The paradox of virtue: (re)thinking deviance, anorexia and schooling

Abstract

In this paper we posit a radical retheorization of anorexia as a form of deviance. We examine how the disciplinary practices and moral technologies typical of contemporary secondary schooling signify and enter into the articulation of three ‘virtue discourses’ (discipline, achievement and healthism), and tease out how these ‘virtue discourses’ play into the formation of the ‘anorexic’ subject. Informed by Foucauldian theory, our analysis draws on our life history interview study with teenage girls diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and their parents. We argue that anorexia can be understood not as a form of deviance but as a ‘paradox of virtue’ involving zealous compliance with and taking up of socially and culturally sanctioned ‘virtue discourses’ that are immanent in schooling and wider society.

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this paper was funded by a research grant from the Australian Research Council, the Centre for Digestive Diseases and the Children’s Hospital Education Research Institute, in Sydney, Australia. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Joint Conference of the New Zealand and Australian Associations for Research in Education, Auckland New Zealand, 29 November–2 December 2003.

Notes

1. In feminist and poststructural writing, ‘anorexic’ and ‘anorexia’ are contested labels. We use them here provisionally, for the sake of economy and in the absence of better words. The term anorexia is also necessary to converse. As Lelwica notes, anorexia ‘has become part of this culture’s vocabulary in the past decade. I use the terms because I want to communicate, not because I accept their traditional meanings—which can be stigmatizing’ (1999, p. 16).

2. All participants are identified by pseudonyms.