France and the fattened American: animality, consumption and the logic of gavage

Abstract

This article uses the controversy sparked by the 2012 California foie gras ban as springboard for conceptualizing French and Francophone objections to US cultural imperialism and the so-called “obesity epidemic.” In particular, it explores the controversial practice of force-feeding or gavage as a way of examining how ideas about feeding and fattening animalize fat people in subtle ways. It argues that, as a form of consumption involving asymmetrical (and often sexualized, racialized and classed) relations of power, the logic of gavage invokes a plurality of practices for different ends – interpersonal as well as intrapersonal, cultural and cross-cultural – that frame the collective body of “America” as a fattened, but also fattening, “beast.” By probing the complex and unstable network of relationships that gavage signifies and enacts, it shows that animalized representations of the fat American pivots on issues germane to many discussions of “obesity” in general.

Keywords:

• Fat American
• France
• obesity
• gavage
• consumption

Acknowledgements

Much of this article was written during my time as an International Research Fellow at Erfurt University in 2015 – I owe a debt of gratitude to Jürgen Martschukat, Nina Mackert, Nina Wiedemeyer and the rest of the Cultural Techniques Research Group for hosting me. Early versions were presented at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Oxford University), the North American Studies Program (Universität Bonn) and the John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien (Freie Universität Berlin). Special thanks go to Stanley Ulijaszek, Christianna Stavroudis and Amy McLennan for productive exchanges following these talks, and to the anonymous readers for Food, Culture & Society. Generous members of academia.edu provided feedback on the penultimate version. Special thanks to Margaret Hass, Jennifer Wallis, Matthew McCormack, Pälvi Rantala, Maciej Paprocki, Gabriel Finkelstein, Laurence Bernard, Nina Mackert, Pilar Galiana Abal and Barnea Levi Selavan for their helpful comments, suggestions and support.