Women and food: a discourse analysis of the meanings that four generations of women attach to food

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the meanings that food and eating have for a sample of New Zealand women from different age groups. Women from four different age groups took part in focus group discussions about the role that food plays in their lives. Discourse analysis was used as the analytic tool. Three main discourses were identified; food rules - which focused on the normative social practices and expectations around food; you are what you eat - a discourse that was used in the construction of identity and food as care - a discourse pertaining to the role of food in care of others and the self. There appeared to be two positions available within these three main discourses and these focused on providing for others or providing for the self. It is suggested that both these positions are inherently problematic due to the controls and restrictions they impose on the relationships that the women who participated have with food.