The Politics of Consumption: Fischler’s Food Theory and Moral Agency in the Dystopia of The Platform

This study focuses on the symbolic and disciplinary role of food in The Platform (2019), examining how consumption becomes a mechanism for shaping, eroding, and potentially reclaiming subjectivity within systems of inequality. It is the theme of the paper that food, identity, and power are intertwined in a closed, hierarchical setting, where access to food is the key to not only survival but also moral behavior and self-perception. Using the Claude Fischler theory of food and identity, food is used as a means of degradation, violence, and inequality, and not as a means of cultural affirmation. In this sense, the paper explores how food has turned out to be a moral agent of dehumanization and how people internalize the roles assigned to them in systems of inequality through food. It also discusses how the act of refusing to consume, especially the uneaten panna cotta, acts as an act of ethical resistance. The study also traces the protagonist's descent from an idealistic observer to an embodied participant in a violent system, illustrating how food operates not only as a source of sustenance but also as a tool of control and a site of resistance. Methodologically, this study uses close textual reading of the major scenes in the movie, especially the dialogue, character development, and space. These are thematically interpreted to show that The Platform is not only a metaphor of social stratification but also a tool of moral and psychological transformation through food. Such findings open up to further interdisciplinary interaction with food as a medium where political, ethical, and social meanings are negotiated.