ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a reading of the embodied and embodying practices of the self of a group of Japanese men who have been called chubby and whose abdominal girth have made them fall into the category of a discredited somatic subjectivity. It aims to help to challenge the understanding that eating practices and biopedagogy in general cannot be fathomed without considering the emotional self of the individual involved. Allison Alexy has noted that at Japanese primary school lunch and meals have been customary fathomed as institutional practices oriented by a biopedagogy that underscores nutritional values. The embodied and embodying practices of the men interviewed unveiled also that socio-biopedagogy based on pure rational thinking was mostly problematic. Given the growing population of single men who live alone further research has to be directed to the connection between socio-biopedagogy and the somatic self in terms of cooking and fitness practices, and the feminisation of care.
