Summary
In Carnal Appetites, Elspeth Probyn charts the explosion of interest in food - from the cults that spring up around celebrity chefs, to our love/hate relationship with fast food, our fetishization of food and sex, and the impact of our modes of consumption on our identities. 'You are what you eat' the saying goes, but is the tenet truer than ever? As the range of food options proliferates in the West, our food choices become inextricably linked with our lives and lifestyles. Probyn also tackles issues that trouble society, asking questions about the nature of appetite, desire, greed and pleasure, and shedding light on subjects including: fast food, vegetarianism, food sex, cannibalism, forced feeding, and fat politics.
Elspeth Probyn is Associate Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Outside Belongings (Routledge, 1996) and Sexing the Self: Gendered Positions in Cultural Studies (Routledge, 1993), and co-editor with Elizabeth Grosz of Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities of Feminism (Routledge, 1995).
