This volume addresses how the rhetoric of feminist empowerment has been combined with
mainstream representations of food thus creating a cultural consciousness around food and
eating that is unmistakably pathological. Throughout Natalie Jovanovski discusses key texts
written by women for women: best-selling diet books popular cookbooks produced by female food
celebrities and iconic feminist self-help texts. This is the first book to engage in a
feminist analysis of body-policing food trends that focus specifically on the use of feminist
rhetoric as a harmful aspect of food culture. There is a smorgasbord of seemingly diverse
gender roles for women to choose from but many encourage breaking gender norms and embracing a
love of food while perpetuating old narratives of guilt and restraint. Digesting Femininities
problematizes the gendering of food and eating and challenges the reader to imagine what a
genderless and emancipatory food culture would look like.
