The Edible Woman (2)

1
The Edible Woman (2)

• Femininity/Maculinity, Consumption and Female
  Bodily Responses

2
Plot Review

• Book I Marian in identity crisisshe first runs
  away, and then tries to organize her life by
  agreeing to marry Peter, clean up her room, and
  work on the questionnaires.
• Book II
• 13Marian at workshows fatigue a woman who
  refuses bathing herself and an underwear man
  discussed.
• 14 Ainsley carries out her plan meeting Duncan
  at the theatre again.

3
Outline

• Female Bodily Disorders and Social Constructions
  of Femininity
• The Edible Woman
• Examples of Femininity
• Examples of Masculinity
• Views of Consumption
• Marians Food Rejection
• Marian and Duncan

4
History of female psychosomatic disorders

• Symptoms of disorder.
• 19th Century Neurasthenia (????) and hysteria
  (?????
• 20th Century Agoraphobic (??????, anorexia
  nervosa (????, bulimia (????

5
Female Disorders as Bodily Reactions

• Symptoms of disorders can be taken as reactions
  against the existing gender roles as Protest and
  Retreat in the Same Gesture
• Examples
• 19th. Century Women are sexually repressed ?
  hysteria
• After WWII, women are expected to feed, to serve
  at home ? agoraphobia
• Since 60s, women are expected to nurture and/or
  to be slim ? they starve themselves and reduce
  the space they/their bodies take up.

6
Femininity examples

• Femininity the uniform social definitions of
  woman (womans nature, behavior and
  responsibilities) which disregard womens
  desires and differences among the individuals.
• e.g.
• 19th Century the definition of lady and the
  traits of a lady
• Delicacy, dreaminess, sexually passive,
  charmingly labile and capriciously emotional

7
19th C. examples

• Beata Beatrix 1864-70  D. G. Rossetti

8
Femininity (2) post WWII

• Women as Housewives emotional and physical
  nurturer
• The rules for this construction of femininity
  require that women learn to feed others, not
  the self(Bardo 2367).
• Self-feeding is taken as greedy and excessive for
  women who are expected to develop an
  other-oriented emotional economy.
• Women as Object of Gaze ? standardized beauty

9
Disordered body

• 1950s1960s agoraphobia
• emerged at a period of reaffirmation of
  domesticity and dependency as the feminine ideal
• career women a dirty word
• movie and screen images as examples
• Agorophobia -- usually happens shortly after
  marriage
• a way to weld dependency and attachment

10
Disordered body

• The emaciated body of the anorectic
• Possible reasons
• -- pursuit to an extreme of the contemporary
  ideal of hyper-slenderness for women
• -- refuse eating to rebel and assert ones
  self-control (and control of ones body)

11

• What are the examples of femininity (typical
  roles of women) in the novel?
• How are the four menPeter, Joe, Len and
  Duncan--presented?
• Why does Marian refuse different kinds of foods?
  
• What kind of attraction exists between Duncan and
  Marian?

12
Examples of Femininity

• Clara a parody of housewives?
• e.g. Her passivity, and her pregnant body her
  attitudes towards marriage 13 122 140-42 Joes
  views Chap 27 p. 259
• Chap 13
• survey of sanitation pad p. 116
• -- p. 118 Lucy
• -- female baby p. 142
• -- Christmas party p. 180

13
The Four Men

• Underwear Man pp. 123-25
• Peter p. 158
• Len p. 169
• Duncan chaps 16 21
• his views of mirror p. 151
• his views of consumption
• ironing
• chap 21 Likes mummy, (203)
• latent sexuality (206)

14
Consumption

• Marian at the supermarket chap 20

15
Marians Food Rejection

• Chap 17 ? Peter pp. 162-65
• her self-image 158 ownership and feeling
  watched ? rejects beef or any meat whose skeleton
  can be visualized
• Len ? rejects egg p. 173
• Chap 20 supermarket ? Different kinds of ground
  meat for fear of unknown ingredients
• Carrots p. 194

16
Marian and Duncan

• Does not want to touch him ? being embraced by
  him pp. 155 56
• They use each other p. 156 200
• Marians self-justification 201
• Marians matron instinct 207