Tokoloshe "sightings" among prepubescent (or early adolescent, mainly rural) girls are quite common in KwaZulu-Natal. "Sightings" of this creature are accompanied by fainting spells, deterioration from previous level of (scholastic) performance, fearfulness, and other psychosomatic type symptoms. It is argued that the experience could be conceptualised as a culturally-situated gender discourse. The view taken is that every culture develops a set of narratives (Bruner, 1990), which function as "tools" mediating human functioning, which narratives in turn enable or constrain thought, action, and feeling. The role of narratives in organising thinking, identity, and moral development has been explored by a number of authors recently (e.g., Day & Tappan, 1996; Tappan & Brown, 1989; Howard, 1991).

It is further argued that the human psyche originates in the social context, and that through the process of "internalisation" what was initially on the social plane between people (an interpersonal process) is later internalised to become an intrapsychological process (Shotter, 1993). Bakhtin (1981) uses the notion of voice to explain this process. A distinction is made between internally persuasive discourse (adapting the word in language to one's intentions and accent) and authoritative discourse (i.e., voices of others, such as parents, cultural dictates, etc., which may determine our interrelations with the world). The process of ideological becoming (or identity, moral development) therefore entails claiming responsibility for one's feelings, emotions, and acts. The Tokoloshe narrative, therefore, could be seen as an intense struggle against authoritative discourse. It could be viewed as a cultural narrative that young girls resort to by virtue of their (inferior) position in society (Shotter, 1984). Indeed, as properly socialised members deriving "their personal powers from the 'natural' powers made available to them in the social relations in which they are involved in the course of their upbringing" (Shotter, 1984, p. 56), they have to express themselves in a culturally-appropriate way. The Tokoloshe narrative is clearly authoritative. He instructs the children "not to tell anyone" that they have seen him (Thou shall not!). He makes several threats, and those who disobey him are punished (slapped on the face). He also offers rewards (money, apples) to those who obey him. Thus, his is a voice of authority with the powers to reward or punish.

Day (1991) has argued that moral life is not only narrative, but also theatrical. The notion of an audience to which one's utterance or act is addressed is also noted by Bakhtin (1981). It is important therefore to unravel the central actors as well as the audience whose responsive understanding is being sought through the Tokoloshe narrative. That is, the narrative could be seen as an intentional act, or (especially if the sexual abuse hypothesis were to hold) an appeal for justice.

It could therefore be a mistake to interpret the narrative solely on traditional terms (e.g., she has been bewitched, we know the cure). Although such interpretation makes cultural sense, it could feed into the authoritative nature of the Tokoloshe discourse. Such interpretations could deprive the narrative of their intentional, indeterminate, and intentional nature. The fact that Tokoloshe is seen mainly by prepubescent girls strengthens the hypothesis that there is something of an moral and developmental nature (ideological becoming) in the experience. Brown and Gilligan's (1991) methodology is recommended for researching Tokoloshe and such phenomena. This methods focuses on the notion of voice (e.g., whose voice?) as well as the relationships and cultural framework within which the experience is manifest.

References

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. (C. Emerson & M. Holquist,

Trans). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (1991). Listening for voice in narrative of relationship. In M. B. Tappan & M. J. Packer (Eds.), Narrative and storytelling: Implications for understanding moral development (pp. 46-62). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Day, J. M. (1991). The moral audience: On the narrative mediation of moral "judgement" and moral "action". In M. B. Tappan & M. J. Packer (Eds.), Narrative and storytelling: Implications for understanding moral development (pp. 27-42). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Day, J. M., & Tappan, M. B. (1996). The narrative approach to moral development: From the epistemic subject to dialogical selves. Human Development, 39, 67-82.

Howard, G. S. (1991). Culture tales: A narrative approach to thinking, crosscultural psychology, and psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 46(3), 187-197.

Shotter, J. (1984). Social accountability and selfhood. England: Basil Blackwell.

Shotter, J. (1993). Vygotsky: The social negotiation of semiotic mediation. New Ideas in

Psychology, 11(1), 61-75.

Tappan, M. B., & Brown, L. M. (1989). Stories told and lessons learned: Toward a narrative approach to moral development and moral education. Harvard Educational Review, 59(2), 182-205.

mkhize@psy.unp.ac.za

Department of Psychology

Natal University

P/B X1

Pietermaritzburg

3209

Discussion group:

Useful Objects

Penny Siopis & Kaolin Thompson

Department of Fine Arts, University of the Witwatersrand

Can the controversy emanating from the artwork Useful Objects which, according to Mail & Guardian critic Hazel Friedman, resembles "a black vagina, lips or turd" be productive? Could it, for instance, be the beginning of defining a very particular body politic shaped by gender and race in this country? Or, is it simply one more insult to black women in South Africa?

Windsurfing is exciting and challenging. It relies on individual competence and control, engaging with the natural elements of wind and water. Windsurfing requires considerable energy, but technique plays a greater part than strength. While all levels can be very enjoyable, windsurfers generally prefer progressively stronger winds as they increase their expertise.

Windsurfers stand on a board, connected to a sail, through which they power and steer the board's movement. This movement may be anything from a gentle cruise on inland water to a fast blast through the surf of the sea. Whilst competitive windsurfing does exist, and is promoted by most windsurfing organisations, those who windsurf do not need to be competitive, and women windsurfers seem to resist joining in competitive events (Birrell, 1994).

Windsurfing is only mentioned in passing, if at all, in recent feminist writings on sport. ( Cahn, 1994; Cohen, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994; Lenskyj, 1990; Messner and Sabo, 1990 & 1994; Nelson, 1994). Women's participation in outdoor recreational pursuits generally is a neglected area of study (Humberstone, 1995).

Windsurfers, like rock climbers, hang-gliders or off-road motorcycle scramblers need a fairly large degree of control over their lives, which few women have despite tremendous changes in patterns of consumption and leisure this century (Green et al., 1990). Spare time, resources and freedom to engage in pleasurable pursuits are a privilege in our unequal society and associated with the groups in society enjoying the greatest wealth and power (Deem, 1986; Scraton, 1986; Talbot, 1988; Willis, 1982; Wimbush, 1986; Wimbush and Talbot, 1988).

Windsurfing is elitist because it involves having freedom, time and money (Jessica).

It should therefore be no surprise that windsurfing is male dominated (Hornby, 1993).

There are no women in the group that I sail with. In fact I don't know any other women windsurfers (Lisa).

Those interviewed rarely found other women to sail with, except at Windsurfing Women events- organised voluntarily to provide a sociable, supportive windsurfing environment for women.

Nor should it be a surprise that while the windsurfing women interviewed included a wide range of experiences and perspectives, only two did not have an independent income of their own, and all were white and able bodied. Windsurfing is a self indulgent activity and involves a complete escape from duties or responsibilities. For women, who have historically been defined by their ability to nurture others, a commitment to nurture themselves, through windsurfing, is a radical departure from convention.

...you can go to work, do aerobics, go home and make the dinner. Whereas, windsurfing is so totally different, it gets you out, you spend the whole day doing it... (Grace).

This paper is based upon a small study of thirty women windsurfers. Their stories are not necessarily representative of all women, or even of all windsurfing women. Other than being recreational women windsurfers currently living in Britain, there were no criteria used to select those interviewed. The interviewees included women with a range of experiences and perspectives. The longest any had been windsurfing was twelve years, and the shortest one day. Skills level varied from complete novice to above the standard needed to be a trainer of instructors. The women lived in various parts of Britain and few knew the interviewer prior to participation in the study. [When interviewees are referred to in this paper, pseudonyms are used to preserve anonymity]

Being an enthusiastic windsurfer myself helped access to these women, as it did for Belinda Wheaton, a windsurfing woman researching the almost exclusively male 'elite' of windsurfers. However, unlike her, I do not have the skills or confident attitudes necessary to join this sub-culture, which she descibes as becoming 'one of the lads' (Wheaton, 1995).

Only three of the women I interviewed were highly competent windsurfers. One of these made a similar comment to Belinda's observation.

I think maybe quite a few of us who want to go windsurfing actually enjoy being one of the boys (Pam).

Gaining entry into the male domain of windsurfing, at whatever level, involves entry into an exciting, privileged world which as Linda said '...in a way, makes men more exciting'.

The research methodology used was influenced by community education and feminist theory and practice (see for example: Collins, 1990; Comstock, 1982; Crawford et al, 1992; Fay, 1977; Friere, 1972, 1973; Gluck and Patai, 1991; Hall, 1977, 1992; Haug, 1987; Keiffer, 1983/4; Maher, 1987; Parmar 1990; Simon, 1990; Walkerdine, 1990; Ward and Mullender, 1992; Williams, 1989.). It is therefore based on the premise that the participants' experiences provides data and understanding that is potentially empowering .

'Personal narratives of non-dominant social groups... are often particularly effective sources of counterhegemonic insight because they expose the viewpoint embedded in dominant ideology' (Personal Narratives Group, 1987 p7).

