Control

I want to talk about control. Specifically, self-control as it pertains to food. A woman’s control over amount of food, type of food (vegetarian? Organic? Raw?), and body weight are such a huge part of “doing femininity”[1]  in a way that is almost overwhelming. My self-control (or lack thereof) is likely the predominant source of my failure feelings on a daily basis. Almost every morning, one of the first thoughts I have is one of regret and failure for something that I ate or drank the day before. [2]

The average person makes at least 200 food related decisions every day.[3] 90% of these are done without conscious awareness. An inactive person burns 1,200 calories on average, and most modern individuals are fairly inactive unless we are making the mindful decision to work out (which can be added to this base rate). Running, one of the highest calorie burning activities, burns about 100 calories per mile. To burn off one Hershey’s Kiss, I have to run one-quarter of a mile.

Self-control has long been linked to morality. Perhaps because of its connection to the seven deadly sins. Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy, and pride all concern emotions and appetites, and emotions are historically associated with the female in the Aristotelian tradition of the male/female dyad (reason/emotion).  Recall any chocolate commercial aimed at women, using the words “sinfully good” or “indulge yourself.”

As discussed earlier, women, in the Western theological tradition, are historically seen as inherently sinful.  Women’s physical bodies tempted men into lust, and were therefore seen as having a greater bent for sin. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, ascetic practices of eating and fasting proved the practitioner’s ability to overcome the temptations of the flesh (appetite and sexual desire). [4] One document, written for monks in the fifteenth century, stated “it is impossible to extinguish the fires of concupiscence (doing it!) without restraining the desires of the stomach.”[5]

Perhaps because of the perception of women as more prone to sin, women have historically been particularly attracted to fasting as a means of self-discipline. See, for instance, Rudolph Bell’s book about self-starving women, Holy Anorexia (1985), that gives an account of women officially recognized by the Roman Catholic church as saints or holy women. Self-starvation was a means to establish an independent identity and garner recognition within the church.

The link between carnality and gluttony is carried through to present day secularized thought. Both involve physical desires and overindulgence in either is seen as evidence of animalistic lack of self-control. Control over bodily desires is the Cartesian triumph of mind over body. Fat is seen as a failure of the mind, a failure of the rational mind to regulate the body’s desires.

Regulatory strength has been theorized to be based on a supply of internal resources (such as energy and attention) that can become depleted after successive attempts at self control. For example, a person who has had to control anxiety during a job interview or public performance may find it difficult later in the day to control impulses to eat sweets.[6]

Women are socially required to maintain self control in a myriad of areas. Men have much more social freedom to eat too much, drink too much, be overtly sexual, lay around the house on their days off, and shout when they are angry. There is no reason to think that women have weaker self-regulatory strength than do men.  However, “given the greater number of areas in which women are attempting to exercise self-control, the higher standards to which women hold themselves, and the number of tasks and roles they juggle daily, it would not be surprising to find that women deplete their resources more quickly in a given day than men do.”[7]

The result, of course, is that when we fail (as we inevitably do) to maintain the self-imposed standard of a healthy diet, we feel like a bad person. Aha, the link between food and sin raises its nasty head. I feel as though if I were a better person, I would crave only veggies and lean meats. The Ideal Me actually enjoys eating raw almonds, which I hate. (They taste like little wood chips. Awful. Hate them.[8])  Repeated attempts, and failures, to self-regulate, i.e. maintain a healthy diet, have been shown to link to a low sense of self-efficacy (i.e. the belief that self-control is possible) which directly impacts self-esteem.

The internalized dietary obsession so prevalent in modern women constitutes internalized oppression that serves to enforce gender roles. That is, women are so focused on controlling a basic human function (hunger/appetite) they cannot fully focus on developing their authentic selves.  

Catch 22: Given the above, failure to transcend societal pressures with regard to diet and appearance is internalized as an intellectual and feminist shortfall. It is failure squared.

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[1] Chrisler, J.C. (1991) . Out of control and eating disordered. In N. Van Den Bergh (ed.), Feminist perspectives on addictions (pp. 139-149). New York: Springer.

[2] Especially if I drank way too much of it. Oooooh, headache regret.

[3] Wansink, B. (2006). Mindless eating: Why we eat more than we think. New York: Bantam Books.

[4] Bynum, Caroline Walker (1987) Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval

Women. Berkely: University of California Press.

[5] Quoted in Bynum (1987) pp. 37.

[6] Schmeichel, B.J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2004). Self-regulatory strength. In R.F. Baumeister & K.D. Vohs (Eds.) Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory and applications (pp. 84-98). New York: Guilford.

[7] Chrisler, J.C. 207 Presidential Address: Fear of losing control: power, perfectionism, and the psychology of women. In Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32 (2008) (pp. 1-12) Blackwell Publishing.

[8] I am eating raw almonds as I write this. Yech.