Copyright Statement: This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. 1 2 Title: ‘[email protected]’: AN AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF RELATIONSHIPS WITH FOOD By JULIE PARSONS A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Government Faculty of Business December 2013 3 Figure. 1.1. ‘[email protected]’: an Auto/Biographical Study of Relationships with Food – word cloud1 1  Word clouds were created using www.wordle.com, a free on-line software system that enables users to submit written text that is then converted into a cloud of words, which ‘give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text’.   4 Julie Parsons ‘[email protected]’: An Auto/Biographical Study of Relationships with Food. Abstract Popular discourses and current government policy focus on the need for individuals and families to make healthy food choices, without acknowledging the social and cultural milieu in which these are embedded. A neo-liberal focus on responsible individualism is part of a middle class habitus that ensures foodwork and foodplay are located within distinct heteronormative cultural fields. In my thesis I explore narratives from seventy-five mainly middle class respondents who engaged in a series of asynchronous online interviews over nine months beginning in November 2010. The themes that emerged aligned with public policy debates on the family, healthy eating, eating disorders, ‘fat’ bodies and elite foodways. Hence, feeding the family ‘healthy’ meals ‘prepared from scratch’ was considered a means of acquiring social, symbolic and cultural capital. ‘Fat’ talk and ‘lipoliteracy’ or learning to read the body were ways of performing femininity, whilst elite foodways were utilised as forms of hegemonic masculinities. Hence, in a challenge to the individualisation thesis my research demonstrates the complexity of food relationships beyond individual consumer choice. Throughout I adopt an auto/biographical approach that stresses the interconnectedness of biography and autobiography, focuses on researcher reflexivity and is sensitive to respondent subjectivities. Respondents used a 5 common vocabulary of individuality, whilst simultaneously embedding themselves in family and kinship relations. Indeed, family, gender, and class, were the means of anchorage in a sea of remembering that engendered a sense of ontological security. Foodways are, thus, part of a habitus that is gendered, classed, temporal and historical. Women in the study conformed to cultural scripts of heteronormative femininity, whilst men resorted to hegemonic masculinities to distance themselves from feminised foodways and care work. These identities were not part of a negotiated family model, but located in cultural fields that reinforced and naturalised gendered divisions, they were bound by gender and class. 6 Table of Contents: Copyright Statement: .......................................................................................... 1 Title: .................................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ............................................................................................................... 5 Table of Contents: ............................................................................................... 7 Index of Tables: ................................................................................................... 9 Index of Word Clouds: ......................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements: .......................................................................................... 10 Author’s Declaration: ......................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: Un apéritif, ‘food is love’ (Jake) ....................................................... 12 1:1. Chapter Outline ...................................................................................... 12 1:2. Beginnings – ‘a piece of cake’ ................................................................ 13 1:3. Beginnings – ‘let them eat cake’ ............................................................. 17 1:4. Beginnings – ‘our food stories’ ............................................................... 20 1:5. Beginnings – ‘my food stories’ ................................................................ 26 1:6. Outline of thesis ...................................................................................... 31 Chapter 2: A la carte - Time and a taste of reflection ........................................ 36 2:1. Chapter Outline ...................................................................................... 36 2:2. Introduction: Temporal fields of play ....................................................... 37 2:3. ‘Personal troubles’ - locating the field/self .............................................. 42 2:4. Public Issues – changing times .............................................................. 49 2:5. Feeding the family – cultural capital and maternal identities .................. 55 2:6. Feeding time – foodie and intensive mothering identities ....................... 60 2:7. Healthy food/healthy bodies – governance and control .......................... 65 2:8. Invisible bodies – fat talk and foodies ..................................................... 71 2:9. Summary ................................................................................................ 76 Chapter 3. La spécialité du chef - An Auto/Biographical Methodological Journey .......................................................................................................................... 79 3:1 Chapter Outline ....................................................................................... 79 3:2. Introduction - Auto/Biographical margins and reflexivity ......................... 80 3:3. Sampling, Social Networks and CMC ..................................................... 84 3:4. Respondent Demographics .................................................................... 90 3:5. Feminism, ethics and researcher-respondent relations .......................... 