse, die den katastrophalen Gesundheitszustand der männlichen Jugend belegten, ebenso für Aufruhr wie die Sterblichkeitsziffern aus Gefängnissen, die drei- bis fünfmal so hoch lagen wie in der Siehe dazu die Ausfüh u ge u d Doku e te ei: Ul i h-Ch istia Palla h, Hu ge . Quelle zu ei e Alltagsp o le i Eu opa u d de D itte Welt, .- . Jah hu de t, Mü he , gl. eso de s S. ff, , ff. Dazu ei e Ausfüh u ge i : Ul ike Tho s, A staltskost i Ratio alisie u gsp ozess. Die E äh u g i K a ke häuse u d Gefä g isse i . u d . Jah hu de t, Stuttga t , S. . F ied i h o Seelho st, Das Hee ese des P eußs he Staates: E thalte d die G u dsätze de allge ei e Militä e pfli htu g, die A ee O ga isatio u d diejeige ilitä is he Ve altu gsz eige u d Ve hält isse, ei de e eso de s das Ci il it de Militä o u ie t. Ei Ha d u h, E fu th , S. . Ma kus Piepe , De Kö pe des Volkes u d de gesu de Volkskö pe . Joha Pete F a ks »S ste ei e ollstä dige edizi is he Polize «, i : )eits h ift fü Ges hi hts isse s haft , S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g freien Bevölkerung. )n einzelnen Anstalten erreichten sie bis zu %. Bestimmte Krankheiten und Mangelerkrankungen wurden fest mit dem Gefängnis assoziiert, wie etwa die »Kerkerkachexie«, das »Kerkerfieber« oder die »Gefängnisskropheln«. Auch galten die Vitaminmangelerkrankungen Skorbut und Nachtblindheit sowie die auf Proteinmangel zurückzuführende Wassersucht, die in der Allgemeinbevölkerung nur in (ungerzeiten auftrat, als Gefängniskrankheit. Entsprechend gehörten schlechte Kost und (unger zu den fest etablierten Topoi der Gefangenenautobiographien. Diesen Autobiographien verdanken wir höchst eindringliche Schilderungen des individuellen (ungererlebens. Sie machen deutlich, wie sehr Essen und (unger die ganz auf sich zurückgeworfenen Gefangenen beherrschten, welche Demütigungen mit (unger einhergehen konnten, wenn er Menschen zur Einsicht zwang, dass ihr Körper jenseits aller kulturellen Formungen nach seinem Recht verlangte. So wunderte sich der Mörder Carl (au im Rückblick auf den ersten Tag in der als traumatisch erlebten (aft darüber, dass sein körperliches Bedürfnis stärker als die mächtigen seelischen Eindrücke war: »Wie, dachte ich, du bringst es fertig, unter solchen Umständen zu essen?... Du solltest dich schämen, was müsste da ein empfindsames Gemüt Anstoß nehmen. Aber das konnte nun nichts ändern an der Tatsache, dass meine erste Abendsuppe mir ganz gut mundete, und dass ich mehr davon gegessen hätte, wenn mehr dagewesen wäre. )ch werde wohl hungrig gewesen sein.« (unger, das wird in den Gefangenenautobiographien sehr deutlich, wurde als Gefährdung der persönlichen )ntegrität wahrgenommen. Dies erfuhren vor allem die Angehörigen höherer sozialer Klassen und besonders die )ntellektuellen, die sich von den wegen niederen Straftaten Einsitzenden abgrenzten, sich für »zivilisiert« hielten und daher ihre leiblichen Bedürfnisse den kulturellen und geistigen Bedürfnissen unterordneten. )hre Berichte aus der (aft schildern sehr eindrücklich, wie Denken und (andeln sich verselbständigten und die Phantasie nur noch um das Essen kreiste. Dieses übermächtige Verlangen nach Nahrung, die willentlich nicht steuerbaren, intensiven Sinneswahrnehmungen sowie die Phantasien reichlicher Mahlzeiten irritierten sie. Die seit dem . Jahrhundert zunehmende Uniformierung der Gefängniskost und ihre Dazu: Hei i h Ha t a , De Volkskö pe ei de Muste u g. Militä statistik u d De og aphie i Eu opa o de E ste Weltk ieg, Götti ge . Die Ste li hkeitszahle a h Tho s, Ratio alisie u g, S. . Tho s, Ratio alisie u g, S. . E d., S. . Ca l Hau, Le e slä gli h. E le tes u d E litte es, Be li , S. . Ul ike Tho s wachsende Ausrichtung an den naturwissenschaftlichen Gesetzen der Ernährung traf daher Angehörige der höheren Schichten in besonderem Maße. Denn wo alle das Gleiche bekamen, verlor das Essen seine Funktion als Distinktionsmerkmal. Gefangene aus besseren Kreisen und besonders politische Gefangene erlebten diese Reduktion auf eine Verdauungsmaschine, die Uniformität der Nahrung und den Verlust zivilisatorischer Errungenschaften wie einen gedeckten Tisch und gepflegte Speisen nicht nur als demütigend, sondern auch als ungerecht. Sie waren der Ansicht, ihr Körper brauche andere Nahrung als der Körper ihrer Mitgefangenen. )hre Strategie zur Bewältigung dieses Konflikts bestand in einer Spaltung von Körper und Geist und in dem Beschluss, »meinen Körper einfach als eine Maschine zu betrachten und die Speise als ein zu ihrer )nstandhaltung nötiges Material«, gleichmütig zu sein und dem »Ochsen im Stalle ähnlich zu werden«. Das vom (unger diktierte Essen im Gefängnis und die Überwindung von Ekel wurde zur (eldentat stilisiert, die allein der Lebenserhaltung diente und der Anstrengung des gesamten Willens bedurfte. So liest man im Selbstbericht einer weiblichen Gefangenen aus Wien: »)ch halte mir mit der rechten (and die Nase zu, mit der linken gieße ich mir ein wenig Suppe in den Mund. )ch will hier nicht zugrunde gehen«. Ähnliche Darstellungen finden sich auch und gerade bei politischen Gefangenen, die schon die Überwindung der Sehnsucht nach geliebten Speisen und die Überwindung des Ekels als politischen Kampf darstellten. Eindrücklich beschrieben sie die negativen Folgen der Gefängniskost für ihre an einfachste Kost nicht gewöhnten Körper, ihre Auswirkungen auf die Psyche, die im Extremfall mit dem Verlust jedweder (emmungen verbunden sein konnte. So liest man bei Leuss über die Auswirkungen einer »unzweckmäßigen« Gefängniskost auf einen mitgefangenen Bankier, der auch noch etliche mit Kostentzug verbundene Arreststrafen abzusitzen hatte: »Er verschlang alles, was man ihm gab. Eimer voll Linsen, (eringsköpfe, weggeworfene Brotrinden. Er bettelte auf den Knien um Essen und leckte vom Fußboden einen verschütteten Tropfen Lebertran«. Eine solche Auflösung der eigenen Persönlichkeit war nur durch äußerste Selbstbeherrschung zu Otto Co i , Aus de )elle gefä g is. B iefe aus e egte s h e e )eit, Leipzig , S. . E il He igs, Gefä g is , ND Wetzla , S. . Siehe z.B. de Be i ht ei A old Ruge, Aus f ühe )eit, Bd. , Be li , S. . Ha s Leuß legte i sei e Auto iog aphie seh dezidie t die Mä gel de Gefä g iskost da , die sei e Mei u g a h o alle i Fett a gel esta de u d sei Ve dauu gss ste la gf istig ui ie t hätte , gl. Ha s Leuß, Aus de )u hthaus. Ve e he u d St af e htspflege, . Aufl, Be li , S. . E d., S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g verhindern, mit der sich Betreffenden des Besitzes dieser Tugend selbst versicherten und sich damit gegenüber den anderen auszeichneten. Vom Standpunkt der Selbstbeherrschung aus war es nur ein kleiner Schritt bis zur Verweigerung des Essens. Der (ungerstreik stellte für die politischen Gefangenen und insbesondere für Frauen, die im . Jahrhundert in der Öffentlichkeit noch kein Rederecht hatten, die ultima ratio dar, ihren Körper als Mittel politischen Protestes zu nutzen. Die Streiks der Suffragetten im Kampf um das Wahlrecht sind bekannt. (ungerstreiks waren aber auch probate Kampfmittel politischer Gefangener, um Gefängnisleitungen zu Zugeständnissen bei den (aftbedingungen zu nötigen. Eine entsprechend zentrale Rolle nahmen sie in den Autobiographien der politischen Linken ein, wie etwa bei Vera Figner, Rosa Luxemburg oder Erich Mühsam. Figner etwa schilderte sehr plastisch ihr Verständnis vom (ungern als Martyrium, das ihren ganz persönlichen Widerstand in eine Reihe stellte mit der »Geschichte der Kämpfe für die Unterdrückten«. Während Mitgefangene Sinneshalluzinationen und Vergiftungsängste entwickelten, führte (unger bei ihr zu übersteigerter Sinneswahrnehmung. »Bei jedem unerwarteten Laut entrang sich meiner Brust ein Schrei, dem unaufhaltsames Schluchzen folgte… und das Schlimmste war, daß ich kein Bedürfnis empfand, mich zu beherrschen«. Doch so intensiv, wie sie diesen Verlust der Selbstkontrolle wahrnahm und unter ihm litt, so sehr sah sie ihn als notwendiges Opfer für die politische Sache, das in jeder (insicht gerechtfertigt war. Allerdings führte das . Jahrhundert unter dem Einfluss der noch jungen Ernährungswissenschaften zuerst in den Anstalten zu einer Neujustierung von Bedarf und Bedürfnis, nachdem Wissenschaftler wie Justus von Liebig kritisiert hatten, eine unzureichend und krank machende Ernährung sei eine Vernachlässigung der Fürsorgepflicht des Staates für seine Untertanen und eine Verschwendung von Volksvermögen. Tatsächlich führte der preußische Staat in den er Jahren auf der Ebene der einzelnen Provinzen erstmals einheitliche Vorgaben für die Gefängnisverpflegung ein. Seit Mitte des . Jahrhunderts bahnte sich )u Hu ge st eik gl. Ma el St e g, Hu ge de, i : Netz e k Kö pe Hg. , What a a od do?. P aktike u d Figu atio e des Kö pe s i de Kultu isse s hafte , F a kfu t a.M. , S. ; de s: Hu ge st eik als iska te Sel stte h ik Westdeuts hla d, , i : Je s El e feld/Ma us Otto Hg. , Das s hö e Sel st. )u Ge ealogie des ode e Su jekts z is he Ethik u d Ästhetik, Bielefeld , S. . We a Fig e , Na ht ü e Russla d. Le e se i e u ge , Be li , S. . E d., S. . Vgl. u : Justus o Lie ig, Che is he B iefe, . ü e a . u d e . Aufl., Bde , Bd. , Leipzig/Heidel e g , S. . Ul ike Tho s eine Diskussion an, die Jahrzehnte andauern sollte und um die Frage kreiste: »wie oft und wie viel stickstoffreiche Nahrung hat der Gefangene zu erhalten um dabei gesund und hinlänglich genährt zu bleiben?