Category Archives: Final Ideas

Experimenting with Final Ideas

Posted on by

Carrying on from our previous experiment with food, we found ourselves very interested in the idea of the feeder fetish, and we wish to root our final performance around this concept. We all watched the documentary ‘Fat Girls and Feeders’ (2003), it explores the sub-culture of ‘feeders’ who get sexual gratification from feeding large women (the gainer), and encouraging them to gain weight to an extent where they become immobile and put their own lives at risk. It is thought that the stomach is seen as another ‘sexual organ’ and the bigger it got the sexier it appears. The feeders would document the obese women’s weight gain, and it was clear that the bigger they became, the more desperate they were for personal contact. The main aim for the feeder is to get them as big as possible, and for the gainer is to keep them happy.  For the couple “the experience of easting is intertwined with their experience of close human contact with the provider of the food-the bodily warmth, the touch of the other’s flesh, their smell, the sounds they make- and the emotions and sensations aroused by this experience”, while they found it sensual and sexual, their key focus was all about “enjoying filling the stomach” and watching it grow to an unsafe size (Lupton 1996, p. 7).

We found this feeder fetish lifestyle very strange, as none of us personally found it pleasurable. In the type of society we live in today it is all about being skinny and looking good and in doing so you need to keep count of the calories and eat the right food. We live in a society where “limiting one’s food intake is an effective way of both demonstrating self-discipline and of working towards the idealized slim, long-living, youthful body that is so valued in western societies” (Lupton 1996, p. 155). Whereas in this fetish lifestyle the feeder would feed the woman large quantities of calorific food, which would consequently make them gain a dangerous amount of weight over a long period of time, self-discipline and control for the consumer does not exist . I relate food with something that is meant to be seen as pleasurable, it is something social if you go out for a meal, something you enjoy, but where are the boundaries between pleasure and pain here? An average portion of food may be something enjoyable to consume, but what happens when that portion doubles or triples in size? It is no longer satisfying but instead becomes demanding on your body, pushing its limits. Because we as a group do not find this a sexual fetish, we were interested in how being fed would feel for us personally, and also what it would physiologically be like to be the feeder. We were interested by the fact that it was the feeder in the relationship that cooked and prepared all of the food, the control is in their hands, and the gainer would just eat it.

We had the opportunity to do our own individual experiments with the class so I took chance to not only experience being fed but also how someone would feel feeding me. I bought a packet of sweets, a packet of monster munch and a packet of chocolate fingers. Obviously I could not give the feeder complete control of what food they had as I had to buy it previously for the experiment, however I decided to blindfold myself so there would be some mystery out of the options I gave them. I did this experiment various times lasting only five minutes as it would be a one on one session with me and another member of the class. When entering the space I mentioned to each person that they could choose what items of food they wanted to feed me and that they had complete control over the quantity that was chosen. I left a feedback sheet in the room for each person to write down how they felt when feeding me; these are some of the responses:

“Felt like a mum feeding a kid – would be good to use different tastes, smells and temperatures”

“Nervous, a bit weird not going to lie. Could never do it as a sexual thing”

“Hungry and in control of everything, especially with the lack of sight”

photo

(Taken by Tiffany Thompson: 22. 11. 13)

I found that many people felt like they were a mother feeding a kid, as this is a relationship we have all experienced as a child. For me, personally, it was very strange being fed, especially the lack of control that I had.

For our final performance three of us will be the ‘feeders’ and the other three the ‘consumers’, they will be chosen at random by picking straws – something we have already done and can have documented in the video shown below. The feeders will be paired up with a consumer, and through a durational time of two hours, they will feed the consumer food. This food will be pre-bought and prepared before the performance; it will be presented luxuriously on a table in front of both feeder and consumer. It is important we show the “preparation, presentation, and consumption and its full range of sensory pleasures” so we will have a video projected in the background of the food being bought and prepared (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 2007, p. 85). The idea is to explore our own personal relationship with food and the fetish. What happens if we were put into the feeder/consumer relationship? Our performance aims to push the boundaries of our bodies, and expose to the audience the act of eating – which is usually something private. It will be unpredictable, exciting and at the same time terrifying. I have no doubt that our performance will be anything but easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdqz0-Dl2IA

(LaurenWithTheDramaTattoo, 2013)


Works cited

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (2007) ‘Making sense of food in performance: the table and the stage’ in Senses in Performance, ed. Sally Banes and Andre Lepecki, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 71-91

LaurenWithTheDramaTattoo (2013) Feeder Contemporary Experimental: Drawing Straws [Online Video] Available from http://youtu.be/mdqz0-Dl2IA [Accessed 9 December 2013].

Lupton,Deborah (1996) Food, the body and the self. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

 

Pulled! The Short Straw.

Posted on by

As of today, I am Lizzy’s Gainer, and she is my Feeder.

6 1
Photo Credit: Lizzy Hayes and Lauren Watson, 5.12.13

If I said I was looking forward to this role within the performance, I would be lying. After our work-in-progress showing, the reality and difficultly of this task dawned on me. I am going to have to eat for 2 hours.

