Abstract
In the world of wellness, food and eating are fundamentally important to one’s subjectivity: the self in this sphere is created and maintained through food consumption along a plant-based, ‘wholesome’ and healthy personal journey to well-being. This article focuses on the analysis of wellness food blogs run by women, aiming to map out the technologies of the self through which the ‘ideal wellness subject’ is created. The analysis examines technologies of subjectivity as they aspire towards (1) balance, (2) healing and (3) narrativization of the self. The article suggests that the subjectivities related to wellness culture draw from postfeminist and healthist ideologies and are based on a neoliberal discourse of individuality and self-control. The sociocultural indifference of wellness culture and its prerogative to police the self through culturally hegemonic pursuits based on (the right kind of) consumption makes the language of wellness a prominent neoliberal discourse.
Highlights
Food is a universal medium that illuminates a wide range of cultural practices (Singer, 2014)
The data analysed in this article consist of 170 blog entries from three individual wellness food blogs authored by Finnish women in English for an international audience
This article has explored the technologies of self that are created and maintained in the discourses of the wellness food blogosphere
Summary
Food is a universal medium that illuminates a wide range of cultural practices (Singer, 2014). People’s culinary preferences speak about more than just food, since food is, more than ever, a cultural sphere that enables individuals to express themselves through cooking, farming, consuming and forming all sorts of culinary collectives. In the world of wellness food, food and eating are fundamentally important to one’s subjectivity: the self in this sphere is created, perfected and maintained through food consumption, as the actors narrate their daily lives in terms of a plant-based, ‘clean’, ‘wholesome’ and healthy personal journey. For example, plant-based, raw, ‘almost entirely organic’, ‘99% vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds’, dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free and additive-free. Wellness bloggers themselves claim to enjoy ‘diets free from labels’, stating that ‘eating is about feeling good, not following rules’ (excerpts from My New Roots, Minimalist Baker and Green Kitchen Stories)
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