96 7 3:6. Reflexivity in Action – negotiating a researcher identity ....................... 102 3:7. Feminist analysis – an affective practice .............................................. 114 3:8. Summary .............................................................................................. 128 Chapter 4: Une entrée, ‘everything I cook, is cooked with love’ (Faye) .......... 129 4:1. Chapter Outline .................................................................................... 129 4:2. Introducing the family ........................................................................... 131 4:3. Family foodways, past and present ...................................................... 138 4:4. Feeding the family and maternal identities ........................................... 147 4:5. Convenience, care and intensive mothering ........................................ 155 4:6. Summary .............................................................................................. 162 Chapter 5: Le plat principal, ‘Food is no longer the innocent pleasure that it was’ (Kelly) .............................................................................................................. 164 5:1. Chapter Outline .................................................................................... 164 5:2. Introducing the healthy ......................................................................... 166 5:3. Moral discourses of health and responsible individualism .................... 171 5:4. Treats, treatments and ‘sweet love’ ...................................................... 177 5:5. Food as CAM ........................................................................................ 184 5:6. Summary .............................................................................................. 195 Chapter 6: Le dessert, ‘I try not to eat sweet things’ (Ophelia) ....................... 197 6:1. Chapter Outline .................................................................................... 197 6:2. Introducing the body ............................................................................. 198 6:3. My Body ................................................................................................ 202 6:4. Respondents’ Bodies ............................................................................ 205 6:5. Dis/Ordered eating/bodies .................................................................... 215 6:6. Academic Bodies and Representations ................................................ 224 6:7. Summary .............................................................................................. 227 Chapter 7: Un digestif, ‘generally speaking it was mostly a diet of beer’ (Sam) ........................................................................................................................ 229 7:1. Chapter Outline .................................................................................... 229 7:2. Introducing the foodie ........................................................................... 230 7:3. Gendering Tastes and Dis-tastes ......................................................... 234 7.4. Foodies in a shifting foodscape ............................................................ 238 7.5. Foodies and hegemonic masculinities .................................................. 245 7.6. Summary .............................................................................................. 260 Chapter 8 – Les petits fours, ‘a must, pinch of salt’ (Linda) ............................ 262 8:1. Chapter Outline .................................................................................... 262 8:2. Findings ................................................................................................ 263 8:3. A ‘taste of reflection’ and ethics ............................................................ 271 8:4. Summary .............................................................................................. 274 8:5. What next? ........................................................................................... 275 References: ..................................................................................................... 277 8 Appendices ..................................................................................................... 314 10:1. University Ethics Proposal .................................................................. 314 10:2. Conference Papers: ............................................................................ 319 10:3. Invitation to Participate and Consent Form ........................................ 321 10:4. Questions to Respondents ................................................................. 323 10:5. I-Poems .............................................................................................. 324 Index of Tables: Table. 1.1. Respondent Demographics Table. 2.1. Richard’s ‘checklist for today comparing with childhood’ Index of Word Clouds: Figure. 1.1. ‘[email protected]’ – Word Cloud. Figure. 1.2. Word Cloud for Chapter One Figure. 2.1. Word Cloud for Chapter Two Figure. 3.1. Word cloud for Chapter Three Figure. 3.2. My word cloud Figure. 3.3. Jade’s word cloud Figure. 3.4. Ophelia’s word cloud Figure. 3.5. Ellen’s word cloud Figure. 3.6. Drew’s word cloud Figure. 3.7. Gaby’s word cloud Figure. 3.8. Sam’s word cloud Figure. 3.9. Faye’s word cloud Figure. 3.10. Gerry’s word cloud Figure. 4.1. Word Cloud for Chapter Four Figure. 5.1. Word Cloud for Chapter Five Figure. 6.1. Word Cloud for Chapter Six Figure. 7.1. Word Cloud for Chapter Seven Figure. 8.1. Word Cloud for Chapter Eight 9 Acknowledgements: I would like to unreservedly thank my supervisory team for their unwavering support; Professor Alison Anderson, Professor Gayle Letherby and Dr. Kay Inckle. I would also like to whole-heartedly thank all of my research respondents for their valuable contributions to the project. Finally, I would also thank my family, Chris, Finlay and Lilly. 10