« Es ging um die Befriedigung der körperlichen Bedürfnisse auf einem niedrigstmöglichen Niveau, um »die geringste Menge von Eiweiss mit Zusatz stickstoffloser Stoffe, welche den Körper zu der von ihm verlangten Leistung befähiget«. )m Umkehrschluss ging die junge Ernährungsforschung davon aus, aus der Untersuchung der realen Ernährung definitive Richtlinien für eine »Normaldiät« gewinnen zu können, bei der Menschen gesund und leistungsfähig blieben. Anstalten eigneten sich in ganz besonderem Maße für solche Untersuchungen, boten sie doch eine Laborsituation, bei der alle einschlägigen Parameter vergleichsweise einfach kontrolliert und gemessen werden konnten. Sie stellten zugleich ein Feld dar, auf dem die neuen Forschungsergebnisse direkt in die Tat umgesetzt werden konnten und so ihre Nützlichkeit unmittelbar unter Beweis stellten. Daher befassten sich seit Mitte des . Jahrhunderts zahlreiche Publikationen von Ärzten mit der Ernährung in Anstalten: veröffentlichte der preußische Stabsarzt (ildesheim sein Buch »Die Normaldiät«, das die Soldatenernährung in den Blick nahm. Diese Anregungen fanden Berücksichtigung in der Praxis. wurde erstmals die preußische Soldatenkost reglementiert. Kurz darauf begann Carl von Voit mit seinen Untersuchungen der bayerischen Soldatenverpflegung. folgte die Reform des Beköstigungsreglements in den preußischen Strafanstalten, während Carl von Voit mit seinen Schülern nun verschiedene andere Anstalten untersuchte. Mit diesen und weiteren Studien wurde die bislang finanziell gesteuerte Ökonomie der Ernährung durch eine physiologische Ökonomie der Ue e die Ve pflegu g de Gefa ge e i edi i is he Hi si ht u d ü e die Ste li hkeit zu Ma ie s hloss, i : Jah ü he de Gefä g isku de u d Besse u gsa stalte , S. - , hie S. . Ca l Voit, Be e ku g ü e die soge a te Lu us o su ptio , i : )eits h ift fü Biologie , S. , hie S. . Wilhel Hildeshei , Die No al-Diät. Ph siologis h- he is he Ve su h zu E itte lu g des o ale Nah u gs edü f isses de Me s he ehufs Aufstellu g ei e No al-Diät it eso de e Rü ksi ht auf das Diät-Regulati des eue Regle e ts fü die F iede s-Ga iso -Laza ethe u d die Natu al-Ve pflegu g de Soldate so ie auf die Ve pflegu g de A e , Be li , S. f. C. J. P age , Das p eußis he Militä -Medi i al-Wese i sei e gege ä tige Gestalt, s ste atis h da gestellt, Be li , S. . Tho s, Ratio alisie u g, S. ff. Ca l o Voit Hg. , U te su hu g de Kost i ei ige öffe tli he A stalte . Fü Ä zte u d Ve altu gs ea te, Mü he . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g »rationellen Ernährung« ersetzt. Dieses Konzept wurde schließlich auch für die Arbeiterernährung zentral, die seit den er Jahren mit (aushaltsrechnungen sowie den Enquêten des Vereins für Socialpolitik immer wieder überprüft wurde, um so die Frage von ernährungswissenschaftlich legitimiertem Bedürfnis und seiner Befriedigung, nach der sozialen Lage der Arbeiter und der Angemessenheit ihrer Löhne beantworten zu können. Zwar war in den entsprechenden Erhebungen weniger vom lebensgefährdenden (unger, als vom relativen Mangel und der dauernden Knappheit die Rede, doch fürchtete man die damit verbundenen Begleiterscheinungen hoher Säuglingssterblichkeit und Rachitis- wie Tuberkulosemortalität für die Entwicklung des Volkskörpers. Die Ursache wurde nicht allein in zu niedrigen Einkommen und einer schwierigen sozialen Situation, sondern auch in moralischen Problemen gesehen. So galt es als ausgemacht, dass die Arbeiterfrauen weder willens noch in der Lage waren, einen (aushalt richtig zu führen und mit den vorhandenen Mitteln auszukommen. Bürgerliche Sozialreformer setzten sich für die »Schulung« von Arbeiterfrauen und -töchtern durch (aushaltungskurse und Kochbücher ebenso ein wie für die Erhebung von (aushaltsrechnungen. Sie förderten die Einrichtung von Kantinen, Schulspeisungen und Volksküchen, um dem Schlimmsten abzuhelfen. Dies geschah auch aus der Überzeugung heraus, dass gut ernährte Arbeiter auch gute Arbeit leisteten und ihrem Arbeitgeber treu ergeben waren, während man fürchtete, schlecht ernährte könnten illoyal und zum Aufruhr geneigt sein. Schließlich war die Erinnerung an die politische Sprengkraft des (ungers noch sehr lebendig, welcher in den (ungerkrisen des Vormärz / und in den Jahren / zu (ungerprotesten und -krawallen geführt hatte. Die ideale Ernährung sorgte für die Zufuhr von gerade soviel Nahrung, dass die Körperfunktionen aufrechterhalten und der Nahrungsbedarf durch Lohnarbeit gedeckt werden konnte. Die Bestimmung des Existenzminimums war Angelegenheit von Ernährungswissenschaftlern und Statistikern, die dazu laufend Erhebungen anstellten und )ndices zur Siehe s ho das Bu h: A i G af zu Lippe-Weisse feld, Die atio elle E äh u g des Volkes. Mit eso de e Be ü ksi htigu g de Beköstigu g i S hule , Se i aie , A eitshäuse u d A e häuse , Leipzig . )u Haushalts e h u ge gl. U e Spieke a , Haushalts e h u ge als Quelle de E äh u gsges hi hte. Ü e li k u d ethodis he P o le auf iss, i : Di k Rei ha d/U e Spieke a /Ul ike Tho s Hg. , Neue Wege zu E äh u gsges hi hte, F a kfu t et al. , - . Siehe u die Ü e legu ge Alf ed K upps zu Bedeutu g de Ka ti e , dazu: Ul ike Tho s, I dust ial Ca tee s i Ge a , i : Ma Ja o s/Pete S hollie s Hg. , Eati g out i Eu ope: Pi i s, Gou et Di i g a d S a ks si e the Late Eightee th Ce tu , O fo d , S. , hie S. . Ul ike Tho s Messung des Ernährungszustandes wie der Nahrungsmittelversorgung entwickelten. Doch noch wurde das so genannte Ernährungsminimum nicht experimentell im (ungerversuch bestimmt, sondern als hygienisches Minimum aus den realen Ernährungsgewohnheiten abgeleitet, orientierte sich also an der sozialen Praxis der faktischen Ernährung, d.h. am arbeitenden Mann mittleren Alters und mittlerer Körperstatur. Diese quantitative Sichtweise bot Physiologen, Ärzten und praktischen Diätetikern die Möglichkeit einer vermeintlich unbeteiligt-distanzierten Analyse des Phänomens. )hr standen die schon erwähnten Beobachtungen in Autobiographien von Gefangenen aus dem . Jahrhundert gegenüber, in denen diese ihren (unger, seine verschiedenen Phasen und Erscheinungen minutiös schilderten. Den Gefängnisärzten wie -verwaltungen war zudem ein Phänomen sehr wohl bekannt, dass sie »Abgegessensein« nannten: Der Ekel vor dem höchst einförmigen und monotonen Essen konnte stärker sein als der (unger. Gefangene mussten sich dann teilweise schon beim Anblick oder Geruch des Essens übergeben. Dennoch schenkte man den Gefangenen oft keinen Glauben, wenn sie ihre Wahrnehmungen schilderten oder über (unger klagten. Man hielt ihnen entgegen, sie seien gewöhnt, »mehr wie nötig zu essen, so dass das Gefühl der Sättigung erst bei einer gewissen Ueberfüllung des Magens eintritt. Diese Ueberladung ist nur eine schlechte Angewohnheit…«, die im Zuge der Gewöhnung an eine weniger voluminöse, gesundheitlich bessere Nahrung abgelegt werde. Einer der ganz wenigen, der keine rein stofflich-quantitative Sichtweise einnahm, war Wilhelm Sternberg, ein Berliner Arzt, der Ernährung und Diätetik nicht nur nach physiologischen Kriterien betrachtete, sondern auch Geschmack und Appetit, Kunst und Kultur der Küche in seine Überlegungen einbezog. Sternberg unterschied zwischen einem objektiv vorhandenen Nahrungsbedarf des Körpers und einem ebenso wichtigen, subjektiven Nahrungsbedürfnis. Trotzdem seien »Appetit und (unger […] seit Jahrzehnten die Stiefkinder der Wissenschaften und der ärztlichen Literatur«. Das Gefühl des (ungers sei mächtig, unerträglich und schmerzend, es dränge mit aller Macht nach BefriediDe fa to ga ei La o die e de e ste Sta da d o , gl. Ma o Pette kofe /Ca l Voit, U te su hu ge ü e de Stoff e au h des o ale Me s he , i : )eits h ift fü Biologie , S. . Dazu Tho s, Ratio alisie u g, S. . E d., S. . f. Ma Ru e /Al e t Thie felde , D ei Guta hte de Wisse s haftli he Deputatio fü das Medizi al ese , et effe d die Ae de u g de G u dsätze fü die Ve pflegu g de Gefa ge e i de Gefä g isse de Justiz e altu g, i : Vie teljah ss h ift fü ge i htli he Medizi u d öffe tli hes Sa itäts ese . Folge, , S. , hie s. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g gung. Für ihn war die Beschränkung der Forschung auf Tierexperimente ebenso wenig zielführend wie das Verhalten des Arztes, der seinen Kranken strikte Vorschriften macht und sich über deren Nichtbefolgung beschwert, aber den ihm »unbequemen und unverständlichen Neigungen seiner Kranken einfach aus dem Weg geht und sie für Launen verwöhnter Menschen erklärt.« )n Sternbergs Augen war schon die Voraussetzung der bisherigen Wissenschaft falsch. Denn der Mensch esse keineswegs, um sich physiologisch zu erhalten, sondern aus einem subjektiv empfundenen Bedürfnis heraus und weil es ihm schmecke. Genau diese Zusammenhänge zu erforschen, hielt er für die Aufgabe der ärztlichen Wissenschaft. Sternbergs Ansichten wurden von seinen ärztlichen Kollegen allerdings nicht geteilt; sie hielten seine Ansichten für überzogen, konnten sie aufgrund ihrer eigenen mechanistisch-funktionellen Sicht wohl auch nicht nachvollziehen. Für sie waren persönliche Vorlieben lediglich funktionelle Abweichungen bzw. krankhafte Aberrationen von feststehenden physiologischen Mechanismen. )hnen ging es eben nicht um individuelle Momente, sondern um die Erforschung der Ernährung großer Kollektive und die allgemeinen Ernährungsgesetze. Entsprechend standen Maß und Zahl in den folgenden Jahren weiterhin im Mittelpunkt. . Der erste Weltkrieg als »E peri e t i sei e Folge Große « u d Der Erste Weltkrieg führte zur Wiederkehr des längst überwunden geglaubten (ungers. )m Glauben an ein rasches Kriegsende war das Problem der Nahrungsversorgung in Deutschland vollkommen unterschätzt worden. Besondere Vorbereitungen waren nicht getroffen worden, bestehende Regelungen beruhten auf den durch die Veränderungen von (andel und Verkehr überholten Erfahrungen der napoleonischen Kriege. Die Möglichkeit, dass die umfangreichen Nahrungsmittelimporte von den Kriegsgegnern blockiert werden könnten, waren nicht einmal bedacht worden. Die getroffenen Maßnahmen blieben zunächst auf die kommunale Ebene beschränkt, erst im (erbst setzte der Aufbau einer Lebensmittelversorgung auf der Ebene der Bundesstaaten und der Preispolitik ein. )m Frühjahr wurde auf Reichsebene das KriegserRu e /Thie felde , D ei Guta hte , S. . E d., S. . Ru e , De Nah u gst ie , S. . E d., S. . Ul ike Tho s nährungsamt gegründet, dessen Verordnungen aufgrund der zahlreichen konkurrierenden Verwaltungsebenen und )nstitutionen allerdings wenig erfolgreich waren. Die verschiedenen Akteure verfolgten gegenläufige )nteressen; die Lebensmittelpreise