The process was developmental and reflexive, with an emphasis on continual reconsideration of ideas and interpretation, influenced both by the data collected and by theoretical writings. Written findings and interpretations were fed back to participants whenever possible, in order to encourage comment and further reflection. Dialogue was sought between those interviewed and the interviewer. Some women were interviewed in groups and these women were encouraged to develop ideas amongst themselves.

Those interviewed windsurf because they enjoy it, not because they see it as a political gesture. Yet, reactions to the discussion and written outcomes involved in the reflective process of this study, have been very positive. Talking about the satisfactions and frustrations they experience as women windsurfers is reported to be very pleasurable and often individually empowering, as they realise perceived incompetence may be, at least partly, due to learnt gender. They report few other opportunities to voice, reflect upon, and discuss their experiences as windsurfing women.

While the overall study was broader, this presentation concentrates on gendered embodiment. Recent analyses of the gendered body reveal 'a patriarchally imposed body movement that physically disables and thus oppresses women' (Costa and Guthrie, 1994: p30). Windsurfing involves physicality, instrumentality and athletic skill, which are generally associated with masculinity rather than femininity (Allison, 1994; Mangan, 1995; Sabo and Runfola, 1980; Theberge, 1981). Women who windsurf therefore provide interesting insights into the lived reality for women who consciously or not, stretch the boundaries of gender.

What this is not about-

surfing the cybernet

top level competitive sport

statistics

What this is about-

the feelings of women about their participation in windsurfing and how it affects their perceptions of femininity and empowerment.

Gendered Embodiment

Embodiment is a cultural process by which the physical body becomes a site of culturally ascribed and disputed meanings, experiences and feelings. The body is not simply something we are born with, but something we mould through our everyday living. Womens freedom to shape and enjoy their bodies is strongly affected by cultural concepts of feminine bodies. The hesitant, fearful body movements of women are symptomatic of a wider context in which women's bodies are considered objects to be gazed at (Young, 1979,1980 and McKinnon, 1987). Women are taught to value their bodies through the eyes of others, more than for their own direct active pleasure (Bartky, 1990). This is closely bound up with western constructs of feminine beauty (Bordo, 1990).

I really want to get my muscles into shape and to look fit but my boyfriend said he didn't want me too muscley because then I wouldn't be attractive (Lorraine)

The women interviewed all expressed complex emotions about their bodies, rarely feeling confident about them.

I didn't like wearing wet-suits and that was one thing that made windsurfing more difficult for me. I used to wear long tee-shirts over a wet-suit because I thought my body was horrible (Grace).

Femininity teaches women to be concerned about their appearance in a way that makes it difficult to enjoy the potential of their bodies for themselves.

I hadn't really thought about it before, I just knew I had this odd feeling when I wear a wetsuit. Its very interesting this whole thing about the ambiguity of how we're supposed to look and our self consciousness and our feeling good about our bodies...(Pam).

Currently, feminine bodies within western culture are thin ones.

I found the very few wetsuits designed for women were labelled as extra large for everything bigger than a size 12 (Natalie).

The acquisition of strength, muscularity and athletic skill has little cultural value for women, yet is empowering for men. Men grow up generally having greater opportunities and confidence to occupy space and act forcefully with their bodies (Connell, 1983:27; Bartky, 1990) Interviewees found it difficult to assert themselves on the water, especially in terms of making, and keeping, space for and around themselves, as they choose a good line to sail. They claimed that they frequently felt 'cut up', by other sailors.

Men are happy to take up space...women try to make themselves small and try not to get in other people's way (Lorraine)

Feminine lack of confidence is bound up with women's embodiment (Darlison, 1985; Gill, 1993; MacKinnon, 1987; Shilling, 1993; Young, 1980). Those interviewed had little confidence in their bodies or in their ability to manoeuvre and control windsurfing equipment, on or off the water.

Men just mean a completely different thing when they talk about lack of confidence to what women mean (Vanessa).

Men tended to overestimate their abilities, while women consistently underestimated what they can do. Both interviewees and recent feminist texts suggest this to be because boys and men are encouraged to be daring and push their limits, unlike girls and women ( Crawford et al., 1992).

Men will go for things and women won't. It's the way they're brought up. Men aren't constantly having people warning them not to do things. They're encouraged to do things ( Linda).

We are taught to move in feminine ways as girls. We learn to throw 'like a girl', and run, climb, swing and hit like a girl too (Young, 1980 p137-156). Crucial motions in windsurfing, include lifting the sail in a counterbalanced way, assertively twisting to control the sail once moving, and using the whole body weight and strength to accelerate and control the board plus sail. This contrasts sharply with the movements Iris Marion Young describes women learning as they grow up, quoted here at some length as it so eloquently encapsulates feminine restrictions and barriers for women windsurfers. 'Women often do not perceive themselves as capable of lifting and carrying heavy things, pushing and shoving with significant force, pulling, squeezing, grasping, or twisting with force. When we attempt such tasks, we frequently fail to summon the full possibilities of our muscular co-ordination, poise and bearing. Women tend not to put their whole bodies into engagement in a physical task with the same ease and naturalness as men. For example, in attempting to lift something, women more often than men, fail to plant themselves firmly and make their thighs bear the greatest proportion of the weight. Instead, we tend to concentrate our effort on those parts of the body most immediately connected to the task- the arms and the shoulders- rarely bringing the power of the legs to the task at all. When turning or twisting something, we frequently concentrate effort in the hand and wrist, not bringing to the task the power of the shoulder, which is necessary for efficient performance' (Young, 1980:159)

However, Iris Marion Young goes on to say-

We decide beforehand- usually mistakenly- that the task is beyond us, and thus give it less than our full effort. At such a half hearted level of course, we cannot perform the tasks, become frustrated, and fulfil our own prophecy. When we do release ourselves from this self perpetuating spiral we are surprised at what we can do (Young, 1980: 149).

A female windsurfing instructor said something similar-

Time and time again, the men came along with lots of confident expectations about soon being able to do the fancy tricks they've seen the good sailors do. But the women don't tend to believe that they're ever going to be that good. They start by saying that they will be happy if they can just stand on a board...and they get such a buzz when they can actually do things and get so excited. At the end of the course they are so surprised at what they've achieved, but the men tend to go away frustrated because they can't do more (Vanessa).

Windsurfing Women

The women in this study all reported gaining physical and mental strength and pleasure windsurfing, whatever their standard of competence. Through windsurfing the women increased their feelings of bodily competence and strength, through which they increased their perceptions of themselves as competent beings.

...the exhilaration of windsurfing does make you feel very strong and powerful (Kim).

The first time I started planing...wow...I just remember it so clearly, I just thought 'gee whizz'... I was planing, and I was in control, and I could do it...and I just felt so good (Vanessa)

A windsurfer starts planing when they are travelling at sufficient speed to lift their board out of the water. This feels as if the windsurfer is flying across the water rather than travelling through it.

The more women gain confidence in their bodies the more they challenge learnt feminine behaviour. As such behaviour becomes exposed as socially constructed and restrictive women may feel, individually and collectively, more able to resist.

...like when we were at Beadnell Bay- that was really good when that woman was so pleased that we were a group of women out there (Fiona).

If I've got my board on the car roof,...all these kids come up and say 'wow, is that your board miss? In particular, for the girls, I think I'm creating a really good role model because they're so surprised and gobsmacked and it also makes me feel really strong and positive... (Rachael).

The windsurfing women interviewed are challenging the culturally ascribed and gendered meanings imposed on their bodies by others and challenging prevailing patriarchal representation of women's bodies as objects, shifting the focus to women's bodies as active subjects (Hall, 1990).

...but when my mother was here she was asking is there something that happens to women when they get physical...like do they get more testosterone...she thought I was becoming more like a man (Wendy).

Participation in windsurfing does not turn women into men, but it does allow the development of socially and culturally constructed characteristics associated with power and masculinity.

There are many advantages for men in maintaining ideas of feminine and masculine bodies.

And I reckon that men just want to be stronger than us. They'll do anything to keep that idea that they are stronger than us because it advantages them. Men feel threatened by images of strong women (Celia).

Windsurfing women, whether or not they realise they are doing it, are challenging socially constructed femininity, and the power associated with windsurfing as masculine, every time they indulge themselves in this exhilarating activity. They provide strong examples of women's capacities for action and fulfilment.

Reactions to this research have been very positive, most importantly to me, especially from windsurfing women. My written work has provoked discussions amongst participants which I see as potentially very empowering at an individual and collective level. I also believe this work throws up fascinating questions about body Politics.

References

Allison L.(1993) The Changing Politics of Sport Manchester University Press

Bartky S. (1990) Femininity and Domination New York: Routledge

Birrell S. (1994) Women in Competitive Windsurfing Unpublished project for B.A. Outdoor Education, 3. University of Strathclyde Scotland

Bordo S. (1990) Reading the Slender body. In Jacobus M. Fox Keller E. and Shuttleworth S. (eds) (1990). body Politics, London, Routledge.

