Restricted Eating

Restricted eating has become an extremely popular body practice in many cultures today. Many people choose to restrict meat, candy, or carbs from their diet while some choose to simply restrict the overall food intake over a period of time. Society shows us images of slim, healthy and happy people, and somehow they all seem to be linked. Religion also makes dieting rules and creates this docile body that believers must practice in order to achieve this intelligible body. People spend time worrying about what they need to eat or what they should not be eating. They count calories, join programs like weight watchers, pick the 'vegetarian option', or choose not to eat at all. All the rituals and practices they do to work on this intelligible body are praxis to fit into their culture/religion/social group etc. We are structured to 'map bodies' and design names for things society tags as negative like muffin tops, or cellulite and this is where the docile body is driven to work away from being associated with these negative body images. We are not always necessarily told by family and friends what to eat or what to restrict from our diet. Sometimes we learn these things from society and the negative feedback we either see in the media or experience first hand. When someone tells us what a 'muffin top' is, we suddenly become aware that we have the BIGGEST muffin top out of anyone we know. We then choose a praxis to eliminate this muffin top and achieve the intelligible body that society tells us is ok. We also are informed of the affect of what we eat on others, like animals, and that can from another motivation for people to continue with these rituals and work toward fitting into our culture. We are creating a 'docile body' by practicing a specific type of diet, either restricting some types of food or restricting the amount of food we eat.