The food experiments

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Kirsty Taylor

After it was decided we would be looking into the feeder fetish, we decided to experiment with handing over control and feeding each other. On 7^th November 2013 we all bought foods we like and then gave them over to our feeder. One by one we took it in turns to be fed and then become the feeder ourselves. We wanted to all experience the act of giving and receiving the foods we would usually eat ourselves for pleasure. The experience was very odd as the act of feeding is usually a personal act. When I gave up control and Lizzy took the role of feeding me it was very odd. I was fed crisps and cheese-strings.

Giving up control: Taken by Lauren Watson 7 /11/13

Being fed is not an experience I am used to in my every day life, so by giving the personal act of feeding to another was something new. This was the same for the rest of the group and made us think more about those whose fetish involves the act of feeding another/being fed as part a pleasurable experience of everyday life.

As part of our work in progress on 22nd November we decided to use it to our advantage and used it to help us finalise some areas of the performance we were uncertain of. These included the costumes we would wear and the positioning of us and the audience. We set up three chairs for our gainers, decided by the drawing of straws, with a table downstage holding the food and the audience in a thrust style.

Work in progress: Taken by Kirsty Taylor 22/11/13

Work in progress gainers: Taken by Kirsty Taylor 22/11/13

As we were unsure as to what we should wear we all wore different outfits ranging from underwear to gym wear. We drew straws to decide who would taken on the role of either feeder or gainer. I chose a long straw and so became a feeder. The feeders fed each of the gainers in turn for fifteen minutes and we then received feedback. From this we were able to decide which outfits were received the best and also helped formulate new idea’s regarding audience. We did not expect such wide and interesting reactions from the audience and so we realised that by allowing the audience to see each other as well as the performance it would add to the atmosphere of the piece. It also made us aware of how this piece could also spark thoughts in the audience of their own personal relationship with food and their opinion of how much/little is ‘normal’ to consume.

Comfort Eating.

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Lizzy Hayes

For me the feeder/gainer relationship is rather confusing. Firstly, as a 20 year old girl in the 21^st century I find that despite my better knowledge, I judge my own appearance against the appearance of other women. At what is apparently an “average” clothing size 12 I spend a lot of my time looking at myself and wishing I could be a bit thinner here, or a bit more toned there. Why? “Advertising and media play an enormous role in perpetuating women’s obsession with thinness. The media constructs idealized images of the thin and well-toned body and also promotes consumer products that help people, especially women, achieve this well-maintained body” (Allen and Sachs, 2007, p. 3).Not only that but “quick fix” diets, fat burning pills and exercise DVDs are forever thrown in the paths of the self conscious under the pretense that buying their product and following their schemes will guarantee a happier “you”. As Lupton points out “given the current elision of sexual attractiveness with a slim body, many individuals make efforts to conform to this ideal” (Lupton, 1996, p. 137) because while”A slender/attractive body is understood as a healthy, normal body…an obese/ugly body is understood as unhealthy and deviant” (Lupton, 1996, p. 137). Though media and fashion image has changed drastically sinse the publication of Luptons Food, the Body and the Self (1996), it is arguable that opinions on female body image have not changed much. So for me, to see people who want to be fat is a massive contradiction to the social norm.

(Barcroft TV, 2013)

The video above shows a female gainer who is striving to gain weight on a daily basis. Like many other gainer women she feels more attractive in her overweight state than she did when she was a more healthy size. Not only that but she relishes the idea of other people seeing her putting on weight and is of course reaping the financial rewards that publishing her weight gaining gives her.

In a strange way I find myself envious of women like this. Yes, they are over weight, but they are more comfortable in their own skin than many women who strive to be thin. They have pride in their bodies and the confidence to sexualize it, knowing that there are people out there attracted to their fat. They use their weight to their advantage, gaining pleasure not just from eating, but from seeing others get pleasure from their eating; from feeding and having control over it. Some of these women even turn their diet into a business, advertising themselves to the market of punters who find these grandiose women sexy.