Butler J. (1990) Gender Trouble London Routledge.

Cahn Susan K. (1994) Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth Century Women's Sport. New York; Free Press

Cohen G. L. (1993) Women in Sport: Issues and Controversies. London Sage

Collins P.H. (1990) Black Feminist Thought London Unwin

Comstock D. (1982) A method for critical research. In Bredo, E. and Feinberg, W. (eds)Knowledge and values in social and educational research 370-390 Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Connell R. (1983) Which Way is Up? Sydney: Allen and Unwin

Costa D.M. and Guthrie S.R. (eds) (1994) Women and Sport Champaign Ill. Human Kinetics

Crawford J., Kippax S., Onynx J., Gault U. and Benton P. (1992) Emotion and Gender- Constructing Meaning from Memory London Sage Publications

Darlison L. (1985) Women, Sport and Ideology in Australia. In Fit To Play Sydney: NSW Women's Advisory Council to the Premier.

Deem R. (1986) All Work and No Play: The Sociology of Women and Leisure. Milton Keynes O.U. Press

Fay B. (1977) How people change themselves: The relationship between critical theory and its audience. In T. Ball (ed.) Political Theory and Practice 200-233 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Freire P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed London Penguin

Freire P. (1973) Education for Critical Consciousness London Penguin

Gill D. (1993) Psychological, Sociological and Cultural Issues Concerning the Athletic Female In A.J. Pearl (ed.) (1993) The Athletic Female The American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine

Gluck S.B. and Patai D. (1991) Women's Words; The Feminist Pracitce of Oral History London Routledge

Graydon J. (1983) 'But it's more than a game. It's an institution' Feminist Perspectives on Sport. Feminist Review 13 February

Green E., Hebron S and Woodward D. (1990) Women's Leisure :What Leisure? London Macmillan

Griffin P. (1989) Homophobia in Physical Education CAHPER Journal 55 (2)

Hall, B. (1977) Notes on the Development of the Concept of Participatory Research in an International Context International Council for Adult Education, Toronto

Hall, B. (1992) Rich and Vibrant Colours; 25 Years of Adult Education Convergence xxv/4 4-15

Hall M. (1990) How should we theorize gender in the context of sport? In M. Messner and D. Sabo (1990) Sport, Men and the Gender Order Champaign Human Kinetics

Hargreaves J. (1994) Sporting Females London Routledge

Haugh F. (1987) Female Sexualization London Verso

Hornby S. (1990) Recruiting Women into Coaching R.Y.A. Windsurfing Instructor Newsletter R.Y.A.

Hornby S. (1991) Report on the Thames Valley Women in Windsurfing Instructors Conference R.Y.A.

Hornby S. (1992) Women and Coaching Action Report. RYA

Hornby S. (1993) Women and Coaching Report to Trainers RYA

Humberstone B. (1995) Outdoor Education Quest 47(2) May

Keiffer C (1983/4) Citizen Empowerment: A Development Perspective Studies in Empowerment Prevention in Human Services 3 (2/3 ) Winter 1983/ Spring 1984

Lenskyj H. (1990) Power and Play: Gender and Sexuality Issues in Sport and Physical Activity International Review for the Sociology of Sport 25 (3 ):325-343

MacKinnon C. (1987) Women, Self-possession and Sport In Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge: Harvard University Press

Mangan J.A. (1995) Sexual Imperatives, Militarism, Mythology, Masculinity Lecture at Strathclyde University March

Maher F (1987) Toward a richer theory of feminist pedagogy Journal of Education 169(3)

Messner M. and Sabo D. (eds) (1990) Sport, Men and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives Champaign Ill. Human Kinetics.

Messner M. and Sabo D. (eds) (1994) Sex, violence and power in sports Crossing Press, Freedom, California

Nelson Burton M. (1994) The Stronger Women Get, The More Men Love Football, Orlando Florida Harcourt Brace

Parmar, P. (1990) Black Feminism: the politics of articulation, in Rutherford, J. (ed.) Identity, Community, Culture, Difference. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Personal Narratives Group, (eds) (1989) Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives, Blooomington: Indiana University Press

Sabo D. and Runfola R (1980) Jock: Sport and Male Identity Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall

Scraton S. (1986) Images of Femininity and the Teaching of Girls' Physical Education In J. Evans (ed.) Physical Education, Sport and Schooling Lewes Falmer Press.

Shilling C. (1993) The body and Social Theory London Sage

Simon B. (1990) Rethinking Empowerment Journal of Progressive Human Services 1. 1. 27-39

Talbot M. (1988) Understanding the Relationships between Women and Sport: The Contribution of British Feminist Approaches in Leisure and Cultural Studies International Review for the Sociology of Sport 23. 1

Theberge N. (1987) Sport and Women's Empowerment Women's Studies International Forum 10. 4

Ward and Mullender (1992) Empowerment and Oppression Critical Social Policy 32

Williams, F. (1989) Social Policy: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge: Polity Press

Willis P. (1982) Women in Sport in Ideology In J. Hargreaves (ed.) (1982) Sport Culture and Ideology London RKP

Wimbush E. (1986) Women, Leisure and Well-Being Edinburgh CLR Dunfermline College

Wimbush E. & Talbot M. (eds.) (1988) Relative Freedoms Milton Keynes O.U. Press

Wheaton B. (1995) Covert Ethnography and the Ethics of Research: Studying Sports Subcultures In Alan Tomlinson and Scott Fleming (1995) Ethics, Sport and Leisure: Crises and Critiques University of Brighton CSRC Topic Report 5. Chelsea Research Centre.

Young I. M. (1979) The Exclusion of Women from Sport: Conceptual and Existential Dimensions Philosophy in Context 9. pp. 44-53

Young I. M. (1980) Throwing Like a Girl and other Essays In Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory Bloomington: Indiana University Press

Biographical note:

Currently senior lecturer, in Social Policy, specialising in Community Work and Women's Studies, University of Plymouth UK. Until very recently lecturer in Community Education at Strathclyde University. Previously a political and community activist and both a paid community worker and mainstream local politician, as well as a town planner at one point in my existence. A keen, but not highly competent, windsurfer who managed to develop her personal, political and academic interests into a rewarding piece of research. Writes about this work, but also enjoys writing about politics, community work and related bits of theory. Recent output outwith work on women and windsurfing/gendered embodiment; on experential lessons related to theories about women and politics, and postmodernism and community education.

val@tin.scc.plym.ac.uk

The anorectic, starving in the midst of plenty, has become the enigmatic icon of our times, half heroine, half horror. (1)

The confounding image of a skeletal, anorexic figure, coming to know herself as "sharp enough to look after herself" as her ever bonier frame reveals the potentials of her body as weapon(2) is a suggestive one for the position taken in this paper. I consider anorexia in terms contrary to those that dominate the field where, for the most part, the anorexic is seen as a victim, and passively so, of a consumer culture in which male preferences heavily influence expectations of women. I do not seek to deny that women in contemporary culture, and beyond, are subject to dominating discourses, and negative events and representations, but I argue with interpretations that see women as passively accepting situations of inequality, and unresistingly taking on roles assigned them. I argue that anorexia is a strategy - although defying easy universal narration - which challenges, subverts and transgresses, spurning patriarchal structures and the feminine slim ideal even as it hints at collaboration with these privileged forms. Recognising the anorexic as also a resisting and transgressing subject contesting her more general lack of control and - drawing on the work of Gayatri Spivak - as seeking a strategy that opposes a situation in which the anorexic as a person is left no position from which to speak, I consider anorexia to be a miming, turned mockery, of the upheld ideal. Many women diagnosed as anorexic feel they have been made invisible through the relations of power in which they are located. By adopting the strategy they do, their seeming act of disappearance ironically comes back writ large to haunt those implicated in the discourses of domination. Thus, re-reading anorexia in terms of a postcolonial and poststructural feminist approach, it can be examined as a mocking of the "masters' discourse" of the female body, and can be viewed as a particular form of mimesis that confronts the social disorder of the particular power/knowledge relations between the coloniser and the colonised.

As is the case with any risky strategy or action, the anorexic subject may not fully internalise the possible deadly consequences and her motivations, like those of most subjects, may be ambivalent in their configurations and complex in their origins.

To make this argument I draw on the work of Homi Bhabha, recognising that in this context it could be that, like other colonial subjects mouthing the discourse of post-Enlightenment English colonialism, it is the anorexic who is speaking with a tongue that is forked (Bhabha, 1994:85). I take his analysis not merely to reproduce this argument in a different discourse or context but rather take the spirit of his argument and think it elsewhere: with anorexia it is the colonised rather than colonising subjects who produce "irony, mimicry and repetition" with their iteration of a centred discourse of authority, turning from the ideal in the process.

