Chapter 5 The Essence of Food and Gender and the Embodiment of Migration

Abstract

In this chapter,¹ I explore topics which unexpectedly emerged in in-depth interviews with Filipino and Eastern European women in Norway, which proved important for the ways in which they experienced their sojourn as au pairs in Oslo. These topics were related to their physical experience of having and being a body, as bodily subjects and as objects for ‘consumption’. To understand au pairs' experiences one must include an analysis both of experiences related to eating practices and experiences related to sexuality, in terms of ‘being a (female) body’ (Bordo, 2003). These two kinds of experiences may be regarded as interrelated and challenge and activate the division between public and private, employer and employee, and involve intimacy and experiences which are interpreted as physical.

Citation

Aslaug Sollund, R. (2012), "Chapter 5 The Essence of Food and Gender and the Embodiment of Migration", Aslaug Sollund, R. (Ed.) Transnational Migration, Gender and Rights (Advances in Ecopolitics, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 77-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2041-806X(2012)0000010009