Secondly, and indeed predominantly, I find myself somewhat disgusted. Being as obese as many of these gainers are or aim to be goes against all medical knowledge and in my personal opinion common sense. Is it not greedy and unfair that they can eat so much, to the point of gluttony and not spare a thought for the people in the world that could live off of the food they consume in a day, for months? And how is it fair that these women push their bodies to the point that they need the care of others to function on a daily basis? Why anyone would put their life at such a risk on purpose is beyond my comprehension. Can they not see that they are diminishing both their quality and quantity of life?

I am aware that being as uneducated as I am on the subject it is easy to pass judgement in ignorance. But even if I was knowledgeable on the subject, I am very aware that as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am looking at the feeder/gainer phenominon through the eyes of one particular type of person. It just so happens that while we may all take different things from exploring this topic, our performance group all fit a relatively similar demographic; we are all 20 year old, white, westernized women, who have been influenced through various means over our lives to believe that to be fat is to be unattractive. To understand how gainer women feel would be rewriting a life’s worth of understanding of ourselves, our appearance, and societies views on female appearance and attractiveness.

With that in mind, I am stil grappling with the questions of whether it is better to be fat and unhealthy but happy and live a shorter life, or be thinner and insecure, but be healthier and most likely live longer?

Works Cited

Allen, P., & Sachs, C. (2007). Women and food chains: The gendered politics of food. International Journal of Sociology of Food and Agriculture.

Barcroft TV (2013) Big Women Funnel Feeder: BBW Wants To Be As Fat As Possible [Online Video] Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jfxPWK47eLg [Accessed 21 November 2013].

Lupton, D (1996) Food, the Body and the Self. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Feederism: What it means to be a female.

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Kirsty Jakins

Having looked into the concept of the audience picking out foods for us to try, we began to think about the idea of having no control. This then sparked a few thoughts about ‘feederism’. It seems this sexual fetish is all about one person having control over another, as you can see in the video below.

Within the sexual fetish it is often ‘the man preparing food and caring for the woman’ (Richardson, 2010, p.113.), but is this really care? As an all-female group it seems we all strive to look a certain way, and the idea of putting on weight would completely take away how confident we feel about ourselves sexually. Therefore, for our performance we began to question whether it would make sense for us to be dressed provocatively, or whether we should be dressed as ourselves as personally we would not find anything sexual about the experience at all. Also, during a day our bodies will not realistically show much change so instead it would be more testing how we handle loss of control over something so personal.

The idea of being fed and having no control for us seems daunting and not knowing what has been put into the calorific meals that have been created. If for our performance we decide last minute who will become the ‘feeders’ and who will be fed, this will ensure even more loss of control and test ourselves. We are looking at having the three chosen feeders to cook calorific meals the night before. The entire process will be filmed so audiences will be able to see what has been put into the food that the other group members will be consuming. If the film is silent and the people being fed have their back to the projection, they will yet again be giving complete control to their feeder.

‘Digital media is wonderful because it can be endlessly duplicated and/or presented without fear of the tiniest change or degradation. But, it is this very quality that is antithetical to the fluid and ever changing nature of live performance’ (Carder and Beardon, 2004)

With our piece, however, the idea of changing performance will only be strengthened. As time goes on and more food is consumed, the film showing what has been put into the food will become more grotesque for audiences as they can see how the quantity is affecting the gainers. Time is another crucial element with this piece. How far do you take it? We have been considering either keeping the feeding process going until all the food has been demolished, or continuing the experiment until the person can literally consume no more. If this is the case it may make for a more interesting piece as depending on who randomly gets chosen to be fed, different reactions and different amounts of consumption will occur. It seems this experiment will be more about pushing ourselves and testing our own limits. The feeders will have to deal with potentially pushing someone else too far, where as those being fed will have to push past personal boundaries of how they feel about their bodies and how much they can consume. In the video below we began to practise giving up control with a few foods we enjoy. As our experiments continue, we will slowly build up the intensity of giving over control.