Bhabha argues that mimicry mocks the power of the monument to be a model with profound and disturbing effect on, and for, the authority of colonial discourse. This mode of colonial discourse - which he calls mimicry and in which he argues colonialism repeatedly exercises its authority through figures of farce, producing in the process a text rich in irony - is an ironic compromise, a sign of double articulation and a complex strategy which appropriates the Other as it visualises power, but is also a mark of the inappropriate. And it is this difference, almost the same but not quite, that poses a threat to normalised knowledges and disciplinary powers and the continually reiterated norm (Ibid: 86).

The discourse of mimicry then, which Bhabha sees as "at once resemblance and menace" is constructed around an ambivalence so that in order to be effective it "must continually produce its slippage, its excess, its difference." Using this approach based on an ambivalence in what is always in place and already known but also something which must be anxiously repeated, the anorexic subject can be seen as not merely engaged in an attempt to be a copy of the dominant culture's ideal through the reiteration of the upheld slim norm continually portrayed in the media but as engaged in an act that transforms what it resembles, a reiteration both similar and dissimilar that destabilises, in turn calling into question systemic closure and a system's pretension to be self-grounding (see Butler, 1993:45). In Bhabha's conception: a difference that is almost the same, but not quite; indeed not the slim ideal, not quite. Bhabha's analysis teaches that the colonial discourse's rendition of stereotypes is also its moment of fear and anxiety, its authority coming under severe stress as the mimicry of the colonised image it creates turns to mockery.

The same ridiculing by supposed imitation is in evidence in what is continually demanded of the anorexic by the health discourse which measures, monitors and disciplines, a ridiculing which appears to challenge the adequacy of the discourse and its professionals in dealing with the disorder of anorexia nervosa. For example, under the surveillance of the health professional, anorexics in treatment seem to repeat the inner disciplining, measuring and surveying generally associated with modernity, and specifically psychiatry, but often with scornful deliberation, as for example when they painstakingly measure themselves or count their calories. Thus, these imitations of the letter but not of the spirit, this "female obedience," appear to be a further reiteration that leads away from, rather than to, normalisation and the "ideal." Ironically, these actions then continue to call for normalising interventions by health professionals, whose desperate re-iteration, as if from a Charlie Chaplin movie with its critique of modern times, appears as a mockery.

As Gyan Prakash argues, power exists in a form of relationality in which the dominance of one is never complete.(3)

Adopting this post-colonial and post-structural approach has advantages and consequences. Firstly, by incorporating the ambivalences and indeterminacies associated with these positions with a disavowal of dualistic, essentialist thinking, this approach allows for a fluidity between and deconstruction of categories that counters an absolutism, so that the anorexic is no longer seen merely as victim but, along a continuum, as transgressor and resister as well. It is this theoretical attitude that provides a route to a more complex reformulation of anorexia and enables one to get away from the stark alternatives generally offered in the various literatures on anorexia that see women with anorexia positioned within a world of bald oppositions, leading to theorising and therapeutic practices that straightjacket anorexics and offer unproductive dualisms, an irony given that the dangers of dualistic thinking are recognised elsewhere in much of feminist theories. Secondly, it works against the Western and contemporary bias evident in the essentialist accounts of the phenomenon that dominate and have proliferated in recent years where a fat phobia and focus on consumer society lead to a failure to recognise that anorexia can be traced across time and space and is differently configured with changes in history and geography. This bias - which occurs in much of the theory and cultural criticism on anorexia, where the focus is on fat phobia as a central feature of anorexia - is, not surprisingly, in evidence, too, within the discipline of psychiatry. In the manual central to both its status and its practices, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1987:65), the discipline defines what it seems as the condition of anorexia nervosa as having the essential features of:

# A distorted body image and disturbance in the way in which one's body weight, size or shape is experienced. For example, the person claims to "feel fat" even when emaciated and believes that one area of the body is "too fat" even when obviously underweight;

# Refusal to maintain body weight over a minimal normal weight for age and height;

# Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight;

# In females, absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles when otherwise expected to occur.

These essentialist emphases occurring in, and dominating, the fields of social theory, cultural criticism and the psychotherapeutic profession exacerbate the neglect of the phenomenon's contradictory and multifarious aspects, pushing practitioners to a less, rather than more, complex position and producing interpretations that ironically might result in disempowering girls and women further than may already be the case arising from the sexist images that surround them. However, this can be worked against if anorexia is thought of in the contradictory terms in which it manifests itself, beyond the dualist and essentialist categorisations by which the anorexic either rejects her body with its appetites by transcending it, or rejects herself when falling prey to its desires.

Interpreting anorexia through the act of mime turned to mockery, where there is the appearance of a reiteration of the gestures of the dominant but at the same time "its slippage, its excess, its difference" (Bhabha, 1984:86 ) is being produced, allows one to do just this. It facilitates an argument of agency and resistance while at the same time calling into question the wider system in which the anorexic, the theorist and the therapist are located, destabilising patriarchal culture, the categorisations and norms of the medical profession, and orthodox philosophy and essentialist and dualistic social theory. It is this releasing of the category of anorexic from a fixity that allows the thinking of agency for which this paper argues.(4)

The re-reading presented here is underpinned by the assumptions, firstly, and following Alain Touraine, that in contemporary society acts are not confined to the reproduction of social structures but are characterised also by social action and resistance, transformation, and indeterminacy, and secondly, that the body is constructed by the moral, medical and scientific knowledges of the time coded such that even medical perceptions of the body are based upon readings of its signs rather than a knowledge of its essence.(5) Thus, it is informed by Foucault's critique of the rule of modernity. The body is seen as a changing product of culture with cultural practices inscribed upon it, with its sexuality as a construction rather than an essence, based on an active agency that follows from the position that while subjects may be constituted, they are not determined; on the contrary, the constituted nature of the subject is the very precondition for its agency.(6) Further, following Chantal Mouffe, social agents are constituted by an ensemble of subject positions that can never be completely fixed in a closed system of differences, and are constructed by a diversity of discourses among which there is no necessary relation, but a constant movement of overdetermination and displacement.(7) These positions work against an essentialising, colonising discourse in the desire for a reformed Other, giving an underpinning to the argument that places the focus on anorexia as an act rather than as a condition, with the anorexic emerging as exhibiting critical agency against an oppressive power and knowledge, not merely as one passively reiterating the norm, but as making a choice to use her body as a site of resistance.

There is resonance here with an argument Maud Ellmann makes in The Hunger Artists, where she says that "self-starvation is above all a performance" and one that implicates its audience. Drawing an analogy with Hamlet's mousetrap, she argues that self-starvation is staged to trick the conscience of its viewers, forcing them to recognise their implication in the spectacle they see (Ellmann, 1993:17). This position that self-starvation is a performance that implicates others is suggestive, too, of the argument that anorexia is an act of mime turned mockery, mirroring back to the community in which the anorexic is located the oppressiveness of its social relations.

A critique, reformulation and argument for active agency

To consider the implications of this alternative reading for theory and therapeutic practice, it is useful first to survey the dominant narratives about anorexia in these fields. In the accounts that portray anorexics as having little agency and drawing passively into themselves the messages and negative representations that surround them - in both the language used to talk about self-starvation and the assumptions that underpin these narratives - anorexics are seen as facing contradictory but polarised options. On the one hand, they are conceived of as dissociated from their alien bodies, yet on the other, haunted by their appetites. What research has been done on what the health profession sees as a "difficult" research community indicates women diagnosed with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa have often been sexually abused and are thus the victims of the appetites of others, rather than of their own. Like hysteria, which has also been seen as an option women have taken to voice opposition to their situations, only one in 10 of those diagnosed with anorexia are male, thus bringing into focus the gendered nature of the phenomenon and its analysis, and strengthening the appropriateness of the use of a post-colonial approach to it. Their youth indicates a further disadvantage in regard to power. The onset of anorexia occurs often at about the age of 15 and it is most commonly developed by the age of 25 (Turner, 1984:183).

