Eating and the Politics of Self-Care: Resisting the Tyranny of Slenderness, Fatphobia, and Diet Culture One Forkful at a Time

Abstract This paper explores the political significance of intuitive eating as a self-care practice in the context of healing from anorexia and bulimia. Feminist philosophers have described how eating disorders emerge in socio-cultural contexts marked by an idealization of thinness, especially in women. Besides this, philosophers and sociologists have spoken about the connections between fatphobia, diet culture, racism, and sexism. Given these claims, I will argue that healing from these disorders can be framed as acts of political resistance. First, I present the notion of self-care and touch on its evolution from an ethical to a political ideal. Second, I describe the socio-cultural origins of the thinness ideal and of fatphobia to show they fuel eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Third, I introduce Kate Manne’s conception of “bodily imperatives” and describe Audre Lorde’s framing of her struggles with cancer as acts of political resistance. This discussion supports the claim that the self-care practices anorectics and bulimics engage in to recover from disordered eating can be political in nature. Fourth, I entertain and respond to three objections to my view. I conclude that healing from disordered eating is not merely an individual act, but one full of political potential.