YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT - A STUDY OF HOW FOOD IS USED TO DISCIPLINE BODIES

Abstract

This thesis examines public discourses on food and health in Singapore, in the form of newspaper articles, supplemented with other materials such as official speeches and reports from 1930 – 2021. By drawing on Foucault’s concepts of bio-politics and governmentality, I aim to trace the development of these discourses and its effects. I also use Foucauldian Discourse Analysis to identify who has the authority to legitimise certain discourses at the expense of others and what kind of subjects are constructed in this process upon which intervention techniques are warranted. I found that the origins of food and health discourses can first be traced back to colonial times when the British brought along with them their ideas on what constituted good nutrition and proper hygiene. They also brought along bio-political tools such as surveys to monitor the health of the population and identify any at-risk groups. Post-colonial Singapore inherited and expanded these methods and knowledges. Surveillance of the population was expanded from the hospital to the school. Education campaigns were expanded to schools and workplaces with the aim of inculcating the right techniques of self in individuals. They can then discipline and govern themselves accordingly. Such knowledges also provided a pretext to expand surveillance and intervention techniques on to certain minority groups. Throughout the history of these discourses, two subjects are constructed – one who is cooperative and one who is not. Both justify more interventions as the cooperative one needed to be educated while the uncooperative one needed to be disciplined.