Many of our deep-seated beliefs about food and consumption are rooted in fatphobia, racism, classism, ableism, misogyny, and more.
Food is political because food is ultimately about our survival. It’s a substance we need to live, but we should also be able to find joy in it. And yet, access to this basic need and source of comfort is deeply unequal, largely due to socio-economic disparities. This food insecurity is compounded by diet culture, and both are sustained through capitalism and its messaging.
Oppression is a massive web, and food—who has access to it, who we think “deserves” that accessibility, how we engage with and consume it—is central to our understanding of a multitude of things connected with our identities.
This “Food Is Political” series will examine the many ways in which our ideas about and experiences with food are informed by body size, race, class, gender, disability, and more. It will examine our relationship to food on both an individual and systemic level to acknowledge the influence of societal institutions and policy, as well as familial relations and other forms of kinship.
Our intent is to highlight the roles of capitalism, white supremacy, colonialism, and the many traumas they impart as we explore how the politics of food impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color specifically. We will interrogate how (societal and self) policing and shame help to shape how we engage with food, as well as how many of our deep-seated beliefs about food and consumption are rooted in fatphobia, racism, classism, ableism, misogyny, and more.
The connections between food insecurity, trauma, diet culture, and eating disorders are palpable, and the ways these things affect the people most marginalized by white supremacist capitalism deserves thorough exploration. “Food Is Political” offers space to BIPOC eating disorder recovery specialists, nutritionists, dieticians, and others whose work involves supporting folks with eating. We also invite fat activists, mental health professionals, and those who are experiencing and/or recovering from eating disorders or disordered eating patterns to submit relevant work.
Let’s talk about our collective miseducation about health, shame, morality, deprivation, sacrifice, deliverance, control, and more, and how they all leave their imprints as we try to find our way to a better relationship with food.
Please direct your pitches to submissions@wyvmag.com. Review our submissions page here.