Anorexics are often described as passively internalising the taunting missives of lack as they construct taut and sparse bodies either to approximate the male form which, through history, has been put forward as that of the perfected sex, or to conform to that which is put forward by patriarchal consumer culture as the feminine ideal. So much so, indeed, that they are seen to exhibit a fear of going out of control by becoming fat and ruining their chances for love and career, because being thin in contemporary society is equated with being successful, competent and loveable. Food is seen as a source of anxiety for millions of women, simultaneously an object of dread and intense desire, and women as engaged in an ongoing battle with it: craving it, fearing it and letting it control their lives. The battle between abstinence and indulgence is waged on a daily basis, and this interpretation is contrasted with former fears around the erstwhile "forbidden fruit" - sex. Therapists such as Rosalyn Meadow and Lillie Weiss argue that this battle is similar to the time when sexual fantasies fuelled the imagination and women became obsessed with having sexual intercourse. The agony and the ecstasy of succumbing to the passions of the flesh were ever-present in women's imaginations. Sex was at once the ultimate danger and the ultimate delight, creating a continuous struggle between experiencing sexual pleasure and risking their future. The paradox for those women was that to be loved by a man, they had to deny themselves the most basic way of experiencing love: they had to deprive themselves of their natural, instinctual sexual appetites. Meadow and Weiss argue that this constant repression of normal bodily drives resulted in a variety of sexual disorders in women, including the inability to achieve orgasm and a complete lack of sexual desire. Ironically, Meadow and Weiss, like the medical professions, focus on the role of food, arguing for a similarity between contemporary eating problems and the sexual conflicts of past decades, with women still repressing their basic needs - whether oral or sexual - in order to be loved (Meadow and Weiss, 1992:x). Recounting a narrative that appears as very disempowering for women, they say that in their therapy practices they are witnessing the new "Good Girls Don't" phenomenon revolving around eating and dieting - a shift in women's central preoccupation from sex to food. Susan Bordo, whose work in the discipline of philosophy is well established in the field of anorexia, also gives a significant role to food. She argues that anorexia, which often manifests itself after an episode of sexual abuse or humiliation, can be seen at least in part as a defence against the "femaleness" of the body and a punishment of its desires, which have, in her view, frequently been culturally represented through the metaphor of female appetite. The extremes to which the anorexic takes the denial of appetite (that is, to the point of self-starvation) suggest to theorists such as Bordo the dualistic nature of her construction of reality: either she transcends body totally, becoming pure "male" will, or she capitulates utterly to the degraded female body and its disgusting hungers. If fat in contemporary society is the sign of failure to control the bodily appetites so important for the privileging of reason over emotion and mind over body, it is a burden that weighs more heavily on women, as did the burden of repressing sexual appetites in Victorian times.

Cultural critics outside of the academy generally tell a similar story. Shari Graydon, the national president of Media Watch, the Canadian organisation that polices demeaning images of women in the media, robs anorexics of agency when she describes anorexia as a "monster" out to "destroy" teenage girls; "to kill them before they reach adulthood." Located as cultural critic of the media, a task associated with empowering women by countering the dominant discourse around them, Graydon, however, argues that this monster is insidious and operates "with the tacit support of corporate America and the girls' family and friends." (Shari Graydon, Vancouver Sun, 1995) For her, young women are without agency as the monster of anorexia, described as speaking in a million voices and, seemingly in the fashion of aliens in popular science fiction, worms its way into their heads, infecting their minds and turning them against their bodies. Meadow and Weiss argue likewise by attributing enormous power to the media and little to anorexics when they see food advertisements in print and on television as tantalising women and fuelling their consuming passions for forbidden foods, as romance magazines, novels and movies did previously in serving to keep the obsession with sex alive in women's imaginations (Meadow and Weiss 1992:6).

Women diagnosed as anorexic, however, give a very different view. One, in response to an open letter by a therapist in which he constructed a woman he was working with as being in the deadly hold of anorexia which was external to her, argued in a letter to him:

I also find this all so demeaning and patronizing. By separating anorexia and depression away from Sheri it seems to me that you are taking away any of her own responsibility and putting her squarely into the victim role. Obviously Sheri is not to blame for the horrible circumstances that have transpired in her life, but she has made choices - one of them being anorexia.

Exhibiting the Western bias discussed earlier, Meadow and Weiss claim that in the 1950s conflict over whether to eat was non-existent, eating disorders were rare and bulimia almost unheard of. Other accounts, in stark contrast, argue that self-starvation stretches back centuries, and was, for example, practised by saints (see Rudolph Bell, 1985), or take issue with studies giving primacy to fat phobia as an explanation for diminished food intake, showing that extreme forms of self-starvation can be traced across place as well (see Sing Lee, 1995).

Even on the occasions when an agency is recognised, as in portrayals of the rituals and practices of the anorexic as areas in which she exhibits control over her body, these actions are considered as being so compulsively driven as to severely problematise any conception of agency. Indeed, the practices and rituals are conceived of as controlling the anorexic who repeatedly performs them. For Bordo this type of desire for control over the body demonstrated by the anorexic has strange echoes with that of female body-builders, since both place the same emphasis on will, purity and perfection and conceptualise the body not as weapon, symbolic or otherwise, but as alien. Hilda Bruch takes this interpretation a step further when she reports that anorexics speak of having a ghost inside or surrounding them that dictates and dominates. Paul Garfinkel and Allan Kaplan depict the pursuit of a thin body as an isolated area of control in a world in which the anorexic feels ineffective, with dieting providing an artificially dangerous sense of mastery and control. Indeed, it appears as another area in which social theorists and therapists can agree on the anorexic. Obsessional, compulsive: The verdict offered by the medical profession is repeated by the social theorists and cultural critics.

The formulations within all three fields of the choices faced by the woman with anorexia tend to be extreme, and the positions in which she is located polarised and static. In what appears a move of transference and projection, the anorexic is conceived of as unable to see a middle ground (Bordo, 1993:8) and, thus interpreted, anorexia is examined with a determinacy that can blind theorists in much the same way as it does therapists to the transformative aspects that come with the dangers of the phenomenon, as well as to the potentials for collaboration either in research or therapeutic practice. Indeed, if these more limited readings of anorexia flow in good part from an approach in which, following the profession of psychiatry that it sets out to critique, anorexia is interpreted as a condition (in this case of society), there can be little room for notions of agency and resistance, and action thus assumes little significance in the accounts.

Nasty Girls; Dirty Theory?

If an alternative interpretation of social action and active agency is adopted, with anorexics conceived of more as "nasty" than "good" girls (and here I make an articulation with the suggestions made in the movie Nasty Girl); using their bodies in an active strategy to take control and become "sharp enough" to look after themselves, what narratives are needed to sustain the argument, and in which archives should these be sought? What, then, are the consequences of such a course?

Theory, it seems, could change in this way. Seeing the anorexic as not just a consequence of a dominating and controlling male discourse, but also of a resistance to it, enables the recognition of an active agency not only in the specific context but more generally within social life. The anorexic then becomes not merely a victim of patriarchal culture but a resister of it as well, and the social theories that want to hold to an essential condition and dualistic thinking while examining the phenomenon they are studying are destabilised in the process.

Secondly, research attitudes could change as the archives from which the theorist seeks accounts begin to include more narratives from local knowledges provided by women who have experienced anorexia and its "treatment" - the type of archive referred to by a former anorexic as "the real research of lived experience." It is a source of local knowledge, to follow Foucault, to which members of the psychotherapeutic community are increasingly looking as traditional methods appear inadequate for the task, with one attempt at this being the Eating Disorders Clinic at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, another with the formation of the Anti-Anorexia, Anti-Bulimia League. Accounts from this archive of local knowledges compiled by women diagnosed as anorexics suggest bodies not so alienated or captured as to act not also as resisters and transgressors - as agents engaged in active choice.

What Ian Hacking argues in connection with multiple personality disorder could be argued in this context as well - that a woman makes an implicit choice that fits in with her cultural milieu. Hacking maintains that at any time, people suffering severe psychological distress that is not organic or biological "choose" from socially available modes (Hacking: 1994:73), an argument reinforced by the narratives of anorexics, which are, in great part, strikingly different from those in the fields that analyse the anorexic.

Local knowledges of women who have experienced anorexia or bulimia - a phenomenon that often accompanies anorexia and is closely associated with it - show that they do not generally see anorexia as an issue of food. Evelyn Lau, a former bulimic, describes eating disorders as an issue of control, not food, recognising the body as a site of contestation and that control over her body was the one thing that could not be taken away from her. In her account she describes the feelings of control and pleasure that purging herself of food gave her, and how purging was a displacement not only of all the food she had eaten, but her entire past (Lau, 1995:13). Yvonne Roberts makes similar arguments, saying that anorexia is not a slimmers' disease but a means of gaining control in one highly visible area when on every other issue the anorexic appears powerless (Roberts, 1995:4). Sheila MacLeod describes her body as her weapon in her bid for autonomy and likens her actions as an anorexic to the withdrawal of labour, or strike action, the only weapon available to the labourer. In an argument that coincides with Hacking's, MacLeod describes how she chose a form of passive resistance.

Just as the worker's ultimate weapon in his negotiation with management is his labour and the threat of its withdrawal, so my body was my ultimate and, to me, only, weapon in my bid for autonomy. It was the only thing I owned, the only thing which could not be taken away from me. My motivations were not as clear-cut as those of any contemporary workforce, but there is no doubt in my mind that I was going on strike in the only way I knew how to, and that in this sense Szasz8 is right to describe anorexia nervosa as a political problem. (MacLeod, 1981:66)

At the level of "therapy" health professionals can more easily conceive of formulating collaborative responses if those with whom they are working are seen as active agents with whom they can collaborate, and if they can conceive of local and universal knowledges as being mutually informed - positions that have not been the tradition within the discipline. At its most basic, the practice of psychiatry has traditionally involved working to identify and treat a "problem" - the "patient" has the problem and the psychiatrist the authority to give the "problem" a name with a view to treating it while acting on the usually passive "patient." Thus, confronted with the problem anorexic body, most often "resistant" to treatment and frequently scornful of practitioners and their ability, the therapist stares professional, intellectual and emotional lack in the face. Feeling unable to resort to the particular reason, as legitimised and made common by their particular scientific community, implicated as it is in the post-Enlightenment modernist paradigm, health professionals have little to equip them for the challenge posed by the persistently wasting form in the attempt to restore it to that which is deemed normal. Thus is glimpsed the "insanity" of a modernist reason that pushes towards normalisation, and the complicity of medical science in the production of the dominant discourse that oppresses. This phenomenon which, like other forms of mental illness and insanity, is seen as a disorder, contradicts the idea of the separate and rationally sane individual. It points not merely to a lack of reason but also to the flaw of thinking the mind/body as a dualism, especially given the complexity of the disciplining process that acts on both body and consciousness and the body and its environment with this disorder. Indeed, we should question our very conception of the body which in the modern epoch (something thinkers such as Foucault have sketched out in their critiques) exists in reified terms; as a thing, an object for the medical gaze, an object similar to those objects that surround them.

