|
|
|
|
Research Bulletin Highlights University's Commitment to Intellectual Inquiry |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research on Women and Food In America Presented at Forum |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mergers and Takeovers Topic of Recent Forum for 21st Century |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's the most basic law of survival: we must eat to live. Yet that simple statement hardly does justice to the complexities of our relationships to food. Professor Catherine Manton takes on some of those complexities in her book "Fed Up: Women and Food in America."
On December 1, at the Eleventh Women's Research Forum, Manton discussed the research that led to her book's publication. Professor Elaine Morse of the Women's Studies Program, which co-sponsored the forum along with the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy and the Office of the Chancellor, also discussed the chapter she contributed to the book.
In order to to present a coherent story of women and food in America, Manton crossed many disciplinary lines, making use of political science, psychology, sociology, history, anthropology and eco-feminism. It includes an analysis of such topics as
• The nineteenth century concept of "domestic science" created to serve the needs of food processing corporations such as General Mills and as they work on persuading women of the superiority of canned and prepared foods
• the changing images of the ideal woman's size and shape and this ideal's relationship to this century's waves of feminism
• the upsurge over the last fifty years in eating disorders among women
• the movement back to organic foods and the idea of food as status symbol.
Manton also describes at length her experiences as a clinical psychologist working with individuals and groups of women suffering from a variety of eating disturbances. She developed her own group therapy program, "Appetite for Change," based on her thesis that given the proper tools, women with eating disturbances can heal themselves.
"These women usually have several traditional options: group or individual therapy, or cooking and nutrition classes. Appetite for Change," she explains," integrates all of these."
Over three months, as many as eight women in an Appetite for Change group would meet at Manton's home weekly for a four-hour session which included time for group therapy discussion, meal preparation, and meal sharing. Manton herself provided detailed menus and recipes for each woman. This approach is consistent with Manton's view that "An environment that encourages experimentation with diet, good nutritional information, and culinary competency correlates with changes in eating behavior."
After leading eight such groups over the last four or five years, Manton's approach demonstrated some promising results: approximately 50% of the women described as compulsive eaters reported gaining control over their eating behavior.
Since 1988, Manton has been teaching a Women's Studies course on food and feminism. She emphasizes the importance of the feminist analysis as a way for women today to understand the part societal forces play in the often very complicated nature of women's relationship to food.