Tracy Isaacs | Western University Canada (original) (raw)

Papers by Tracy Isaacs

he Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics , 2017

In 1990 when I was a graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I saw a film called Eating, by... more In 1990 when I was a graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I saw a film called Eating, by filmmaker Henry Joglam about a woman's 40th birthday party. All the characters were women, all quite obviously upper middle class, and almost all were in a fraught relationship with food. The one European woman in attendance is presented as perplexed at the anxiety most of the women show about food. The film had a lasting impact on me because it captured exactly how lots of the women I knew (myself included) felt around food— nervous and excited at the same time— insecure and potentially out of control. You can see the trailer, which does an excellent job of capturing the sad sense of inner conflict most of the women at the party are experiencing, on YouTube. 1 The final scene of the trailer says it all: they are cutting the cake and passing the pieces around. The first piece goes from person to person to person, all the way around the group until it ends up back where it started. No one will take a slice of birthday cake. There are lots of things to say about the film but I start with it because, as the tagline of the film says, it is " a serious comedy about women and food. " If, as viewers, we laugh, it is mostly nervous or uncomfortable laughter. The women are in anguish for most of the film and yet this action all takes place at what should be a happy occasion. They are experiencing one kind of food insecurity brought on by pervasive North American cultural messages about dieting for weight loss. In this essay, I want to talk about this idea of " food insecurity " in the context of a pervasive trope in the twenty-first-century Western world— dieting as a way of life. This is not a new feminist issue. Some of the essay will involve a review of what, to some, will be familiar feminist and popular literature on this topic. The most familiar and obvious feminist claim about women and weight loss is that dieting and the pursuit of thinness are the result of oppressive forces operating in women's lives, the result of social pressure 1 " Eating Trailer, " https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=A9IaXVH8nn8.

Dialogue-canadian Philosophical Review, 1998

Philosophical Review, 2005

Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 2006

he Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics , 2017

In 1990 when I was a graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I saw a film called Eating, by... more In 1990 when I was a graduate student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I saw a film called Eating, by filmmaker Henry Joglam about a woman's 40th birthday party. All the characters were women, all quite obviously upper middle class, and almost all were in a fraught relationship with food. The one European woman in attendance is presented as perplexed at the anxiety most of the women show about food. The film had a lasting impact on me because it captured exactly how lots of the women I knew (myself included) felt around food— nervous and excited at the same time— insecure and potentially out of control. You can see the trailer, which does an excellent job of capturing the sad sense of inner conflict most of the women at the party are experiencing, on YouTube. 1 The final scene of the trailer says it all: they are cutting the cake and passing the pieces around. The first piece goes from person to person to person, all the way around the group until it ends up back where it started. No one will take a slice of birthday cake. There are lots of things to say about the film but I start with it because, as the tagline of the film says, it is " a serious comedy about women and food. " If, as viewers, we laugh, it is mostly nervous or uncomfortable laughter. The women are in anguish for most of the film and yet this action all takes place at what should be a happy occasion. They are experiencing one kind of food insecurity brought on by pervasive North American cultural messages about dieting for weight loss. In this essay, I want to talk about this idea of " food insecurity " in the context of a pervasive trope in the twenty-first-century Western world— dieting as a way of life. This is not a new feminist issue. Some of the essay will involve a review of what, to some, will be familiar feminist and popular literature on this topic. The most familiar and obvious feminist claim about women and weight loss is that dieting and the pursuit of thinness are the result of oppressive forces operating in women's lives, the result of social pressure 1 " Eating Trailer, " https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=A9IaXVH8nn8.

Dialogue-canadian Philosophical Review, 1998

Philosophical Review, 2005

Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 2006