In this regard Linda Nicolson argues:

The growing dominance of a materialist metaphysics also meant an increasing tendency to understand the "nature" of things in terms of the specific configurations of matter they embodied. The import of this for emerging views of self-identity was a growing tendency to understand the "nature" of human selves in terms of the specific configurations of matter that they embodied. Thus the material or physical features of the body increasingly took on the role of providing testimony to the "nature" of the self it housed.(9)

The conceptualisation of the Christian body offers a useful contrast to the modernist one. There is not just the body of matter - the function which Christ in his material form performs - but also the symbolic form that the father, which is language, the word, performs, and then there is the holy ghost, the fluid which makes the transition from the one to the other possible.

The moments of indigestion

Medical and psychological factors coexist, with eating-disordered patients increasingly admitted not to the strictly medical but to psychiatric units,(10) which nevertheless generally appear inadequate for the switch, especially in the face of the consequences should they fail to put a stop to the wasting of the anorexic body. Indeed, the failure to treat anorexics with success leads Walter Vandereycken to speak of anorexia curing therapists "of omnipotence fantasies" (Vandereycken, 1993:16). In the face of anorexia, the "impossible profession" (Malcolm, 1982) seems even more so. Even the research sources usually available are largely absent as women with anorexia nervosa are seen as "difficult" for researchers as well as practitioners,(11) pointing to the inadequacy of the view of the various knowledges as neatly segregated.

The therapeutic profession's riposte in the face of this challenge has been at least two-fold, with practitioners either co-constructing the problem with what they commonly call clients rather than patients, or, ironically, being as resistant as they claim the anorexic to be, steadfastly denying or minimising the severity of the challenge to the traditional roles they have played and the knowledges they have championed. If the anorexic body is scripted around issues of control, contempt, and competence, and the medical discourse, and psychiatry in particular, is the disciplinary field most implicated in the naming of the "normal," conferring competent status while granting control of bodies, the legitimacy of the order of knowledge produced by the medical profession and the accompanying role of the therapist as expert are most in jeopardy of being eroded by the condition named as anorexia, at a time when legitimacy across the social sciences is also being challenged at the theoretical level by feminist, post-colonial and other post-structural theories.

Of those who do reflect on their relationships, health professionals working with anorexics talk often about experiencing a deep sense of inadequacy and failure in their relationships with anorexics as well as slippage between what is required for the "treatment" and what is proffered by the practitioner, undermining the practitioner and traditional professional practice. The anorexic thus calls into question the profession's scientific authority and, indeed, scientific authority itself as being self-contained in its ability to provide answers. This shortfall is something recognised by both practitioner and anorexic alike, as the description of an anorexic indicates when she relates how, in sessions with her therapist, she moves at a faster pace than the therapist:

Every time I think I'm getting a little bit ahead of you I draw back. I hesitate. I start to stutter. (Chernin, 1985: 4)

As the quotation illustrates, "patients" can feel that they have a greater knowledge than the therapist and thus must lead them slowly to the "problem," but while they do this they do not lose sight of the inherent power relationship since psychiatry was installed as the competent discipline in this area.. Thus the "stutter" of the woman quoted.

A growing number of health professionals seem, indeed, to be attempting a casting aside of the "omnipotence fantasies" that have characterised the profession. Through the use of what has become known as narrative ideas and practices - informed by feminist post-structural theory, especially the work of Foucault, and reformulated by Michael White in Australia and David Epston, in Auckland, New Zealand - therapists are attempting a transformation of their "therapeutic" relationships. Those practitioners engaged with this project, with what they call their clients, see themselves as collaborators. Groups of health professionals within the profession see themselves as having moved towards what can be seen as a collaborative rescripting of the therapeutic relationship, drawing in and on the knowledges of those on whom they previously acted, which is in line with the theoretical shift conceiving of active agency on the part of anorexics argued for in this paper. Health professionals are even departing from the "talking cure" with its catharsis, where for the great part the "patient" talked while the therapist uncovered the "problem." The diagnosis came from the authoritative source, as did the treatment, although the "talking cure" could make up part of that treatment. Its practitioners describe narrative ideas and practices as differentiated from earlier forms of practice by the language used and the collaboration engaged in with clients, which often grows into joint projects where the expertise and knowledge of those being "treated" is valued, such as the creation of archives of their knowledges alongside those of the health professionals.

Health professionals engaged in collaborative approaches with anorexics suggest that it is for them a far preferable option to the traditional but inadequate response of categorising and dispensing. It is a process that health professionals see as liberating for themselves as well as they push at the constraints of a medical discourse that speaks them (albeit in a different power relationship) as it does those on the other side of the therapeutic relationship. The colonial relationship speaks both parties to it.

This attempt at collaboration with the knowledges of those who are anorexic, what in Foucault's terms would be local knowledges, is far from being welcomed across the board. Many in the profession recognise its threat to the normalising and normalised knowledges of the disciplinary powers of psychiatry, in the way Bhabha sees this happening with colonialism, leading in turn to a questioning of the legitimacy of the order of knowledge produced by the profession and the accompanying role of the psychotherapist as expert. However, whatever the approach adopted, the challenge to the profession comes from the phenomenon itself. Indeed, the anorexics' "resistance to treatment" gives an urgency to the project for a transformation of therapeutic practice.

A Therapeutic Alliance?

The psychiatrists and other health professionals associated with the Eating Disorders Clinic directed by Elliot Goldner in the department of psychiatry at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver are involved in what could be considered as perhaps such a transformative move. Goldner, and others interviewed for this project, believe that a strong therapeutic alliance between the anorexic and health personnel is important in the "treatment" of anorexia nervosa, and are developing an approach, often associated with narrative therapy, or, to use the preferred description, narrative ideas and practices, the main developers of which are Epston and White.

In what is seen as Foucauldian fashion, narrative "therapy" works against the more common practice that tends to devalue the language, expertise and knowledge of those being treated and acts in favour of the therapist's view of things. The approach, its practitioners claim, aims at collaboration, and one of its key methods is to externalise the "problem," a process which sets the "disorder" apart from those that are in therapy. This they see as helping therapists build alliances, even with "difficult" clients, to use the preferred term of reference (clients) for those who consult them. This method of externalising the "problem," however, is not seen to be without its difficulties. Some anorexics caution that by separating the "problem" of anorexia from those seeking therapy, therapists using this method can act to take away agency from those with whom they wish to form an alliance, and place anorexics more firmly in the role of victim.

Practitioners say that with narrative "therapy," the collaboration begins with the naming; therapist and client together coming up with a mutually acceptable explanation for the problem. They attempt together to create a context for re-authoring and they co-construct the terms and language of the "therapy," the therapist placing a value on the contributions of the client. Therapists, for example, collect an "archive" of audiotapes, letters and artwork contributed by former clients. In addition, former clients are frequently used as consultants, being regarded by the therapists as experts on the "problems" they have overcome. Clients once viewed as the passive recipients of the legitimated knowledges of therapists are now participating on "therapy" teams, offering their own knowledge and often contributing to journal articles.

These practices extend beyond the clinic. An example of this is the formation of an anti-anorexia and bulimia league in Vancouver that brings therapist and client together to fashion a rethinking of anorexia. Stephen Madigan, a narrative "therapy" practitioner and former consultant at the Eating Disorders Clinic, was influential in the establishment of the league and sees the project in Foucauldian terms. For Madigan, Foucault positioned himself to deconstruct the dominant, culturally constructed discourses of social control and that which is viewed as normal or abnormal by the individuals of a society. He sees Foucault's influence in his opposition to the practice of systematising and universalising the political and scientific discourses that act to turn people into things and subjects into objects, and he and colleagues inside and outside of St. Paul's as working against practices such as these, making a connection between what happens to them and what happens to their clients. For example, a psychiatrist visiting Canada and St. Paul's, also a practitioner of narrative ideas and practices, reported that he could see himself as being spoken as an object by the professional discourse as much as he saw the psychiatric discourse speaking clients as objects. He spoke of himself as feeling like a rapist when confronted by the anorexic

To speak the traditional institutional discourse would be to continue to exercise control over bodies, the same control to which those who have come to them for support have been subject, indeed, an exercising of control that may well have been responsible for their condition. These health professionals who engage with narrative ideas and practices can be seen to think with Luce Irigaray: ... by submitting women's bodies to a general equivalent, to a transcendent, supernatural value, men have drawn the social structure into an ever greater process of abstraction, to the point where they themselves are produced in it as pure concepts: having surmounted all their "perceptible" qualities and individual differences, they are finally reduced to the average productivity of their labor. (Irigaray, :190)

They speak, along with Irigaray, of ways of pushing for a rethinking of the profession from within, interpreting the way the male imaginary has reduced many to silence, to muteness or mimicry, and from that starting point and at the same time, attempting "to (re)discover a possible space ..."

