ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two areas that have particular prominence in our culture and have, correspondingly, attracted a high degree of feminist attention and debate: eating disorders and cosmetic surgery. The feminist appropriation of some Foucauldian theories and the importance of cultural difference. Much feminist work on the disciplining of bodies draws on the theories of Michel Foucault, and particularly on his text Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Terms such as ‘discipline’, ‘docile bodies’, ‘surveillance’ and ‘genealogy’, signal an affiliation with Foucauldian theory. The increase in both ‘eating disorders’ and cosmetic surgery among women in western societies suggests, for most feminist commentators, the continuing constraints of the heterosexual economy. Feminist interest in the phenomenon of ‘eating disorders’ continues the feminist project of challenging the practices and the discourses of medical and related clinical sciences as they categorise and objectify women’s bodies.
