Gender and «docile bodies». An overview of diet representation in Italian as a foreign language textbooks

Abstract

In line with critical approaches to foreign language education the paper examines the representation of diet in Italian as a foreign language textbooks in relation to gender ideologies. In order to identify and interpret ideological mechanisms that shape body politics in textbooks we employ quantitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis. To illustrate how the power of ideologically shaped sociocultural norms produces gendered body politics we introduce the Foucauldian concept of «docile bodies». This concept is furthermore interpreted from the feminist perspective, according to which female bodies are culturally subject to a more intense discipline and surveillance. The results confirm that diet discourse is characterized by a pronounced contrast between the docile bodies of women and the free of constraints bodies of men – unlike the female body that is subject to continuous surveillance and control, the male body is accepted in its natural form and furthermore embraced as a symbol of hedonism.

Keywords

• italian as a foreign language textbooks
• gender
• ideology
• power
• body politics