Further collaboration, not necessarily under the sign of narrative ideas and practices, takes the form of an "anti-treatment" stance adopted by the psychiatrists and other health professionals working at the clinic, a stance that is seen as paradoxical with regard to therapy since the disorder is defiant and control is a key issue. An alternative vision and lifestyle is co-authored and talk of anorexia is absent. What is seen as the paradox of women wanting to live but not wanting to eat, always resistant to control and with treatments plagued by significant rates of failure, is matched by a therapy that rejects the therapist as controlling agent in favour of collaboration. To this end, a group was established in October, 1994 that includes women diagnosed as chronically ill with anorexia. This approach can frustrate therapists trained for, and by inclination predisposed to, taking a role very different to the way in which it is conceived here, indeed, that of rescuer, but in the face of "resistant" anorexics and an enterprise often destined for failure if a controlling stance is adopted, this alternative proves less frustrating and often more successful. Instead of the despair and sense of inadequacy on the part of psychiatrists that can follow therapy with "difficult" patients, therapists following these sessions recount feelings and attitudes of satisfaction emanating from the group interaction with its local collaboration rather than exclusive reliance on the global knowledges that dominate the field of psychiatry. The usually delegitimised knowledges of the anorexic women with whom they have formed a therapeutic alliance are enthusiastically embraced in the therapeutic relationship, with comments like, "It was all her, I didn't do anything;" "She was taking the role of therapist; passing on that which had been helpful to her."

How are we best to understand these changes, given Foucault's understanding of power and knowledge where, for him, subjugated knowledges are distinct from any general common sense, and their particular, local or regional aspects are stressed; and where he juxtaposes this discontinuous knowledge against the unitary body of theory that would stratify, discipline and order such knowledges in the name of "science?" It matters not for Foucault whether it is embodied in an institution such as psychoanalysis or a political system such as Marxism - what is important are the effects of the power of the discourse considered to be scientific. He asks:

What types of knowledge do you want to disqualify in the very instant of your demand: `Is it a science?' Which speaking, discoursing subjects - which subjects of experience and knowledge - do you then want to `diminish' when you say: `I who conduct this discourse am conducting a scientific discourse, and I am a scientist?' Which theoretical-political avant garde do you want to enthrone in order to isolate it from all the discontinuous forms of knowledge that circulate about it?(12)

Given the attention Foucault paid to what he terms subjugated knowledges - referring to the two aspects of historical contents that have been buried and the set of knowledges disqualified as inadequate or insufficiently elaborated, with people excluded from the hierarchy of knowledges and sciences - can these attempts at changes be seen as a consideration of local knowledges by the "centre?" Foucault, after all, gave as an example of a disqualified local knowledge the knowledge of the psychiatric patient (Foucault, 1980:82). Further, he pointed out the subjugated knowledges which the hegemonic and unitary dominant discourses block out, warning that should these delegitimised knowledges - what he refers to as fragments of genealogies - be taken up, accredited, and put into circulation:

... they run the risk of re-codification, re-colonisation ... In fact, those unitary discourses, which first disqualified and then ignored them when they made their appearance, are, it seems, quite ready now to annex them, to take them back within the fold of their own discourse and to invest them with everything this implies in terms of their effects of knowledge and power. (Ibid: 86)

With this view in mind is it possible, then, for the "centre" to collaborate with the "margins?" Also, thinking with Foucault in regard to his work on the confessional (Foucault, 1980:59-64), the agency of domination can, of course, reside in the person who listens and says nothing. Should then the work at St. Paul's be seen as a further move to control, rather than to collaborate? Indeed, how should the wider practice of narrative ideas and practices be viewed, especially given its Foucauldian inspiration?

Perhaps if one thinks with Foucault in an "anti-science" mode - that is against any theory or set of ideas that would wish to stratify and discipline, rather in the mode of incorporating that which is ambiguous and not immediately coherent - it is possible both to consider anorexia as a resistance to domination and colonisation while it seems to collaborate, and to see "margins" brought to the "centre" in those institutions from which they have been excluded, without it being a mere recolonisation, for these different ways of knowing would destabilise that disciplinary power that had previously set out to normalise knowledge.

Irigaray, asked whether, by working within her chosen framework, her intention was to produce a type of listening that would not invoke the name of analysis, in other words, would destroy the analytic procedure, replied: I am trying rather to analyse one of its modes of operation, and from that starting point to modify its practice (Irigaray, 1985:146).

This paper thinks with Irigaray; both in response to the specific instance and more generally. The thinking is "both and," but not quite. As the argument was made for an active agency on the part of anorexics on the basis that while subjects may be constituted, they are not determined - indeed, that the constituted nature of the subject is the very precondition for its agency - so, too, is the agency argument made for health professionals who may wish to transform the discourse within which they are located, an activity which has precedent in the anti-psychiatry movement in which psychiatrists play key roles. An attitude which sees any engagement or collaboration between a privileged and a subjugated knowledge as always necessarily an act of colonisation, straightjackets all agents attempting change while calling into question all acts of the powerful, at whatever level. Foucault should not surely be seen as a mere coloniser of prisoners' knowledge, for example, or other such groups with which he worked, nor should the move towards collaboration of narrative ideas and practices be prejudged. Indeed, to see all occurrences of engagement as being necessarily acts of colonisation, whether as professor with students or medical practitioner with clients, would be at one level anti-Foucauldian, moving to unify and systematise rather than to dig into local instances of alliance and leading to that which Vandereycken believes therapists have been cured of by anorexia - "omnipotence fantasies" about the power of a theory.

References

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Bell, Rudolph. M. Holy Anorexia. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1985

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.

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Ellmann, Maud. The Hunger Artists: Starving, Writing, and Imprisonment. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1993.

Fairburn, Christopher G. and G. Terence Wilson, eds. Binge Eating: Nature, Assessment, and Treatment. New York and London: The Guilford Press, 1993.

Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.

Foucault, Michel. "Two Lectures." Power/Knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. 78-108.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction. New York: Vintage Books, 1980.

Garfinkel, Paul E. and Allan S. Kaplan. "Anorexia Nervosa: Diagnostic Conceptualizations." Handbook of Eating Disorders, eds. Kelly D. Brownell & John P. Foreyt. New York: Basic Books, 1986. 266-282.

Garfinkel, Paul E. and David M. Garner. Anorexia Nervosa: A Multidimensional Perspective. New York: Brunner/Mazel, Inc., 1982.

Goldner, Elliot M. and C. Laird Birmingham. "Anorexia Nervosa: Methods of Treatment." Understanding Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Obesity. Eds. LeeAnn Alexander-Mott and D. Barry Lumsden. Taylor and Francis, 1994.

Gremillion, Helen. "Psychiatry as Social Ordering: Anorexia Nervosa, A Paradigm." Soc. Sci. Med. 35:1 (1992) pp. 57-71.

Hacking, Ian. Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Science of Memory. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Howe, Tina. "The Art of Dining." Coastal Disturbances: Four Plays by Tina Howe. New York: Theate Communication Group, 1989. 57-126.

Irigaray, Luce. This Sex Which Is Not One. Tr. Catherine Porter. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985.

Lau, Evelyn. "An Insatiable Emptiness." The Georgia Straight, Vancouver, July 21-28, 1995.

Lee, Sing. "Self-Starvation in Context: Towards a Culturally Sensitive Understanding of Anorexia Nervosa." Soc. Sci. Med. Vol 41. No 1. pp 25-36, 1995.

Lehmann, Jennifer M. Deconstructing Durkheim: A post-post-Structuralist Critique. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

Leys, Ruth. "The Real Miss Beauchamp." Feminists Theorize the Political. Eds. Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.

MacCannell, Juliet Flower and Laura Zakarin. Thinking Bodies. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

MacLeod, Sheila. The Art of Starvation. London, Virago, 1981.

Nicholson, Linda and Steve Seidman Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics. Cambridge, 1995

Madigan, Stephen. "The application of Michel Foucault's philosophy in the problem externalizing discourse of Michael White." Journal of Family Therapy 14:3 (August 1992) pp. 265-279.

Malcolm, Janet. Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession. London: Pan Books, 1982.