stiegen rasch, während sich die Versorgung verschlechterte. Bereits im Oktober kam es in verschiedenen Städten mit vorwiegender Arbeiterbevölkerung zu Lebensmittelkrawallen sowie zu Protesten von (ausfrauen. Die Krise kulminierte im so genannten Kohlrübenwinter von / , in dem die Menschen auch vor Diebstählen nicht zurückschreckten, um ihren (unger stillen zu können. )m Jahr konstatierte Max Rubner, der das Kriegsernährungsamt ernährungswissenschaftlich beriet und unzählige Expertisen zu Ersatznahrungsmitteln verfasste: »Die Blockade hat weiterhin als Experiment im Großen gezeigt, welch schwere Gesundheitsschädigungen die Folge verkürzter Nahrung sein können«. Es spricht einerseits für die Massivität dieser Schädigungen, andererseits für das gestiegene )nteresse der Medizin an der Ernährung, dass die medizinischen Fachzeitschriften sich seit mit Artikeln über die gesundheitlichen Folgen der Kriegsernährung und insbesondere mit Artikeln über das gehäufte Auftreten von Ödemen füllten. Angesichts der allgemeinen Verbesserung des Lebens- und Ernährungsstandards waren die Ärzte mit massiven (ungerfolgen kaum noch vertraut. Daher beschrieben sie ihre Wahrnehmungen im Entdeckermodus; zudem spekulierten sie über die Ursachen der Ödeme. Als solche vermuteten sie u.a. )nfektionen, Nierenerkrankungen, Ruhr und das malariaähnliche Rekurrensfieber. Der erfahrene Ernährungsspezialist (ermann Strauss konstatierte dazu im Jahr : »Die (ungerkrankheit ist ein Leiden, das der moderne Arzt nicht kennt, zumindest nicht der deutsche Arzt. )n einer Zeit, in der das soziale Empfinden so ausserordentlich stark ausgeprägt ist und anderseits sich unsere ganze Bevölkerung in wirtschaftlich gehobener Lage befindet, kennt man die pathologische Form des (ungers überhaupt nicht mehr.« )n seinem Bericht über diese Erscheinung beschrieb er - so detailliert wie ihm dies aus dem Feld und ohne Labor möglich war - die Symptome der Krankheit: Abmagerung, Wassereinlagerungen, häufig einhergehend )u E äh u g i E ste Weltk ieg gl. Roe kohl, Hu ge lo kade u d Hei atf o t; Ch istoph Regulski, Klippfis h u d Ste k ü e . Die Le e s ittel e so gu g de Ei oh e F a kfu ts a Mai i E ste Weltk ieg – . Ei e Studie zu deuts he Wi ts hafts- u d I e politik i K iegszeite , F a kfu t a.M. . Ru e , De Nah u gst ie , S. . He a St auss, Die Hu ge k a kheit, i : Die Medizi is he Kli ik , S. , hie S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g mit Nachblindheit (emeralopie und (ornhautgeschwüren Xerophtalmie , Skorbut sowie massenhaftes Auftreten von )nfektionskrankheiten. Die Erkrankten waren gänzlich apathisch; sich selbst überlassen starben sie, während Ruhe und richtige Ernährung die Ödeme langsam wieder verschwinden ließen. Als Ursache dieser »rätselhaften (ungerzustände« identifizierte Strauss eindeutig die mangelhafte Ernährung und insbesondere die Verarmung der Nahrung an Eiweiß. Er wertete die Befunde als Bestätigung der Lehren vom »Eiweißminimum«, wonach Gesundheit vor allem von der Zufuhr einer Mindestmenge an Eiweiß in der Nahrung abhing. So universell diese Erscheinungen waren, so brisant waren sie politisch. Über »(unger« durfte öffentlich nicht gesprochen werden. Daher berichteten manche Autoren, dass sie ihre eindeutigen Untersuchungsergebnisse wegen »Zensurschwierigkeiten« erst nach Kriegsende publizieren konnten. Tatsächlich wurde über den (unger vor allem unter dem Etikett der »Ödemkrankheit« diskutiert, die zumindest Laien nicht zwangläufig an (unger denken ließ, während medizinische Experten Ödeme auch als häufige Begleiterscheinungen von (erz- und Nierenkrankheiten kannten. Erste Berichte über unerklärliche, an den Beinen beginnende wassersüchtige Schwellungen infolge lang anhaltender Unterversorgung mit Kalorien und Eiweiß stammten aus den Jahren / , aus den besetzten Gebieten und aus Kriegsgefangenenlagern - behandelten also den (unger der Feinde und den (unger weitab der »(eimatfront«. Während die Autoren dieser Berichte noch über die Ursachen rätselten, ließ Strauss in seiner Darstellung schon keinen Zweifel an den Ursachen dieses »Krankheitsbildes schwerster Art«, das er rundweg als »(ungerkrankheit« bezeichnete. Nach dem Steckrübenwinter / war das Ausmaß der Not so offensichtlich, traten die Erscheinungen den Ärzten so gehäuft entgegen, dass sich ihre Existenz nicht mehr verneinen, allenfalls noch relativieren ließ. St auss, Die Hu ge k a kheit, S. . Theodo Ru pel, )u Aetiologie de Oede k a kheite i ussis he Gefa ge e lage , i : Deuts he Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , Feldä ztli he Beilage, S. ; de s., Ue e Oede e k a ku ge . Vo t ag i Ae ztli he Ve ei i Ha u g, Sitzu g o . Juli , i : Mü he e Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , S. . Siehe au h Walte Hülse, Die Oede k a kheit i de Gefa ge e lage , i : Mü he e Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , S. . St auss, Die Hu ge k a kheit. Jü ge s, Besteht ei )usa e ha g de Oede k a kheit i de K iegsgefa gee lage it I fektio sk a kheite , i : Be li e kli is he Wo he s h ift , S. ; Theodo Ru pel, Re u e s u d Oede e, i : Be li e kli is he Wo he s h ift , S. ; de s./A. V. K a k, D se te iea tige Da e k a ku ge u d Oede e, i : Deuts he Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , S. , , , ; A. V. K a k/Ja ues Neu a , Beit äge zu Ul ike Tho s Offizielle Gutachter befanden sich hier im Zwiespalt. Rubner und der Geheimrat im Ministerium des )nnern, Beninde, sprachen daher in ihrem Gutachten an die Wissenschaftliche Deputation für das Medizinalwesen am . Juli zwar von der Gefährdung der Bevölkerung durch die Eiweißarmut der Kost. Sie betonten aber, dass diese wegen der methodischen Schwächen der Untersuchungen nicht eindeutig belegt sei. Rubner betonte, dass weniger die praktische Erfahrung als das Experiment zähle: »Weniger Untersuchungen, genau ausgeführt, beweisen mehr als nicht einwandfreie Massenuntersuchungen«. )hre eigene Untersuchung beschränkte sich allerdings auf die Berechnung der Nährstoffzufuhr aus den Kostsätzen. Dennoch stellte sie eindeutig fest: »Von einer (ungersnoth in des Wortes ursprünglicher Bedeutung ist natürlich weder zurzeit die Rede, noch wird ein solcher Zustand, wie wir ihn etwa aus der Geschichte kennen, je eintreten. Dass infolge der durch den Krieg eingetretenen Ernährungsschwierigkeiten jemand wirklich (ungers gestorben ist, ist kaum anzunehmen. Dass dagegen infolge einer durch mangelhafte oder unzweckmäßige Ernährung eingetretenen Schwächung und (erabsetzung der körperlichen Widerstandsfähigkeit gegen äußere Einflüsse und Krankheitsangriffe Menschen zu Tode gekommen sein können, muss von vornherein als durchaus möglich ins Auge gefasst werden.« Als staatlich bestellte Gutachter war es für sie politisch nicht opportun, explizit über (unger zu sprechen und damit die schwierige politische Lage des deutschen Reiches anzuerkennen. Dennoch konnten sie ihren eigenen Ergebnissen nicht ausweichen. )m zweiten Teil ihres Gutachtens zeichneten sie ein Bild, das die Auswirkungen der Ernährung auf die Sterblichkeit in den verschiedenen Altersklassen deutlich hervortreten ließ. Demnach erhöhten sich vor allem die Mortalität der Alten und der Anstaltsinsassen sowie die Todesfälle durch Tuberkulose. Auch nahmen Darmkatarrhe, Durchfälle, (erz- und Gefäßkrankheiten als Folge hochgradiger Unterernährung deutlich zu. Das gehäufte Vorkommen Oede f age, i : Deuts he Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , S. ; ; Ca l Maase /He a )o de k, Ue e eige a tige Oede e, i : Deuts he Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , S. . Ma Be i de/Ma Ru e , Hu ge lo kade u d Volksgesu dheit, i : Ve öffe tli hu ge aus de Ge iete de Medizi al e altu g , , S. , hie S. . S hitte hel u d S hle ht ko statie te i ih e ah e he de A eit: »Die Ve öffe tli hu g de zu eist i Wi te / i Felde ausgefüh te U te suhu ge zog si h ege )e su s h ie igkeite is jetzt hi aus.« Alf ed S hitte hel /Hei i h S hle ht, Die Öde k a kheit, i : )eits h ift fü die gesa te e pe ie telle Medizi , S. - , hie S. . Wel he Ei fluss hat die K iegse äh u g auf die Volksgesu dheit ausgeü t u d ü t sie o h aus? Guta hte de Wisse s haftli he Deputatio fü das Medizi al ese Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g von Ödemen, die die medizinische Presse so bemerkenswert fand, wurde dagegen nur relativ knapp behandelt. Sie wurden sogar als »im Grunde gutartig« bezeichnet, da sie bei Ruhe und abwechslungsreicher Kost rasch zurückgingen und eigentlich nur in Anstalten gehäuft und ausgedehnt auftraten. (ier war der Gesundheitszustand allerdings so dramatisch, dass die Mortalität auf bis zu Prozent hochschnellte. Dennoch unterließen es die Untersuchungen nicht, auch auf die positiven Effekte der Nahrungsreduktion zu verweisen, wie etwa auf den Rückgang von Gicht, Rheumatismus und Alkoholerkrankungen. Dabei hielten sie sich keineswegs an eine egalitäre Physiologie, wie Rubner sie in seinen eigenen Arbeiten formuliert hatte. So wurde die Abnahme der körperlichen Leistungsfähigkeit bei Schwer- und bei Schwerstarbeitern aufgrund unzureichender Nahrung in Frage gestellt. )m Gegensatz dazu erkannten sie den Nahrungsmangel bei fest besoldeten Beamten nicht etwa deshalb an, weil diese keinen Schrebergarten hatten, um den Speiseplan aufzubessern, sondern weil sie »nicht imstande sind, einen so regen Stoffwechsel zu unterhalten, um die zum Teil schwerer verdauliche Kriegskost vollkommen zu bewältigen.