Works Cited

Carver, G. and Beardon, C. (2005) New Visions in Performance: The Impact of Digital Technologies. Lisse: Tayler and Francis e-Library.

Richardson, N. (2010) Transgressive Bodies: Representations in Film and Popular Culture. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Feeders, Gainers and Me.

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Lauren Bethany Elouise Watson

“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)

Food and body obsession

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Kirsty Taylor

The obsession with food is world-wide with varying forms; however in first world countries this obsession is causing extreme disorders which have grave effects on our health. For millions of people, food is simply for survival and they have no choice of eating for pleasure. They are thin because there is simply not enough to go around. Food literally means life or death, “As the 21^st century begins…there are over 800 million chronically undernourished, food insecure persons in the world. They do not get enough to eat on a daily basis”(Senauer and Sur, 2001, p68). The juxtaposition of the starvation of millions and those with eating disorders is shocking yet it is allowed to happen as for so many, food is a personal and freely available choice.

The cultural obsession with food and the body across first world countries across the world is huge and contrasting. On the one hand, we are bombarded with images of the ‘perfect’ body which can have big impacts on the way young people in particular imagine they should look like. As Rothblum suggests, “Media portrayals establish standards of attractiveness”(1994, p63). On the other, fast food advertising is particularly persuasive leading to many choosing to eat calorie ridden food on a daily, obsessive basis. These two factors have caused three main eating disorders; anorexia, bulimia and obesity. Indeed for many people, “the shape of their lives depends on the shape of their bodies” (Seid, 1994, p3). We are all in some way or another affected by the way we look and all have certain beliefs and ideals on what our form should be, particularly for women. As a society we have been programmed to associate fat with negativity, thereby excluding many people who struggle with their weight, “The fat body stands as a symbol of gluttonous obsessions, unmanaged desires and the failed self” (Murray, 2004, p239). The desire for thinness became predominantly important in the 1960’s in response to new models, in particular Twiggy, “her image became one that women thereafter aspired to meet. Female beauty had come to be represented by a gawky, bare-boned adolescent”(Seid, 1994, p7).

(Ideal Beauty Academy, 2013)

This desire to be shockingly thin in comparison to those who have no choice into how thin their bodies become, is quite horrifying.

In contrast, moving beyond obesity is a new obsession of the body in which select people deliberately become overweight in an attempt to satisfy their fetish. Feeders and gainers gain pleasure and fulfilment by either gaining weight or helping a partner gain weight. In interviews, they view the stomach as a ‘sexual organ’ which becomes more appealing the bigger it becomes. How has this fetish come about in a society still obsessed with the perfect body? In the past, the perfect body was perceived very differently as Seid comments, “fat was seen as a silken layer that graced the frames of elegant ladies…regarded as stored up force equated with reserve of energy and strength” (1994, p5). Is this perception towards fat becoming popular again or is this obsession a new fetish of the 21^st century?

Works Cited

Fallon, P., Katzman, M., and Wooley, S. (eds.) (1994) Feminist Perspectives on eating disorders. USA: The Guilford Press

Ideal Beauty Academy (2013) The Evolution of the Supermodel. [online] USA. Available from http://idealbeautyacademy.net/evolution-of-the-supermodel/ [Accessed 28th November 2013]

Murray, Samantha (2004) Locating Aesthetics: Sexing the Fat Woman. Social Semiotics Vol 14 Issue 3 p 237-247

Senauer, Ben and Sur, Mona (2001) Ending Global Hunger in the 21^st century: projection of the number of food insecure people. Review of agricultural economics, – Vol. 23, p 68-81

Feeder.

We are six female students exploring food, fetish and our own personal relationship to it all.

Category Archives: Food