https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.105
Consuming the Body: Fat Studies, Gender, and the Politics of Appetite in Asako Yuzuki’s Butter
DR. SREEJA G.
Associate Professor
Department of English
N.S.S. College Nemmara-678508
Affiliated to the University of Calicut
sreemenon21@gmail.com
Abstract: Asako Yuzuki’s Butter offers a powerful literary exploration of gender, food, body politics, and social control in contemporary Japan. Inspired by the real-life case of convicted serial killer Kanae Kijima, the novel examines the cultural anxieties surrounding female appetite, fatness, beauty, and desire. This article studies Butter through the frameworks of fat studies, feminist theory, Foucauldian body politics, and media studies in order to analyse how the novel critiques patriarchal constructions of femininity and bodily discipline. The article argues that Yuzuki dismantles dominant cultural narratives that equate female thinness with morality and fatness with excess or deviance. Through the character of Manako Kajii and the transformation of journalist Rika Machida, the novel reveals how food becomes a site of resistance against social surveillance and gendered expectations. Butter challenges neoliberal ideals of self-regulation through its exploration of pleasure, appetite, and embodiment, while also opening a space for reimagining body positivity beyond commercialized media discourse.
Keywords: Fat Studies, Body Positivity, Body Politics, Gender Studies, Appetite and Embodiment
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