« Für die erhöhte Sterblichkeit alter Menschen wurde nicht die Ernährung verantwortlich gemacht, sondern die »mangelhafte Anpassungsfähigkeit des Körpers an die veränderten Ernährungsverhältnisse« und die ungewohnt schwere körperliche Arbeit. An diesem Gutachten lässt sich deutlich ablesen, welche politische Bedeutung der (unger hatte: Das Eingeständnis, die Bevölkerung litte (unger, wäre einer Kapitulation gegenüber der englischen (ungerblockade gleichgekommen. Daher verbot die am . August wieder eingeführte Zensur entsprechende Presseberichte. Zugleich wurde die Situation wissenschaftspolitisch instrumentalisiert. Das zitierte Gutachten sah nicht etwa in der schlechten Versorgung und der selbst verordneten )solierung Deutschlands das zentrale Problem, sondern suggerierte, dass diese Situation nicht eingetreten wäre, wenn die »medizinische Wissenschaft von Anfang an als Mitberater« stärker gehört worden wäre. Entsprechend forderte es für die Zukunft eine »engere Verbindung« des Kriegsernährungsamtes mit den Gesundheitsbehörden. Die o . Juli , i : Ve öffe tli hu ge aus de Ge iete de Medizi al e , , S. f. Wel he Ei fluss hat die K iegse äh u g, S. . E d., S. . E d., S. . Vgl. Jü ge Wilke, )e su u d P essef eiheit, i : Eu opäis he Ges hi hte EGO , hg. o Lei iz-I stitut fü Eu opäis he Ges hi hte IEG , o li e http:// .ieg-ego.eu/ ilkeja-de URN: u : :de: A f age o . . , A satz . altu g O li e u te : letzte Ul ike Tho s eigentliche Ursache des (ungers lag freilich nicht in zu wenig medizinischer Beratung, sondern im absoluten Mangel an Nahrungsmitteln. Erst mehrten sich realistischere Einschätzungen der Situation, bis die medizinische Fachpresse seit keinen Zweifel mehr daran ließ, dass der (unger durch die Blockade, die Missernte von und das Darniederliegen der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion wirklich im Deutschen Reich angekommen war. Am Beispiel des Ersten Weltkriegs lässt sich eindrücklich zeigen, wie Gesellschaft, Wissenschaft und Politik um die Anerkennung des (ungers rangen. Dies äußerte sich zuerst im Ringen um sprachliche Codes und Begriffe. Berichte über die Ergebnisse physiologischer Untersuchungen schöpften von der Zensur gelassene Räume des Sagbaren aus und verzichteten gleichzeitig auf explizite Schlussfolgerungen. So war es zwar möglich, über den existenzgefährdenden (unger in Kriegsgefangenenlagern und im Osten zu sprechen und zu schreiben; der (unger in der Armee oder an der »(eimatfront« blieb jedoch außen vor. Das volle Ausmaß der gesundheitlichen Folgen der (ungerblockade, die Zahl von . (ungertoten in der Zivilbevölkerung wurde jedenfalls erst nach Ende des Krieges und mit der Aufhebung der Zensur offenbar. Rubners Gutachten aus dem November war knapp, aber deutlich: Die zunächst nur örtlich schlechte Ernährung hatte demnach allgemein feststellbare Folgen für die Gesundheit, die sich zuerst in den Städten und )ndustriegegenden zeigten. »(ungerzustände in krassester Form« trafen vor allem die )nsassen geschlossener Anstalten, deren Verfall »unter fortwährendem Jammern und Klagen über (unger einen rapiden Verlauf« nahm. )n manchen Städten verloren die Erwachsenen durchschnittlich - % an Körpergewicht bei reduzierter körperlicher Leistungsfähigkeit. Leistenbrüche, Gebärmuttervorfälle, Tuberkulosefälle, Anämie und Amennorhoe nahmen zu, seit Ende stieg die Sterblichkeit vor allem durch Tuberkulose und andere )nfektionskrankheiten. Maase/)o de k, Ue e eige a tige Oede e; H. Ge ha tz, Ei e esse tielle adika dis he Oede k a kheit, i : Deuts he Medizi is he Wo he s h ift ,S . Sol he Me ha is e fi de si h i e s hiede e )usa e hä ge u d zu e s hiede e )eite , gl. dazu eso de s: Ve o , Hu ge , S. - u d Ni k Cullathe , The Fo eig Poli of the Calo ie, i : A e i a Histo i al Re ie , , S. . Ma Ru e , Ü e die E äh u gs- u d Gesu dheits e hält isse. Guta hte des Diekto s des Kaise -Wilhel -I stituts fü A eitsph siologie, i : Ma Ru a , Hu ge ! Wi ku ge ode e K iegs ethode , Be li , S. - . E d. Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g Doch nun verwies Rubner auch auf die Folgen auf geistigem Gebiet, wo »Schlaffheit«, »Minderwertigkeit, )ndolenz, der Mangel an )nitiative und Schaffenslust, wie auch die nervöse, gereizte Stimmung« um sich griffen. Ähnlich ungeschminkt schilderten jetzt auch die Teilnehmer der außerordentlichen Versammlung der Vereinigten ärztlichen Gesellschaften in Berlin am . Dezember , medizinische Autoritäten wie Ministerialbeamte, die gesundheitlichen Kriegsfolgen. Fundierte Studien durften wegen »Zensurschwierigkeiten« erst erscheinen. Eine erste, bis heute häufig zitierte Monographie über das (ungerödem und seine Ursachen wurde erst von Carl Maase und (ermann Zondek publiziert, die als Assistenten der . Medizinischen Klinik zu Berlin reichlich Gelegenheit gehabt hatten, in der poliklinischen Sprechstunde Ödemkranke zu untersuchen, mit den Menschen zu sprechen und ihr Schicksal zu verfolgen. Drei Jahre später folgte die Übersetzung einer ursprünglich in den USA erschienenen Studie von Sergius Morgulis, einem Professor der Biochemie an der Universität von Nebraska, der die physiologischen Befunde bestätigte. Von der politischen wie von der subjektiven Dimension von (unger, von (unger als Gefühl und Grundstimmung war in diesen Abhandlungen nicht die Rede. Sie beschränkten sich auf eine rein biochemisch-physiologische, vermeintlich neutrale, wissenschaftlich-objektive Betrachtungsweise. )hre Bedeutung für die Anerkennung der (ungerfolgen als unabweisbar vorhandenes Krankheitsbild ist zentral. Doch wurde der (unger mit dieser Versachlichung ent-personalisiert, wurden die psychischen Folgen der Unterernährung und damit der (ungernde in seiner leib-seelischen Einheit marginalisiert. . Verde kter Hu ger u d die Rü kkehr der A gst: Die Situatio zwis he de Kriege Nach Ende des Krieges verbesserte sich die Situation insgesamt, doch die Ernährungsverhältnisse waren auch , am Ende der )nflationszeit noch prekär. Deutlich verbesserte sie sich erst infolge des wirt- E d., S. . Vgl. de Be i ht de F a kfu te )eitu g o . Ja ua , a ged u kt ei: Ru a , Hu ge , S. - . S hitte hel /S hle ht, Die Öde k a kheit. Ca l Maase/He a )o dek, Das Hu ge öde . Ei e kli is he u d e äh u gsph siologis he Studie, Leipzig . Ei e ku ze e ste , seh u gefäh e Aufsatz hatte sie s ho o gelegt, gl. Maase/)o dek, Ue e eige a tige Oede e. Se gius Mo gulis, Hu ge u d U te e äh u g. Ei e iologis he u d soziologis he Studie, Be li . Ul ike Tho s schaftlichen Aufschwungs in der zweiten (älfte der er Jahre. Allerdings hatte die einsetzende Depression für die wachsende Zahl Arbeitsloser dramatische Folgen. Diese Folgen wurden nun nicht mehr isoliert betrachtet, vielmehr wurde Arbeitslosigkeit nun in wegweisenden Monographien in all ihren Auswirkungen analysiert. Auch auf internationaler Ebene wurde die Bedeutung der Ernährung für den Gesundheitszustand der Bevölkerung anerkannt: )m Mai gründete die Gesundheitsorganisation der League of Nations eine eigene Kommission, die sich mit Ernährungsfragen beschäftigen sollte Commission Scientifique Internationale de l’Alimentation . )hre Aktivitäten blieben zunächst auf Berichte über die Situation in einzelnen Ländern und die Abhaltung von einschlägigen Konferenzen beschränkt, von denen Deutschland zunächst ausgeschlossen war. Erst in den späten er Jahren wurden Pläne zur tiefer gehenden Beschäftigung mit dem Thema diskutiert. Während die englische Delegation die geplanten Untersuchungen auf internationaler Ebene für problematisch hielt und Ernährungserhebungen auf nationaler Ebene befürwortete, agitierte die französische Delegation aus nationalen Motiven gegen die Beteiligung Deutschlands, das in den Völkerbund aufgenommen worden war. Getrieben auch von den Fortschritten der Vitaminforschung verständigte man sich schließlich aber auf einen Minimalkonsens, der darauf zielte, die rund verschiedenen, international gebräuchlichen Messziffern zu vereinheitlichen und Standardmethoden zu entwickeln, mit denen sich die Folgen der durch Arbeitslosigkeit bedingten Mangel- und Unterernährung nach einheitlicher Methode erfassen, vergleichen und beurteilen ließen. )m Gefolge einer Tagung in Berlin im Dezember wurden verschiedene weitere Studien durchgeführt. Sie wiesen nach, dass Arbeitslose bzw. Familien mit geringen Einkommen schon aus finanziellen Gründen große Probleme hatten, sich gesund und ausreichend zu ernähren. Der publizierte, von Etienne Burnett und Wallace Akroyd verfasste Bericht »Nutrition and Public (ealth«, der ursprünglich nur die Rolle unzureichender Ernährung für die Präventionspolitik aufzeigen sollte, zeichnete ein umfassendes Bild der komplexen Situation. Er betonte die Notwendigkeit, einen Minimalstandard sicherzustellen, forderte aber auch seine Kombination mit Ernährungserziehung. legte ein Technical Committee der League of Nations eiMa ie Jahoda/Paul F. Laza sfeld/Ha s )eisel, Die A eitslose o Ma ie thal, Leipzig , fü E gla d eso de s Ve o , Hu ge , S. . Josep L. Ba o a, Nut itio a d Health. The I te atio al Co te t du i g the I te -Wa C isis, i : So ial Histo of Medi i e , S. ; de s., The P o le of Nut itio ; Bo o , Co i g to Te s ith Wo ld Health. E d., f. E d., f. Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g nen Bericht über die »Physiological Basis of Nutrition« vor, der konkrete Ernährungsempfehlungen für die verschiedenen Altersklassen formulierte. )hm folgte zwei Jahre später ein politisches Programm, welches das Recht auf Nahrung und das Recht auf Gesundheit festschrieb und große Beachtung in der Öffentlichkeit fand. Nun schenkten auch Ökonomen wie John Maynard Keynes dem Thema große Aufmerksamkeit, da eine ungesicherte Ernährung weiter Bevölkerungskreise das Risiko politischer und damit wirtschaftlicher )nstabilität nach sich zog. )nsofern wurde Ernährung ausdrücklich als Element der Friedensarbeit verstanden. Doch vorläufig blieb es bei Absichtserklärungen, zumal der erwähnte Bericht zwar die national getroffenen Maßnahmen listete, als Konsenspapier unter (inweis auf die schon vorhandenen Ansätze aber von konkreten und weiterführenden Maßnahmen absah. Die politische Bedeutung des Programms kann aber kaum unterschätzt werden, denn damit war (unger über die Ebene des (umanitären hinaus als physiologisch messbare Gefährdung der Leistungsfähigkeit und der ökonomischen Performanz von Staaten weltweit anerkannt. Ebenso war ausgemacht, dass er über eine Erhöhung der Morbidität die Gesundheitsausgaben steigerte. Das Deutsche Reich, das zunächst durch international führende Gesundheitsstatistiker wie Emil Roesle und Sozialhygienikern wie Franz Goldmann vertreten war und noch im Jahr in Berlin eine Tagung des Völkerbundes organisiert hatte, geriet unter anderem durch die starke Präsenz der englischen Vertreter zunehmend ins Abseits. Damit gewann gleichzeitig der englische Fokus auf Vitamine für die Erarbeitung internationaler Ernährungsstandards deutlich an Bedeutung. Nachdem das Deutsche Reich am . Oktober seinen Austritt aus dem Völkerbund erklärt hatte, war es zwar von einer aktiven Beteiligung an der internationalen Diskussion der Ernährungspolitik abgekoppelt. Das hinderte nationalsozialistische Ernährungspolitiker aber nicht daran, immer wieder auf die Ernährungsstandards des Völkerbundes zurückzugreifen. Die Absicht dieser Politik bestand aller- Repo t o the Ph siologi al Basis of Nut itio d a up the Te h i al Co issio of the Health Co ittee, i : Bulleti of the I te atio al Health O ga isatio , S. . Siehe dazu au h: A L. S. Staples, To i the pea e. The Food a d Ag i ultu e O ga izatio , Si Joh Bo d O , a d the Wo ld Food Boa d P oposals, i : Pea e & Cha ge , S. . Bo o , Co i g to Te s, S. . Ba o a, Nut itio a d Health, S. . Dazu eso de s: Paul Wei dli g, The Role of I te atio al O ga izatio s i setti g Nut itio al Sta da ds i the sa d s, i : Ha ke Ka i ga/A d e Cu i gha Hg. , The S ie e a d Cultu e of Nut itio , A ste da , S. , o alle S. . Ul ike Tho s dings nur nach innen in der Friedenssicherung, nach außen zielte sie auf die )ndienstnahme der Physiologie für Autarkie und Kriegsvorbereitung und die Nutzung von (unger als Mittel der Politik. Eine Ausnahme stellte in dieser (insicht der Statistiker Carl von Tyszka dar, der seit mehrere einschlägige Artikel in medizinischen Zeitschriften veröffentlicht hatte, bevor seine Monographie »Ernährung und Lebenshaltung des deutschen Volkes« erschien. Sein interdisziplinärer Ansatz war in einer strikt disziplinär organisierten Wissenschaftslandschaft durchaus einzigartig. Dass seine Aufsätze auch in medizinischen Zeitschriften publiziert wurden, dokumentiert jedenfalls eindrücklich, dass Mediziner begannen, sich über rein naturwissenschaftliche Erklärungen hinaus für Ernährung zu interessieren. Auch als Ökonom richtete Tyszka seinen Blick nicht allein auf Maß und Zahl, ihm ging es nicht nur um eine zahlenfixierte Analyse von Versuchergebnissen oder Erhebungen von (aushaltsrechnungen von Arbeitern. Vielmehr stellte er auch die psychischen Folgen von mangelhafter Ernährung durch Arbeitslosigkeit deutlich heraus. Damit unterlief er die seit dem . Jahrhundert üblichen biopolitischen )nstrumente zur engen Koppelung von Ernährung und Leistung, die jedem nur das zugestand, was er aufgrund seiner körperlichen )nanspruchnahme brauchte - und deshalb denen, die körperlich weniger beansprucht waren, auch weniger zugestand. )nsbesondere wandte sich Tyszka explizit gegen die Meinung von der geringeren körperlichen Belastung der Arbeitslosen, aus der ein geringeres Nahrungsbedürfnis abgeleitet wurde. Er konstatierte, dass es nicht nur darum gehe, das Aufkommen eines (ungergefühls zu verhindern, sondern auch darum, die geistigen Kräfte zu bewahren und »dem Arbeitslosen auch in der schweren Zeit der Erwerbslosigkeit die nötige Spannkraft zu verleihen, durchzuhalten und nicht zu verzagen und zu verzweifeln.« Denn in der Praxis zeige sich »der Arbeitslose meist als ein gehetzter, nervöser Mensch, der – zermürbt von der vergeblichen Arbeitssuche – zernagt von Kummer und Sorge um die Zukunft der Seinen, eine besonders kräftige Nahrung haben müsste, um gegenüber den erlittenen Unbillen widerstandsfähig zu bleiben.« Ca l o T szka, E äh u g u d Le e shaltu g des deuts he Volkes. Ei Beit ag zu E ke t is des Gesu dheitszusta des des deuts he Volkes, Be li . )u sei e Biog aphie gl. Ch istia S hee , Beit äge zu Biog aphie de deuts he i ts haftsisse s haftli he E ig atio : Rudolf G a o e , Otto F eihe o Mei g/Theodo Puat, Edua d Rose au , Os ald S h eide , Ca l o T szka, Ha u g . Ca l o T szka, Die E äh u gslage deuts he A eite u d A eitslose i Wi te / , i : Kli is he Wo he s h ift , S. , hie S. . E d., S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g An anderer Stelle betonte er, dass die Stellensuche körperlich wie seelisch so anstrengend sei, dass der Arbeitslose einen ebenso großen Energie- und Kräfteverbrauch habe wie der Berufstätige. Er trat daher für eine Verbindung von Wirtschaftslehre und Physiologie, für die Zusammenarbeit von Ärzten, Physiologen, (ygienikern, Sozialpolitikern und Wirtschaftswissenschaftlern ein. Gemeinsam sollten sie die Voraussetzungen für jene preiswerte und gesunde Ernährung schaffen, die Bedingung geistiger Spannkraft wie kultureller (öherentwicklung sei. Wie viele andere forderte auch er weit reichende Autarkie, verstand sie allerdings nicht als Kampfmittel nach außen, sondern als einzige Möglichkeit, der infolge von Krieg, Wirtschaftskrise und )nflation auftretenden Armut in Deutschland zu begegnen. Zugleich verweigerte er sich der politischen Mobilisierung der Angst vor (unger, weil er auf der Basis seiner Kalkulationen gar kein Problem sah, die wachsende Weltbevölkerung mit den vorhandenen Ressourcen zu ernähren. Die Nationalsozialisten dagegen waren von der drohenden Übervölkerung der Erde überzeugt; sie waren von den (ungererfahrungen des Ersten Weltkrieges geprägt und taten alles, um die Wiederkehr des (ungers zu verhindern. Freilich unterliefen die Ernährungsregelungen des Dritten Reichs den egalitären Anspruch physiologischer Standards: Er galt nur noch für die »arische« Bevölkerung, während die Rationierung insgesamt entlang rassistischer Kategorien organisiert und (unger gezielt als Mittel des Genozids genutzt wurde. . Hu gerfors hu g u d Hu gerpolitik i Dritte Rei h Ernährungs- und Landbauforschung wurden im Nationalsozialismus so umfänglich gefördert wie niemals zuvor. (intergrund waren die Erfahrungen mit dem (unger aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg, weswegen man die landwirtschaftliche Produktion um jeden Preis zu steigern suchte. (ektisch wurde vor allem nach Möglichkeiten gesucht, die »Fett- und Eiweißlücke« durch den Anbau neuer fett-, protein- und vitaminreicher Pflanzen zu schließen. Ernährungs- und Vitaminbilanzen sollten den Bedarf festhalten. Marktforschung und Ansätze zu einer Psychologie der Ernährung wurden für die Verbrauchslenkung genutzt und dazu eingesetzt, Stimmungen in der Bevölkerung Rechnung zu tragen und Aufruhr zu verhindern. Forschungsprojekte im Rahmen des Vierjahresplans T szka, E T szka, E Joa hi »D itte äh u g u d Le e shaltu g, S. . äh u g u d Le e shaltu g, Vo o t. D e s, »Glei hs haltu g i Stulle e zeh «. E äh u gsps hologie i Rei h« - ) ei Fu dstü ke, i : We kstattGes hi hte , S. - ; Ul ike Tho s sollten helfen, den ermittelten Bedarf vor allem an Eiweiß und Fett mit neuen, synthetischen Produkten zu befriedigen. Gleichzeitig wurden die Ergebnisse der egalitär denkenden Physiologie durch die neuen wissenschaftlichen Forschungen der Anthropologie relativiert, nach denen der Nahrungsbedarf verschiedener Völker schon biologisch verschieden sei. Letztlich könne nur die Ernährung von eigenem Boden eine vollwertige Ernährung gewährleisten. Die NS-Rassenphysiologie führte also zur Differenzierung physiologisch unterschiedlicher Körper mit je anderem Stoffwechsel; folglich galten je andere physiologische Gesetzmäßigkeiten. Damit wurden hier genau jene Kriterien wirksam, welche implizit die Perspektive der Kolonialmächte auf (ungersnöte in den Kolonien bestimmt hatten. Entsprechend wurde die vorhandene Nahrung nun explizit nach dem Kriterium rassischer Zugehörigkeit und politischer Würdigkeit zugemessen. Darauf basierte auch der so genannte (ungerplan von , der darauf zielte, Millionen Menschen in den Ostgebieten verhungern zu lassen, um die »gesparten« Nahrungsmittel den Menschen im Reich zukommen zu lassen. )m Rückgriff auf alte militärische Strategien wurde (unger bei der Belagerung von Leningrad / als Mittel gegen die Zivilbevölkerung eingesetzt, um die russische Armee und die Bevölkerung zur Aufgabe zu zwingen. Noch in seiner Erntedankrede vom . Oktober , als die Rationierung die Ernährung im (eimatgebiet bereits deutlich einschränkte, gab Göring die Parole aus: »Wenn gehungert wird, in Deutschland auf keinen Fall!« Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wurden die eroberten und besetzten Gebiete im Osten ausgeplündert und ihre Bevölkerung gezielt dem Tod preisgegeben, während die NahrungsHa su e ko t ut Be ghoff, Methode de Ve au hsle ku g i Natio alsozialis us. Ko politis he No e setzu g u d öko o is he Folge i ku ge z is he totalitäA sp u h u d ide spe stige P a is, i : Diete Gose i kel Hg. , Wi ts haftst olle u d Re ht i de atio alsozialistis he Diktatu , F a kfu t a.M. , S. ; de s., T äu e u d Alpt äu e. Ko su politik i Natio alsozialistis he Deuts hla d, i : Hei z Ge ha d Haupt/Claudius To p Hg. , Die Ko su gesells haft i Deuts hla d . Ei Ha d u h, F a kfu t a.M./Ne Yo k , S. . )u Hu ge pla gl. .a. Ch istia Ge la h, K ieg. E äh u g. Völke o d. Deuts he Ve i htu gspolitik i ) eite Weltk ieg, )ü i h , .a. S ff. Vgl. Ha u ge I stitut fü Sozialfo s hu g Hg. , Ve e he de Weh a ht – Die sio e des Ve i htu gsk ieges – . Ausstellu gskatalog, Ha u g . De Te t de Rede ist a ged u kt ei: Götz Al , Sti e des Volkes. Skepsis u d Fühe e t aue i Natio alsozialis us, F a kfu t a.M. , S. , )itat S. . Dazu Ch istia Ge la h, Die Ve a t o tu g de Weh a htfüh u g. Ve glei he de Bet a htu ge a Beispiel de so jetis he K iegsgefa ge e , i : Ch istia Ha ta /Joha es Hü te /Ul ike Ju eit Hg. : Ve e he de Weh a ht. Bila z ei e Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g mittelrationen der nicht leistungsfähigen, psychisch kranken Anstaltsinsassen durch den (ungererlass vom . November dermaßen reduziert wurden, dass die Ernährung zum )nstrument der Euthanasie wurde. )m Gegensatz dazu suchte man die Leistungsfähigkeit der »arischen« Bevölkerung mit aufwendigen Vitaminaktionen zu steigern, die der »partiellen Unterernährung«, d.h. der