One of the scariest and daunting aspects of this performance is that it is a “relationship of domination, control and dependency” (Mateus 2008, p. s184), completely controlled by my Feeder, Lizzy. The quantity of food is, and will remain unknown to me until the performance. All the control is now handed over to the Feeders within the group. I like food, and I like to eat to remain healthy. Usually with the often small binge on junk food. And this is fine, I don’t mind if I over indulge one day, because I am in control. I know how much I am eating, what of, and when I’ll stop. So, for this control to be passed to another is terrifying. However, I don’t believe that this role is going to be harder than the role of Feeder. Personally, I would hate to have that much control over someone else, and to remain in role throughout the two hours. The possibility of the Gainer gagging, crying or being sick is something which I would struggle to handle whilst remaining impartial to it.

When left “[un]marked, the rituals of everyday life can be intimate or even secret” (Schechner 2013, p. 52), but with the frame and context of the Feeder fetish, the ritual of food and feeding becomes unrelenting. The ritual when repeated becomes exhausting, and resented by both parties. Although this claims not to be the case with actual Feeder/Gainer relationships, I am worried that my relationship and own rituals towards food will be tainted or altered by this experience.

Works cited
Mateus, M.A,  C.S Silva, O. Neves, J. Redondo (2008) ‘Feeders: Eating or sexual disorder?’, European Psychiatry, XXIII (2) April, pp. s184-185.
Schechner, Richard (2002[2013]) Performance Studies: An Introduction, New York: Routledge.

 

Feeders, Gainers and Me.

Posted on by

“Society’s relationship with food has not been purely for fuel for a number of years. Hence, the obesity epidemic. In this talk we will explore the increasing complicated role food holds in today’s society, from comforter, to body art and even as a sexual fetish, as seen by the growing popularity of feederism and feeder pornography” (Taylor 2013, p. s221).

Eating and the consumption of food are beginning to openly transgresses from the boundaries of  the animalistic instinct of survival to those of sexual gluttony and fetish. In our modern, western society, obesity is an ever prevalent problem, with larger percentages of the world’s population becoming overweight. Naturally, food creates and aids other food related disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, however it the conscious and deliberate weight gain for sexual pleasure and gratification for both the gainer, and those who encourage or enforce the feeding that constitutes the Feeder and Gainer fetish; feederism.

http://youtu.be/NfxFn1IqHo4?t=31m48s

Feeders and Gainers see the stomach as a sexual organ; the bigger and more movement it is capable of, the sexier and desirable it is. In “most cases, at least in heterosexual relationships, feeders or encouragers are men, and feedees or gainers are women” (Bestard in Prohaska, p. 104), and therefore can be seen as an advancement of sexual domination and submission, but this is furthered with the introduction of food permanently altering the appearance of the sexual partner, rather than simply during the act of sex itself.

Although championed and favoured by some, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance “believes that feederism is a behavior based on power on the part of the feeder only, and that this coercive relationship is demeaning to people of size” (Prohaska 2013, p. 104). However, in documentaries which are available online those in Feederism relationships seem outwardly happy and confident with their partner, and not all demeaned by their slimmer partner of their feeder. Although Feederism is slowly coming out of the shadows and becoming better known within wider society, it is still seen as a taboo (as are many sexual fetishes).

Those who judge the fetish from the outside often view it as ““an underground sexual practice that involves women who allow themselves to be force-fed through a funnel by a dominant male master, who derives sexual excitement from watching his submissive servant grow fatter as he forces her to eat more and more”” (Murray quoted in Prohaska 2013, p. 105), however, those who are are active within this underground community feel “the need to keep their behaviors a secret to family members and other significant people in their offline lives (Bestard in Prohaska 2013, p. 105). When these hidden relationships are broadcast for the whole of society to witness, they are often met by ridicule from those who don’t understand the sexual desires behind the fetish. Despite this, there is a large online community, which has a further reach than that of a private couple; where people can pay to speak to and see these Gainers on an intimate basis (source: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-big-fat-fetish/4od).

The use of food, being fed, and high calorie food played a heavy influence on our final experiment. Admittedly, we are not fully exploring the sexual fetish of Feederism; this is impossible for us, and any attempt of it would be a poor and disrespectful imitation – we are not sexually attracted to one another, and we do not hold food in the same sexual regard as those within the Feederism orientation. Instead, we are taking the frame of Gainers and Feeders to guide our experiment and help shape our relationships between our own established ‘feeders’ and ‘gainers’. The Gainers are pushed beyond their comfortable limits when being fed, and this is something which we wish to re-create.

Three people feeding, and three being fed. With no control over what goes into their mouth, or in what quantity.


Works Cited
Taylor, Valerie H. (2013) ‘Food Fetish: Society’s Complicated Relationship with Food’, Canadian Journal of Diabetes, XXXVII (2) April: p. s221.
Prohaska, Ariane (2013) ‘Feederism: Transgressive Behavior or Same Old Patriarchal Sex?’, International Journal of Social Science Studies, I (1) June, pp. 104-112)