Ronald McDonald is More President than Bush
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social sciences
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published 19/10/2007
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SummaryThroughout history, the global aristocracy has faced only one task more daunting than that of achieving prosperity: the eternal struggle to stand undoubtedly separate from the impoverished, and consequently, to subordinate them. And they have made this separation very clear with the use and abuse of outward signs of wealth. Yet one of the most popular symbols of status centuries ago has slowly slipped into the realm of unspeakable humiliation. Obesity had been the ultimate expression of riches; the poor were lucky to get their hands on bread and water let alone the extravagance that blessed the tables of the nobility each night. Why now is near-anorexia the utmost manifestation of glamour? When did the likes of Lillian Russell, who was “known and admired for her hearty appetite, ample body . . . and challenging, fleshly arresting beauty,” become merely fat in the eyes of Western culture? (Bordo 141). Maybe one person changed the world, or maybe Hollywood is to blame, but it is clear that people are fearful of obesity to the point of altering how they convey their authority and fame, yet they never base their fear on the health risks associated with being overweight. In “Panopticism,” Michele Foucault explores the history of discipline and the strength derived from control of the masses, and as the guiding force behind hunger and weight, food has become an example of this institution of power that both controls and dehumanizes society.
Table of Contents
- But to investigate this traditional power struggle is to investigate food as discipline, because the impressionability of the human psyche allows for a single meal to become as dominating as any monarch the world has ever known.
- The plague gave the perfect excuse for rulers to punish entire populations in the name of advancement.
- The original Panopticon acquired its power from its physical form.
- No one can blame the ease in which society walks hand in hand with dieting
- The division between the public and private sphere factors twice into any decision to diet in very contradictory means
- Food fails at obtaining the goals of a true Panopticon, yet the idea is not forgotten, the process is not interrupted. Food has become more than a power governing society
- The Western world dismantled an entire history of monarchies, yet still remains slave to what it eats.
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