Unterversorgung mit Vitaminen, abhelfen sollten. Seit verwendete das Dritte Reich Devisen auf den Ankauf von synthetischem Vitamin C bei der Schweizer Pharmafirma Hoffmann la Roche – die aber nur an die Leistungsträger, die Schwerarbeiter und Soldaten sowie an die Leistungsträger von morgen, die Schulkinder ausgegeben wurden. (ypovitaminosen waren allerdings ein Konstrukt, das gleichwohl propagandistisch wirksam eingesetzt wurde und so half, das Problem ausreichender Kalorien- und Proteinversorgung in der öffentlichen Diskussion zu überdecken. Auch als die Pläne zur Steigerung der landwirtschaftlichen Erzeugung nicht aufgingen und zunächst Knappheit, seit aber auch (unger allgemein wurden, war es strikt verboten, das Wort (unger in der offiziellen Berichterstattung zu verwenden. (unger kam nur bei den anderen vor, aber nicht in der eigenen Bevölkerung und schon gar nicht in der nach den neuesten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen verpflegten Wehrmacht. So wurde zwar über die zahlreichen Untersuchungen an ödemkranken Kriegsgefangenen berichtet und auch publiziert, doch De atte, Mü he , S. - , No e t Ka z, Das Beispiel Cha ko : Ei e Stadte ölke u g als Opfe de deuts he Hu ge st ategie / , i : e d., S. . Hei z Faulsti h, Hu ge ste e i de Ps hiat ie. Mit ei e Topog aphie de NSPs hiat ie, F ei u g i.B . , S. f. Dazu Ul ike Tho s, Vita i f age – kei Vita i u el? Die deuts he Vita i fo s hu g i de e ste Hälfte des . Jah hu de ts u d ih Ve hält is zu Öffe tli hkeit, i : S illa Nikolo /A e S hi a he Hg. , Wisse s haft u d Öffe tli hkeit als Ressou e fü ei a de . Studie zu Wisse sges hi hte i . Jah hu de t, F a kfu t a.M. , S. - , hie ff so ie Beat Bä hi, Vita i C fü alle! Pha azeutis he P oduktio , Ve a ktu g u d Gesu dheitspolitik , )ü i h . Vgl. die Ko e ta e i : E st Pies zek/Wilhel )iegel a e Hg. , E äh u g de Weh a ht, . Tagu gs e i ht de A eitsge ei s haft E äh u g de Weh a ht, D esde /Leipzig , S. f. Vgl. StA Be i g, Vo läufige Be i ht ü e die kli is he U te su hu ge a so jetis he K iegsgefa ge e , . . , Bu desa hi , Militä a hi F ei u g, RH / , N. , die E ge isse u de da pu lizie t i : H. Be i g, T uppe ä ztli h Wi htiges ü e die Öde k a kheit, i : Militä ä ztli he )eits h ift , S. ; O e a zt Ha ts h a a Weh k eisa zt I, ) is he e i ht ü e die ei K iegsgefa ge e ge o e e U te su hu gse ge isse o . . so ie die S h ei e o . u d . . i : Bu desa hi Militä a hi F ei u g RH / , N. ; HSI /WiG IV a Weh k eisko a do III, . . u d HSI /WiG I a Fäh d i h, . . , Bu desa hi , Militä a hi F ei u g, RH / , N . . Ul ike Tho s als Ursachen für Ödemerkrankungen bei deutschen Soldaten wurde – wie schon im ersten Weltkrieg – wiederum eine Nierenentzündung Glomerulonephritis diskutiert. )m Frühjahr , als bei den jugendlichen Soldaten nach der Reduktion der Kostsätze erste Anzeichen für (ungererkrankungen auftraten, suchten die Physiologen auf einer geheimen Kriegstagung nach Worten zur Umschreibung der sich in ihrer Sicht anbahnenden Tragödie. Als die bei Stalingrad eingekesselten Soldaten zu hungern begannen, wurde strikt untersagt, dies in den Berichten zu thematisieren. Die (eeresleitung gab Durchhalteparolen aus und warf im Zweifelsfall Munition, aber keine Nahrungsmittel über den Eingekesselten ab. Offiziell waren die Ärzte im Stalingrader Kessel »verwirrt« über die (äufung von Ödemfällen und suchten nach Erklärungen für die seit Mitte Dezember gehäuft auftretenden Todesfälle, obwohl die reale Existenz des (ungers und seine Dimension aus den Feldpostbriefen klar hervorging und auch in der (eimat bekannt war. Diese Medienpolitik war insofern erfolgreich, als Deutschland auf der »(unger Map of Europe« des Völkerbundes aus den Jahren / als weißer Fleck erschien. Nur vereinzelt zeichneten Publikationen wie die des ausgewanderten Arztes Martin Gumpert in seiner Publikation »(eil (unger« ein kenntnisreiches Bild der Ernährungssituation und ihrer möglichen Konsequenzen, so dass die Alliierten Ha s Ha pe, Ve ha dlu gs e i hte de . K iegs-Tagu g de Deuts he Gesells haft fü I e e Medizi o .- .X. i Wie , i : Deuts he Medizi is he Wo he s h ift , S. - , - ; Di isio sa zt D . F a k a . Ju i a de Ko psa zt A.K. u d die A t o t o O e felda zt D . Retzlatz o . . ,i : Bu desa hi , Militä a hi F ei u g, RH / , siehe a e au h: Paul-Ge ha d Mülle , Das K iegsöde als Ei eiss a gelzusta d, i : De Deuts he Militä a zt , S. . Vgl. die Be i hte ü e die Be atu ge i : Bu desa hi , Militä a hi F ei u g RH / , N . . Vgl. das P otokoll des Vo e eitu gst effe s fü die D itte Osttagu g, i : Bu desa hi , Militä a hi F ei u g, RH / , N . . Vgl. u de Be i ht des e ate de Pathologe de . A ee, Ha s Gi ge soh : De Hu ge tod i Stali g ad, i : Bu desa hi , Militä a hi F ei u g, MSG / , so ie de s., Als sie ei fa h sta e . Vo d eißig Jah e . Vo Hu ge tod agte i Stali g ad ie a d zu ede , i : Die )EIT, N . o . Fe ua . Vgl. Ma f ed Keh ig, Stali g ad. A al se u d Doku e tatio ei e S hla ht, Stuttga t , S. , , , , . Josef Nuss au e , Ge alt. Ma ht. Hu ge . S h e e Hu ge katast ophe seit , I s u k et al. , S. . Vgl. Ma ti Gu pe t, Heil Hu ge ! Health u de Hitle , Ne Yo k, To o to , .a. S. - . Gu pe t a a h de Be ufs e ot o i die USA ausge a de t. Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g nach Kriegsende schockiert waren über das Ausmaß des (ungers in Deutschland. Dessen Dimension und Auswirkungen waren den Behörden des Dritten Reiches allerdings sehr genau bekannt, vor allem durch die Arbeiten von (einrich Kraut, der die Leitung der chemischen Abteilung des von Max Rubner begründeten Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituts für Arbeitsphysiologie in Dortmund übernommen hatte. Dort erforschte er vor allem die Arbeiterernährung, die er ganz in der Tradition des . Jahrhunderts mit (ilfe von (aushaltsrechnungen analysierte. (aushaltsunterricht und Aufklärung durch ein von ihm und seiner Frau verfasstes Kochbuch sollten die Arbeiter motivieren, sie im Rahmen des Gegebenen zu verbessern. Übergeordnetes Ziel war die Sicherung und Erhöhung ihrer Leistungsfähigkeit. Kraut beriet das Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft in Ernährungsfragen und bei der Ausarbeitung des Kriegsernährungsplans und registrierte die Auswirkungen dieser einsetzenden Rationierung durch regelmäßige Körperwägungen auf den Zechen des Ruhrgebietes. Diese zeigten deutlich, dass das Gewicht der Arbeiter mit Beginn der Rationierung abnahm, sich dann stabilisierte, um ab April laufend weiter abzusinken, was sich negativ auf die Leistung auswirkte. Da diese Zahlen politischen Sprengstoff bargen, verfügte das Propagandaministerium die Einstellung der Wägungen und aller Erhebungen. Stattdessen wurden die ins Deutsche Reich verschleppten Zwangsarbeiter in gezielte (ungerversuche einbezogen, um die im Grundsatz bekannten (ungerfolgen in Maß und Zahl belegen zu können. Dazu verabreichte Kraut einer Gruppe von Zwangsarbeitern Ernährungszulagen und registrierte die Entwicklung ihrer Leistung, die sich proportional zur Ernährung verhielt. Das Argument, eine kleinere Menge von Zwangsarbeitern besser zu ernähren und dabei einen relativ höheren Arbeitsertrag zu erzielen, war zugkräftig genug, um das Ernährungsministerium zu einem Großversuch mit kasernierten Zwangsarbeitern auf Zechen des Ruhrgebietes zu veranlassen. Sie Siehe dazu i s eso de e A d eas Di te , Be li i T ü e . E äh u gslage u d edizi is he Ve so gu g de Be ölke u g Be li s a h de II. Weltk ieg, Be li . Hei i h K aut/He e t B a sel, Kö pe ge i htse t i klu g deuts he A eite o is , i : A eitsph siologie , S. , de Ve eis auf die Situatio fi det si h S. . Diet i h Ei hholtz, Die »K autaktio «. Ruh i dust ie, E äh u gs isse s haft u d ) a gsa eit , i : Ul i h He e t Hg. , Eu opa u d de »Rei hsei satz«. Auslä dis he )i ila eite , K iegsgefa ge e u d K)-Häftli ge i Deuts hla d , Esse , , hie S. . Ul ike Tho s wurden kontrolliert mit verschiedenen Kostformen ernährt, ihre Leistung wurde exakt registriert und mit den zugeführten Nährwerten korreliert. Wie jüngst noch Lutz Budraß herausgearbeitet hat, wies Kraut damit nach, dass das Maß an leistbarer Arbeit physiologisch von dem Ausmaß zugeführter Kalorien, einem Mindestmaß an hochwertigem Eiweiß und eben nicht vom Willen abhängig war. Die zuvor zur Anstachelung des Leistungswillen eingesetzte (ungerpeitsche war demnach wirkungslos, sie war sogar kontraproduktiv, da die Disziplinierten kurzfristig die Energie für die Leistung aus ihrer Körpersubstanz zogen, langfristig weniger leistungsfähig wurden und dem (ungertod nur um so schneller näher kamen. Dies war auch von den )nsassen von Konzentrationslagern und Ghettos berichtet worden, wo Ärzte zahlreiche Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen an (ungernden angestellt hatten. Tatsächlich führte Ernährungsminister Backe im Frühjahr für etwa einen Monat eine Ernährungszulage für ausländische Zwangsarbeiter ein, die nicht mit den Ergebnissen von Krauts Versuchen begründet wurde, aber doch auf die angestrebte Leistungssteigerung zielte. Das mit den Versuchen produzierte Wissen über den Zusammenhang von Ernährung und Leistung war nicht nur für die Nazis wichtig, sondern universalisierbar. Entsprechend vermittelte ein alliierter Offizier unmittelbar nach dem Krieg die Publikation der an Zwangsarbeitern erzielten Ergebnisse in der renommierten Zeitschrift »Science«. Etwaigen Protesten war dadurch vorgebeugt, dass die (erkunft der Daten und Versuchsergebnisse aus dem Artikel nicht klar hervorging. )nzwischen waren in den USA eigene Studien durchgeführt worden, allerdings an einem deutlich kleineren Kollektiv von Freiwilligen. Zu erwähnen ist hier vor allem die »Minnesota Starvation Study« unter der Leitung von Ancel Keys . Keys hatte sich ursprünglich mit der idealen E d., zu K auts Pe so Ul ike Tho s, Ei u h, Auf u h, Du h u h? u d dies., Das MPI fü E äh u gsph siologie u d die Na hk iegska ie e o Hei i h K aut, i : Theo Plesse /Ha s-Ul i h Tha e Hg. , A eit, Leistu g u d E äh u g. Vo Kaise -Wilhel -I stitut fü A eitsph siologie i Be li zu Ma -Pla k-I stitut fü olekula e Ph siologie u d Lei iz I stitut fü A eitsfo s hu g i Do t u d, Stuttga t , S. . Lutz Bud aß, Das Kaise -Wilhel -I stitut fü A eitsph siologie u d die E äh u gsi ts haft, i : Plesse /Tha e Hg. , A eit, Leistu g u d E äh u g, S. . Ei hholtz, K autaktio , S. . M o Wi i k, Hu ge Disease. Studies the Je ish Ph si ia s i the Wa sa Ghetto, Ne Yo k ; Alf ed Wolff-Eiss e , Ü e Ma gele k a ku ge auf G u d o Beo a htu ge i Ko ze t atio slage The esie stadt, Wü z u g . E d., S. . Hei i h K aut/E. A. Mülle , Calo ie i take a d i dust ial output, i : S ie e , S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g Zusammensetzung der Soldatenkost bzw. einer idealen eisernen Ration K-Ration befasst. Da für diese Forschungsresultate mit dem bereits absehbaren Kriegsende keine Verwendung mehr bestand, die Gefahr weltweiter Unterernährung gegen Kriegsende aber absehbar war, setzte er ein breit angelegtes, einjähriges Unterernährungs-Experiment an Kriegsdienstverweigerern durch, die zu dieser Zeit in den USA noch interniert wurden. Die Kriegsdienstverweigerer wurden sukzessive in einen chronischen (ungerzustand versetzt und dort für mehrere Monate gehalten. Dabei wurden alle nur denkbaren Parameter erhoben und untersucht, ferner erprobte man, wie man (ungernde am besten wieder »auffüttern« könne. Die Ergebnisse dieser minutiösen Erhebungen wurden in zwei voluminösen Bänden publiziert. Sie behandeln jeden nur denkbaren Aspekt des (ungers, nicht nur die sonst dominante Physiologie des (ungers, sondern auf immerhin rund Seiten auch psychologische Aspekte. Der Schluss lautete: »Starvation affects the whole organism….« Mit dem ganzen Arsenal der exakt messenden Physiologie wiesen Keys und seine Kollegen die universell nachweisbaren körperlichen Auswirkungen von (unger kleinteilig nach: Das Auftreten von Wassereinlagerungen Ödemen im Organismus, der von seinen eigenen Eiweißreserven zehrt, die Verlangsamung des (erzschlages Bradykardie mit der der Körper auf Sparflamme schaltet, die Kalkverarmung der Knochen Osteoporose durch Vitamin-D- und Fettmangel, die zu vermehrten Knochenbrüchen und die Veränderungen des Fettstoffwechsels, die zu augenscheinlicher Fettsucht Lipophilie mit Verfettung der Leber sowie zu Leberzirrhose führen können, das Schuppigwerden der (aut, Störungen des (ormonhaushaltes und dadurch hervorgerufene Vermehrung oder Verminderung sekundärerer Geschlechtsmerkmale, Amenorrhoe und )mpotenz, aber eben auch Gereiztheit, die sich bis zur Aggressivität steigern konnte, und psychische Störungen, die langfristig in Apathie und Sinnesstörungen übergingen. Wie tiefgreifend die Erfahrung des (ungers sein konnte, wie lang anhaltend sie die physische und psychische Situation der Gefangenen, ja ihr ganzes Leben weit über ihre Entlassung hinaus prägte, wie weit sie auch gesellschaftliche Wahrnehmungen und Muster bestimmte, hat schon das Beispiel am Eingang dieses Aufsatzes gezeigt. Jedenfalls ist es )u diese E pe i e te gl.: Todd Tu ke , The G eat Sta atio E pe i e t. The He oi Me Who Sta ed so That Millio s Could Li e, Ne Yo k ; Leah M. Kal /Ri ha d D. Se a, The Sta ed so that othe s e ette Fed: Re e e i g A el Ke s a d the Mi esota E pe i e t, i : Jou al of Nut itio , S. . A el Ke s u.a., The Biolog of Hu a Sta atio , Bd. , Mi esota , S. . Ul ike Tho s bemerkenswert, welch zentrale Rolle die (ungererfahrung in den Kriegserinnerungen von Soldaten und auch in der Aufarbeitung der Geschichte der Kriegsgefangenen einnahm. (ier wird deutlich, dass die Wissenschaft von der Ernährung und die persönlichen Erfahrungen auf unterschiedliche Koordinatensysteme rekurrierten. . Hu ger als Bedrohu g der Persö li hkeit Auffallend ist, dass viele Ärzte, die in Kriegsgefangenschaft geraten waren, sich nach ihrer Entlassung genötigt sahen, ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen zu veröffentlichen und zwar ausdrücklich auch in dem Bestreben, die Berichte der Kriegsheimkehrer zu beglaubigen. )nsbesondere die Schilderungen der Auswirkungen des permanenten (ungers auf die Soziabilität der Gefangenen nahmen breiten Raum ein: Zänkereien und Eifersüchteleien wegen kleinster Vorteile bei der Nahrungsverteilung waren an der Tagesordnung, Gefangene bestahlen ihre Kameraden, sie aßen alles nur Erreichbare. Kurz: Sie hatten die Kontrolle über ihren Körper und seine Bedürfnisse verloren und damit sicher geglaubte zivilisatorische Errungenschaften und emotionale, soziale und intellektuelle Fähigkeiten. Die scheinbare geistige Vernunftlosigkeit konnte weit reichen, sie konnte zu (alluzinationen, zu Depression, Antriebs- und )nteresselosigkeit führen, die eine vita activa unmöglich machten und schließlich in die stille Selbstaufgabe im Tod münden konnten. Allerdings gab es auch Gefangene, die ausgefeilte Essrituale entwickelten, um sich dieser Entwicklung entgegenzustemmen und ihre persönliche )ntegrität zu bewahren, indem sie etwa das Brot zu kleinen (äppchen zerschnitten und auf dem zerlumpten Taschentuch als Surrogat einer Tischdecke servierten. Diese Erfahrungen könnten miterklären, warum der eingangs dieses Artikels zitierte Arzt Kurt Gauger so leidenschaftlich für seine Patienten eintrat und in seinen Gutachten immer wieder ausführlich begründete, Vgl. Hed ig Fleis hha ke , Die deuts he K iegsgefa ge e i de So jetu io . De Fakto Hu ge , Bielefeld . Vgl. u Gauge , Die D st ophie; Jü ge P. Reute , Die Pe sö li hkeits e ä de u g i Si e de Defo ie u g a h s h e e Hu ge d st ophie, Es h eile ; F itz S hilli g, Sel st eo a htu ge i Hu ge zusta de, Stuttga t ; Ul i h G ies, A au de Pe sö li hkeit. )u P o le de Pe sö li hkeits e ä de u ge ei D st ophie i so jetis he K iegsgefa ge s haft, Mü he /Basel . Al e ht Leh a , Hu ge kultu . )u E fah u g des Nah u gs a gels i de totale I stitutio so jetis he K iegsgefa ge e lage des ) eite Weltk iegs, i : U e Spieke a /Gesa S hö e ge Hg. , E äh u g i G e zsituatio e , Be li u.a. , S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g warum die (ungerdystrophie ein psychisches Leiden sei, das einer langfristigen psychosomatischen Behandlung bedürfe. Denn den in der (eimat Verbliebenen waren diese Erfahrungen kaum zu vermitteln, nicht zuletzt weil die Propaganda die vorzügliche Ernährung der Soldaten immer wieder betont hatte und weil diese Erfahrung sich nicht in das dominant naturwissenschaftliche Modell der Ernährung fügte, wie es auch führende Gutachter in den zahlreichen Prozessen von Kriegsheimkehrern vertraten. )mmer wieder musste im konkreten Fall entschieden werden, ob ein entlassener Kriegsgefangener Rentenansprüche wegen Dystrophiefolgen hatte. )n den entscheidenden Gremien saßen nun aber mit Ernst Günther Schenck, (einrich Bansi und (einrich Berning eben jene Mediziner, die mit ihrem fraglosen Funktionieren geholfen hatten, die Ernährungsdiktatur zu errichten und funktionsfähig zu erhalten. )hr Blick auf die Beurteilungen war dabei mitleidlos und naturwissenschaftlich gewesen. Nun waren sie bereit, mit dem gleichen Blick im )nteresse der Rentenversicherung zu agieren. Folglich waren sie sehr kritisch, wenn es um die Anerkennung von (ungerfolgen ging. Einige von ihnen, wie der eingangs zitierte Gauger oder eben Ernst Günther Schenck instrumentalisierten ihre eigenen (ungererfahrungen, um sich als Opfer zu stilisieren. Sie nutzten ihre Erfahrungen zugleich als Beleg besonderer Glaubwürdigkeit und bauten darauf eine neue Existenz als Gutachter auf. Und nebenbei rehabilitierten sie sich auf diese Weise politisch. Tatsächlich sind die zahlreichen Berichte über die Behandlung von Dystrophikern durchsetzt mit den eigenen Erfahrungen dieser Ärzte. (äufig nahmen sie auf diese nur mit knappsten, sachlichen BemerkunVgl. die Ausfüh u ge i : Ul ike Tho s, Die »Hu ge -Ge e atio « als E äh u gsisse s haftle . Soziokultu elle Ge ei sa keite ode I st u e talisieu g o E fah u g?, i : Matthias Middell/F a k Uekötte /Ul ike Tho s Hg. , Wie ko st uie t die Wisse s haftsges hi hte ih e O jekte?, Leipzig , S. . Bei eide ha delt es si h u Militä ä zte, die äh e d des K ieges i Laza ette a eitete u d E pe i e te a K iegsgefa ge e du hfüh te , die sie späte zu Mo og aphie e di htete , gl. Hei i h Be i g, Die D st ophie, Stuttga t ; Ha s W. Ba si, Das Hu ge öde , Stuttga t . )u Ko te t: Tho s, »Hu ge Ge e atio «. S he k a hte es is zu Vo sitze de des Hei keh e u des, gl. Ch istoph Kopke, De »E äh u gsi spekteu de Waffe -SS«. )u Rolle des Medizi e s E stGü the S he k i Natio alsozialis us, i : de s. Hg. , Medizi u d Ve e he . Fests h ift zu . Ge u tstag o Walte Wuttke, Ul , S. – ; de s., Die »politis h de ke de Gesu dheitsfüh u g.« E st Gü the S he k – u d de Natio alsozialis us, Diss. FU Be li ; Gi e Els e , Heilk äute , »Volkse ähu g«, Me s he e su he: E st Gü the S he k . Ei e deuts he A ztka ie e, Ha u g . )u Gauge s Ka ie e i Natio alsozialis us gl. Geoff e Co ks, Ps hothe ap i the Thi d Rei h. The Gö i g I stitute, ., e . u d ü e a . Aufl., Ne B u s i k/Ne Yo k , S. f. Ul ike Tho s gen in einem Nebensatz Bezug, während andere die beschriebene Rück-Entwicklung zivilisierter Menschen zum hungernden, vegetierenden Tier in extenso beschrieben. Sie gaben damit jenen entlassenen Kriegsgefangenen eine Stimme, die nicht in der Lage waren, über ihre traumatischen Erfahrungen zu berichten, zugleich beglaubigten sie die Schilderungen jener, denen eine jahrelang anders lautender Propaganda ausgesetzte Bevölkerung nicht glaubte. Dennoch konnten auch sie ihren eigenen Prägungen nicht entkommen. So finden sich auch in ihren Texten abfällige Bemerkungen über das scheinbar lächerliche Verhalten »ehemals ernst zunehmender Männer«, über den Anteil der »leicht debilen und im Kampf um das Leben nicht vollwertige[n] Menschen« unter den Dystrophikern. Dies waren Abgrenzungsversuche gegenüber dem (unger der Anderen und seinen Folgeerscheinungen, die aus einem tiefen Unbehagen angesichts des Verlustes an Disziplin und zunehmender Verrohung entsprang, welche ihre bürgerliche Welt aus den Fugen gehoben hatte. Selbst bei diesen mit wissenschaftlichem Wissen wie persönlicher Erfahrung ausgestatteten Experten saß die Angst vor dem Verlust zivilisierter Verhaltensmaßstäbe und ihrer moralischen )ntegrität tief und mündete in einen Abwehrreflex, mit dem sie die Effekte des natürlichen Triebes als moralische Schwäche und als vorübergehendes Extrem, das man sich tendenziell mit der Ausgrenzung der Kriegsgefangenen und der Abspaltung der (ungererfahrung auf Abstand zu halten suchten. . Der Hu ger der A dere . )usa e fassu g u d Aus li k Der vorangegangene Beitrag hat die Entwicklung des (ungerbegriffes in Deutschland in einer Langzeitperspektive vom . Jahrhundert bis in die Zeit nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg verfolgt. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass (unger zunächst vorrangig als natürlicher, animalischer Trieb verstanden wurde. Seine positive Seite wurde vor allem darin gesehen, Menschen zu Anstrengungen zum Nahrungserwerb zu zwingen. Er konnte sich aber auch zu einer kaum kalkulierbaren Bedrohung der gesellschaftlichen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Ordnung entwickeln, wenn (ungernde sich zusammenschlossen, Protest oder gar Aufstände anstifteten. Damit stand nicht so sehr der Einzelne, als vielmehr das Dies gilt au h fü Gauge , de e s hließt si h de Lese u D st ophie, S. . Gauge , zitie t a h G ies, A E d., S. . Gauge , zitie t a h G ies, A sei e Gefa ge ah e i ht e plizit the atisie te, sie aus e ei zelte Be e ku ge , gl. et a Gauge , Die au de Pe sö li hkeit, S. . au de Pe sö li hkeit, S. . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g Kollektiv der (ungernden im Vordergrund der öffentlichen bzw. wissenschaftlichen Debatten und es wurden vielfache Anstrengungen unternommen, um (ungersnöte zu vermeiden. Die im . Jahrhundert entstehende Ernährungsphysiologie versprach schließlich, mit (ilfe der Wissenschaft Wege zum Sieg über den (unger aufzuzeigen. Dieser Weg führte über prinzipiell gleiche Körper-Maschinen, das Ziel war die Steigerung der Leistungsfähigkeit des Einzelnen und die Bildung eines leistungsfähigen Volkskörpers. Diese physiologisch fundierte Gleichheit wurde jedoch spätestens im Nationalsozialismus aufgegeben, insofern der Volkskörper nach rassistischen und religiösen Kriterien differenziert und die Unterschiede ernährungswissenschaftlich erforscht wurden. Die Nahrungszuteilung folgte dieser Linie: Mehr denn je war (unger ein biopolitisches )nstrument ersten Ranges. Zugleich wurden (unger und (ungern wegen ihrer politischen Sprengkraft tabuisiert: Weder im Ersten noch im Zweiten Weltkrieg durfte über den (unger der Zivilbevölkerung öffentlich gesprochen werden, weil er das Versagen des Staates dokumentierte. Der (ungerstreik wurde zugleich zum Machtmittel politisch Machtloser oder Ausgegrenzter, da er Märtyrer schuf und das Versagen des zur Fürsorge verpflichteten Staates dokumentierte. Allerdings offenbaren die Schilderungen (ungernder auch, dass Essen mehr war und ist als die Aufnahme von Nährstoffen. Selbst unter widrigsten Lebensbedingungen wird es als Ausdruck von Kultur verstanden, halten Menschen zur Aufrechterhaltung ihrer persönlichen )ntegrität an bestimmten Tabus und Ritualen fest bzw. empfinden das Verlassen von Gewohntem oder die Verletzung von Tabus als Einbruch in die sittliche Ordnung. Es bleibt die Frage, was all dies in der Welt von heute zu bedeuten hat. Tatsächlich ist auffallend, dass sich auch heute in Publikationen distanzierende Redeweisen finden: Es wird zwar wieder vermehrt über (unger debattiert, doch wird dieser als »(unger der Welt« bezeichnet. Diese Tendenz ist nicht neu: Sie zeigt sich etwa in der Praxis, den (unger der Anderen auch mit anderen Wörtern zu bezeichnen als den eigenen (unger. Bemerkenswert ist hier, dass die »Ödemkrankheit« bzw. die »(ungerdystrophie« als Krankheit der Kriegsheimkehrer, also der aktiven und leistungsfähigen Bevölkerung angesehen und diskutiert, der (unger der Alten und Kranken dagegen lange überhaupt nicht thematisiert wurde. Für die Mangelernährung der Kinder in Afrika bürgerte sich in der Medizin in den er und er Jahren der Begriff »Kwas- So de Titel ei es populä e Bu hes: Pete Co elius Ma e -Tas h Hg. , De Hu ge de Welt. Ei fatales Politiku , F a kfu t a.M. ; äh li h au h: Lio a Wei gä te /Claudia T e t a Hg. , Ha d u h Welte äh u g, F a kfu t a.M. . Dagege Faulsti h, Hu ge ste e . Ul ike Tho s hiorkor« ein, ein ursprünglich afrikanischer Begriff. Das ist insofern bemerkenswert, als Mediziner sonst eine exakte naturwissenschaftliche Terminologie bevorzugen, die Rückschlüsse auf Sitz und Entstehung der betreffenden Krankheit zulässt. Dass auch die Öffentlichkeit hier folgte, lässt sich nur so deuten, dass die Krankheit auch in der jüngsten Vergangenheit und unter den Verhältnissen einer Demokratie als eine auch physiologisch andere angesehen wurde, obwohl die zugrunde liegenden physiologischen Phänomene im Wesentlichen die gleichen sind wie bei der (ungerdystrophie, mit der die deutsche Gesellschaft in den Kriegen der ersten Jahrhunderthälfte so prägende Erfahrungen gemacht hatte. Dennoch tauchte diese Krankheit in den Medienberichten immer nur als Krankheit der afrikanischen Kinder auf. Erst in der jüngeren Vergangenheit hat sich für dieses Syndrom die sachorientierte Bezeichnung »Protein-Energy-Malnutrition« eingebürgert und die Erkenntnis durchgesetzt, dass es eine Reihe von Symptomen einschließt und verschiedene Formen annehmen kann. Ähnlich wie in der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit hält man sich die humanitäre Relevanz des (ungers auch heute mit abstrakten naturwissenschaftlich-physiologischen Daten und )ndices vom Leibe und auf Abstand, Emotionen werden weitgehend ausgegrenzt. Dies geht so weit, dass (ilfsorganisationen unter dem Druck der öffentlichen Meinung heute auf ihren Plakaten, die für Spenden für die Dritte Welt werben, keine (ungernden mehr zeigen, weil dies als entwürdigend gilt. Damit sind wir letztlich wiederum bei den Ängsten, die (unger offenkundig bis heute auslöst: Das (ervortreten von Aspekten des Physisch-Triebhaften, der Verlust zivilisierter und kultureller Werte, die Kapitulation vor den Bedingungen und die damit zusammenhängende Erfahrung der Machtlosigkeit. Auch heute gibt es klare Trends, diese Aspekte zu verdecken. Die Distanzierung von den Betroffenen zeigt sich auf der (andlungsebene in einer klaren Bevorzugung technokratischer Ansätze zur Bewältigung des (ungers, die es so aussehen lassen, als ob das Problem (unger allein mit technischen, wissenschaftlichen und politischen Mitteln lösbar sei. Und selbst da, wo es um moral-ethisch begründete Rechte auf ausreichende Ernährung geht, werden Lösungen diskutiert, bei denen Vgl. J. D. L. Ha se , P otei -E e g Mal ut itio , i : Ke eth F. Kiple/K ie hild Co ee O leas Hg. , The Ca idge Wo ld Histo of Food, Bd. , Ca idge , S. . Vgl. Ali e Autu Wei e , E od i g Ge a Suffe i g: Rethi ki g Popula Hu ge du i g the Hu ge Yea s , i : Bod Politi s , Heft , S. . Tho as Klatt, Spe de e u g ist ei e F age de Me s he ü de, o li e u te : http:// .e a gelis h.de/the e /gesells haft/spe de e u g-ist-ei e-f agede - e s he %C %BC de letzte A f age a . . . Hu ge z is he Politik, Ph siologie u d E fah u g sich die (ungernden selbst als aufgeklärte citizens beteiligen sollen. Wie dies angesichts der intellektuellen Beeinträchtigungen infolge von (unger und Mangelernährung, die im Rahmen dieses Beitrags angesprochen wurden, geschehen soll und geschehen kann, bleibt dabei offen. Dieser Weg wird nun schon seit vielen Jahrzehnten beschritten, dennoch stirbt auch heute noch jedes vierte Kind an (unger, viele bleiben in ihrem körperlichen Wachstum wie ihrer geistigen Entwicklung zurück und es gibt deutlich Anzeichen dafür, dass Not und (unger wieder zunehmen. Vielleicht wäre es hilfreicher, sich den Prägungen unserer Mentalität durch die (ungererfahrungen unserer eigenen Kultur und unserer jüngsten Geschichte zu stellen, um das Eigene im Fremden besser zu erkennen. Anstatt den (ungernden als Verdauungsmaschine, als einen irgendwie verkommenen Anderen, Fremden wahrzunehmen, der die eigene Welt tendenziell durch die Neigung zu Aufruhr gefährdet, könnte er auf diese Weise als ganzheitliches Wesen mit physiologischen UND emotionalen Bedürfnissen wahrnehmbar werden, nicht nur als anonymer Konsument von Kalorien. Vielleicht würde das die Einsicht stärken, dass auch in westlichen Gesellschaften vielfach gehungert wird, sei es freiwillig, um so ästhetischen Ansprüchen zu genügen, weil Familien Geld oder Fähigkeiten fehlen, um ihre Kinder ausreichend zu versorgen oder weil unsere Gesellschaft nicht bereit ist, ausreichend Zeit und Geld aufzubringen, um Alte und pflegebedürftige Menschen ausreichend zu ernähren. Allerdings ist die Beschäftigung mit dem (unger und die Frage nach nachteiligen Begleiterscheinungen angesichts der Dominanz des Übergewichtsdiskurses gegenwärtig kaum opportun, obwohl sich der hier ebenfalls vorherrschende, einseitig rationale physiologisch-naturwissenschaftliche Zugang inzwischen als weitgehend erfolglos für die Lösung des Übergewichtsproblems erwiesen hat. Ulrike Tho s, Ko takt: utho s[at] pi g- erli . pg.de, hat si h seit iele Jahre it körper- u d er ähru gshistoris he Frage u d The e ausei a dergesetzt, i s eso dere it der E tstehu g er ähru gs isse s haftli her Nor e u d ihre iopolitis he Ge rau h. Na h ihrer Dissertatio i der Wirts hafts- u d Sozialges hi hte ar sie seit or alle i der Medizi ges hi hte tätig. Seit Septe er 4 ist sie a MPI für Wisse s haftsges hi hte Berli i Fors hu gsprogra zur Ges hi hte der MPG 4 es häftigt. So letztli h au h de seh lese s e te u d diffe e zie te A tikel o a , Copi g ith Sho tage: The P o le of Food Se u it a d Glo Coo di atio , . , i : de s./Fle i g Just Hg. , Food a Eu ope i the Age of the T o Wo ld Wa s, Hou ds ills/Ne Yo k F a k T e tal Visio s of d Co fli t i , S. - .

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