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Orbach, Susie. What's really going on here? London: Virago Press, 1994.

Raymond, Nancy C., James E. Mitchell, Patricia Fallon and Melanie A. Katzman. "A Collaborative Approach to the Use of Medication." Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders. Eds. Patricia Fallon, Melanie A. Katzman and Susan C. Wooley. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994. pp. 231-250.

Roberts, Yvonne. "Bad to the bone." The Guardian. London, August 14, 1995 pp 4-5.

Sesan, Robin. "Feminist Inpatient Treatment for Eating Disorders: An Oxymoron?" Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders. Eds. Patricia Fallon, Melanie A. Katzman and Susan C. Wooley. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994. pp. 251-271.

Stallybrass, Peter and Allon White. The Politics & Poetics of Transgression. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Szekely, Eva. Never Too Thin. Toronto, Ontario: The Women's Press, 1988.

Turner, Bryan S. The body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984.

Vandereycken, Walter. "Naughty girls and angry doctors: eating disorder patients and their therapists." International Review of Psychiatry (1993) pp. 13-17.

Yalom, Irvin D. When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession New York:HarperPerennial, 1992.

This paper also drew on conversations, research and interviews since October 1994 with the health professionals working directly for, or associated with, the Eating Disorders Clinic at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. Elliot Goldner gave much of his time to discussion and Stephen Madigan, too, gave of his time and allowed me to sit in on seminars conducted at Yaletown Family Therapy, as did women diagnosed with anorexia participating in group therapy and associated with the Anti-Anorexia, Anti-Bulimia League in Vancouver.

I also thank Rebecca Fraser, John Fuller, Derek Gregory, Lorraine Grieves, Kevin Haggerty, Chris McCutcheon and Lorraine Weir for their comments in discussion or on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes:

1 Maud Ellmann, The Hunger Artists (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993) p. 2.

2 An illustration entitled "What happens when an angry young woman discovers her bones" appeared in an alternative arts magazine, Discorder, published in Vancouver ( March 1995, p. 28). It portrayed a woman losing significant weight as the potentials of her bony body as weapon dawned upon her. Among the captions: "Terms such as knee to the groin took on a whole new meaning" and "She knew she was sharp enough to look after herself."

3 Gyan Prakash, "Postcolonial criticism and Indian historiography," Social Modernism: Beyond Identity Politics. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) p. 93.

4 Judith Butler makes similar arguments in "Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of `Postmodernism'," Feminists Theorize the Political p. 16. Butler argues that, "Paradoxically, it may be that only through releasing the category of women from a fixed referent that something like `agency' becomes possible."

5 Gayatri Spivak makes arguments of this kind in Lukas Barr, "An interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak," BLAST nuLTD (Summer 1989), p. 12.

6 See Butler, "Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of `Postmodernism'," Feminists Theorize the Political p. 12.

7 Chantal Mouffe gives this position in "Feminism, citizenship, and radical democratic politics"in Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) p.318.

8 MacLeod is referring here to Thomas Szasz, the author of such books as The Myth of Psychotherapy.

9 Linda Nicholson, "Interpreting Gender" in Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) p.44.

10 As described by Robin Sesan, "Feminist Inpatient Treatment for Eating Disorders: An Oxymoron?" Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders p. 253.

11 For a discussion of this see Nancy C. Raymond, James E. Mitchell, Patricia Fallon and Melanie A. Katzman, "A Collaborative Approach to the Use of Medication," in Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, 1994 p. 232.

12 Ibid 85.

fuller@unixg.ubc.ca

Apartheid had a tremendous impact on the social fabric of South African society. Legally enforced seperation of South Africa's various race groups imposed, it seems, a certain cultural homogeneity along racial lines. It sought to prevent "cross pollination". To a certain extent, it was remarkably effective. Times have changed. This system no longer operates within a legislative or constitutional context. South Africa strives to become a "rainbow nation". This would appear to be for the betterment of all, but at what price? Specifically, will the emergence of a more homogenous society bring only health?

Whilst not the specific aim of the study, the potential impact of politics on bodies is a most appropriate concept with regard to the emergence of eating disorders in black, female South Africans. Until very recently, such conditions were thought not to affect this population group, in South Africa. They were believed to be in some way immune. Recent experience has taught us otherwise. The first series of cases was published in 1995. The question arose as to whether these cases constituted a chance event or were they in fact the forerunners of more to come?

A preliminary study employing the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) was conducted at a private, all girls, secondary school in Johannesburg (n=213). The study aimed to establish the extent to which abnormal eating attitudes existed in an at risk group for the development of these conditions. The sample was biased and was in no way intended to represent the broader adolescent population, however the findings gave an indication of the status regarding eating attitudes in a specific section of a vulnerable population. The prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes for the total sample was 22% and for the black sample specifically, 39%. The current study involved a much larger sample (n=1353) of school girls attending three seperate "government" schools in Johannesburg. The prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes was 18.6% for the white sample (n=506) and 18.7% for the black sample (n=578). Of interest, the mean score was not significantly different between the two race groups. Abnormal eating attitudes, as measured by the EAT-26, should not be interpreted as reflecting the prevalence of eating disorders. However, such attitudes may reflect the presence of an eating disorder, a preclinical or subclinical eating disorder. At most, such a prevalence reflects the extent to which the sample studied may have problematic eating behaviour.

Specific factors (subscales) are generated from the items that comprise the EAT-26. Black respondents scored significantly higher on the "bulimic" and "oral control" subscales. Certainly, restraint with regard to eating may predispose to bulimic behaviour. Hence it would appear that black adolescents within this sample, if they develop an eating disorder would most likely develop bulimia nervosa or an eating disorder with bulimic behaviour, which has been our clinical experience. The "dieting" subscale did not reveal a significant difference between black and white respondents, implying that black respondents are as concerned as their white counterparts with regard to a preoccupation with being thinner. This was borne out by the response to a body figure preference test which demonstrated that 72% of white respondents and 62% of black respondents had such a desire i.e. to be thinner. However, 19% of black versus 9% of white respondents had a desire to be larger. The differences whilst significantly different, demonstrated a high number of black respondents with a desire to be thinner. Within the context of the study, the prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes and the mean EAT-26 scores did not differ significantly. Does this imply that such attitudes are homogenous across race groups? It seems that such a process is occuring and that the situation may evolve further. However, the specific differences may reflect a cultural bias that will persist i.e. that black individuals are less likely to develop anorexia nervosa. Within a broader social context, it would seem that concerns previously thought to be unique to the white population of South Africa are "spreading" to the black population, in an urban setting. Is this a function of political change and greater integration or does this simply reflect the process of urbanisation. I would assume the latter, with political change being coincidental, but possibly contributing to this process with the adoption of prevailing value systems. This remains an area for more rigorous investigation.

Biographical Note:

Christopher Paul Szabo is Senior Psychiatrist and head of the eating disorder and adolescent units at Tara, the H. Moross Centre. He also lectures in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has published extensively in the field of eating disorders.

cs000017@pixie.co.za

Department of Psychiatry

University of the Witwatersrand

PO Wits

2050

In Imperial Germany at the turn of the century, the debate on the related issues of population politics and eugenics was structuredmainly by male elites - political, religious and scientific. How didwomen, politically interested and organised women, deal with these issues? Did they enter the discourse and if so how did they define their role?

Liberalism in Germany

Historical background is the political and cultural emancipation of the German bourgeoisie, academics, merchants, entrepreneurs, in a society dominated by aristocracy and military. This emancipatory movement - German Liberalism - established its values and norms, sometimes opposed to those of the leading classes in Imperial Germany (Evans 1976). The women's movement in Germany formed part of the infrastructure of German Liberalism. Feminists in Imperial Germany were mainly educated middle-class women. Of all segments of the female population, they had benefited the most from recent advances in women's educational and professional status, but had no political rights. In Germany, women did not gain the right to vote until 1919 (Britain 1918, Finland 1906).

The New Generation

This paper presents the results of a text analysis of the monthly periodical of the 'Bund fuer Mutterschutz'. The periodical was called 'Protection of Mothers. A Journal for the Reform of Sexual Ethics' (Mutterschutz - Zeitschrift zur Reform der sexuellen Ethik, hereafter MS) and was published from 1905-1907. In 1908 its name was changed to 'The New Generation' (Die neue Generation, hereafter NG). Helene Stoecker, an activist in the abolitionist movement and the women's educational movement (Verein Frauenbildung-Frauenstudium), edited 'The New Generation' until her exile in 1933 (Hackett 1984).

Despite being a small organisation, its membership in 1908 has been estimated at 3700, the Federation for the Protection of Mothers was nonetheless highly suspicious of forming part of the radical feminist movement. Reasons were both the Federation's philanthropic measures on behalf of unmarried mothers and their children, as well as the open discussion of sexual, familial and reproductive issues.

In Imperial Germany, journals were an important means of communication and representation for bourgeois intellectuals. The structure of the periodical reflects the cultural mission. The Federatio